Elly De La Cruz's grand slam sinks Andrew Heaney as Reds top Pirates

Aside from a handful of moments in the third inning, left-hander Andrew Heaney put together a solid starting effort for the Pittsburgh Pirates on Saturday in Cincinnati.

However, two hit batters and a double allowed to Santiago Espinal provided the necessary preconditions for disaster, as Elly De La Cruz followed by launching a grand slam off Heaney, providing most of the Reds’ offense in a 5-2 win at Great American Ball Park.

Heaney (0-1, 3.00 ERA) took the loss and pitched six innings, allowing three hits, with all of the runs coming from De La Cruz’s blast.

The 33-year-old Heaney struck out six and walked two, throwing 56 of his 89 pitches for strikes.

Offensively, it was another meager night for the Pirates, who finished with only four hits.

Through 15 games, the Pirates have managed double-digit hits just once, when they had 10 on Monday against St. Louis.

“Offensively, we’ve got to continue to build and I think right now, we’re not really doing that,” manager Derek Shelton said on the SportsNet Pittsburgh postgame show. “We have a bunch of guys that need to have more consistent at-bats.”

The Pirates (5-10) have lost four of their first five series to begin the season.

Heaney kept the Reds off-balance early, striking out three in the first two innings before Espinal’s one-out double in the third.

From there, Heaney plunked TJ Friedl and Blake Dunn to load the bases.

To the plate came De La Cruz, who worked a full count before blasting an 89.9 mph full-count fastball at the top of the zone into the left-center field stands, putting Cincinnati up 4-0.

“A couple balls got away from me there before the Elly at-bat, which, it’s 3-2, you try to make a pitch — the guy’s a good hitter and put a barrel on it,” Heaney said.

The Pirates got on the board in the fifth, when Alexander Canario led off against Reds starter Andrew Abbott with his first homer of the year, a 402-foot shot to center field, making it 4-1.

Abbott’s night was over after five innings, having allowed a lone run on two hits with five strikeouts and two walks.

As for Heaney, he recovered after De La Cruz’s grand slam.

“Probably not my best stuff,” Heaney said. “The results suck, but I felt good with the process. … You’ve just got to go try to put up zeroes (after the grand slam) and hope I can do it long enough to let the offense get us back in the game.”

In the seventh, Canario got aboard with a walk before scoring on Enmanuel Valdez’s RBI double, making it 4-2.

After Henry Davis — called up from Triple-A Indianapolis on Saturday — moved Valdez to third with a groundout, the Reds made a pitching change, with Tony Santillan replacing Scott Barlow. But Isiah Kiner-Falefa popped up to end the inning.

In the bottom of the seventh, newly recalled righty Kyle Nicolas took over for the Pirates. After a single and a walk put runners on first and third, Espinal flew out. With a chance to get out of the inning, Nicolas got Jose Trevino to hit into a tailor-made 6-4-3 double-play opportunity.

But second baseman Valdez bobbled the routine toss from Kiner-Falefa at shortstop, allowing Noelvi Marte to score, handing the Reds a 5-2 advantage.

Tim Mayza then replaced Nicolas with an out and men on first and second. After a strikeout, Mayza hit Dunn with a pitch. That brought up De La Cruz with the bases loaded again, but he grounded out to shortstop to end the inning.