This is getting increasingly difficult to write about on a daily basis. Alex Presley crushed a solo homer to right in the first, but Brandon Phillips responded with a solo blast of his own in the bottom of the inning, smashing Kevin Correia's first pitch of the game deep to left.

Correia then put two men on in the second. Phillips then hit a ground ball to shortstop, but Clint Barmes couldn't field it, and Dioner Navarro scored. Then Correia threw a wild pitch, bringing in Mike Leake. Yet another runner came home when Michael McKenry tried to flip the ball to the plate, and it bounced off Leake and toward the right side of the backstop.

The Pirates closed the 4-1 gap to 4-3 in the seventh, when Gaby Sanchez hit a two-run homer, but Scott Rolen hit a solo homer in the bottom of the eighth off Kyle McPherson to give the Reds insurance. Jose Tabata singled off Jonathan Broxton in the ninth, but Travis Snider ultimately hit into a double play to end it.

Fun fact: the Pirates are still only three games out of a playoff spot! The fact that they're still in this almost seems cruel.