LDN - Sports

Nova beats Reds, remains perfect with Pirates

[September 09, 2016] PITTSBURGH -- Ivan Nova's fifth victory with Pittsburgh might have been one of the easiest of manager Clint Hurdle's 500 wins with the Pirates.

Nova threw a six-hitter to remain unbeaten with the Pirates, who put together a three-run first inning en route to a 4-1 win over the Cincinnati Reds on Thursday night -- their second in a row after dropping eight straight.

The right-handed Nova was dominating at the start, giving up one hit over the first five innings, improving to 5-0 with the Pirates since being dealt by the New York Yankees. The complete game was his second in his last four starts with the Pirates -- he beat the Houston Astros 7-1 on Aug. 24 --and the fifth of his career.

"We're glad he's pitching for us, and we're glad he's throwing really well," shortstop Jordy Mercer said.

Nova was 7-6 with the Yankees. He is the first Pirates pitcher since Dave LaPoint (4-0) in 1988 to go 4-0 or 5-0 in his first five games with the Pirates.

The Reds' only run in their ninth loss in 11 games came on Zack Cozart's RBI single in the sixth, which stopped Cozart's 0-for-14 streak. Nova threw 94 pitches, not walking any while striking out four.

"I'm trying to make it as quick as possible," Nova said, laughing.

Nova has a 2.53 ERA with the Pirates, but doesn't think this is the best he's pitched during a career in which he's gone 58-39 with the Yankees and Pirates.

"No, I had some good times in New York. But I'm focusing on the way I'm pitching (now) and I'm going to try to continue to do it," Nova said. "I'm just pitching well."

Hurdle, who took over in 2010 amid a stretch of 20 consecutive losing seasons, is the sixth Pirates manager to win at least 500 games with the club, joining Fred Clarke (1,472), Danny Murtaugh (1,115), Jim Leyland (851), Chuck Tanner (711) and Frankie Frisch (539).

"He (Nova) kept the game moving, which keeps the defense engaged and the guys made a number of excellent plays behind him," Hurdle said.

The Pirates, already up 3-1, added their final run in the sixth on Josh Harrison's double and Andrew McCutchen's RBI single.

The Pirates, who ended an eight-game losing streak by beating St. Louis Cardinals 4-3 on Wednesday, jumped on Reds starter Dan Straily (11-8) for three runs in a first inning in which Cincinnati's defense didn't help Straily much despite not committing an error.

Gregory Polanco singled with two out for the Pirates' second hit of the inning, after Josh Harrison doubled but was thrown out two batters later after getting caught off second on Andrew McCutchen's fielder's choice.

Jung Ho Kang, who homered in the eighth inning to win Wednesday night's game, followed with a two-run double to center. After David Freese's infield single, Francisco Cervelli's single up the middle made it 3-0.

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"They had three hits right there in that inning that probably totaled a foot away from each glove total," Straily said. "It was kind of the way it happened."

Reds center fielder Billy Hamilton might have run down Kang's double with his elite speed, but he sat out a fourth consecutive game with an oblique strain and didn't make the trip to Pittsburgh as Jose Peraza played center.

"I don't spend a lot of time with the what-if game -- this game drives you crazy enough as it is, to try to find different ways to go nuts before your time," manager Bryan Price said. "So I don't spend any time thinking what would happen if Billy was here, simply because he's not and Jose covers a lot of ground in center."

The Reds didn't get anything resembling a hit off Nova until Adam Duvall beat out a grounder between third base and the mound as Nova's hurried throw to first was off line to start the fifth.

Duvall was initially given a hit, breaking up the no-hitter, but Brandon Phillips immediately grounded into a double play. Scott Schebler followed with a single, but Nova got out of the inning with no scoring.

After the half-inning ended, official scorer Tony Krizmanich changed Duvall's base hit to a throwing error by Nova.

"Sometimes things need to go your way and other times you need to create your opportunities, and tonight we didn't create a lot of opportunities to score," Price said.

Straily gave up three runs on seven hits, walking three and hitting two batters, while lasting five innings. He had gone 7-1 in his previous eight decisions.

NOTES: The Pirates will skip rookie RHPs Jameson Taillon and Chad Kuhl the next time through the rotation to avoid building up their innings. Taillon, who did not pitch the last two seasons following Tommy John surgery, has tossed 149 2/3 innings in the majors and minors this season and Kuhl has pitched 134 1/3 frames. ... RHP Drew Hutchison starts Saturday in Kuhl's spot and RHP Gerrit Cole comes off the disabled list for the second time following the All-Star break to start Monday in Philadelphia. ... Pirates OF Josh Bell started in right field Thursday for the first time in his MLB career. LF Starling Marte remained out with back spasms, so Gregory Polanco started again in left field. Bell went 1-for-3.

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