Pirates fall in Wild Card race in loss to Reds

PITTSBURGH — There are no losses that aren’t critical for the Pirates and their dwindling postseason aspirations at this point as they seem to keep collecting in the season’s final month. Saturday’s 8-7 defeat to the Reds might have been particularly painful.

For starters, with the Cardinals’ win and the Mets’ loss, it put the Pirates 5 1/2 games back in the National League Wild Card standings.

It was also because Pittsburgh had opened a 4-0 lead through three innings vs. rookie starter Robert Stephenson. In his Pirates debut, Drew Hutchison was unable to hold the lead when Cincinnati rallied for a four-run top of the fourth inning. Reliever Trevor Williams surrendered three go-ahead runs in the fifth when he walked Scott Schebler with the bases loaded and no outs and gave up Tucker Barnhart’s two-out, two-run double to right field that gave the Reds a 7-4 lead.

But the Pirates did not go quietly and made it a one-run game in the bottom of the sixth against Josh Smith. Josh Harrison hit a two-run double through the gap in right-center field and injured his leg on the way to second base, forcing him to exit the game with right groin discomfort.

Part of his four-hit night, Joey Votto, celebrating his 33rd birthday, provided a big insurance run for the Reds with a leadoff homer to right field in the top of the ninth. It proved big when Francisco Cervelli’s two-out RBI single off of Tony Cingrani made it a one-run game and put the go-ahead run on second base. Cingrani escaped to record his 17th save.

Pittsburgh has dropped 10 of its last 12 games to fall to …

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