With the Pirates trailing by four runs in the bottom of the fourth inning, Bryan Reynolds stepped to the plate with the bases loaded and a huge opportunity to at least cut into a relatively significant deficit. 

The Cubs had just struck for two runs in each of the previous two innings and back-to-back two-out singles by Jared Triolo and Isiah Kiner-Falefa were followed by a walk to Oneil Cruz that, for a short amount to time, seemed to spark a stagnant Pirates offense.

It's fair for one to feel some sense of confidence with a player of Reynolds' caliber coming to the plate in such a high-stakes spot. He's been a model of consistency throughout his big-league career and has the ability to change the complexion of a game with one swing of the bat. Plus, he entered the game with a .365 career batting average and 67 RBIs in bases-loaded situations. 

The Pirates counted on Reynolds to come through at a key moment that could have turned things around. Instead, he fell way short. And it only took three pitches from Shota Imanaga to send Reynolds packing: 

MLB.com

All three pitches were splitters clocked between 82 and 84 mph. Imanaga got ahead with that first pitch down the middle that Reynolds took for strike one. He swung through the second pitch down and out of the zone and went down looking at the third borderline pitch that might have been called a ball had he not just swung at practically the exact same pitch prior. 

Reynolds isn't the first hitter to be fooled by Imanaga's splitter. It's a pitch he regularly turns to in order to generate whiffs. He posted a 43% whiff rate and struck out 81 hitters with it last year. That's in addition to limiting opposing hitters to a .204 average. This season, he's relied on a 30.6% whiff rate and has struck out 12 batters with it. Opposing hitters are batting under .200 against it. 

"Not having seen the pitches, he threw him three splits in a row. Looked like the second one he kind of chased down. The third one that he punched out on, I don't know if it was a strike or not. It looked like it kind of worked off the same location as the one before that," Derek Shelton said. "It's an elite pitch and it looks like he made a pitch."

Still, it wasn't exactly the competitive at-bat the Pirates were hoping for out of Reynolds in that situation. It was his second strikeout of the night and really encapsulated his fourth consecutive 0-for-4 performance. 

"It looks like he's just pulling out of his zones," Shelton said of Reynolds, who is now hitting just .227 with a .624 OPS over his first 29 games of the season. "He's not staying in his hitting zones ... We just gotta get him back in there and make sure he's not chasing."