It was Cincinnati’s 14th blown lead this season and enabled the Padres to even the series at a win apiece.
It is The Big Red Machine weekend with the team celebrating its 50th anniversary of the Reds winning back-to-back World Series in 1975 and 1976.
Seated in the stands were Big Red Machine bullpenners Will McEnaney, Rawly Eastwick and Clay Carroll, The BRM’s shut’em down relief corps.
They never blew one, did they? Of course they did but nobody remembers it.
And in the future nobody will remember that Scott Barlow gave up a two-run homer in the sixth and that Lyon Richardson gave up a three-run homer in the seventh.
But it stings for now as the Reds frittered away an opportunity to climb a season’s best five games over .500.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
This one turned out to be power versus Punch ’N Judy.
The Padres had 12 hits that included three homers and three doubles. The Reds had 10 hits that consisted of nine singles and one double.
Reds starter Andrew Abbott was not on his best behavior, putting runners on base left, right and center. He gave up seven hits in only five innings, but held the Padres to one run. Under duress, Abbott is as placid as Swan Lake.
Abbott gave up a one-out single in the first. No damage. He gave up a double and a walk in the second. No damage. He loaded the bases in the fourth with one out. No damage.
He gave up three hits in the fifth. Minor damage. Light-hitting leadoff hitter Luis Arraez led off the inning with a home run.
Meanwhile, the Reds constructed a 4-1 lead against San Diego starter Randy Vazquez.
They scored a run in the first, their 63rd first-inning run, most in MLB. But it could have been more.
TJ Friedl walked leading off the inning, but was picked off. Matt McLain singled and with two outs Spencer Steer singled and Gavin Lux singled home McLain. Lux has driven in runs in six straight games.
It was one scant run that should have been more.
The Reds made it 3-0 in the second with four singles by Rece Hinds, Santiago Espinal, Friedl, and McLain.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
San Diego scratched its one run off Abbott in the fifth on the Arraez home run. The Reds grabbed the run back in the bottom of the fifth on a walk to Elly De La Cruz, a double by Gavin Lux (Cincinnati’s only extra base hit) and Tyler Stephenson’s sacrifice fly.
That made it 4-1, but leftfielder Gavin Sheets made a running, diving, sliding catch on a Hinds line drive that would have made it 5-1 and kept the inning progressing.
Because he worked with constant traffic, Abbott’s pitch count mounted and he was forced to leave after five with 102 pitches.
“Sometimes you get there (to the bullpen) before you want to,” Reds manager Tito Francona told reporters after the game. “They did a really good job in the fourth and fifth innings against Abbott. I think it was 29 (pitches) in the fourth and 28 in the fifth.
“So I got him out after five instead of going more because he has been going six or seven,” said Francona. “He gave up one (run) so that’s pretty impressive.
“That’s a good lineup and he threw a lot of pitches, it was hot (92 degrees), but he doesn’t give in, holds his stuff. But we have to keep an eye on him.”
Abbott received a no-decision, remaining 7-and-1 and his earned run average remained at 1.79, best in the majors for a starting pitcher.
Barlow was first out of the bullpen in the sixth and he gave up a leadoff single to former Reds infielder Jose Iglesias and a 403-foot home run to Jake Cronenworth.
“Barlow was pitching behind in the count and paid for it,” said Francona.
The Reds still led, 4-3... until Richardson took the mound for the sixth.
His first pitch was jumped on by Jackson Merrill like a hobo grabbing half a hot dog and he rocked the ball for a double. With one out, Richardson walked Xander Bogaerts on a full count. That brought up Gavin Sheets, who had doubled twice.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
He doubled his pleasure by crushing the fourth straight change-up offered by Richardson 427 feet halfway up the right field sun deck.
“That left fielder, Sheets, not only did he hurt us with the bat but the play he made in left fielder (on Hinds) was probably the biggest play of the game,” said Francona.
While the Padres beat up the Reds’ bullpen, San Diego’s relief pitchers were nearly perfect. The Reds collected nine of their 10 hits off starter Vasquez in the first 4 2/3 innings.
Four Padres bullpenners held the Reds to one lonely single and two walks over the final 4 1/3 innings. And one walk was a pitch-around.
Closer Robert Suarez, just back from a four-game suspension for his part in an on-the-field skirmish with the Los Angeles Dodgers, walked Friedl with one out in the ninth.
McLain hit a hard line drive to right that was caught, bringing up De La Cruz, the potential tying run. Suarez didn’t challenge him, preferring to face Spencer Steer as the possible walk-off winning run.
He walked De La Cruz to face Steer, the guy who hit three homers in Friday’s 8-1 win. He should have save one. Suarez owns a tracer fastball and struck out Steer on a 100 miles an hour fastball. Suarez earned his 23rd save, most in the majors.
NEXT GAME
Who: San Diego at Cincinnati
When: 1:40 p.m., Sunday, June 29
TV: FanDuel Sports
Radio: 1410-AM, 700-AM
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