Bryan Reynolds got a much different All-Star Game experience than his Pittsburgh Pirates teammate.
Where Paul Skenes started for the National League and didn’t give up a hit or record a strikeout in the first inning, Reynolds was a reserve who got a knock in his first at-bat and ended the game going down swinging.
Batting left-handed, Reynolds lined Seth Lugo’s first-pitch fastball for a single to left field in the seventh inning Tuesday night of the American League’s 5-3 win at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas.
No matter the occasion, Bryan Reynolds gets on base. pic.twitter.com/bAz3HkWhm2
— Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) July 17, 2024
Reynolds earned his second All-Star Game selection – he also was selected in 2021 and ended up starting in center field – thanks to an MLB-best 25-game hitting streak. The Pirates outfielder replaced Jurickson Profar of the San Diego Padres in left field in the sixth inning and batted ninth.
After Elly De La Cruz of the Cincinnati Reds hit a leadoff single, Padres center fielder Jackson Merrill lined out Detroit’s Riley Greene, who made a sliding catch in left field. Reynolds faced Lugo and swung at the Kansas City Royals right-hander’s 95.1-mph heater in the lower left corner of the strike zone to put runners on first and second.
Lugo struck out Colorado’s Ryan McMahon and got Atlanta’s Marcell Ozuna, pinch-hitting for Shohei Ohtani, to ground out to short to end the frame.
Reynolds got another at-bat in the top of the ninth, when Merrill hit a two-out single. But Cleveland closer Emmanuel Clase, who leads the American League with 29 saves, threw three consecutive 99-mph cutters and got Reynolds to make the final out on a foul tip.
