Josh Phelps was sprinting around third base with what surely would have been a sweet step onto home plate. The score would be tied, and he would be the two-out hero in the bottom of the ninth inning.

Suddently, stunningly, he saw this white spheroid come into view ...

"I never expected to see a baseball coming," Phelps recalled. "Impossible."

But there it was, and Phelps was tagged for the final out of the Pirates' 5-4 loss to Cincinnati last night at PNC Park, a game Reds second baseman Brandon Phillips finished with a defensive gem so stupendous that a term such as impossible meant little.

"The way that game ended ... I don't know if you'll ever see that play get made again," manager Jim Tracy said.

Before the rush of adjectives, here is the background ...

The Pirates, needing a run to tie, got yet another big pinch-hit from Phelps, a hustling double to left-center off Cincinnati closer David Weathers.

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Today

• Game: Pirates (RHP Tony Armas 2-4, 6.93) vs. Milwaukee Brewers (RHP Yovani Gallardo 5-4, 4.86), 8:05 p.m., Miller Park.
• TV/Radio: FSN Pittsburgh, WPGB-FM (104.7).
• Key matchup: Gallardo vs. himself. The Brewers' talented rookie has alternated between awesome and awful this month, giving up 23 runs in three starts, one run in two others.
• Of note: The standings are not the only place where Milwaukee has failed to put teams away: The Brewers have lost 14 games in which they held a lead of three or more runs, most in Major League Baseball.

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Nate McLouth was next, and he dueled Weathers to a full count before splintering his bat on an inside fastball. McLouth got just enough of it, though, to bloop it over first baseman Jeff Keppinger into shallow right field.

Phelps, breaking on the full count with two outs, never looked back.

"In that situation, I'm just listening for the crowd," he said. "If I hear the roar, I know it fell in."

Fact is, of course, the reaction of the 12,463 in attendance should not have mattered. Phelps should have been going full-bore upon contact. And he was.

One problem with that: Phillips, one of Major League Baseball's premier second basemen, was going full-bore, too.

"I saw him running around third and I was cussing, man," Phillips said of Phelps. "And then, I made the best play of my career."

No hyperbole there.

Phillips dashed back to support Keppinger, closed in on the ball after it one tall bounce off the grass, whirled his body back toward the diamond even as he barehanded it - "The most amazing part," Tracy called that - then set himself before firing a bullet toward home plate.

The only flaw: The throw was high, and catcher Javier Valentin had to leave his feet to pull it in.

But still ...

"It never even crossed my mind that there would be a play at the plate," McLouth said.

It apparently never crossed Phelps' mind, either. Rather than sliding, he reacted late, stayed on his feet and made a somewhat awkward attempt to knock down Valentin.

Nothing doing.

Game over.

And Phelps took responsibility.

"When I saw the ball coming in ... I just went into survival mode," he said. "It was too late to slide, so I tried to do what I could."

"It was a little indecision on Josh's part," Tracy said. "Obviously, if he slides, he's going to be safe."

The Reds mobbed Phillips after drawing a split of the four-game series, and Phillips drew universal praise from the home side, too.

"A fantastic play," Pirates third baseman Jose Bautista said.

"Something I've never seen before," starter Matt Morris said.

The aspect that stung the Pirates the most was that Cincinnati took the 5-4 lead in the top of that inning in such a similar way ...

Closer Matt Capps was facing Ken Griffey Jr. right after Alex Gonzalez squirted a two-out roller up the middle. Capps approached Griffey aggressively, but Griffey fouled off three full-count fastballs.

Finally, Capps turned to the slider and got Griffey to pop up. One problem with that: The Pirates' defense had shifted Griffey to pull, and his ball was destined to fall behind third base, halfway up the left-field line.

No man's land.

Shortstop Cesar Izturis, starting from the middle of the infield, had no chance. Neither did left fielder Jason Bay, coming from left-center. Only Bautista, virtually playing shortstop, had a chance, but his basket-catch attempt fell short.

Gonzalez, breaking on the full count, chugged 270 feet to put the Reds ahead.

"To me, that's a hell of a play if it gets caught," Tracy said. Because all three defenders were charging from different directions, no one had a chance to call for it, either.

"Really tough," Bautista said. "One of those plays."

"We're talking about inches with a bunch of plays in this game," Tracy said. "A lot of things in that game were incredible, actually."

There was more ...

The Reds had two runs taken off the scoreboard in the fourth.

Yes, really.

With two outs and bases loaded, Edwin Encarnacion laced a single to left. Griffey and Adam Dunn came around to touch home.

But, a minute later, Bautista, noticing that Dunn missed third base, asked Morris for an appeal throw. The out call was made, and Dunn's run was nullified. And, soon after that, umpire crew chief Wally Bell phoned the press box to remove Griffey's run, too, because the forceout at third brought the final out.

The zero went right back on the board, and the Pirates still led, 1-0.

Morris, not nearly as effective as his previous two starts, gave up five hits and three runs in the Cincinnati sixth to exit with a 3-2 deficit.

Bautista reclaimed the Pirates' lead in the seventh with a two-run home run beyond the North Side Notch, crushing a Jared Burton fastball for his 13th of the year, sixth this month.

More significant, it was the Pirates' 44th in August, breaking the franchise record for any month, set in August 1947.

But Damaso Marte gave up Valentin's one-out double in the top of the eighth and, after another out, Encarnacion singled off Shawn Chacon to tie, 4-4.