Gerrit Cole remains winless against Reds but chalk this one up to the defense behind him

The Cincinnati Reds continue to be a thorn in Gerrit Cole’s side. Cole is now winless in four starts against the Reds this season, has never beaten them, and failed to make it to the sixth inning in a Pirates 4-3 loss on Saturday night.

Cole allowed 7 hits and 3 runs (2 ER) in five innings, striking out 8 and walking 1. Cole threw 98 pitches, 66 for strikes.

The Reds made Cole make for his mistakes but the Pirates might have been celebrating a win if it wasn’t for the defense in front of Cole. A poor play in center field by Andrew McCutchen in the second on a Marlon Byrd hit would eventually lead to the Reds first run of the game and Pedro Alvarez unable to handle a routine ground ball in the fourth inning in which should have been a double play ball, would see the Reds end up putting up two runs in the fourth to take a 3-1 lead.

Cole was as animated as ever during the game, showing frustration towards the fielding behind him and in the fifth when Pedro Alvarez failed to handle a pick off throw, Cole looked like he wanted to go over and knock Alvarez out.

After the game, though, Cole said the bottom line is he didn’t execute enough pitches.

“I thought the stuff was good,” Cole told reporters after the game. “Obviously lot of strikeouts. Bottom line is I didn’t execute enough pitches.”

Cole fell to 14-5 on the season with a 2.29 ERA. He boast a 138/29 K/BB ratio and a 1.10 WHIP.

— Starling Marte (.288 – 13 HR – 54 RBI) was 0-5 and struck out with the bases loaded in the 9th to end the game.

— Jung Ho Kang (.299 – 8 HR – 35 RBI) who hit .379 in the month of July, hit a solo home run in the 4th. It was Kang’s 8th home run of the season. He has homered three times this week. Kang went 1-4 in the loss.

— Gregory Polanco (.247 – 4 HR – 30 RBI) had his second multi-hit game in three games and has hit safely in 10 of 11 games. Polanco went 2-4 with a BB.

— Neil Walker (.272 – 9 HR – 42 RBI) went 2-4 with 2 runs scored.

— Travis Ishikawa (.200 – 1 HR – 8 RBI) delivered a two-out pinch hit RBI in the seventh to cut the Reds lead to 3-2. Ishikawa is 3-12 as a pinch hitter this season.

— Joe Blanton made his Pirates debut. 2 IP, 1 Run, 2 SO, throwing 31 pitches, 21 for strikes. He also hit Marlon Byrd with a pitch.