Bucs lose WC ground as Reds stun in shutout

PITTSBURGH — The Pirates’ September slide continued Sunday afternoon with the Reds’ 8-0 win at PNC Park. Still mathematically alive in the National League Wild Card race, but fading fast with little time remaining, Pittsburgh has dropped 11 of its past 13 games.

At a time where the Bucs can afford few, if any, mistakes, they made plenty. Andrew McCutchen’s defensive miscues sparked a five-run second inning for the Reds. Granted two opportunities with the bases loaded against Cincinnati left-hander Brandon Finnegan, the Bucs whiffed away both of them. Finnegan pitched around five hits and five walks, striking out seven over five scoreless innings.

“It was a Houdini act today, because we got him the big lead today and he scuffled to keep guys off base and command his stuff,” Reds manager Bryan Price said of Finnegan. “At the same time, he pitched himself out of constant trouble. Certainly not a recipe for long-term success, however, he could have broke and forced into a situation. We had a shortened bullpen. It would have been disastrous for us to go to [a reliever] in the second or third inning, and that could have happened very easily had he not gotten his act together.”

Right-hander Ryan Vogelsong couldn’t pitch past the Pirates’ mistakes or a few of his own, surrendering six runs on seven hits and three walks in four innings.

“I just got out of whack out there for some reason,” Vogelsong said. “I couldn’t find a rhythm, couldn’t find my delivery. It’s been a while since something like that’s happened to me. … Every adjustment I made didn’t work. After that, it was just trying to survive.”

Tyler Holt and Brandon Phillips led the Reds lineup with three hits apiece, and Cincinnati’s three relievers kept Pittsburgh off the board as the Reds took three of four games to win the series. Meanwhile, the Pirates fell to three games below .500 and, with the Mets’ win over the Braves, six games out of the second National League Wild Card spot with 21 games left on their schedule. The Bucs went 2-8 during a 10-game homestand against the Brewers, Cardinals and Reds.

“Bear down, that’s what we can do,” McCutchen said. “That’s what we’re going to try to do, go out and try to keep going. Got to finish strong. Twenty-one games, so let’s go. … Wash it off, get ready.”

MOMENTS THAT MATTEREDFive-spot: The five-run second inning started with an Adam Duvall triple but was aided by a pair of defensive issues for McCutchen in center field. Phillips followed Duvall with a line drive to center field, where it got through McCutchen’s legs and rolled to the wall. Phillips was credited with an RBI single and reached third base on the error. Later in the inning with two outs, Holt’s drive got by a diving McCutchen and to the wall for a two-run triple that made it 5-0. Holt finished with a three-hit game and was a home run shy …

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