Pittsburgh bound:

Don’t expect CINCINNATI — a tidal wave of roster moves by the Reds when active rosters can be expanded from 25 players to as many as 40 today.

Triple-A Louisville is scheduled to wrap up its season on Labor Day, and while the Reds may start calling up players before then, the bulk of the moves probably won’t come until the Bats are done.

“We’ll have a couple of moves (today),” manager Bryan Price said Thursday morning before the Reds met the Mets in the finale of their three-game series and Cincinnati’s nine-game home stand. “The bulk of with seven strikeouts.

“It’s definitely sore, and it will be a little tight (today), but I didn’t want to come out of that game,” Stephenson said. “It was a little bit of a wakeup call.”

Stephenson has won his last three starts. His effort dropped the starting pitchers’ combined ERA over their last seven starts to 3.16.

DeGrom (14-8) slipped to 2-5 in seven starts since he strung together eight consecutive wins. He allowed six hits and four runs — three earned — with three walks and five strikeouts in six innings. The Reds have won two of their past three against the Mets after losing 14 straight dating to September 2014.

Shut out for the fifth time Wednesday night after piling up 14 runs Tuesday, the Reds grabbed a 2-1 lead in the sec- ond when Eugenio Suarez led the guys are in (Louisville’s) rotation, and we’ll let them make their final appearances before we bring them up here. We’ll need a couple to fill in for (Luis) Castillo and (Tyler) Mahle when they’re done.

The likely candidates to be added are familiar faces. Pitchers such as righthanders Jackson Stephens and Rookie Davis and lefthanders Amir Garrett and Cody Reed all have made starts for the Reds this season. Garrett ranks sixth in the Reds stats with 12 starts, while Davis made five. Stephens and Reed each have one major league start on this season’s resume.

Cincinna t i’s rotation already includes pitchers who previously started multiple games for the Bats. Right-handers Tyler Mahle and Sal Romano each made 10 starts for Louisville before being pro moted to the off with a single and Gennett followed with his 23rd homer.

The homer was redemption for Gennett, who struck out with the bases loaded and Reds. Right-hander Asher Wojciechowski has made five starts for the Bats and eight for the Reds.

Some of the new faces will get time when Castillo and Mahle reach their season innings limits and are shut down for the rest of the year.

Right-handers Barrett Astin, Luke Farrell and Ariel Hernandez also are pitchers who’ve spent time this season with the Reds and candi- dates to return. All pitched exclusively in relief during their major league stints.

Catcher Chad Wallach’s Great American Ball Park cubicle barely had time to gather dust before he was again hanging clothes in it.

Wallach was recalled from Louisville on Thursday when catcher Tucker Barnhart was placed on the three- day paternity list. Barn- hart’s wife, Sierra, was due

Warm seat:

two outs to finish Wednesday’s 2-0 loss.

The Mets tied it, 2-2, in the third when Jose Reyes scored from third on Brandon Nim- to deliver the couple’s first child at any time.

The promotion was the second for Wallach in less than a week, both to replace catchers who were on paternity leave. Last Friday, he took Stuart Turner’s spot when Turner left to be on hand in Louisiana for the delivery by his wife, Dan- ielle, of their first child.

Price makes his offseason home in Scott- sdale, Ariz., which makes it convenient for him to keep tabs on some of the Reds’ top prospects.

Six Cincinnati prospects already are due to play for the Scottsdale Scorpions of the Arizona Fall League and the pitching staff has room for an additional Reds prospect.

“What’s good about the way they’ve got it set up is the bulk of one team’s players all are on the same team,” Price said. “That

First-hand:

mo’s line drive single that glanced off the lower body of Stephenson to Votto at first. Stephenson threw a couple of test pitches and stayed in means you can go watch a game and see three pitchers and two positions players, all in one game.”

The Reds left after Thursday’s game for Pittsburgh and a three-game series against the Pirates. Castillo (2-7, 3.26 ERA) is Cincinnati’s scheduled starter for today’s 7:05 p.m. series opener against right-hander Gerrit Cole (11-8, 3.99) in a rematch of their starts last Saturday that turned into a classic pitcher’s duel. Castillo allowed three hits and one run — a Cole home run — with nine strikeouts in seven innings.

Cole was even better. Besides his home run, he turned in seven shutout innings during which he allowed five hits and struck out six without a walk. The Pirates won 1-0. the game.

“Robert was really good,” Price said. “He took that line drive off his hip, but at no point in time did that become a concern. That can be a fallback for some guys coming out of the game.”

Price and Stephenson cred- ited the pitcher’s recent surge to increased reliance on his slider.

“He threw a lot of splitters and sliders over the last three innings,” Price said. “He had a heavy concentration of offspeed pitches.”

Billy Hamilton manufac- tured a go-ahead run in the third. He led off with a single to center, stole his 55th base and, with one out, sped to third on Votto’s grounder to shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera. The startled Cabrera’s throw to third glanced off Hamilton and rolled far enough away for him to score. ris Campbell, linebacker Chris Worley and defensive linemen Sam Hubbard, Tyquan Lewis, Tracy Sprinkle and Jalyn Holmes are all captains.

“I’m thinking that’s one of the greatest honors you could ever have,” Meyer said. “Why would you take that from a guy that’s deserving? Since that conversation I had with (Vrabel), whoever deserves it is going to be captain, and it will be on the wall, down the hallway, and you’ll forever be known on your resume as a captain of the Ohio State University football program.”

That fact wasn’t lost on McLaurin, one of six firsttime captains in the group.

“No matter how the season goes, good or bad, nobody can take that away from you,” McLaurin said. “You can come back and I’ll bring my kids someday and show them their dad was captain. I shared (the news) with my mom and my dad. They’ve been there since day one when I redshirted and didn’t travel. Sometimes I didn’t think I could last here. Hard work, dedication and prayer has helped me take steps every year. Just to be recognized by your peers as a leader both on thefield and off the field, you can’t ask for more than that.”

Four of the captains — Barrett, Price, Lewis and Sprinkle — have already earned their degrees. Barrett is the first three-time captain in Ohio State history. Price and Lewis were captains last season and are the ninth and 10th two-time captains in school history.

Defensive line coach Larry Johnson’s group has the most representatives.

“I think all four of us bring something different to the table,” Hubbard said. “We all deserve to be captain. The fact that we have four in the same position room is really something special. It’s something coach Johnson has created. He’s developed us into the men we are.”