CINCINNATI -- Since debuting in the Major Leagues, Reds pitcher Hunter Greene has had some superb starts vs. the Pirates, only to be left unrewarded. That finally changed on Sunday when, instead of frustration, he enjoyed mostly drama-free satisfaction.
Not only did Greene dominate, but the Reds took a 4-0 victory over the Pirates for a three-game series sweep at Great American Ball Park. After a 3-7 start, Cincinnati has won five of its last six games to reach .500 with an 8-8 record.
¡°I haven¡¯t been around him as long as everybody else has, but I¡¯m watching him work and I think you¡¯re seeing a young good player finding the next gear," Reds manager Terry Francona said.
Over his seven scoreless innings, Greene allowed two hits with one walk and eight strikeouts. Of his 98 pitches, 71 were strikes. That included first-pitch strikes to 18 of his 24 batters. Greene extended his scoreless-innings streak to 18 2/3 frames spanning his last three outings.
Seemingly gone are Greene's days of nibbling around the strike zone.
¡°If he gets strike one, we¡¯re sitting pretty after that because we can use the weapons," catcher Austin Wynns said.
In four starts, Greene is 2-1 with a 0.98 ERA, 0.58 WHIP, four walks and 31 strikeouts over 27 2/3 innings.
Greene has worked seven or more innings in three of his starts, something he did in seven of 26 outings during his 2024 All-Star season. In his previous start at San Francisco, he worked a career-high 8 2/3 scoreless innings.
"He was locked in, and once he got locked in, he got really locked in," Pirates manager Derek Shelton said.
Greene led with his four-seam fastball, which averaged 99 mph, and he's long had a strong slider. But now he's also using a split-fingered fastball ¨C which he showed 12 times to give hitters one more thing to worry about.
"It¡¯s a good feeling just in the progression of becoming a pitcher, which is great," Greene said.
In the early going, he had to navigate through traffic on the bases. Pittsburgh had runners on first and second base with one out in the first inning before Greene got a flyout to right field and a lineout to shortstop. In the second inning, right fielder Jake Fraley misplayed Isiah Kiner-Falefa's sinking liner that went to the wall for a one-out triple.
¡°I think if anybody is watching the game in the first two innings, they¡¯re like, ¡®Ooh, it¡¯s going to be a tough one today.¡¯ For me, the thought never crossed my mind," Greene said. "I tried to stay present and attack each hitter, one hitter at a time, one pitch at a time and let the cards fall where they may.¡±
To finish the second inning, Greene struck out Tsung-Che Cheng and then second baseman Santiago Espinal made a nifty leaping catch on the outfield grass on Henry Davis' soft line drive to end the threat.
¡°It was a great play," Greene said. "He looked like [Michael] Jordan jumping up, so that was cool. He¡¯s a fantastic athlete and a great defender. It was awesome for him to make that play.¡±
After that, the struggling Pirates lineup was completely stifled as Greene retired his final 17 batters. He needed only 10 pitches to finish the seventh inning.
"I thought he was getting a little tired going out for the seventh," Francona said. "We were kind of going to go hitter to hitter because I really didn¡¯t want him to have to reach back and work because we¡¯ve leaned on him pretty hard so far. And he got a first-pitch out [to begin] the inning, which was huge.¡±
The last time Wynns caught Greene, July 28 of last season at Tampa Bay, he also threw seven scoreless innings with two hits.
¡°He was confident last year. He¡¯s more confident," Wynns said. "Good luck, Hunter coming at you hot. He had three great weapons when he¡¯s commanding them. It¡¯s really hard to hit him.¡±
None of it matters as much if the offense doesn't score. With one out in the bottom of the third inning, Espinal helped Greene with his bat by blooping a two-run single into right-center field. The Reds added two more runs in the fifth, including a blooped RBI single by Elly De La Cruz.
In his seven starts vs. the Pirates entering the day, Greene was 0-4 with a 3.00 ERA, while Cincinnati went 0-7 in those games. There was a near no-hitter the first time he faced Pittsburgh in 2022, plus other occasions where Greene allowed zero or one run and still felt the frustration of losing.
There was none of that on Sunday, however.