Reds beat Pirates, stay 1 game behind Mets for wild card
Marté robs Reynolds of tying homer in 9th inning
The first thing I wanna ask you is *** question I think every Pirate fan wants to know. What is it like being the manager of your hometown team? What has this experience been like? I get chilled singing about it. I mean, growing up *** Pirates fan, growing up in Mount Lebanon and uh. You know, really being *** Pirates fan my whole life, obviously, you know, playing with, uh, with the Tigers, but always falling into the Pirates and, uh, given the city history, but also with Neil, my brother-in-law playing and, uh, just, you know, it’s very humbling to to grow up *** Pirates fan and now to be the manager. But certainly you didn’t expect it to happen quite like this. I mean, what has this season been like for you? You started. As *** coach on Derek Shelton’s staff, and now you finished the year as the leader of this ball club on the bench. Yeah, I was, uh, you know, at the time we were 12 and 26, I would have given anything to be 26 and 12 and still be the bench coach because the ultimate goal is to to win. Unfortunately things weren’t going that way and uh I got promoted to manager, um, you know, but, uh, you know, really that’s the ultimate goal is to win and would have rather been winning at that time than to have that happen. During your tenure, what do you think you’ve been able to bring the pirate team, not just on the field but also in the clubhouse? What’s been your contribution? Uh, I, I hope, hope some stability, you know, in, in settling things down. I think that, uh, we’ve gotten into some good processes and have gotten better in some areas, still have *** long way to go, um, you know, in, in terms of offensively continuing to get better and, uh, the pitching side has been really good. We can still there are some ways that we can improve. There, but I, I think that the one thing that I’ve tried to do is communicate as effectively as I can and to, you know, really try to stabilize the ship, so to speak. But really, is there only so much you can do as *** manager? I mean, you have these players and they’re capable of as much as they’re capable of. Is there only so much, as I said before, you can do as *** manager to improve this team? You know, I, I think that for all of us showing up and regardless of what we do, um, you know, something I tell my kids all the time. We want you to find something you love to do and be as good as you possibly can at it, and that takes work. It takes preparation, it takes everything that goes into it and it’s the same thing we’re trying to get the the club to do is show up every day, work work as hard as you can be as prepared as you can, and when we go out there, compete and play the game the right way and I think that when we do those things, we become the best version of ourselves individually and the best version that we can be collectively as *** team. Very nice game. Bubba Chandler was dealing for 65 innings. Uh, Ashcraft, perfect through 3, and you shut out the A20. Is that what excites you about the future, seeing that kind of talent on the field, especially when it comes to pitching? Yeah, the, the pitching, I mean, when you’re talking about two rookies going out there for 8 innings strong, um, you know, I think it was 100 101 pitches, you know, and, uh, really dominated the strike zone and. You see what uh our young pitching has done. Paul, I think we lose sight of the fact that he’s in his first full Major league season. um, you know, Mitch has been such *** stabilizer for our, for our team, for our pitching staff, and he’s like the vet now of uh of the staff when you’ve got Ashcraft and Burroughs and even Oviedo coming back, younger guy but has had some success, um. You know, the way that they, they’ve gone about it and the way that, uh, Chandler pitched the other night, Ashcraft, it was really, uh, they dominated. It was really fun to watch. Speaking of Paul Skeans and you’ve been in baseball *** long time, have you ever seen *** season like the one that Paul Skeans had this year? The only one that I could say came close was 2011 with the Tigers. I was with, uh, Verlander pitched that year, and he ended up winning the Cy Young and the MVP. And to be able, you’re comparing apples and oranges because Verlander had, he was, he wasn’t in his first full Major league season. This thing that Paul is doing this year is remarkable and to keep that in mind that he is only in his 2nd year, first full season. Um, it’s fascinating to see the, the stuff play out, how he’s able to command it, how he’s able to adjust throughout the game, the work that goes in in in between starts, and then who he is and how he carries himself as, as *** member of the team, as *** leader of the team. Um, it’s remarkable how he’s able to handle all of that as such *** young guy. Speaking of how he carries himself, I want to share, or at least repeat to you something he said on Friday, which I’m sure you heard when he was asked about this team in the future. He said, quote, This is *** wasted year if we don’t learn what we need to do and we don’t know why we didn’t go out there and do what we wanted to do. Those things happen, then it’s *** wasted year in my opinion. I don’t think it’s happening. We know the adjustments we need to make now we’ve just got to do them. When you hear that from Paul Skenes, what is he saying to this clubhouse, this organization, and to you as *** manager? It’s time to win and we need to continue to work towards that. We need to get better at certain things. We need to get better offensively like I mentioned before. And Paul leads in that he leads in that every day by who he is, how he shows up how he works, how he does those things and the leadership that he’s taken on and, and not just with the pitching staff with the with the whole club in driving that driving us towards winning. It’s *** daily, it’s *** daily thing it’s it’s how you show up it’s how you prepare it’s how you compete it’s all of those things combined into one and taking that mindset of winning is the most important thing, um, and how we have those at bats, how we have situational hitting, how we play defense, how we run the bases, how we attack the strike zone, adding all those things up into into those small details add up to *** lot of wins. Do you expect to be back here next year and I guess to that point, do you want to come back next year? I would love to come back. I still don’t know what’s gonna happen, um, but I would love to come back being *** Pittsburgh guy, the city means *** lot to me. The team means *** lot to me, and, uh, you know, just I will work tirelessly to continue to drive towards winning baseball in Pittsburgh. If you do come back, do you have *** wish list of what you’d like to have to make this club better? I, I personally, I have ideas, you know, it’s and certainly would be *** collective conversation. On what we need to do, certain changes that we need to make and uh things that we need to do to to be better in order to win. Do you think you you have that voice within this organization? Hey, I need this I need this, and it can happen. Well, certainly we need to make sure, see, see what happens with with me as *** manager. So it’s hard to, hard to say that. But as who if it’s me, whoever the manager is, I would think would definitely need to have an opinion and *** voice into. You know what we need to do to change in order to continue to drive towards winning here. *** couple more questions. Uh, how do you feel on this last home game of the season about this baseball team? We’re closer than uh than people may think and how we’ve gone about it. I know this last stretch we’ve lost *** lot of one run games and throughout the season there’s been *** lot of, *** lot of one run games and I think that as we continue to drive towards that situational hitting has been uh has been *** big thing. You know, when we talk about that one hit that we need, we’ve left *** lot of guys in scoring position, finding ways to come up with that big hit and I think that the guys have learned *** lot through this year that we can take forward. The pitching staff is the foundation for us, um, you know, there’s been some exciting, really exciting times and at PNC, you know, our home record is really good. We need to work on the on the road stuff still have no idea. You know why that is, um, but things that we can continue to drive towards winning, um, and change, and I think that when you look at the Philly series, the Mets series, the Dodgers series here at PNC, it’s *** sign of, of what’s to come for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Finally, uh, you’re the manager of the Pirates, Mike Tomlin, head coach of the Steelers, Dan Ms, the new head coach of the Penguins. You’re all bold. Is there *** correlation? Is there I don’t know if it’s stress. I don’t know. So here you are too, and I don’t know. I don’t know what, uh, what has led to that. My, uh, my kids get on me all the time. They’re gonna get on me because these lights are pretty bright and, uh, they’re gonna tell me that I’m blinding everybody on it. So, but I don’t know what the correlation is between, between the three guys, but, uh, you know, I, I embrace it.
Reds beat Pirates, stay 1 game behind Mets for wild card
Marté robs Reynolds of tying homer in 9th inning
Updated: 11:02 PM EDT Sep 25, 2025
Noelvi Marté robbed Bryan Reynolds of a tying home run in the ninth inning, and the Cincinnati Reds beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 2-1 Thursday to remain one game behind the New York Mets for the final NL wild card.Nick Lodolo tied his career high with 12 strikeouts before leaving with a right groin injury in the seventh.Marté and Gavin Lux drove in runs, and the Reds (81-78) stayed just behind the Mets (82-77) and one game ahead of Arizona (80-79).Marté used his 6-foot-2 height when he jumped at the 8-foot right-field wall and reached back above the first-row of seats to catch Reynolds’ 348-foot drive for the second out of the ninth. Marté had all three putouts as Emilio Pagán got three straight outs for his career-high 30th save in 36 chances.Lodolo (9-8) got 27 swings and misses, including 15 on curveballs. He allowed two hits and walked one, leaving due to the injury after 6 1/3 innings and 81 pitches. Lodolo also struck out 12 at Philadelphia on April 8, 2023.Braxton Ashcraft (4-4) gave up two runs and a career-high eight hits in 4 1/3 innings. Nick Yorke had an RBI grounder in the eighth.Cincinnati salvaged the three-game series finale, which started after a 1-hour, 22-minute rain delay.Key momentAfter making the catch on Reynolds, Marté sprinted toward the right-field line to grab Andrew McCutchen’s liner for the final out.Key statCincinnati was six games out of a wild-card spot in early September after losing 10 of 13 games but has won 10 of its last 17..Up nextPirates: RHP Mitch Keller (6-15, 4.22) and Braves LHP Joey Wentz (5-6, 5.46) start Friday’s opener of a season-ending series at Atlanta.Reds: RHP Zack Littell (10-8, 3.86) faces Brewers RHP Quinn Priester (13-2, 3.25) on Friday in Milwaukee.
CINCINNATI (AP) —
Noelvi Marté robbed Bryan Reynolds of a tying home run in the ninth inning, and the Cincinnati Reds beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 2-1 Thursday to remain one game behind the New York Mets for the final NL wild card.
Nick Lodolo tied his career high with 12 strikeouts before leaving with a right groin injury in the seventh.
Marté and Gavin Lux drove in runs, and the Reds (81-78) stayed just behind the Mets (82-77) and one game ahead of Arizona (80-79).
Marté used his 6-foot-2 height when he jumped at the 8-foot right-field wall and reached back above the first-row of seats to catch Reynolds’ 348-foot drive for the second out of the ninth. Marté had all three putouts as Emilio Pagán got three straight outs for his career-high 30th save in 36 chances.
Lodolo (9-8) got 27 swings and misses, including 15 on curveballs. He allowed two hits and walked one, leaving due to the injury after 6 1/3 innings and 81 pitches. Lodolo also struck out 12 at Philadelphia on April 8, 2023.
Braxton Ashcraft (4-4) gave up two runs and a career-high eight hits in 4 1/3 innings. Nick Yorke had an RBI grounder in the eighth.
Cincinnati salvaged the three-game series finale, which started after a 1-hour, 22-minute rain delay.
Key moment
After making the catch on Reynolds, Marté sprinted toward the right-field line to grab Andrew McCutchen’s liner for the final out.
Key stat
Cincinnati was six games out of a wild-card spot in early September after losing 10 of 13 games but has won 10 of its last 17..
Up next
Pirates: RHP Mitch Keller (6-15, 4.22) and Braves LHP Joey Wentz (5-6, 5.46) start Friday’s opener of a season-ending series at Atlanta.
Reds: RHP Zack Littell (10-8, 3.86) faces Brewers RHP Quinn Priester (13-2, 3.25) on Friday in Milwaukee.