ST. LOUIS -- Bryan Reynolds keeps doubling down at the plate and it's paying off in runs for the Pirates offense.
Reynolds belted two more doubles, one in each of the first two innings, as the Pirates scored early and often in an 8-3 win over the Cardinals on Tuesday night.
Reynolds continued his hot hitting of late, reaching safely in his seventh straight game. He has at least one double in six of those games and he is 4-for-10 in the first two games of the four-game series against the Cardinals after homering and doubling Monday night. All four of his hits in St. Louis have gone for extra bases.
“Balls have been finding gaps,” Reynolds said. “Balls have been finding grass where nobody is.”
The doubles are adding up. Reynolds has 34 doubles, tied for third-most in the Majors this season. His 12 doubles this month lead the Majors and are the most two-baggers he’s had in any month of his career, topping an 11-double output in August 2019.
“Man, he's been swinging the bat so well, especially since the All-Star break, and driving the ball, the home runs and doubles,” Pirates manager Don Kelly said. “And he leads us every day, the way he plays the game, the way he goes about it. He's been doing a fantastic job.”
The Pirates wasted no time taking control on Tuesday, batting around in the first inning as the first six reached safely. Reynolds started the scoring with -- big surprise -- an RBI double. Andrew McCutchen followed with a two-run single and Jack Suwinski had an RBI ground-rule double to help Pittsburgh take a 5-0 lead.
Reynolds doubled in the second, and Spencer Horwitz scored on the play due to a fielding error by Lars Nootbaar. Reynolds, who went to third on the error, scored on a groundout by Oneil Cruz to make it 7-0.
While Reynolds took third on the fielding error, there was no thought in trying to stretch it into a Little League home run by scoring on the play.
“No, I'm not fast enough for that,” Reynolds said.
Henry Davis added to the lead with a solo homer in the third coming on the 11th pitch of the at-bat. That came after a nine-pitch at-bat in the first resulted in a sacrifice fly, meaning Davis saw 20 of the 91 pitches from Cardinals starter Andre Pallante.
“I thought he had some really good swings too on balls that he was fouling off straight back,” Kelly said. “Was in the at-bat, continued to battle, continued to grind through it. The one pitch that he took was a nasty curveball down out of the zone, laid off it, and then was able to catch a -- I think it was a slider out in front, and absolutely killed that ball.”
The offensive outburst was more than enough for Mitch Keller, who recorded a season-high nine strikeouts through six innings. Keller allowed three runs on just three hits, walked one and hit a pair of batters.
“Commanding the zone,” Kelly said. “Fastball velo was up. I thought he did a great job attacking the zone, attacking the hitters. Huge double play there in the first inning, kind of set the stage for the rest of the game.”
Keller retired nine straight hitters from the first into the fourth inning, striking out six during that span.
“Mitch threw the ball great too,” Reynolds said. “You know, we gave him a big cushion early. They just, you know, attacked, and we were not on defense for long, which, you know, helps the offense too.”
Keller improved to 2-1 with a 2.05 ERA in four starts against the Cardinals this season. It was probably his best start since allowing three runs over six innings to Detroit on July 22.
“I felt a lot better than I have the past few weeks,” Keller said. “Yeah, it felt good to just fill up the zone. Feel like I executed more two-strike counts today than I have in a long time.”
Kyle Nicolas pitched two scoreless innings of relief and Isaac Mattson handled the ninth as the Pirates won for the fifth time in their past six games.
“After we got swept here earlier in the year and then lost a tough one last night, to be able to bounce back, especially in the first inning, and put up five, and then Mitch comes out, gets a big double play, and we're able to add on,” Kelly said. “Just really proud of the guys bouncing back like that.”