Reds Continue Celebration Of Crosley Field With Win Over Pirates

The Cincinnati Reds celebrated 75 years of night games at Crosley Field Monday night during their game against the Pittsburg Pirates. The celebrations continued as the Reds beat the Pirates 7-5.

According to a press release by the Cincinnati Reds, the night began with celebrations including “unplugging” the field to simulate conditions players in 1935 would have experienced. The celebration continued with a Reds mascot race and the honoring of several fans that had attended the first night game in 1935, who were present Monday night to see the Reds play the Pirates. 

In the seventh inning stretch, there was a ceremonial lighting of the field, to celebrate that first night when President Roosevelt flipped the switch for the first time at Crosley Field, to light the whole ballpark. The night ended with sparkling C shaped fireworks over the field, a tradition that also dates back to 1935.

During the game the Pirates took the lead early and were up 2-1 in the beginning of the fourth inning. This is when it all began to change for the Pirates, as the Reds scored five runs in the fourth, bringing the score to 6-2.

The most memorable of these runs was Aaron Harang’s. The 6-foot-7, 265 pound pitcher was waved on to run all three bases and score one of the five runs for the Reds in the fourth. He just barely stumbled into home plate before being tagged by Pirates Catcher Ryan Doumit.

"It'll probably be a while before you see me try to do that again. I was glad I was able to score and kind of keep the momentum going,” Harang said.

The Reds continued the momentum of the successful fourth inning in the fifth as they scored another run and kept the Pirates from scoring any runs in the fifth or sixth innings.
Harang gave up two runs to the Pirates in the seventh and the Pirates went on to score another run in this inning. However this was the last of their runs as the Reds held the score at 7-5 for the rest of the game.

This win ties the Reds with St. Louis for No. 1 in the National League Central.