Not so Niese: Homers spoil things for Bucs

Associated Press

CINCINNATI

On a night when he felt good all-around, left-hander Jonathon Niese wasn’t going to let three homers that barely cleared the wall bother him too much.

Tucker Barnhart hit the last of Cincinnati’s three solo homers off Niese, and Reds relievers threw three scoreless innings — a rarity for the major leagues’ worst bullpen — to close out a 3-2 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Monday night.

Zack Cozart and Joey Votto also connected off Niese (3-2), with all three homers barely reaching the stands. Barnhart’s tiebreaking homer in the seventh was upheld on review to make sure it wasn’t touched by a fan reaching for it.

Manager Clint Hurdle left Niese in to face Barnhart, a switch-hitting catcher, because he’d pitched so well.

“That’s the reason we pushed him out there for the seventh,” Hurdle said. “It’s the bottom of the order. We wanted Barnhart to bat right-handed. You see how things worked out.”

Barnhart’s first homer since last May 27 ended the seventh-longest active streak without a homer in the major leagues — 270 at-bats. It was the first time this season that Niese allowed three homers in a game.

“I don’t care about home runs,” Niese said. “I’m not really looking at that stat.”

It was a turnaround performance for Niese, who had allowed nine runs in only 10 1/3 innings during his last two starts combined.

“There are too many positives on this outing to dwell on the negative ones,” he said. “I was a lot more crisp, a lot more relaxed on the mound.”

J.C. Ramirez (1-2) and Blake Wood each pitched a hitless inning. Tony Cingrani gave up a leadoff double by Jung Ho Kang in the ninth but escaped with the help of a nice play by second baseman Brandon Phillips, who snagged Jordy Mercer’s grounder to prevent a run. It was Cingrani’s second career save and only the Reds’ third save of the season in nine chances.