Derek Dietrich had a career-high three home runs and drove in six to lead the Cincinnati Reds to an 11-6 win against the visiting Pittsburgh Pirates on Tuesday night.
Dietrich blasted two-run homers in the fourth, fifth and seventh innings to help the Reds open a 10-0 lead in the third game of the four-game series.
The run support was more than enough for Cincinnati starter Lucas Sims in his season debut.
Sims, who was recalled from Triple-A Louisville earlier in the day, was working on a shutout before giving up a grand slam to Kevin Newman in the eighth.
Sims went 7 1/3 innings, the longest outing of the season by a Cincinnati starter, allowing four runs and six hits, striking out nine and walking one.
Tucker Barnhart drove in three runs, Jose Iglesias had two hits and scored twice, and Jose Peraza homered for the Reds, who split a doubleheader with Pittsburgh on Monday.
Elias Diaz had two hits for the Pirates, including a two-run double in the ninth inning. Starling Marte also had two hits for Pittsburgh.
Dietrich hit a two-run homer in the fourth inning to give the Reds a 3-0 lead. An inning later, his second blast made it 6-0.
Barnhart, who gave the Reds a 1-0 lead with a run-scoring groundout in the second inning, added a two-run double in the fifth to boost the advantage to 8-0.
Dietrich went deep with a runner aboard again in the seventh inning, establishing a career high with 17 home runs on the season. Seven of the long balls have come against Pittsburgh.
Pirates starter Jordan Lyles (5-2) left after four-plus innings due to left hamstring discomfort. He allowed three runs and three hits, striking out three and walking two on 72 pitches. The Pirates had won eight of his previous nine starts this season.
Sims was 3-0 for Louisville this season with a 4.06 ERA and 63 strikeouts in 44 1/3 innings. He was a first-round pick of the Braves in 2012, and he was traded to Cincinnati last year in the deal that sent Adam Duvall to Atlanta.
--Field Level Media
Pittsburgh | Cincinnati | |
Jordan Lyles | Player | Lucas Sims |
Loss | W/L | Win |
4.0 | IP | 7.1 |
3 | Strikeouts | 9 |
3 | Hits | 6 |
6.75 | ERA | 4.91 |
Pittsburgh | Cincinnati | |
Elias Diaz | Player | Derek Dietrich |
2 | Hits | 3 |
2 | RBI | 6 |
0 | HR | 3 |
3 | TB | 12 |
.500 | Avg | .750 |
Team | Hits | HR | TB | Avg | LOB | K | RBI | BB | SB | Errors |
Pittsburgh | 8 | 1 | 14 | .242 | 9 | 11 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
Cincinnati | 11 | 4 | 29 | .324 | 4 | 8 | 11 | 3 | 0 | 0 |