Folly Filled 8th Inning Dooms Reds

May 17, 2013; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Cingrani reacts to giving up a home run to Jimmy Rollins during the 3rd inning at Citizens Bank Park. (Photo: Howard Smith-USA TODAY Sports)

When you get behind early, come back to tie it, then the bottom drops out. Kinda deflating, isn’t it? That’s exactly what happened to the Good Guys this evening.

Tony Cingrani surrendered a two-run homer to Jimmy Rollins in the 3rd and a triple to Michael Young scoring Cliff Lee in the 5th.  The Phillies held a 3-0 lead after 5 innings of play.

If this was indeed Cingrani’s last start as a member of the Reds rotation, it wasn’t his finest. Wasn’t a horrible outing by any means, but it appears that the word is out about pitch selection and all that other stuff. Five home runs allowed in his last three outings encompassing 15 innings pitched. I think the league has caught up…for now.

Jay Bruce got the Reds on the board in the top of the 6th with his own two-run home run off Lee bringing the Reds to within 3-2. The blast would be Jay’s 4th round-tripper of 2013. Joey Votto would tie it in the top of the 8th with a solo shot, his 5th of the season.

Then the shenanigans commenced in the Phillies half of the 8th. All went their way.

With one out, Sean Marshall got ahead of Michael Young with an 0-2 count. Young would work a walk out of Marshall after a 10-pitch at-bat.

The real chicanery was to follow as Marshall would face Ryan Howard. The ball Howard hit was nubbed to the left side of the mound. Marshall couldn’t get the ball out of his glove and all hands were safe. It was ruled an infield hit.

Seriously? Howard would have beat that even if Marshall fields it cleanly? Not a chance.

Great. Two on with only one out. Marshall was removed for Jonathan Broxton to face Delmon Young.

First pitch and Broxton nailed Young. Bases loaded and nary a ball went past the mound.

Domonic Brown grounded up the middle of the infield. Zack Cozart would field the ball, but flipped it awkwardly to Brandon Phillips, who was charged with an error. Michael Young scored to giver Philly a 4-3 lead. To this point, Brown’s ball was the hardest ball hit that was in play.

Not done. Still one out and bases still loaded. Carlos Ruiz filed one to Shin-Soo Choo. Choo caught the ball and fired toward the plate as Ryan Howard was coming home. It was a close play and Howard was called safe by home plate umpire Marty Foster. From Foster’s actions, it looked as if he ruled that Howard got his hand on the plate before Ryan Hanigan applied the tag.

Multiple looks on replay were, to me, inconclusive. You could make an argument that Hanigan blocked the corner of the plate which Howard was trying to cross. You could say that Howard did get a piece of the plate prior to being blocked by Hanigan. If he did then, it was an awfully small piece.

Now the ball hit by Ruiz was the hardest ball hit in the Philles 8th. It was the only one that left the infield and two runs were pushed across.

So…a walk, an infield hit that should have been ruled an error, a HBP, an error, a sacrifice fly which led to a hotly contested call by Hanigan and Dusty led to a pair of runs.

Phillies 5, Reds 3.

And the Reds fanbase lets out a huge collective sigh…

An afternoon affair tomorrow and the big boys at Fox will have it. 4:05 PM ET is the start.