PITTSBURGH – Johnny Cueto was seeking redemption, a chance to put the memory of Oct. 6, 2012, and this regular season behind him. The Reds’ ace right-hander will have to wait for another day for reconciliation. It was nowhere to be found at PNC Park Tuesday night.
Cueto’s season of injury and frustration came to a decisive end, just as it did for the Reds, with a 6-2 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates in the National League Wild Card game. Pittsburgh advances to the NL Division Series against St. Louis beginning Thursday. Cueto and the Reds can only start planning for 2014.
Cueto lasted just 3 1/3 innings, allowing four runs (three earned) on seven hits with one walk and no strikeouts. Two of the hits he gave up were solo home runs to right fielder Marlon Byrd and catcher Russell Martin in the second inning that got the Pirates rolling.
“They were aggressive the whole time,” said Cueto through interpreter Tomas Vera, “but I left two pitches high in the zone and they made the adjustment and you saw what happened.”
Cueto was 13-4 with a 2.37 ERA in 21 previous starts against the Pirates, and only once had he failed to go at least five innings. That was also this season, on April 13 at PNC. He went on the disabled list with a lat strain two days later, his first of three stints on the DL this season.
Just as he never seemed to get comfortable on the mound Tuesday, he was never able to get into a comfortable groove this season.
“I was frustrated because I lost a lot of time, I lost too many games,” said Cueto. “Thank God right now I feel good, I feel healthy and hopefully next year I come back and we do better.”
Cueto started Game 1 of the NLDS last season at San Francisco but lasted just eight pitches before a right oblique injury forced him from the game. He started Opening Day against the Angels it was one of just 11 starts he made all season. His last trip to the DL
extended 2½ months, from June 29 to Sept. 16.
When it came down to it, starts against the Astros and Mets in the last two weeks of the season weren’t enough to get him ready for a Pittsburgh lineup that is, literally, hitting its stride at the right time of the season. Since losing the first three games of a four-game series at home against San Diego, the Pirates won seven of their final 10 games of the regular season while averaging five runs a game.
The Reds didn’t score more than three runs in any of their final seven games, including Tuesday.
Behind Francisco Liriano’s seven innings, the Pirates made this outcome a simple matter of getting that 27th out. The crowd of 40,487 at PNC Park started chanting Cueto’s name in unison after Byrd’s home run to lead off the second inning. The chants only grew louder when he dropped the ball while on the mound prior to a pitch to Martin. When he did deliver a pitch to Martin, the Pirates catcher sent it out to the left field stands.
“I’ve never really seen him rattled. I don’t think he was rattled. He came out the first inning and the ball was up, too. I don’t think it was the fans. I just think he was having trouble mechanically getting the ball down,” said catcher Ryan Hanigan. “He wanted the ball. You’ve got to like a guy who wants the ball in a game like that. He went after it. It just didn’t work out.
“Obviously it’s tough when he’s battled back and had to work hard and only had two starts to get his feel down but those last two starts he was fine. The ball was down, he was pitching to the corners, sinking the ball, using his breaking balls. It’s just tonight it wasn’t the same story. The ball was up and it got hit. They didn’t miss him.”
Cueto allowed an unearned run in the third inning; shortstop Zack Cozart couldn’t handle a blistering shot off the bat of Byrd, allowing Andrew McCutchen to go first-to-third, where he would score on a sacrifice fly by Pedro Alvarez. Manager Dusty Baker came out to get Cueto after Starling Marte had a one-out double in the fourth inning.
“He only threw a couple really good sliders tonight,” said Baker.
It was a disappointing end to the season for Cueto and the Reds. It will be easy to forget that this team won 90 games, that it was just two games out of the division lead heading into the final week of play despite a multitude of injuries to its top players. The bottom line is that it lost the final six games it played, it led just one time in those final 54 innings of play, and it is again going home early.
“We’ve got gamers in here. Everyone is a gamer in here,” said left fielder Ryan Ludwick, who went 3-for-4 with two doubles.
Like Cueto, Ludwick battled back from an injury, a torn labrum suffered on Opening Day, that cost him most of the season.
“I think everyone is frustrated,” said Ludwick. “I know the city is frustrated. I think the players are frustrated, management is frustrated, (and) coaches are frustrated. We feel like we have a good enough team to make a longer run in the postseason and that hasn’t happened.”
