And the Pirates walked-it-off, making it even more heart-tearing to the Reds.
Closer Raisel Iglesias suffered another meltdown when asked to protect a 2-1 lead in the ninth.
He gave up three straight singles to the bottom of the order — Josh Bell, Ke’Bryan Hayes and Cole Tucker to tie it, 2-2. Erik Gonzalez hit a shallow fly ball to right field, a game-ending sacrifice fly. Unfortunately for the Reds, due to some late-inning pinch-hitting, weak-armed Shogo Akiyama was in right field and his throw home was high, wide and ugly.
Asked his thought process after giving up two hits to start the ninth, Iglesias said through a translator, “I was trying to focus myself on throwing lower in the strike zone, try to get a slow roller for a double play.
“Unfortunately, that’s not what happened and I tried my best to do that,” he added. “Things like that happen in baseball and it didn’t go my way today.”
The Reds are now 18-and-23 with only 19 games left and playoff hopes are slipping away like quicksilver.
“Obviously, we’re not fine with it and a loss is a loss,” said iglesias. “We’re never going to be fine with a loss. We’ll go sit in our lockers and get over it.”
Time, though, is running out and sitting at lockers doesn’t get it done, especially with a dormant offense.
“When you are not able to get add-on runs. . . .when you can get runs it helps out the bullpen,” said manager David Bell. “It’s a battle for us to score runs and we were not able to do it today.”
Or in several days.
“Every game is an opportunity to go out and compete and win,” he added. “We just have to keep going. We still have an opportunity ahead of us and that’s our focus. We’ve been in these situations our whole lives and there is no use dwelling on it. The best thing is to learn from it and put it behind you.”
A two-run home run by Nick Castellanos was all the Reds could muster and it cost them a costly split of a four-game series.
The last 11 Reds runs over the last three games have come on home runs, including three homers Saturday night by Eugenio Suarez during a 6-2 victory.
Suarez and Mike Moustakas provided Cincinnati’s three runs in the second game of a doubleheader Friday night, a 4-3 defeat.
For the Reds, the long ball was survival of the fittest. In the four-game series, they mustered only 20 hits, but eight were home runs. Plus Pittsburgh pitchers walked 16.
But that only produced two wins in the four games.
On Sunday, the Reds had only three hits, none after a one-out single by Kyle Farmer in the fourth.
Rookie TeJay Antone, making his third major league start, held the Pirates to one run, five hits, a walk and struck out six.
Antone turned over a 2-1 lead to the bullpen. Amir Garrett pitched a 1-2-3 sixth and Nate Jones pitched a 1-2-3 seventh.
But Michael Lorenzen, after throwing 29 pitches Saturday night, put things in dire circumstances. His first pitch to Gonzalez was dropped into right field for a single and Lorenzen issued a one-out four-pitch walk to Bryan Reynolds.
Reds manager David Bell immediately summoned Raisel Iglesias to face Pittsburgh’s best hitter, Colin Moran, who was 4 for 6 for his career against Iglesias.
Not this time. Iglesias struck out him out three pitches. Then he retired Gregory Polanco on a fly ball to center field.
The ninth? Oh, what a different story, a sad, sad tale for the Reds.
For eight innings the Pirates continued to strand runners as if they were on a deserted island. Until the ninth, they were 1 for 18 with runners in scoring position the last two games and stranded 16. For the second straight day, Gonzalez led the bottom of the first with a double. And for the second straight game he didn’t score.
Bell led the second with a walk, then was erased via a double play.
It is a recipe for defeat and the Pirates have mixed up 26 of them so far this season, but not on Sunday.
Meanwhile, Pittsburgh starter Chad Kuhl walked two in he first inning. The Reds didn’t capitalize. Brian Goodwin led off the second with a walk. The Reds didn’t capitalize because the next three struck out.
Kuhl walked Joey Votto to open the third. This time the Reds capitalized. Castellanos one-hopped the Allegheny River behind the right field stands, a two-run home run.
That meant Kuhl had given up at least one home run in each of his last six starts. The Reds, though, spent the rest of the afternoon in stall gear.
Antone struck out the first two in the third on six quick pitches, but Adam Frazier extended his hitting streak to 10 games. Antone threw a wild pitch to place Frazier on second and he scored on a single by Bryan Reynolds to make it 2-1.
Pittsburgh’s ineptness continued in the fourth after a one-out single by Ke’Bryan Hayes. Alas, another double play.
There would be no double plays in the ninth, just two devastating runs.
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