Game Log: June 27, 2026 vs Reds

The Pirates lost the series finale to the Reds 9-7 and dropped to 41-42. They came back twice in this one and had the lead in the ninth, but it got away at the very end.

Sal Stewart homered off Jared Jones in the first and singled home another run in the third to put Cincinnati up 2-0. Jones did not have his best, going four and two-thirds and giving up four runs. The Pirates answered in the third when Brandon Lowe hit a three-run homer, his 20th of the year, to flip it to 3-2. Jared Triolo singled home a run in the fourth to make it 4-2.

The Reds kept coming. A Brandon Lowe fielding error let a run score in the fifth to tie it at 4-4, and Jose Trevino singled home two in the sixth to put Cincinnati up 6-4. The Pirates would not go away, though. Triolo doubled to lead off the seventh and O’Hearn singled home Bryan Reynolds later in the inning to tie it at 6-6.

Esmerlyn Valdez pinch hit and homered in the eighth to give the Pirates a 7-6 lead. Four outs from a win. Gregory Soto came on for the ninth and gave up a two-out, two-run homer to Eugenio Suárez that put the Reds ahead 9-7, on a pitch that Suárez had no business swinging at, and that was the game.

The offense did enough to win, 11 hits and seven runs against a Reds staff that had beaten them the night before. Two errors and a bullpen that could not close it are why they lost. This is one of those games that stings, a lead in the ninth at home against a division team below .500 and then poof… the lead is gone.

They drop the series and sit a game under .500. On to the next one.