which ended in a series loss. The Pirates and Reds sixth postseason meeting came 23 years later in the 2013 National League Wild Card game, which the Pirates won 6-2. 2013 was the Pirates first winning season since 1992, ending the longest stretch of losing seasons (20 seasons) in North American professional sports history. In 1990, Jim Leyland's decision to start a reliever to off set the Reds' platoon was foreign concept in Major League Baseball, but it would become the norm in the sport some 25-30 years later. In 2018, some MLB teams began experimenting with an opener – a pitcher who is normally a reliever that starts the game for an inning or two before yielding to someone who would normally be a starter. Sometimes the manager replaces an opener with a series of other relievers who would only pitch one or two innings in a game, usually due to injury or fatigue affecting the team's starters or other strategical reasons; this approach became known as a bullpen game. The Athletics chose to use set-up man Liam Hendriks as the opener, unsuccessfully, in the 2018 American League Wild Card Game, while Brewers manager Craig Counsell would borrow from Leyland's strategy in Game 5 of the 2018 National League Championship Series by starting Wade Miley for one batter to off set the powerful left-handed hitting Joc Pederson, who struggled mighty against left-handed pitching. In the 2021 National League Division Series and 2021 National League Championship Series, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts started reliever Corey Knebel twice as an opener due to team injuries. References External links 1990 NLCS at Baseball Reference National League Championship Series National League Championship Series Cincinnati Reds postseason Pittsburgh Pirates postseason National League Championship Series National League Championship Series 1990s in Cincinnati 1990s in Pittsburgh National League Championship Series Sports competitions in Cincinnati Sports competitions in Pittsburgh