Reds 4, Pirates 1: Johnny Cueto tossed eight strong innings to win his 20th game and singled in the go-ahead run in the bottom of the eighth inning as host Cincinnati dashed Pittsburgh’s hopes of winning a division title for the first time since 1992.

Cueto (20-9) struck out seven to become the majors’ third 20-game winner, allowing one run on six hits as the Reds finished 25-42 after the All-Star break to match their lowest second-half win total in team history. Kristopher Negron contributed to Cincinnati’s three-run outburst in the eighth with a two-run shot and Aroldis Chapman worked around a leadoff single to strike out the side in the ninth for his 36th save.

Neil Walker delivered his 23rd homer of the season for Pittsburgh, which needed a win and a St. Louis loss on Sunday to force a one-game playoff to claim the National League Central. Gerrit Cole matched a career high with 12 strikeouts in seven frames, but departed with the game tied at 1-1 as the Pirates will host San Francisco in Wednesday's NL wild card game.

Cole gave up a pair of singles to begin the game and yielded Todd Frazier’s RBI groundout in the first before rebounding to strike out five of the next six batters he faced prior to Negron’s one-out single in the third – the last baserunner he allowed until Jay Bruce’s one-out hit in the seventh. Walker evened it in the fourth, hammering a 1-0 inside fastball well over the fence in right to account for the Pirates’ lone tally.

Tony Watson (10-2), who had not yielded a run in his previous 18 outings, relieved Cole to begin the eighth and promptly served up Jason Bourgeois’ first triple of the season before Cueto grounded up the middle to push across the go-ahead run. Negron padded the lead two batters later when he crushed a first-pitch fastball off the facing of the second deck in left-center.

GAME NOTEBOOK: Cueto became Cincinnati’s first 20-game winner since Danny Jackson in 1988 and its first right-hander to achieve the feat since Sammy Ellis and Jim Maloney in 1965. … Pittsburgh 3B Josh Harrison, who entered Sunday on a career-high 15-game hitting streak, finished 0-for-4 to drop his average to .315 – four points behind Colorado’s Justin Morneau in the race for the NL batting crown. … The Reds won the season series 12-7.