The pirates pick up where they left, drummer Reds (July 21, 2018)

The Pittsburgh Pirates were one of the teams that did not want to stop playing when the All Star break came up. Their only problem when the break was over was that they could not start when they wanted it.

But once they endured a nearly three hour late rain late Friday night in Cincinnati, they resumed where they had stopped before the break. The Reds 12-1 – their seventh straight win and ninth in 10 games. They also reached the .500 mark at 49-49 after being eight games under there just two weeks ago.

Sean Rodriguez, who came to batting .145, had a three-point run against the Reds Tyler Mahle (7-8) start among his three hits and led in four points in his first game since wounding his right quadriceps on June 24th. Starling Marte added a grand slam with his team already up to 7-1 in the eighth inning, which helped make the 1:33 EDT finish almost bearable by the Pirates.

Almost.

"These guys have incredibly well played," said Rodriguez, who had been badigned to a minor league rehabilitation mission. "The train rolls, I wanted to see if I could go on and contribute."

Jameson Taillon (7-7) was strong again against the Reds, which allowed him to run more than 5 1/3 innings, even if he did not. He was not as dominant as him. was beating them 5-0 with a full match in one hit on April 8th.

Right-handed Nick Kingham (4-4, 4.26 MPM) of the Pirates and Anthony DeSclafani (4-2, 5.32) of the Reds will face Saturday night in the second game of the NL Central series of three games at the Great American Ball Park. The Pirates have won seven of the 11 series of the season so far.

Kingham, a fourth-round pick of the 2010 Pirates, is a rookie who will face the Reds for the first time. DeSclafani, who missed all of last season and the first two months of this season with injuries, is 2-2 with a 3.38 ERA in seven career starts against Pittsburgh

DeSafafani defeated the Pirates 8- June 17 at the PNC Park. , giving up two points in 5 innings and two thirds. He has had great success against much of the Pirates' lineup, but outfielder Gregory Polanco is 5-in-17 (.294) with one homer and two RBIs.

While the Pirates maintained their forward-All-Star thrust on Friday with 16 goals, including five for extra goals, the Reds also experienced a rising trend decided by first baseman Joey Votto who certainly been noticed by opposing teams

The Reds are 21-11 years old since mid-June. Secondly, a mini-push that feeds a team that started the season with records of 3-15 and 8-27 hopes that they will do much more the rest of the season than just playing the calendar

.

"Our next step is to get up to .500 and from there, and we have two months to get there," Votto said after returning from the All-. Star Game in Washington. "What we've done lately is really impressive, and the league guys have commented on it, the coaches and the managers, so we're going from there."

A 10-game home match To launch the post-All Part of their schedule seems to offer hope that their raise can continue, but the Reds play almost the same way at home (21-27) as on the road (22-27). excited to play ball – the guys are thrilled to play the winning ball, "Votto said." We have to keep playing well. We did a little bit, (but) we have done almost nothing for the moment. Pursuing up, arriving at .500, would be a pretty cool step. "

Especially that the Reds have been up to 19 games under .500."

"It's a long season and it's time to turn," said Scooter Gennett, second baseman. "We still have 70 games left, there's definitely time to do things rather cool. "

Their season had to look even longer on Friday night, when the match did not start until 10:05 pm EDT, or after the end of most other games on the East Coast.