PITTSBURGH – Teams are bound to suffer tough losses throughout the course of a season. It’s just the nature of sports. But the Reds are at a point in their playoff push where a hard-fought defeat will likely elicit a much different response than it would have earlier on in the year.

Two outs away from a series-finale victory in Pittsburgh Sunday afternoon, the Reds saw one slip away from them in the ninth inning, pushing them 7 1/2 games back in the NL Wild Card race. Leading Pittsburgh by one run with a runner on first base, closer Alexis Díaz watched as catcher Yasmani Grandal sent his high fastball just over the wall in right field at PNC Park, handing the Reds a 4-3 loss.

It was just the third blown save of the season for Díaz, who had been as steady as any closer in MLB since May, converting 17 consecutive save opportunities.

“He has been so good in those spots, so you hate to see Alexis go through it,” Reds manager David Bell said. “ ... Alexis has been through it before, so he’ll bounce back, but obviously he’s not happy with it.”

It had been feast or famine for the Reds’ offense against the Pirates’ pitching staff through the first three games of the road series. Still, it seemed for much of the afternoon that their lineup did just enough to earn a series split. Overall, Bell was pleased with the way his team battled back down by a pair of runs after a difficult start to the afternoon offensively.

Batting in the No. 9 spot, Noelvi Marte hit a one-out single in the seventh before Jonathan India moved him to third with a double. Elly De La Cruz drove in the Reds’ first run of the game with a single before TJ Friedl took advantage of a fielding error with a sac bunt to tie the game, 2-2.

Aside from India’s double, the Reds scored three runs in the frame, courtesy of several tough at-bats that ended with players finding holes in the outfield. The inning was capped by Spencer Steer, who battled back from being down 0-2 in the count to draw a walk to drive in the go-ahead run. The Reds put up three runs in the inning to pull ahead, but it ended up being all they would get in the game.

“[In] the inning when we were able to score, [we had] some really good at-bats,” Bell said. “Spencer was one, down 0-2, and kind of worked a walk. As far as all that goes, we’re happy with what we were able to do to put ourselves in that position until the ninth [inning] there.”

After getting shut out in Thursday’s series opener, the Reds posted a pair of strong offensive performances in the middle two games of the series. Cincinnati showed very little resistance through the first five innings of Sunday’s game against Pirates starter Luis Ortiz, scattering just four hits over his six scoreless innings.

“He’s been tough against us,” Bell said. “It's not the first time. I mean, he has good stuff and pitched really well against us."

Once Ortiz was pulled from the game, however, the floodgates opened, even if just momentarily to take back the momentum.

“Our team really stepped up in a lot of different ways, put ourselves in a position to win,” Bell said. “No matter how good you are there at the end, those are bound to happen.”

After Reds starter Nick Martinez departed after three innings, Bell then got a career-best relief outing from Carson Spiers, who quieted the Pirates’ bats with four shutout innings while allowing just three hits on 50 pitches. The righty was a small silver lining in the loss, delivering one of the finest relief outings of his career. Coming off of a start in which he was charged for nine earned runs, Spiers said he went back to the basics and felt he executed much better Sunday than he had been as of late.

“I felt really good,” Spiers said. “This whole week, kind of got back to just executing. … For me, my biggest thing is pitching to the four corners.”