CINCINNATI -- J.T. Realmuto said the Phillies’ postseason pursuit has energized him, despite a heavy workload behind the plate.

But can that feeling last?

“It has a lot to do with playing for something and obviously the crowd and the adrenaline has something to do with it,” Realmuto said after Thursday afternoon’s 4-3 loss to the Reds in 11 innings at Great American Ball Park. “Just the fact that we’re in the race, that makes you forget about the fact that you’re tired, so I definitely feel like that’s why I feel better this year than I have in the past.”

• Box score

Realmuto spent the first five years of his career with the Marlins, who never sniffed the postseason. He is playing meaningful baseball games for the first time in September with the Phillies, although Thursday’s loss was another blow to the their National League Wild Card chances with 23 games to play. They stood four games behind the Cubs for the second NL Wild Card spot after Chicago defeated Milwaukee on Thursday night.

Time is running out.

“It is and it isn’t,” Realmuto said. “We still have plenty of time, but we have to turn it around quickly. We’re three or four games out with three weeks left in the season with some really important games against some really good teams. So we have time to do it, but we have to do it pretty quickly.”

Realmuto is doing everything he can to help. He started his 117th game at catcher Thursday, which are 14 more than any other catcher in baseball. He is on pace to start 136 games, which would be the most by any Phillies catcher since Mike Lieberthal started 138 in 1999. Realmuto tripled and scored in the fourth inning, snuffed out a Reds’ threat in the seventh with a heads-up throw to second base and smashed a game-tying home run in the eighth inning.

Realmuto set career-highs in the eighth with his 22nd homer and 75th RBI.

It erased the Reds’ damage in the sixth. Phillies left-hander Jason Vargas had been effective through five innings, allowing two hits and striking out six. But Reds leadoff hitter Alex Blandino ripped a one-out double to left field. Jose Iglesias crushed Vargas’ next pitch to left field, a two-run home run to make it 2-1. Jared Hughes replaced Vargas and Eugenio Suarez homered on Hughes’ first pitch to make it 3-1.

“Everyone felt the momentum,” Realmuto said about his game-tying blast. “Everyone felt like we put ourselves in good position to win the game.”

But the Phillies could not score again. They tried for the home run, pinch-hitting Jay Bruce for Adam Haseley in the ninth inning and pinch-hitting Logan Morrison for Hector Neris in the 10th inning. Phillies manager Gabe Kapler could have double-switched in the ninth to squeeze an extra inning from Neris, but he did not.

“It was definitely a consideration,” Kapler said. “At that point, we had to score a run. We didn't feel like having Sean [Rodriguez] go up there was our best chance to score one run. We had to score one run to win that game. It was fairly evident that our best chance was to have an opportunity to choose our pinch-hitter. That pinch-hitter was Logan Morrison in the biggest spot of the game and a good matchup against a righty.

“We want to choose there. We want to get our best option in there. The whole game was kind of designed to potentially come down to Jay Bruce and Logan Morrison based on the work that they did last night. So, we had to score a run to win the game. We weren't going to be forced into any one way doing it. We wanted to use our best pinch-hitter.”

Bruce and Morrison both hit pinch-hit homers Wednesday. They both struck out swinging Thursday.

Reds left fielder Phillip Ervin then hit a walk-off solo home run to right-center field off Phillies reliever Nick Vincent. It was a frustrating finish to a once promising week. The Phillies beat the Mets on Sunday, then won the first two games of their four-game series against the Reds. But they lost Wednesday and Thursday to leave town with a split.

“It’s definitely frustrating,” Realmuto said. “We felt like after the first two games in this series, especially with [Aaron] Nola on the mound yesterday, we felt like we had a great chance to win at least three out of four. We were thinking hopefully sweep them, obviously. It’s definitely frustrating we didn’t come out to play the last couple of days. We battled, we fought back, we stayed in the games, but we just weren’t able to do enough to get it done.”