CINCINNATI — The Pirates aren’t going to the postseason, but their ace, Paul Skenes, is exactly the type of imposing starting pitcher the Reds could see plenty of if they can get there. At the same time on Wednesday, Skenes and Pittsburgh became reasons Cincinnati might also not make it into the playoffs.
Another reason will be the Reds’ inability to win in extra innings. After surviving past Skenes and clawing back to tie the game twice late, the Reds were handed a crushing 4-3 loss in a tense 11 innings at Great American Ball Park. Cincinnati is 3-12 this season in extra-inning contests.
“It hurts tonight, but we better get over it in a hurry,” manager Terry Francona said. “When you’re that close, it’s raw. It just happened. But we need to bounce back in a hurry.”
It was another maddening turnabout for the Reds, who completed a four-game series sweep of the postseason-bound Cubs to gain control of the NL Wild Card race on Sunday only to lose back-to-back games to last-place Pittsburgh and drop their three-game series with Thursday afternoon’s home finale remaining.
With four games left in the 2025 season, Cincinnati (80-78) was fortunate to remain one game behind the Mets. New York (81-77) lost to the Cubs while the Diamondbacks (80-78) are tied with the Reds after an extra-inning loss to the Dodgers. Cincinnati holds the head-to-head tiebreaker against both the Mets and D-backs.
“That one stung,” said catcher Tyler Stephenson, who hit a thrilling game-tying home run to left-center field in the bottom of the ninth inning to force extras and achieve the first four-hit game of his career. “Yeah, it was a heartbreaker. Where we’re at, we’ve got to flush and be ready to come out and play tomorrow. It’s really all we can control.”
It was a highly anticipated matchup of elite starting pitchers. The top National League Cy Young Award contender, Skenes outdueled Hunter Greene for six scoreless innings with four hits and seven strikeouts to lower his Major League-best ERA to 1.97.
Greene also pitched six innings in his final regular-season start, allowing two earned runs and five hits with two walks and seven strikeouts.
Pittsburgh had a 1-0 lead in the top of the sixth inning before Bryan Reynolds hit a two-out double to center field and scored on Spencer Horwitz’s RBI single to left field.
“That [second run] hurt a little bit, but I thought Hunter threw the ball very well, and we knew Skenes would,” Francona said.
Greene was 7-4 in 19 regular-season starts, with a 2.76 ERA in 107 2/3 innings. If the Reds can somehow make the postseason, he would be their Game 1 starter in the Wild Card round.
With two outs in the eighth inning against Pirates reliever Isaac Mattson, center fielder Oneil Cruz crashed hard trying to catch Noelvi Marte’s drive to the top of the wall. As Cruz was sprawled out on the warning track, Marte rounded the bases for an inside-the-park home run that made it a one-run game.
Stephenson, who just missed a homer in the fifth with a double off the top of the center-field wall, evened it up in the ninth with his long ball against Dennis Santana. The 30,725 fans in attendance roared with excitement and sensed a completion of the comeback.
“Even Opening Day, I’ve never felt it like this tonight,” Stephenson said. “We do appreciate that. It gives you a taste of what playoff baseball would be like here. The crowd tonight was awesome.”
Ultimately, the crowd would be disappointed by a big blow to Cincinnati’s playoff hopes. As much as the Reds fought back, they were also 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position and stranded 13 on base. That included pinch-hitter Miguel Andujar striking out in a 10-pitch duel against Yohan Ramírez in the 10th inning with the go-ahead run in scoring position and Marte grounding into a fielder’s choice with the bases loaded to end the game.
Horwitz’s RBI double in the top of the 11th inning against Nick Martinez during a three-hit, three-RBI night had put Pittsburgh on top for good.
“We had some chances to score,” said designated hitter Gavin Lux, who tied the game with a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the 10th after Pittsburgh had taken another lead. “They made some nice plays on a couple of different balls. I thought we had a chance to get an extra hit there.
“Credit to them. They played really good defense and made some plays when they had to. We didn’t quite get enough big hits and ran into a really good starting pitcher who kind of gave us some fits. … You’ve got to move on and get ready to go tomorrow because we need to win tomorrow.”
