By Hal McCoy
Andrew Abbott’s theme song was Lou Reed’s “Walk on the Wild Side.”
It definitely wasn’t “Singing in the Rain.”
Abbott was forced to pitch in a downpour with the mound a quagmire in the third inning of Saturday night’s Cincinnati Reds’ 4-1 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates.
The Reds’ lefthander walked four Pirates, two walks forcing in runs.
He threw 33 pitches before he retired a batter and slipped and slided through 43 pitches in that decisive inning.
But the rain didn’t faze Pittsburgh’s All-Star pitcher, Braxton Ashcraft. He pitched five innings and gave up one run and two hits.
With the rain coming down so hard the steamboat in Great American Ball Park’s center field resembled Noah’s Ark, and with lightning flashing, they finall delayed the game after five innings for one hours and 43 minutes.
The Reds trailed, 3-1, at the time and the long delay figured to help the Reds because Ashcraft couldn’t come back.
But Carmen Mlodzinski, Ashcraft’s stand-in, pitched three scoreless one-hit innings and closer Gregory Soto pitched a 1-2-3 ninth.
For the night, the Reds had three hits and, as usual, struck out in double figures, 10 this night. They own the second most strikeouts in MLB with 1,048.
Abbott’s fateful third inning began with a full-count walk to No. 9 hittrer Henry Davis.
Jake Mangum singled to right, the only hit during the three-run inning. Abbott then walked Brandon Lowe and Bryan Reynolds on eight straight pitches — four straight to each batter.
The walk to Lowe filled the bases and the walk to Reynolds forced in the first run. He went to 3-and-=2 on Esmeralyn Valdez and walked him, forcing in the second run.
Several of Abbott’s pitches were 58 and 59 feert offerings into the dirt in front of home plate. And Reds pitchers have issued 23 walks with the bases loaded this season, by far the most in MLB.
The third run came on a fielder’s choice by Nick Gonzalez.
The Reds run came on a leadoff home run by Jose Trevino in the fifth, but the only other hits were a single by Nathaniel Lowe in the fourth and a leadoff double by Eugenio Suarez in the seventh.
Suarez was 1 for 24 with 15 strikeouts when he doubled. But he never budged because Trevino grounded shortstop, TR Friedl (.165) flied to center and Matt McLain (.191) took a called strike three on a full count.
The Reds had an opporunity in the third when they had two on with one out. But Nathaniel Lowe popped out and Suarez struck out.
After the delay, the Pirates added an insurance run in the seventh against Zach McCambley on a leadoff double by Marcell Ozuna and a two-out bloop single by No. 9 hitter Henry Davis.
Center fielder TJ Friedl slipped as he started in on the ball and missed a diving catch.
Pittsburgh’s win ended a four-game losing streak and lifted its record against the National League Central division to 20-13 and dipped Cincinnati’s record to 10-24 against NLCS opponents.
AFter the walk-a-thon in the third, Abbott had thrown 75 pitches. He went into the clubhouse and changed his drenched uniform and mud-clotted shoes.
He pitched two more innings and gamely held the Pirates to no runs and one hit over the next two innings.
Asked about Abbott’s third inning, Reds manager Tito Francona said, “Yeah, he lost the plate.”
It might have been buried under mud.
“For the majority of his pitches, they were down (and in the dirt),” Francona added. “The conditions were tough. They did come out at one point and fix the mound for him, which we appreciated.”
But it didn’t help.
“When you’re not sure about your lead leg (the plant leg), that doesn’t help,” said Francona. “It just snowballed.”
Francona gave Abbott high praise for returning to the mound after the 43-pitch inning, 75 after three innings.
“I give him a lot of credit,” he said. “We had somebody up (in the bullpen) and that would have been disastrous for our bullpen. He stayed out there and battled and when he left we actually had a chance to win that game.”
Francona and the Reds were ecstatic when the delay came and Ashcraft couldn’t come back.
“He has a fabulous arm,” he said about Ashcraft. “I actually thought the rain might help us by getting him out of there.”
Francona couldn’t pronounced the name of Ashcraft’s replacement — Mlodzinski.
“I don’t know how you pronounced the kid’s name, but he’s done that for them (pitch multiple innings in relief) and he is pretty good in that role.”
The Reds, now 3-and-7 against the Pirates this season, still lead this series two games to one and can take the series Sunday afternoon with Chase Burns (11-1) on the mound against Mitch Keller (6-7, 4.83).