McCoy: Reds fall to Pirates 4-3 in 11 innings, stay 1 game back of Mets in NL Wild Card race

With a howling mob of 30,725 giving Great American Ball Park a playoff atmosphere, the Reds lost their 12th extra-inning game against only three wins.

They left the bases loaded in the bottom of the 11th, finishing the game 1 for 10 with runners in scoring position and 13 runners left stranded.

And one-run games are not their box of chocolates, either — 21-22 in one-run decisions.

It all sounds and looks so familiar with this team that is up-and-down like a standard Duncan Yo-Yo.

The only upside to this second straight loss to the Pirates was that the Chicago Cubs destroyed the New York Mets, 10-3, and the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Arizona Diamondbacks.

So all three wild card contenders/pretenders lost and matters remained status quo — the Mets holding the final spot with the Reds and Diamondbacks both one game behind.

It looked as if the Reds were going to stage an uplifting comeback.

They trailed, 2-0, in the eighth inning. With one out, Noelvi Marte drove one to deep center. Oneil Cruz crashed against the wall and crumpled to the turf as the ball rolled away.

Marte circled the bases for an inside the park home run and it was 2-1. Gavin Lux walked and Spencer Steer was hit by a pitch. Elly De La Cruz crushed a 113 miles an hour grass-burner, but second baseman Nick Youke made a diving step and from his knees threw out De La Cruz.

So it was 2-1 with one out in the bottom of the ninth, two outs from a Reds defeat. But Tyler Stephenson put the fans in a frenzy when he cracked a game-tying home run, his fourth hit of the night. In the fifth Stephenson missed a home run by an inch-and-a-half. The ball crashed against the yellow line atop the center field wall for a leadoff double. But the next three Reds went ground out, strikeout, strikeout.

Stephenson’s homer sent the game into extra innings. Cruz was out of the game, replaced by Jack Suwinski, hitting .138. But he doubled home the ghost runner to give the Pirates a 3-2 lead.

The Reds tied it in the bottom half on a sacrifice fly by Gavin Lux. And they had the winning run on second base with two outs. Pinch-hitter Miguel Andujar battled Pirates pitcher Yohan Ramirez for 10 pitches before striking out.

Pittsburgh grabbed a 4-3 lead in the top of the 11th when the first man Nick Martinez faced, Spencer Horwitz, doubled home ghost runner Bryan Reynolds.

Horwitz drove in three runs with three hits and Reynolds was the man he drove in all three times.

With a chance to be a hero again with a fifth hit, Stephenson struck out to open the bottom of the 11th. Will Benson walked, Matt McLain popped out and TJ Friedl walked to fill the bases with two outs.

Marte worked the count to 3-and-1 then grounded to third base to end it and GABP went as silent as Sunday morning prayer services.

The first half of the game was as advertised, two of baseball’s best pitchers matching outs — Pittsburgh’s Paul Skenes and Cincinnati’s Hunter Greene.

As always against the Reds, Skenes was as untouchable as Eliot Ness. The first time he faced the Reds last season, they scored a run off him in the first inning. And that’s the last time.

Credit: AP

Credit: AP

He is 4-0 for his career against the Reds and on Wednesday he pitched six scoreless innings — four hits, no walks, seven strikeouts. The Reds have gone 28 straight innings without scoring against him.

He left after six innings, ending his season with a 1.97 earned run average. When he pitches, he should wear a surgeon general’s warning patch on his uniform sleeve for hitters to see.

It may only be Skene’s second year, but he is on a Hall of Fame trajectory.

Greene matched zeros with Skenes until the fourth. With one out, he walked Reynolds and Horwitz doubled him home.

The same combination scored on Greene in the sixth, a two-out double bv Reynolds and a run-scoring single past rookie third baseman Sal Stewart, a ball Ke’Bryan Hayes most likely would have stopped.

Greene left after six, trailing, 2-0, giving up five hits, two walks and striking out seven.

That set it up for Marte’s inside the park home run and Stephenson’s dramatic game-tying home run.

But the Reds had to play extras and for them extras are sudden death.

The Reds are alive and on respirators with only four games left, including the series closer Thursday afternoon against the pesky Pirates.

“It hurts tonight, but we better get over it in a hurry,” said manager Tito Francona. “When you’re that close, it just happens, but we better bounce back in a hurry.”

Of the 1 for 10 with runners in scoring position and 13 stranded, Francona said, “Some of that had to do with their pitching. Andujar had a great at bat (10 pitches). He ended up striking out but that’s as good an at bat as you could have.

“Elly hit that ball (in the eighth, 113 miles an hour) right on the screws and that kid (second baseman Yorke) makes a play,” he added.

Credit: AP

Credit: AP

Stephenson had four hits when he led the 11th and struck out and Francona said, “We had the right guy up late, but you don’t get a hit every time up.”

But a hit or two with runners in scoring position would have helped mightily.

“We’re just not scoring in bunches,” said Francona.

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