Pittsburgh would manage brief periods of success headed into the new century; including three straight NL Pennants from 1901 to 1903 and a World Series victory in 1909.
The Reds finally managed their own turn of success with a World Series victory in 1940 (their first championship earned outright) whilst the Pirates were in the midst of a playoff drought for nearly two decades.
On July 16, 1970, the Pittsburgh Pirates began play after the All-Star break by opening new Three Rivers Stadium against the rival Reds.
Cincinnati's Tony Perez hit the park's first home run, and Willie Stargell later homered for the Bucs.
[15] Following the loss in the NLCS; the Pirates managed to beat the San Francisco Giants in 4 games en route to winning the 1971 World Series over the Baltimore Orioles.
The Reds found themselves unable to overcome the dominant pitching from Steve Blass as they would go on to leave 11 baserunners with only a sole run in the first inning.
However; a Joe Morgan home run guaranteed the victory as Reds' pitcher Tom Hall locked up Pittsburgh's hitters to end the game.
The Pirates fought hard with a 3–2 lead coming out of the fifth inning, however; the Reds would rob them of the victory with 2 crushing runs as Pirates' reliever Bob Moose tossed a wild pitch with George Foster on third, culminating in Hal McCrae scoring a 2 run homer during the next at bat, ending the series.
This would be the final game ever played for Pirates' Hall-of-Famer Roberto Clemente as he would be killed in a plane crash after volunteering for earthquake relief in Nicaragua in December.
[17] Nearing the end of their dynasty as the Big Red Machine, Cincinnati managed to pull ahead of a weak NL West en route to another matchup against Pittsburgh.
The Pirates began the 1990s firing on all cylinders led by the strength of All Stars: Barry Bonds, Bobby Bonilla, Neal Heaton, and Doug Drabek.
Following the 1990 season, the Reds declined mightily under the notoriously awful ownership of then-owner Marge Schott, the team saw multiple stars leave in free agency or fell victim to bad trades.
Due to the expansion of the league in 1993; the Reds and Pirates were both consolidated into the newly formed NL Central, turning their once heated playoff rivalry into a divisional battle.
The Pirates would fall victim to cheap ownership under Robert Nutting as numerous star players such as Andrew McCutchen, Starling Marte, Gerrit Cole, and Mark Melancon would all leave in free agency.
During the 2019 season; both teams would engage in a massive brawl after Pirates' pitcher Keone Kela had thrown at Reds' batter Derek Dietrich in the seventh inning, the umpires would later give Kela a warning as Reds' star Joey Votto engaged in insulting the Pirates' dugout.
After several minutes of shouting at the Pirates' players, Garrett charged the Pittsburgh dugout along with Puig; culminating in a massive brawl clearing both benches.