Cincinnati Reds’ Bullpen (Management) Fails Again in 7-3 Loss to Cubs

61. . 7. 9. 3

W: Jason Motte (1-0)

L: Burke Badenhop (0-1)

Poor management and a failure to come up with a big hit doomed the Cincinnati Reds again, as they went 0-for-14 with runners in scoring position on Friday night en route to their third extra inning loss of the season, this time to the Cubs, 7-3.

The 10th inning was particularly frustrating, as Skip Schumaker led off with a single and Bryan Price then chose to have Billy Hamilton bunt, taking the bat out of Joey Votto‘s hands. As you can probably guess, the Cubs intentionally walked Votto and managed to get out of the inning with the game still tied at three.

In the next inning, Burke Badenhop continued his dismal start to the season, giving up four runs in the top of the 11th inning and taking the loss. Considering Badenhop’s terrible start to the season, it seemingly would’ve made more sense to let Tony Cingrani pitch in that situation, but for the 10th straight day, the left-hander was nowhere to be found.

The Reds managed to get some early runs, getting their first two on RBI groundouts from Votto and Brandon Phillips to take an early two-run lead off of the Cubs’ ace Jon Lester.

Anthony Rizzo‘s two-run home run in the fourth tied the game at two, but the Reds were able to grab the lead right back after Zack Cozart‘s sacrifice fly brought home Marlon Byrd in the bottom of the fourth inning.

Reds’ starter Mike Leake gave up the lead again in the seventh on a solo home run by Chris Coghlan. A crazy stat: after tonight, Coghlan is now 9-for-11 against Leake in his career with two home runs. Coghlan went 1-for-3 against the Reds’ starter tonight and those two outs were the first two times that the Cubs’ left fielder has ever been retired by Leake.

Overall, Leake pitched pretty well, throwing seven innings while allowing three runs on four hits with a walk and nine strikeouts.

Other Notes:

Hamilton had a big night with two hits, three stolen bases, and two runs scored. He was robbed of a hit by Addison Russell in his third AB. Per usual, Hamilton also made a couple of nice plays in the field.
Devin Mesoraco appeared in the game as a pinch hitter in the seventh inning and struck out.
Byrd managed to raise his average to .150 with a 2-for-5 day. Both of his multi-hit games this season have come against Lester and the Cubs.

Up Next: The Reds are back in action tomorrow afternoon at 1:10 p.m. ET. Anthony DeSclafani (2-0, 0.86 ERA) gets the start against Jake Arrieta (2-1, 1.74 ERA).

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