Anthony Alford hit a two-run triple and flashed some slick baserunning to score on a wild pitch Friday as the Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Cincinnati Reds 4-3 for a split of a doubleheader.

Pittsburgh (12-25) came by the winning run in a relatively anticlimactic manner. At 3-3 heading into the fifth, Kevin Newman and Adam Frazier singled, and Newman scored when Bryan Reynolds bounced into a double play.

Cincinnati was the home team even though the game was played in Pittsburgh.

Eugenio Suarez hit a two-run homer and Mike Moustakas a solo homer for the Reds (17-22).

Pittsburgh rookie Cody Ponce, who was making his second career start, pitched four innings. He gave up three runs and three hits, with four strikeouts and a walk. Two of the three hits he allowed were homers.

Sam Howard (2-1) pitched a perfect fifth. Richard Rodriguez pitched the ninth for his third save.

Cincinnati's Trevor Bauer (3-3) lost his third straight start. He gave up four runs, just one earned, and six hits in six innings, with seven strikeouts and two walks.

Cincinnati struck first. Joey Votto walked to lead off the bottom of the first. After Nick Castellanos struck out and Jesse Winker flied out to right, Suarez hit a two-out, two-strike homer to center, his third, for a 2-0 lead. It was the third homer given up by Ponce in his first 10 innings.

The Pirates took the lead in the fourth. Colin Moran reached on Joey Votto's error when the first baseman failed to catch a toss from shortstop Jose Garcia. Two outs later, Ke'Bryan Hayes singled up the middle, with Moran going to third.

Alford tripled Moran and Hayes home on an elusive hit to left-center to tie it 2-2. Then with John Ryan Murphy at the plate, Alford took a big lead and deftly scored on a Bauer wild pitch that wasn't very wild -- it got away from catcher Tucker Barnhart but barely made it onto the grass cutout.

The Reds pulled even in the fourth on Moustakas' third homer, a rope to right that made it 3-3.

--Field Level Media