By Hal McCoy
It was the fictional Mighty Mouse who always came to a rescue, “To save the day.”
Noelvi Marte is no mouse, just a dirty rat to the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Marte’s two-run pinch-hit home run in the eighth inning provided the tottering Cincinnati Reds with a 6-4 victory Friday night over the Pirates in PNC Park.
How did he save the day?
Uncharacteristically, the Reds pounded Pittsburgh starter Paul Skenes for four runs in the second inning to take a 4-1 lead.
Then they nearly let it evaporate into the cool Pittsburgh night.
An error by third baseman Eugenio Suarez gave the Pirates a run in the fifth, then Reds starter Andrew Abbott gave up a pair of solo home runs in the sixth to Marcell Ozuna and Esmerlyn Valdez.
It was 4-4 and the Reds bats were eerily silent after the four runs off Skenes.
Pittsburgh’s bullpen retired 13 straight and 16 of 17 when Sal Stewart poked a 3-and-2 single to left with one out in eighth.
With left-hander Mason Montgomery on the mound, Reds manager Tito Francona needed a right-handed pinch-hitter to stand in for lefty Nathaniel Lowe.
Francona admitted, “That normally is Dane Myers spot to hit there, but we had to put him in the game in the sixth inning.”
That’s because center fielder Blake Dunn had to come out of the game with an aching elbow and Myers replaced him.
So it was Marte, who has struggled all season against left-handed pitchers.
He, too, went to 3-and-2 after missing two 97 miles an hour sinkers. Montgomery threw another one at 97, this one right down Main Street, and Marte lined it one row deep into the left field seats for the 6-4 lead.
“Marte sure took a nice swing,” said Francona. “You don’t see a line drive that low go out of the park to left field here very often.”
Now it was up to the bullpen and, again, Francona had a dilemma. Tony Santillan was placed on the injured list before the game with a left quadriceps problem.
So, in order it was Tejay Antone, Brock Burke, Pierce Johnson and Caleb Ferguson — 3 2/3 innings, no runs, three hits, two walks and six strikeouts.
The closer was Ferguson. He retired the first batter in the ninth, then gave up an infield single to Konnor Griffin, who hit Abbott’s second pitch of the game for a home run that gave Pittsburgh a 1-0 lead.
Ferguson then struck out Brandon Lowe and faced Bryan Reynolds, a career Reds-killer. His infield single in the third extended his on-base streak to 31 games and his hitting streak to 16 games.
And he rocketed one to right field. . .caught by Spencer Steer to end it.
Ferguson got the save, the 10th different Reds pitcher to annex a save this season.
The Reds difficulty assignment on a scale of 1 to 10 was an 11.
They were facing Paul Skenes. Never mind that he is 0-5 over his last eight starts and the Pirates have lost all eight.
As the game began, for his career against the Reds he was 5-0 in six starts with a 0.53 earned run average and the Reds were hitting .197 against him.
But the Reds were ferocious against him in the fourth — the first four Reds banged hits, then came a walk and two sacrifice flies.
Nathaniel Lowe started it with a double up the right-center gap. Eugenio Suarez singled him to third. Spencer Steer singled and it was 1-1.
Tyler Stephenson singled to right to make it 2-1. Matt McLain walked and both Blake Dunn and Elly De La Cruz swung at first pitches for sacrifice flies and it was 4-1.
The Reds forced Skenes to throw 38 pitches in the second inning and he was gone after five innings.
“I love when we hit the ball the other way firmly,” said Francona. “His stuff (Skenes) is really, really good. We drove his pitch-count up.
“We’ve done that a few times against him, but not score. So it was nice to get some runs on the board,” he added.
Marte said he has been working diligently to find a way to hit left-handers.
“I’ve continued to work and try to overcome that situation,” Marte said through translator Tomas Vera. “I will continue to be working and working to get me where I am.”
And how about the big at bat, the big blow?
“We were competing back and forth and he was throwing the pitch I want, but I was kinda late,” said Marte
“I made an adjustment and he made the pitch and you saw what happened.”
A crowd of 25,156 in PNC Park saw what happened, and most were not happy to see the mouse that roared.
The Reds improved their record against National League Central opponens to 3-16 and ended a five-game losing streak against the Pirates.
“Any victory is good, but this one was special because we had lost three in a row (to Milwaukee),” said Marte. “Getting Skenes out early lifted our confidence and hopefully we can keep going with this.”