CINCINNATI — Chris Michalak provided, perhaps, the feel-good story of the year Saturday in Philadelphia by posting a victory for the Reds in his first major-league appearance since May 26, 2002.

Cincinnati manager Jerry Narron rewarded the 35-year-old left-hander’s perseverance and his sterling 6 2 /3 innings relief performance with a start last night against the last-place Pittsburgh Pirates in the opener of a sixgame homestand in Great American Ball Park.

With postseason implications in the air, warm-hearted stories don’t necessarily lead to happy endings. The Pirates burst the bubble for Michalak and the Reds with a thorough 7-3 drubbing that wasn’t as close as the final score.

The loss dropped Cincinnati 3½ games behind first-place St. Louis in the National League Central and closer to the 11-team pack in the wild-card chase.

Michalak (1-1) has been around the block enough times in 13 minor-league seasons to have a good idea about what went wrong.

"Maybe the location wasn’t as good as it needed to be or as consistent as it needed to be," he said. "I made some decent pitches, and unfortunately I gave up a couple of soft base hits. Then (Xavier) Nady jumped all over a curveball and hit the ball out of the park. That was the biggest thing. I wasn’t able to make pitches like I did the other night."

Nady hammered a three-run homer in the third inning, but other bad things happened to Michalak. He balked home a run with the bases loaded in the second on a pickoff attempt at first base. He also left the bases loaded in the fifth and watched reliever Bill Bray issue a walk to force home another run.

The Pirates, who entered the game with a baseballworst 14 road wins, never had to look back because the Reds had just two hits after the fourth inning — home runs from Edwin Encarnacion and Javier Valentin.

The overall offensive performance upset Valentin.

"We have to keep playing," he said. "We can’t think about the Cardinals or nobody. We have to win some games. We’re not consistent right now We don’t score runs like we used to score. We know sooner or later we’re going to do it."

Valentin sensed early that Michalak was going to have problems.

"He was behind the count a lot," Valentin said. "We tried to do the same thing we did in Philly. But his curveball was up and he was always behind. He’s not a power pitcher. When he missed with his off-speed (pitches), that’s when he got hurt."

Trailing 2-0, the Reds had a chance to get back into the game in the second after Ian Snell (11-8) walked Adam Dunn and Rich Aurilia on eight consecutive pitches to start the inning.

Valentin delivered a oneout, RBI single to cut the deficit to 2-1. With two outs, Ryan Freel walked to load the bases, but Scott Hatteberg bounced out to Nady at first base to end the threat. The Reds will try to do more at 6:10 tonight.

"This is a very important series for us," Valentin said. "You don’t want to give anything away."

jmassie@dispatch.com