Pirates take advantage of overextended Cincinnati bullpen to rally for a 6-5 win

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Bryan De La Cruz drove in a pair of runs and the Pittsburgh Pirates rallied past the Cincinnati Reds 6-5 on Friday night.

The Pirates had dropped nine straight one-run games since the July 30 trade deadline before coming back from five down to beat the skidding Reds for the sixth time in eight meetings so far this season.

“Very excited about it, we’ve lost too many of them," Pittsburgh manager Derek Shelton said after his team improved to 20-26 in one-run contests. “But it was good. They continued to battle.”

Joey Bart and Rowdy Tellez had two hits each for Pittsburgh, which is 5-3 since a 10-game slide dropped it to last place in the NL Central and effectively ended its playoff chances.

De La Cruz, acquired from Miami to help spark an offense that has struggled most of the year, is finding his footing with the Pirates. The right fielder is batting .351 (13 for 37) with eight RBIs in his last 10 games.

“At the beginning there was a little struggle,” De La Cruz said through a translator. "I wasn’t hitting like I wanted to, but now I’m in a good spot.”

Dennis Santana (3-1) worked two scoreless innings in relief. David Bednar earned his 23rd save when left fielder Billy McKinney made a sliding grab on a liner by Elly De La Cruz with two on and two out in the ninth.

Tyler Stephenson hit his 17th home run of the season for Cincinnati. Santiago Espinal had three hits for the Reds but was also thrown out at second base in the seventh while trying to advance on a fly ball to center field, one of a handful of miscues by Cincinnati.

Cincinnati's battered starting rotation took another hit Friday when the club placed Andrew Abbott on the 15-day injured list with a strained left shoulder. Reliever Buck Farmer got the start in Abbott's place and Farmer, Sam Moll and Tony Santillan held the Pirates without a hit for four innings.

Alan Busenitz, called up to take Abbott's roster spot, wasn't so fortunate. He gave up a leadoff single to Bart leading off the fifth and the floodgates opened. Bart scored on a double by De La Cruz as part of a surge that eventually pulled the Pirates within 5-4.

Pittsburgh took the lead in the sixth when Oneil Cruz led off with a double and scored on an RBI single by Bart. Tellez followed with a hit-and-run single that moved Bart to third and Bart jogged home on De La Cruz's sacrifice fly off Justin Wilson (1-3).

Holding leads in tight games has been difficult of late for Pittsburgh, but Santana breezed through two frames and Chapman escaped a two-on, two-out jam in the eighth by striking out Stuart Fairchild.

Bednar, who had given up at least one run in seven of his previous nine appearances, surrendered a leadoff double to Will Benson and walked Jonathan India with two outs before McKinney's slick grab let Pittsburgh exhale.

“He stayed in aggressive mode,” Shelton said of Bednar. “I think in the past we’d seen him when guys got on base, maybe (he'd) be a little tentative. Today was kind of like the David Bednar we’re used to where he just stayed right after and it highlights that he went right after Elly.”

Pirates starter Bailey Falter gave up five runs in five innings, including four in a sloppy fourth. Shelton stuck with Falter for the fifth. The left-hander responded by throwing a scoreless frame that keeping the Pirates within striking distance before the offense erupted against a Cincinnati bullpen that's been stretched thin.

TRAINER'S ROOM

Reds: RHP Hunter Greene (right elbow soreness) is expected to rejoin the team this weekend after having his elbow examined in Los Angeles. ... Cincinnati also transferred C Austin Wynns (right shoulder) to the 60-day injured list.

UP NEXT

Jake Woodford (0-5, 6.67 ERA) will start for Pittsburgh on Saturday. The Reds have yet to announce a starter. Before the game, the Pirates will induct manager Jim Leyland, outfielder Barry Bonds and catcher Manny Sanguillén into the club's Hall of Fame.

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb

Cincinnati Reds pitcher Justin Wilson (32) reacts during the sixth inning of a baseball game against the Pittsburgh Pirates, Friday, Aug. 23, 2024, in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Barry Reeger)

Pittsburgh Pirates third base Isiah Kiner-Falefa (7) celebrates after tagging out Cincinnati Reds' Santiago Espinal (4) in the seventh inning of a baseball game, Friday, Aug. 23, 2024, in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Barry Reeger)

Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Dennis Santana delivers against the Cincinnati Reds in the sixth inning of a baseball game, Friday, Aug. 23, 2024, in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Barry Reeger)

Cincinnati Reds pitcher Buck Farmer delivers against the Pittsburgh Pirates in the first inning of a baseball game, Friday, Aug. 23, 2024, in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Barry Reeger)

Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Bailey Falter delivers against the Cincinnati Reds in the first inning of a baseball game, Friday, Aug. 23, 2024, in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Barry Reeger)

Cincinnati Reds' Tyler Stephenson celebrates after his solo home run against the Pittsburgh Pirates in the first inning of a baseball game, Friday, Aug. 23, 2024, in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Barry Reeger)

Cincinnati Reds' Tyler Stephenson watches his solo home run against the Pittsburgh Pirates in the first inning of a baseball game, Friday, Aug. 23, 2024, in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Barry Reeger)

Cincinnati Reds' Spencer Steer (7) scores ahead of a tag by Pittsburgh Pirates catcher Joey Bart, right, on a sacrifice bunt in the fourth inning of a baseball game, Friday, Aug. 23, 2024, in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Barry Reeger)

Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder Bryan De La Cruz celebrates after scoring against the Cincinnati Reds in the fifth inning of a baseball game, Friday, Aug. 23, 2024, in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Barry Reeger)

Pittsburgh Pirates first base Rowdy Tellez celebrates after scoring against the Cincinnati Reds in the fifth inning of a baseball game, Friday, Aug. 23, 2024, in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Barry Reeger)

Pittsburgh Pirates catcher Joey Bart scores in front of Cincinnati Reds catcher Tyler Stephenson in the sixth inning of a baseball game, Friday, Aug. 23, 2024, in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Barry Reeger)

Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder Bryan De La Cruz celebrates after driving in a run against the Cincinnati Reds in the fifth inning of a baseball game, Friday, Aug. 23, 2024, in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Barry Reeger)

BOSTON (AP) — A study that explores the feasibility of using pigeons to guide missiles and one that looks at the swimming abilities of dead fish were among the winners Thursday of this year’s Ig Nobels, the prize for comical scientific achievement.

Held less than a month before the actual Nobel Prizes are announced, the 34th annual Ig Nobel prize ceremony at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology was organized by the Annals of Improbable Research magazine’s website to make people laugh and think. Winners received a transparent box containing historic items related to Murphy’s Law — the theme of the night — and a nearly worthless Zimbabwean $10 trillion bill. Actual Nobel laureates handed the winners their prizes.

“While some politicians were trying to make sensible things sound crazy, scientists discovered some crazy-sounding things that make a lot of sense,” Marc Abrahams, master of ceremonies and editor of the magazine, said in an e-mail interview.

The ceremony started with Kees Moliker, winner of 2003 Ig Noble for biology, giving out safety instructions. His prize was for a study that documented the existence of homosexual necrophilia in mallard ducks.

“This is the duck,” he said, holding up a duck. “This is the dead one.”

After that, someone came on stage wearing a yellow target on their chest and a plastic face mask. Soon, they were inundated with people in the audience throwing paper airplanes at them.

Then, the awards began — several dry presentations which were interrupted by a girl coming on stage and repeatedly yelling “Please stop. I'm bored.” The awards ceremony was also was broken up by an international song competition inspired by Murphy's Law, including one about coleslaw and another about the legal system.

The winners were honored in 10 categories, including for peace and anatomy. Among them were scientists who showed a vine from Chile imitates the shapes of artificial plants nearby and another study that examined whether the hair on people's heads in the Northern Hemisphere swirled in the same direction as someone's hair in the Southern Hemisphere.

Other winners include a group of scientists who showed that fake medicine that causes side effects can be more effective than fake medicine that doesn't cause side effects and one showing that some mammals are cable of breathing through their anus — winners who came on stage wearing a fish-inspired hats.

Julie Skinner Vargas accepted the peace prize on behalf of her late father B.F. Skinner, who wrote the pigeon-missile study. Skinner Vargas is also the head of the B.F. Skinner Foundation.

“I want to thank you for finally acknowledging his most important contribution,” she said. “Thank you for putting the record straight.”

James Liao, a biology professor at the University of Florida, accepted the physics prize for his study demonstrating and explaining the swimming abilities of a dead trout.

“I discovered that a live fish moved more than a dead fish but not by much,” Liao said, holding up a fake fish. “A dead trout towed behind a stick also flaps its tail to the beat of the current like a live fish surfing on swirling eddies, recapturing the energy in its environment. A dead fish does live fish things.”

Professor James Liao displays a stuffed fish while accepting a prize for physics for demonstrating and explaining the swimming abilities of a dead trout during a performance at the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass., Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

A team of researchers perform a demonstration during a performance showing that many mammals are capable of breathing through their anus while accepting the 2024 Ig Nobel prize in physiology at the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in Cambridge, Mass., Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

People in the audience throw paper airplanes toward the stage during a performance at the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass., Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

FILE - Students walk past the "Great Dome" atop Building 10 on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology campus in Cambridge, Mass, April 3, 2017. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa, File)