Barnhart’s home run gives Cincinnati Reds win

TUESDAY’S GAME

Pirates at Reds, 7:10 p.m., FS Ohio, 700, 1410

The Cincinnati Reds woke up Monday to a 12-game deficit in the National League Central. It wasn’t a bad dream. The Chicago Cubs — at 24-6 off to the best start through 30 games since the 1984 Detroit Tigers — look intent on winning their first World Series in 108 years before the All-Star Game.

The Reds had never trailed the division leader by that many games on May 9, not since baseball instituted divisional play in 1969 at least. Three times since the birth of the NL Central in 1994, the Reds have been in first place on May 9. Until 2016, they had never fallen behind by more than 10 games this fast.

The Reds likely will never climb out of this hole, but they gained a half game on the Cubs with a 3-2 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates at Great American Ball Park.

Tucker Barnhart put the Reds ahead for good with a home run in the seventh. He snapped a streak of 270 at-bats without a home run, the seventh-longest active streak in baseball. It was his first career home run as a right-handed batter. He has four home runs from the left side.

“I was lucky enough to square up a ball,” Barnhart said. “It’s always fun to hit homers, but it’s even better to hit them and get big hits in situations where your team needs them. our bullpen was great tonight. Our starting pitching was great. It was a total team win. Everybody chipped in. Hopefully, this starts a string of good pitching for the bullpen. It’s been a revolving door as far as roles are concerned. Hopefully, they can settle into some roles.”

For once, the bullpen made the lead stand. Reliever JC Ramirez, who allowed five earned runs in his last two appearances, threw a scoreless seventh inning. Blake Wood, who has been the Reds’ second-best reliever behind Tony Cingrani, pitched a scoreless eighth. Cingrani earned his second save in the ninth.

Asked if he was moving closer to putting Cingrani in the closer’s role, manager Bryan Price said, “It really comes down to if I have both (Ross) Ohlendorf and Tony for innings eighth and nine. I will make a decision on where I feel they’re best lined up to pitch. … I haven’t defined a closer, but when I have them both healthy, they are the two guys who are the best candidates to pitch the eighth and ninth.”

Zack Cozart put the Reds on the board with a home run in the first. His sixth career leadoff home run tied him with Chris Sabo and Shin-Soo Choo for fourth on the Reds’ all-time list.

Cozart began the day with a .344 average, the best on the team by 58 points over Brandon Phillips (.288).

Reds starter Dan Straily posted his third straight quality start. He allowed two runs on four hits in six innings.

“I just went up there and offered some consistency,” Straily said. “It’s not necessarily going to reflect in the box score. I’m just talking about just filling up the strike zone with quality pitches. That’s he kind of consistency I’m looking for every time out.”

The Pirates loaded the bases against Straily with no outs in the sixth and scored twice to take a 2-1 lead on a sacrifice fly and RBI groundout.

A home run by Joey Votto tied the game at 2-2 in the sixth. Votto has five home runs this season. He’s three away from becoming the 10th Red to hit 200 career homers.