Friday, October 5, 1990 (3:15PM EDT) at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati, Ohio Doug Drabek, the National League Cy Young Award winner for 1990 took the mound against Tom Browning for a weekday afternoon Game 2.
The Reds regained the lead in the fifth when Winningham reached on a fielder's choice, stole second, and scored on O'Neill's drive to left center that hit the wall after barely avoiding Bonds' glove.
In the bottom of eighth, the Pirates got a run back when Barry Bonds singled, went to second on a walk, and scored on Mariano Duncan's throwing error to make it 5–3.
The Pirates would grab the first lead of the game (for the only time in the series) in the opening frame when Wally Backman doubled to left and scored on a Van Slyke ground out.
Bream would hurt Rijo again (as he had in Game 1) in the bottom half of the inning when he drilled a double to left center that scored Van Slyke.
Chris Sabo untied the game in the seventh when he golfed a hanging curveball by Walk into the left field stands for a two-run homer.
Piniella called on Myers and two batters later Bonilla hammered another ball that hit high off the center-field fence and out of the reach of the leaping Billy Hatcher.
Wednesday, October 10, 1990 (8:25PM EDT) at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Game 5 saw the Pirates bring back their ace Doug Drabek to keep the season alive.
In the bottom of the first, Reds starter Tom Browning hit Jay Bell and then surrendered a gapper to right-center by Van Slyke that hopped over Paul O'Neill's glove for an RBI triple.
Bob Patterson relieved Drabek and got Jeff Reed to hit into a 5–4–3 double play started by Bobby Bonilla to end the game.
Friday, October 12, 1990 (8:20PM EDT) at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati, Ohio This game was famous for Pittsburgh manager Jim Leyland starting a set-up man, Ted Power, in order to keep the Reds from employing their successful platoon.
However, after pitching out of a jam in the sixth, Smith allowed three singles in the seventh, culminating in Luis Quiñones knocking in Ron Oester to take the lead.
The 2–1 score held into the ninth, when an over-the-fence catch by right fielder Glenn Braggs robbed Martinez of a two-run homer to help preserve the win for the Reds.
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.
[10] 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.