Late Inning Comeback Not Enough as Reds fall to Pittsburgh 7-6

A comeback in the late innings proved to be not enough as the Reds fall short one run to the Pirates tonight on a 7-6 loss. Paul Maholm was the winning pitcher in tonight's game. He went 6 innings giving up just 4 runs on 9 hits. Mike Leake got the loss and being pushed back a few days. He threw 5 innings and gave up 7 runs on 7 hits. Joel Hanrahan got his first save of the season. He takes over the closer's role in the Pirates bullpen after the Pirates traded their former closer Octavio Dotel to the Dodgers on Saturday.

The Pirates got going in the bottom of the 2nd inning when Chris Snyder singled to left fielder Jonny Gomes scoring Pedro Alvarez and Lastings Milledge. 2-0 Pirates. Mike Leake would hit Andrew McCutchen in the back of the head and he would have to leave the game. Delwyn Young came on to take his place. X-rays were negative and McCutchen has no concussion like symptoms. Jose Tabata singled to left field scoring Chris Snyder. 3-0 Pittsburgh. The eventful 2nd inning would come to a close after Neil Walker doubled to right fielder Jay Bruce that scored Paul Maholm, Delwyn Young, and Jose Tabata. Pittsburgh would now be up 6-0.

The Reds would finally get on the board in the 4th inning off of a Chris Heisey singled to right fielder Delwyn Young that scored Miguel Cairo. 6-1 Pirates. Pittsburgh would score again in the bottom of the 5th inning when Neil Walker singled to center fielder Chris Heisey and Jose Tabata scored on the play 7-1 Pirates. In the top of the 6th, Chris Heisey continues to prove why he should be getting playing time when he singled to right field and Scott Rolen scored on the play. Reds down by 5 still to the Pirates. Ramon Hernandez singled to left fielder Lastings Milledge scoring Jay Bruce. The Reds would now be withing slam reach down by just four runs.

In the top of the 7th inning, Miguel Cairo grounded out to the first baseman Garrett Jones but Brandon Phillips would score. 7-4 Pirates. In the 8th inning now, Brandon Phillips hit his 29th double on the year to the center fielder Jose Tabata. Chris Heisey and Laynce Nix both scored on the play. It proved to not be enough as the Reds would fall just one run short of the win. 7-6 was the final score of tonight's game.

You can't catch tomorrow's game at 12:35 PM ET. Radio broadcast only. Johnny Cueto (10-2, 3.22 ERA) will be going up against the former Yankees prospect Jeff Karstens (2-6, 4.42 ERA) in the rubber match game of this series.