Pittsburgh Pirates: Jason Grilli Blows First Save Of The Season

Things were looking bad for the Cincinnati Reds. In fact, I had an entire article written about it. Grilli was a perfect 25-25 in save opps this season. Feel free to read the following and laugh at me:

”    Well, the last couple of nights have been nothing short of embarrassing for the Cincinnati Reds.

Facing their inter-divisional rivals, the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Cincinnati Reds’ offense has just fallen asleep at the wheel. Last night, they failed to score a run, leading to Mat Latos having his franchise-best 21 start win streak snapped. Latos himself wasn’t great, only going 5 innings while giving up 3 runs, but his performance was enough to give the Reds a chance to win. They didn’t.

The Reds faced Charlie Morton and Jeff Locke to start those 2 games. Morton and Locke combined for 13 2/3 scoreless innings against the Reds. The Pirates’ bullpen was no less impressive, also shutting the Reds out.

How did it happen this time? Things actually looked pretty promising at the onset. The Pirates’ shoddy defense had given the Reds a huge chance to score. Predictably, they failed to do so, with runners at first and third and 1 out. Brrandon Phillips, as he’s done (or, more like, he’s failed to do) couldn’t get it done in that situation yet again for the second night in a row by grounding into an inning-ending double play. Since returning from a 4 day absence from the lineup (after being hit on the arm by a pitch) Phillips has hit well under .200.

On the Pirates’ end of things, it really wasn’t much better. Though they scored 3 off of Latos in the first, they really didn’t do much after, aside from an RBI single by Starling Marte. On Wednesday night, Bronson Arroyo went 7 innings of 1 run (0 earned) ball, picking up the loss. The lone Pirates’ run came from an error on pitcher Bronson Arroyo, when a ball was deflected off of his glove.   ”

Nope.

Jason Grilli had been a perfect 25-25 in saves (with an ERA at 0.88) before tonight. He served up a meatball to Jay Bruce, who drove it 420 feet. The speed off of the bat was clocked at over 106 mph. He fails to get his 26th save of the season to tie a club record for most saves before the All Star break, although he is now vying for his first win of the season.