Future uncertain, two bombs in Boston ... Reynolds 'always the same'

BOSTON -- Bryan Reynolds' smile and look probably said everything that needed to be said.

Much of the focus around him these past few days, weeks and months has been about everything but baseball. The contract talks -- currently on hold due to the request for a player opt-out -- the trade request, his future with the club... there are plenty of outside sources of stress.

None of them showed when Reynolds stepped onto Fenway Park Monday, hitting two home runs to help the Pirates beat the Red Sox by a score of 7-6.

Maybe he needed a game like that. Maybe the Pirates' fans needed him to have a game like that. A reminder of why his future with the team is such a focal topic. A distraction from what is happening elsewhere in the baseball world.

But it's not quite a refuge, like I asked after the win. It is still work.

"These games are a grind," Reynolds said. "I wouldn’t necessarily call it a calm little walk on the beach."

That's a very Reynolds-like response. He's usually reserved, but the wit is dry. Little moments like that, even if it's to defuse any contract questions before they get started, show what the Pirates always believed would happen and hoped for throughout the off-the field drama: It wouldn't affect him on the diamond.

"That's just how he is," Jason Delay, Reynolds' teammate from Vanderbilt who also homered in the win, said. "It's a no-nonsense approach to the game until you get to know him. He'll throw in some dry humor, some subtle jabs, some funny jokes. We joke around all the time. Not a lot of people see that side of him."

The side that people see is usually see is this, the man who pounes on a Kutter Crawford slider:

And then repeats on his next at-bat against a cutter:

That doesn't look like the swing of a man who is pouting that his nine-figure extension is up in the air. He's still the constant guy that the Pirates want and the type of player the group needs.

“I don’t think Bryan never lets anything affect him once he gets between the lines," Derek Shelton said. "I think that’s something that I know I, personally, really appreciate about him. That regardless of what is happening externally, he is always the same guy.”

It hasn't been that walk on the beach of late, but those games have been a welcome alternative to the business side of the game.

 "it’s good to get on the field, away from everything," Reynolds said, "play against the best."

MORE FROM THE GAME

• Johan Oviedo's first start of the season got off to a very shaky start, allowing a trio of first inning home runs to Rafael Devers, Masataka Yoshida and Triston Casas to fall behind quickly 5-3.

The plan coming into the game was to rely on the fastball and slider combo, but the fastball wasn't moving the way he wanted it to, so he and Delay adjusted to emphasis the curveball and changeup more. While he would fall an out short of getting a win, pitching into the fifth after that first was a boost.

"As a pitcher, you accept that homers will come," Oviedo said. "It’s part of the game. They have a bat. They make good swings. You have to have the mentality to keep competing. It doesn’t matter how it goes. Sometimes it goes that way. It’s a mindset to keep competing and throw the ball."

• Oviedo kept the Pirates in the game. The bullpen brought it home from there.

Dauri Moreta stranded a pair of inherited runners to go through the fifth and Duane Underwood Jr. picked up four outs to bridge the gap to Colin Holderman in the eighth. Holderman got himself into a jam by giving up an infield single and a walk, but he kept the ball in the infield and a couple of ground outs kept the potential go-ahead run off the plate.

Last year, Shelton might have turned to David Bednar to try to get that final out of the eighth and go for a four-out save. Instead, he put his faith in Holderman, not getting a pitcher warm while he was on the mound.

"It was his inning," Shelton said, "and the fact he was able to finish it was really important.”

Bednar worked around an infield single for a quiet bottom of the ninth to get his second save of this young season.

"They [the bullpen] grind out the whole game, so to come in there with the opportunity to finish it off, finish out a win was huge," Bednar said.

• Ke'Bryan Hayes opened the scoring with an RBI knock off the (now larger) first base bag. He would end up scoring on a Canaan Smith-Njigba two-run double later that inning, and then again in the third on a Jack Suwinski base hit.

• Quick thought: Rodolfo Castro looks lost at the plate at the moment. He's working on some foundational things with his stance and base, but he went 0-for-4 with a couple strikeouts Monday. The results indicate this is a work in progress.

• Factoid of the game: Reynolds also hit two home runs against the Red Sox on Aug. 18, 2022. He is the first National League player to have a multi-home run performance against the Red Sox in back-to-back games played.

• Minor-league rosters were announced by the club Monday, with some of the more notable placements being Henry Davis and Liover Peguero starting in Class AA Altoona, and Bubba Chandler and Anthony Solometo making the leap to Class High-A Greensboro:

• Cory Giger was at the Curve's media day Monday for Davis. You can read that story here.

THE ESSENTIALS

• Boxscore
• Live file
• Standings
• Statistics
• Schedule
• Scoreboard

THE HIGHLIGHTS

THE INJURIES

• 15-day injured list: RHP Robert Stephenson (elbow)

• 60-day injured list: RHP JT Brubaker (elbow), LHP Jarlin Garcia (elbow)

THE LINEUPS

Shelton's card:

1. Oneil Cruz, SS
2. Bryan Reynolds, CF
3. Ji-Man Choi, DH
4. Carlos Santana, 1B
5. Ke'Bryan Hayes, 3B
6. Canaan Smith-Njigba, LF
7. Jack Suwinski, RF
8. Rodolfo Castro, 2B
9. Jason Delay, C

And for Alex Cora's Red Sox:

1. Alex Verdugo, RF
2. Rafael Devers, 3B
3. Justin Turner, DH
4. Masataka Yoshida, LF
5. Adam Duvall, CF
6. Triston Casas, 1B
7. Christian Arroyo, 2B
8. Kiké Hernández, SS
9. Connor Wong, C

THE SCHEDULE

The Pirates can secure at least a split of this road trip Tuesday. Roansy Contreras will take the bump against Nick Pivetta, with first pitch coming at 7:10 p.m. I've got you covered.

THE MULTIMEDIA

THE CONTENT

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