Kent Tekulve retired all ten batters he faced in a stellar relief performance as the Pirates beat Cincinnati in eleven innings, 3-2.
Bert Blyleven bounced back from a pair of bad outings to hold the Reds to two runs over six and two-thirds innings. He allowed five hits and two walks, and struck out five.
The Pirates started the scoring in the third when Steve Nicosia led off against Fred Norman with his second home run. The Reds got both their runs in the bottom half, though, as Blyleven gave up RBI singles to Ken Griffey and Dave Concepcion.
The Reds didn’t threaten again until the seventh, when a two-out walk to Norman put two runners on. Chuck Tanner went with Grant Jackson to face the lefty Griffey and Jackson got the out on a fly ball.
The Pirates tied the game, 2-2, in the top of the eighth after Nicosia walked and pinch runner Matt Alexander stole second. Omar Moreno plated the run with a two-out single.
Tanner went with Enrique Romo in the bottom of the eighth, but switched to Tekulve after a two-out walk and single. Teke got Ray Knight to ground out, ending the threat.
The Pirates had a shot in the top of the ninth. A single and two walks loaded the bases with one out. Reds reliever Doug Bair got out of it, though, by fanning Rennie Stennett and Ed Ott.
The Reds couldn’t get a baserunner off Teke, so the game went into the eleventh. The Pirates broke the tie when Dave Parker led off with a double, went to third on a grounder and scored on a sacrifice fly by Lee Lacy. Teke closed it out with a perfect bottom half, improving his record to 1-3. The Pirates had only six hits in the game, two of them by Parker.
