CINCINNATI -- It was a grind for Wil Crowe out of the gate in the Pirates’ 7-4 loss to the Reds on Thursday night at Great American Ball Park.

The sophomore right-hander allowed a leadoff homer to National League Rookie of the Year contender Jonathan India. Crowe would get some luck in that inning, as Joey Votto smoked a liner into a double play, but the luck ran out quickly.

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Five consecutive batters reached base to begin Crowe’s long second inning. He nearly limited the Reds’ offense to just Eugenio Suárez’s three-run homer, inducing two outs with runners at first and second. But MLB’s power hitter of the hour Votto hit the third homer of the day off Crowe, who was pinned with seven runs (four unearned).

What was the issue?

“We talked in his last two starts about tempo,” manager Derek Shelton said. “I thought he was really slow in his first two innings.”

What happens when the tempo is off? One side effect, according to Crowe, is his fastball cuts a little more than he’d like it to, as he goes from slow pace on the mound to getting too fast through his delivery. It happened on the home run to India, then it cropped back up in the at-bat vs. Suárez.

“Playing off the cutting of my fastball, I was like, ‘OK, let’s let it ride on the outside corner, and if it cuts away like it did two or three pitches before, he swings through it,’” Crowe said. “I knew he was going to swing at the heater, and that one, when I threw it, it kind of rode back to the middle.”

Crowe felt the command improve late in the second inning, including on a four-seamer he said he threw up and in to Votto. But the Reds’ first baseman got his hands inside to get the ball to scrape over the wall in right field.

“Sometimes, some guys get you on really good pitches,” Crowe said, “and that was one of the zones where I was supposed to attack and get him out at.”

Shelton opted to keep his starter in after throwing 70 pitches and recording only six outs, hoping to preserve the bullpen while giving Crowe an opportunity to end on a strong note, and the right-hander rewarded that decision by firing scoreless third and fourth innings.

The key was his most effective pitch on Thursday: His changeup. Crowe felt it was too up in the zone early on, but he slowly brought it back to where he wanted it, and it brought swing and miss in the third and fourth innings.

“The changeup down is my pitch that I can get guys out on,” Crowe said, “and in the third and the fourth, I was able to throw it at the bottom of the zone or right below it and get some swing and miss on it.”

Though it looked like the Pirates might have a case of Great American Ball Park déjà vu -- they were outscored 30-8 in their last series at Cincinnati -- they set a better tone for this four-game set by rallying back with timely hitting in the four-run fifth inning and some superb plays on defense after Crowe exited.

Of course, it included another gem from Bryan Reynolds in center field. In the fifth inning, Tyler Naquin barreled a fly ball to right-center field that was on its way to clearing the wall and vanquishing the Pirates’ momentum, but Reynolds sprinted to deep center, turned toward right and used the ball’s hang time to size it up and keep the game close.

"It feels good to be on the defensive side of it,” Reynolds said. “I had it [happen to me] offensively one time, and that's not fun.”

The late push was laudable, but the Pirates are going to need to start on time, especially against a Reds team with a revamped bullpen following the Trade Deadline, if they want to win games.

However, in the bigger picture, they’re also going to need players to grow and develop, regardless of the results -- even if it sometimes looks like a lopsided blip before a strong finish.

“It’s a good sign,” Shelton said. “The fact he was able to take [conversations in the dugout] into the game and execute the last two innings was extremely important for us and definitely a sign of growth.”