By John Fay
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Juan Castro dives back to first as Pittsburgh's Matt Stairs fails to field the throw in the fourth inning. (Associated Press photo) | ZOOM |

On a night when they were eliminated from the wild-card race, when they used their record 15th different starting pitcher and set the team record for strikeouts (1,189) in a season, it looked as though the Reds might win two games in a row for the first time in 2 1/2 weeks.

But closer Chris Reitsma gave up a two-run home run to pinch hitter Rob Mackowiak in the ninth and the Reds lost 3-2 to the Pittsburgh Pirates Wednesday before a crowd of 20,560 at Great American Ball Park.

"That's the life of a closer," Reitsma said. "I made a bad pitch there. I feel terrible about it. But I have to go out there and be ready tomorrow."

Reitsma had converted six straight save chances before Wednesday.

"He's been very solid," Reds manager Dave Miley said. "It set up like we wanted. Unfortunately, it didn't go our way."

Ruben Mateo, back in the lineup for the first time in 12 days, had put the Reds up with a two-run, two-out double in the seventh.

The Reds wasted a good start by Todd Van Poppel, who pitched six innings of one-run ball.

Van Poppel became the 15th Reds pitcher to start a game, tying the franchise record set in 1912 and tied in 1945.

Van Poppel moved into the rotation when Aaron Harang was forced to miss a start because he strained his back. The 31-year-old right-hander was 4-3 with a 3.17 ERA at Louisville around a brief and unsuccessful stint with the Reds (13.50 ERA in four games).

He was coming off six shutout innings in relief of Harang. He was as good Wednesday.

He gave up a leadoff home run to Abraham Nunez in the second but went six innings, allowing one run on six hits. He walked none and struck out a career-high nine.

The Reds, meanwhile, did nothing against Oliver Perez, the 22-year-old left-hander obtained from San Diego in the Brian Giles trade.

"That's a good pickup for the Pirates," Miley said. "The kid has good stuff."

Perez retired the first nine he faced, and the Reds didn't have a hit until Mateo singled with two outs in the fifth.

Pittsburgh	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg.
TRedman cf	4	0	1	0	0	1	.285
JWilson ss	4	0	1	0	0	0	.249
Kendall c	4	0	3	0	0	0	.325
Stairs 1b	3	0	0	0	0	2	.297
RSanders ph-rf	1	0	0	0	0	0	.280
CWilson rf-1b	4	1	2	0	0	0	.267
Gonzalez p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Tavarez p	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Bay lf	3	0	0	0	0	3	.256
Mackowiak ph-lf	1	1	1	2	0	0	.244
JHernandez 3b	4	0	0	0	0	4	.223
ANunez 2b	4	1	2	1	0	1	.251
OlPerez p	3	0	0	0	0	1	.184
Lincoln p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Rivera ph-1b	1	0	0	0	0	1	.183
Totals	36	3	10	3	0	13

Cincinnati	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg.
JCastro ss	2	0	0	0	1	0	.262
Hummel 3b	4	0	0	0	0	1	.196
DJimenez 2b	4	0	0	0	0	1	.302
Branyan 1b	4	1	1	0	0	3	.221
Olmedo pr	0	0	0	0	0	0	.255
LaRue c	4	0	0	0	0	2	.231
WPena cf	3	1	0	0	0	2	.215
RMateo rf	3	0	2	2	0	1	.258
Smitherman lf	3	0	0	0	0	1	.158
Van Poppel p	1	0	0	0	0	1	.000
CMiller ph	1	0	0	0	0	1	.200
Riedling p	0	0	0	0	0	0	.235
PNorton p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Valent ph	1	0	1	0	0	0	.259
Reitsma p	0	0	0	0	0	0	.125
Totals	30	2	4	2	1	13

Pittsburgh	001	000	002	-3	10	2
Cincinnati	000	000	200	-2	4	0

E-Kendall (8), ANunez (7). LOB-Pittsburgh 6, Cincinnati 4. 2B-Branyan (8), RMateo (8). HR-Mackowiak (6), off Reitsma; ANunez (3), off Van Poppel. RBIs-Mackowiak 2 (13), ANunez (28), RMateo 2 (15). S-JCastro. GIDP-JWilson, LaRue.

Runners left in scoring position-Pittsburgh 1 (Bay); Cincinnati 3 (DJimenez, Branyan, Smitherman).

Pittsburgh	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	NP	ERA
OlPerez	7	3	2	2	1	10	105	5.33
Lincoln W, 3-4	1	1	0	0	0	1	15	5.93
Gonzalez	0	0	0	0	0	1	4	8.10
Tavarez S, 6	1	0	0	0	0	1	9	4.06

Cincinnati	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	NP	ERA
Van Poppel	6	6	1	1	0	9	93	4.67
Riedling	1 2/3	2	0	0	0	2	19	5.03
PNorton H, 1	1/3	0	0	0	0	0	6	5.19
Reitsma L, 9-5	BS, 6	1	2	2	2	0	2	16	4.09

Gonzalez pitched to 1 batter in the 9th.

Inherited runners-scored-Tavarez 1-0, PNorton 1-0.

HBP-by OlPerez (WPena). WP-OlPerez.

Umpires-Home, Doug Eddings; First, Ron Kulpa; Second, Bruce Froemming; Third, Mike Winters.

T-2:34. A-20,560 (42,263).