Reds rally late, but fall to Bucs in 'tough' one

PITTSBURGH -- The Reds entered this three-game series against the Pirates with a golden opportunity to stop their September slide and get back on top of the National League Wild Card race.

Instead, the bad energy entering this set continued on Roberto Clemente Day, with the Bucs posting a 5-4 walk-off win on Wednesday night to take the first two games of the series at PNC Park. Cincinnati (75-71) dipped to 1 1/2 games back of St. Louis (76-69) for the second NL Wild Card spot, as the Cardinals beat the Mets, 11-4, at Citi Field.

The Reds have now lost four in a row and 12 of their last 16.

With the game tied at 4 in the ninth, the Reds didn’t help themselves, as left fielder Max Schrock overran a Wilmer Difo popup down the third-base line that went for a double. Difo then scored the winning run when first baseman Joey Votto bobbled a ground ball hit by Colin Moran. Votto threw it to pitcher Mychal Givens for the out at first, but Difo kept running and came around to score from second ahead of Givens’ throw to the plate.

“I think I overran it and misjudged it,” said Schrock, an infielder by trade who played his 12th game in left field this season.

But Schrock wasn’t making any excuses for the miscue: “That is a ball I should catch 100 out of 100 times.”

The play to Votto was trickier, with Givens unable to receive the toss from Votto fast enough to get Difo, who had his head down all the way from second.

“It’s tough to replicate that in practice,” manager David Bell said. "I thought Mychal did a pretty good job of getting over. … Excellent baserunning there by the Pirates and that got them the run.”

Wednesday’s loss came after the Reds jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first inning, but starter Vladimir Gutierrez pitched just 3 2/3 innings, allowing four runs on five hits while walking three.

A big third inning hurt Gutierrez, when Yoshi Tsutsugo doubled and Bryan Reynolds tripled, each driving in a run, and Moran added a sacrifice fly. After a leadoff walk in the fourth, Tsutsugo drove in another run, chasing Gutierrez.

Cincinnati pushed back with a Jonathan India sacrifice fly in the seventh and Kyle Farmer tied the game with a solo home run in the eighth inning.

Coming back from down two runs only to lose on a couple of tough plays at the end didn’t make it any easier to swallow for the Reds, who will look to end their four-game skid in Thursday’s matinee rubber match.

“We scored, came back, tied the game,” Bell said. “It was a tough, tough way to lose.”

“That sucked the way it ended,” Farmer added. “Honestly, there’s not any words to describe it.”

The late-season slide and a series loss to the last-place Pirates made for an evening that left many in the clubhouse kicking themselves for their individual performances.

“After a game like tonight, it was really quiet,” Farmer said. “Guys are down, as we should be. We’re down for sure. The clubhouse is down. We’ve just got to keep being positive. That’s what we’re trying to do.”

For Bell, that’s what he sees as the crucial factor in whether the Reds will be able to emerge from their late-season skid.

“It’s a great challenge in this game, especially when things aren’t going well,” the skipper said. “But it’s really the key to how you come out the other side. We’ve done it before. We’ve done it many times before. So that helps.”

Missed opportunities

In any one-run game, there is no shortage of plays that a team can look back on and wonder about how the outcome may have been different. In addition to the ninth-inning defensive letdowns, the Reds had Nick Castellanos thrown out at home plate by several feet in the third inning.

“Everything matters,” Bell said. “We know that. It’s a tough game and every play matters: baserunning, defense, at-bats.”

Solid 'pen

Givens took a tough-luck loss, but Cincinnati’s bullpen is the one unit feeling good about its Wednesday night. Reds relievers covered five innings and allowed just one run while striking out six.

“Our bullpen was really good to give us that opportunity, picking Guti up and getting through the rest of the game,” Bell said. “They pitched several innings there to give us a shot.”