CINCINNATI -- Andrew Abbott knew he had to take one for the team, even if it meant getting drenched in the process.
The left-hander battled through five innings, two driving rainstorms and a slippery mound slope to help manager Terry Francona preserve the Reds’ bullpen as much as possible.
In the end, Abbott (5-7) took the loss, a 4-1 defeat to the Pirates before 27,616 at Great American Ball Park in a rain-soaked contest that featured a one-hour, 46-minute delay before the bottom of the sixth.
The game began in a downpour and was an omen of things to come for Abbott and the Reds.
After two scoreless innings, Abbott clearly struggled with the mound conditions in the third. Following a bases-loaded walk to Bryan Reynolds that made it 1-0 Pittsburgh, third-base umpire and crew chief Dan Bellino directed the grounds crew onto the field to tend to the mound and the infield dirt areas, as the heavy rains continued to fall.
“The decision to play is always a decision taken very seriously,” Bellino told a pool reporter. “And when you decide to pull the tarp, it needs to be at a point in the game when it makes sense. And that’s when we pulled the tarp today.”
The lefty slipped three times and threw three pitches well low in the strike zone during a six-pitch walk to Esmerlyn Valdez that increased Pittsburgh’s lead to 2-0.
“Everybody knows it was wet,” Abbott said. “It was downpouring. The surface was giving way a little bit. We tried to fix it, but once you push the surface down, and then it starts to rain again, it's just going to do the same thing. Still not an excuse. I should have made pitches a little bit better. I should have set my sights up.”
Abbott acknowledged that the thought of not injuring himself was in his head as he had to make a significant adjustment during the conditions.
“I shortened my stride. I threw more sidearm,” Abbott said. “I always go to my spin in rain because I just have more. Fingers [have] more control on the ball, so that's why we were just kind of throwing sweepers and changeups because that was like the biggest thing. … 'Let's just figure it out. Throw the kitchen sink. Figure a way to get out of it, and at least keep it somewhat close.'”
Abbott did keep it close. He would get out of the third with just one more run scoring, but not before tossing a single-inning career-high 43 pitches. Abbott rebounded impressively in the fourth and fifth, finishing with 98 pitches, allowing just the three runs on three hits, striking out one and walking five, matching a season-high. Four of those came in the fateful third.
“I don't like putting the team in such a bad situation,” Abbott said. “And then I practice what I preach to these guys. If I have a bad inning, I'm going to just switch my thoughts from going out and dominating to, 'How can I get through at least five?' And that's the mentality switch that I had.”
The mentality he had was do whatever he could to save the bullpen, and he let interim pitching coach Matt Tracy know that after the third.
“I told Tracy on the bench, I said, ‘I don't care what pitch count I'm at.’ I said, ‘If it starts to rain again, don't burn a bullpen guy.’ Put me back out there and just let me deal with it. Like I would rather wear the bullet than these guys," Abbott said.
“I give him a lot of credit because when we had somebody up in the third, and that would have been disastrous for us, for our bullpen, and he stayed out there and battled," Francona said of Abbott. "When he left the game, we [had] a chance to win that game so I give him a lot of credit for competing.”
Cincinnati’s frustration wasn’t limited to Abbott. Pittsburgh starter Braxton Ashcraft drilled Sal Stewart on the left elbow to open the Cincinnati fourth with a 97-mph two-seamer that caromed off his protective padding. It still stung and Stewart showed his disgust by slamming his bat and pad to the grass on the third base side of the batter’s circle.
Ashcraft managed the elements better and finished five innings (before the rain delay) for the win, allowing just one run on Jose Trevino’s fourth homer of the season in the fifth.