Season on the line and the Cincinnati Reds couldn't have drawn up a better situation to take the lead against the Pittsburgh Pirates in the seventh inning Tuesday:
Bases loaded. No outs. Nick Castellanos, Joey Votto and Kyle Farmer were due at the plate against a rookie reliever with a 5.95 ERA in a one-run game.
Castellanos hit a pop-up to first base in foul territory. Votto hit a fly ball to center field too shallow to score Delino DeShields from third base. Farmer was called out on strikes, frozen by a curveball.
Pirates right-hander Nick Mears pumped his fist twice and yelled to himself as he walked off the mound. Maybe that’s where the story ends on the Reds’ season, losing 6-2 to the Pirates at Great American Ball Park in front of 9,475 fans.
"It's like you get punched in the stomach and the air gets knocked out of you," Farmer said. "Really, no words to describe it, honestly."
For a few minutes after the final out, Castellanos sat on a dugout bench looking at an iPad, which is equipped with video of the game.
The Reds, now four games above .500, fell five games back in the loss column to the red-hot St. Louis Cardinals with 10 games left in the regular season. The Cardinals won their 10th consecutive game to take a four-game lead in the wild-card race.
"It sucks," Farmer said. "It really does, especially losing games like that."
It’s been a downhill slide in the playoff race for the past month. The Reds have lost 17 of their last 26 games and they haven't won a series since Aug. 19-22.
The Reds hoped they had one last surge left in them. The stage was set for a seventh-inning comeback after DeShields drew a leadoff walk and stole second base. Jonathan India followed with a walk and Max Schrock loaded the bases with a bloop single.
"We certainly felt like we were gonna win that game," Reds manager David Bell said. "There's no question."
The Reds had nothing to show for it. After Mears stranded the bases loaded, the rainy, 64-degree night matched the mood in the ballpark. The Reds hit 1-for-12 with runners in scoring position and left 11 on base.
"We all know how important these games are," said Farmer, who had three hits. "When we come out on the bottom, it stinks. Everybody cares a lot. This is what you play for, a spot in the playoffs. Everybody realizes that and when we lose everybody is defeated. We just can’t give up."
The Reds certainly had their opportunities. They loaded the bases with no outs in the fourth inning through two walks and a single. TJ Friedl hit a sacrifice fly for a 2-1 lead, but Pirates starter Mitch Keller escaped further damage.
In the sixth inning, down by a run, the Reds had runners on the corners with two outs. Bell chose to use the switch-hitting Asdrúbal Cabrera as a pinch-hitter against reliever Anthony Banda. Cabrera struck out and remains hitless in 20 at-bats in his Reds career.
Farmer, the runner at third in the sixth inning, kicked himself afterward for not running to the plate on a 0-2 pitch in the dirt. Pirates catcher Michael Perez blocked the ball, but it rolled about 10 feet away from him down the first-base line.
"He's on our team to get big at-bats," Bell said of Cabrera. "An experienced right-handed hitter, done it before, he’s been there. I felt like it was our best opportunity. I had no doubt it was the right move."
After the Reds came up empty with Castellanos, Votto and Farmer in their bases-loaded situation, Pittsburgh scored three runs in the next inning against Reds reliever Michael Lorenzen via two walks, an RBI single by Perez and an RBI double by pinch-hitter Yoshi Tsutsugo.
Lorenzen didn’t hide his frustration when he returned to the dugout. Catcher Tucker Barnhart slammed his bat, shattering it into two pieces, after he had an infield pop-out in the next half-inning.
It was the first time the Reds lost to the Pirates at GABP this season, ending a 13-game winning streak dating back to last year.
"They're all important games," Bell said. "I don't have anything to add to that. We're still playing for a lot. We have no choice in how we look at this."
Things unraveled quickly for Reds starter Tyler Mahle, who threw 77 pitches in his first four innings. Four of the five batters he faced in the fifth inning reached base.
Ke'Bryan Hayes lined a first-pitch fastball into center field for a game-tying RBI single. Hayes moved to second base on TJ Friedl’s throw to the plate, which Votto didn't cut off near the pitcher’s mound.
Allowing Hayes to move up a base came back to haunt the Reds when Cole Tucker hit a go-ahead, RBI single into center field for a 3-2 lead. After Mahle walked the next batter, Bell emerged from the dugout to turn to the bullpen. Mahle lasted 4 1/3 innings, his shortest start since June 21.
"We got in position that we want to be and we had opportunities," Bell said. "I’ll take our chances with that every time. It didn’t happen tonight."
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