The Enquirer15%
Reds drop game to Pirates marred by weather, punch-less offense 19%
By Pat Brennan37%
8/1/2026, 8:10:16 PM
BS Summary: This article contains 18 faulty reasoning types, including Availability Heuristic, Negativity Bias, and Biased Writer Voice, with Framing Effect as the most egregious example at 14.8% saturation with 108 hits. Analysis detected 776 faulty-reasoning hits from 731 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 29.4% and a BS Rank of 19% (20,515 of 25,279 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 81.20% of the article peer group.
In normal conditions, the Cincinnati Reds game against the Pittsburgh Pirates might have been a good opportunity for scouts and team executives to look in on possible trade targets on the Reds' roster.
That's assuming you could see the players and focus on them through driving rain, lightning and tornado sirens blaring during the game.
With less than two days ahead of the Aug. 3 trade deadline at 6 p.m., the Reds and Pittsburgh Pirates played in the rain and through the tornado warnings in the area for five-and-a-half innings before the umpiring crew finally signaled for the tarp around 8:20 p.m.
But for more than five innings, the weather was deemed suitable, even when Reds starting pitcher Andrew Abbott appeared to lose traction on the mound at Great American Ball Park during a costly, rain-soaked third inning.
“The decision to play is always a decision taken very seriously," Umpire and Crew Chief Dan Bellino said via a post-game pool report.
"And when you decide to pull the tarp, it needs to be at a point in the game when it makes sense, and that’s when we pulled the tarp today.”
Bellino said he didn't hear the tornado sirens during the game, and was complimentary of the Great American Ball Park's grounds crew.
Asked why the game was started in the first place, Bellino said: "The office of the commissioner makes that decision.”
One of the final games the current Reds roster will play together prior to a possible trade-deadline sell-off was marred by the weather.
The Pirates took the contest 4-1, and the visitors did the most damage against Abbott in the water-logged third inning.
Abbott walked four in the third.
Two walks came with no outs and the bases loaded, allowing the Pirates to go ahead 2-0.
A groundout drove in a third run for Pittsburgh in the frame.
Fighting what looked like a slick mound at times, Abbott battled to get through five innings, allowing only the three runs that crossed in the third inning.
He finished with five walks and three hits against one strikeout.
Abbott said he hoped the game would have been stopped earlier given the conditions but was content to "wear the bullet" for the rest of the pitching staff.
"Fighting through it, I was able to get out of it with three runs, which was pretty huge for walking four in one inning," Abbott said.
"Everything was wet.
Balls coming from the umpire.
Glove was soaked.
Hat was soaked.
I'm looking down and you see a water fall coming off your hat (brim), and we did a full uniform change and it still didn't matter because it just seemed like (the rain) would pick up at random points.
"You deal with it.
Turning the page, at least I was able to get through five, and at least give some kind of length through that."
Reds manager Terry Francona was highly complimentary of Abbott for the length he provided in adverse circumstances.
"I give him a lot of credit because we had somebody up (in the bullpen) in the third inning," Francona said.
"That would have been disastrous for us, for our bullpen.
He stayed out there and battled and, actually, when he left the game, we had a chance to win."
After weeks of trade talk ahead of the Aug. 3 deadline, the trade market seemed to gather momentum on Aug. 1 with reports of deals being finalized and coming together.
The Reds are yet to make a move, but are expected to by industry experts.
Any move that goes final from this point on means some Cincinnati players might have already played their final game for the club, or will do so on Sunday, Aug.
2.
Among the Reds facing trade speculation as pending free-agents, pitcher Brady Singer made his final start ahead of the deadline July 29 against the Cleveland Guardians.
On Aug.
1, Nathaniel Lowe went 1-for-4 against the Pirates, as did Eugenio Suárez, who doubled in the seventh inning.
Catcher Tyler Stephenson was on the bench in favor of Jose Trevino, who homered to provide Cincinnati's only run in the 4-1 defeat.
Reliever Caleb Ferguson tossed a scoreless ninth inning for Cincinnati while other possible bullpen trade candidates, Brock Burke and Pierce Johnson, didn't enter the Aug. 1 game.
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