CINCINNATI — Cincinnati’s Luis Castillo pitched a masterful seven innings, Shogo Akiyama drove in the game’s only run, and the Reds extended their winning streak to a season-high five games with a 1-0 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Wednesday night.

Castillo (3-5), coming off his first career complete game in a 3-1 win at St. Louis on Friday, retired nine of the last 10 batters he faced and gave up only three hits and a walk with 10 strikeouts, helping the Reds stay close in the National League playoff race.

Archie Bradley pitched a perfect eighth before Raisel Iglesias pitched a 1-2-3 ninth for his eighth save.

Pittsburgh rookie J.T. Brubaker (1-2) tied his career high with 5 1/3 innings, giving up five hits and x runs with one walk and four strikeouts.

Brubaker, who grew up about 90 miles north of Cincinnati in Springfield, Ohio, allowed a hit and a walk in four innings before the Reds pieced together a two-out rally in the fifth on consecutive singles by Jose Garcia, Curt Casali and Akiyama, whose liner to left knocked in Garcia.

The third-place Reds went into Wednesday’s series finale one-half game behind second-place St. Louis in the Central and ninth in the overall NL standings, one-half game behind the Giants for the final postseason berth. San Francisco was scheduled to play the Mariners late Wednesday in a game postponed from Tuesday and moved from Seattle to San Francisco because of poor air quality.

St. Louis beat the Brewers, 4-2, on Wednesday in the first game of a doubleheader in Milwaukee. The top two teams in each division and the two teams in the league with the next-best records qualify for the playoffs.

The Pirates couldn’t get a runner past first base on the way to their eighth straight loss.