Pittsburgh Pirates vs Cincinnati Reds Live Streaming

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7:10 pm EDT Tue May 25, 2010

The Cincinnati Reds are closely monitoring Mike Leake’s pitch count, not wanting a player who skipped the minor leagues to carry too much of a workload in his first professional season. Eight starts in, Leake is hardly showing any signs that he’s slowing down. After the bullpen blew a six-run lead in his last start, Leake tries again to improve to 5-0 on Tuesday night as the Reds continue their four-game set against the visiting Pittsburgh Pirates. Leake became the first major leaguer in a decade to skip the minors entirely when he made his Cincinnati debut April 11, and the accelerated timeline couldn’t be working out better for the Reds. The right-hander from Arizona State has delivered seven quality starts in eight outings, and he’s cut down on the one issue that plagued him in his first two games - walks. Leake walked seven in his major league debut against the Cubs, and he issued five free passes - along with three runs over seven innings - in a 4-3 loss at Pittsburgh five days later.

Since then, Leake has only walked nine in six starts while Cincinnati has kept his pitch count around 100. He’s held opponents to a .193 average over his last five outings, and increased his own average to .353 after getting two hits Thursday at Atlanta. Leake, trying to become the first Cincinnati rookie since Santo Alcala in 1976 to start 5-0, gave up three runs - one earned - over six innings against the Braves. He left with a 9-3 lead that Cincinnati held until the ninth, when the bullpen surrendered seven runs in a 10-9 loss. The Reds bounced back to win two of three in Cleveland over the weekend before hosting the Pirates on Monday. After outscoring Pittsburgh 16-1 in a three-game sweep at PNC Park last month, Cincinnati used a five-run fourth inning to win 7-5 and pull back into a tie with St. Louis for the NL Central lead. The Pirates hope to bounce back behind Paul Maholm. The left-hander was given a 3-0 first-inning lead Thursday against Milwaukee, but he allowed four runs over seven innings and lost 4-3.