Pittsburgh at Cincinnati

Pittsburgh keeps hurting Cincinnati's chances of making the playoffs and the Pirates go for a three-game sweep and fifth win overall today. The Reds have lost five of six home games against teams with losing records and they are 1-4 in Nick Lodolo's past five home starts versus losing teams. Pittsburgh has won six of eight meetings and will have Braxton Ashcraft on the mound. He has allowed four runs on 13 hits his past four starts. Ashcraft faced the Reds once this year and gave up a run on three hits in 3 1/3 innings. Lodolo has yielded nine runs on 17 hits in only 10 innings his last two outings. The pressure appears to be getting to the Reds, who have scored a total of six runs their past three games. Take the Pirates.