Friday Night Follies: Lights, Camera, Redlegs Loss

In what was the final series opener of the season, the Cincinnati Reds fell to the Pittsburgh Pirates 3-1 on Friday night.

The Reds have seemingly invented new ways to lose on a nightly basis in this incredibly forgettable 2014 season, and having balls lost in the lights can now be added to the list.

The Bats:

A quick glance at the final line and seeing just the lonely number one in the run column would lead you to believe the Reds offense was a miserable, raggedy old lady again on Friday. That assumption couldn’t be much further from the truth, considering there were only two innings all night long the Reds didn’t manage to get a hit.

Things started at the top, where Kristopher Negron was slotted in batting leadoff and playing third base. Although he would make a throwing error in the field, he would have a three-hit day at the top of the lineup, and drive in Cincinnati’s only run on a RBI base hit in the fifth inning off Pirates’ starter Vance Worley to tie the game at one.

The trio of Chris Heisey, Brandon Phillips, and Tucker Barnhart, all joined the multi-hit parade as well, spacing out the hits evenly throughout the lineup. Even with this efficiency from top to bottom, the only Red to score on a run was pitcher Mike Leake after his fifth inning double.

It was a nightmarish game for Jay Bruce, amongst a season that has been one gigantic, six-month long horror story. Going 0-for-4 at the plate with three strikeouts, he would also misplay a ball in the eighth inning, which gave the Bucs the lead they would never relinquish. He would go on to make a diving grab in the ninth inning, but the damage was already done.

The Arms:

Friday evening was Mike Leake’s final appearance on the mound in 2014 and it was quite the impressive outing. Going seven strong innings, Leake would allow only one run on three hits, walking two and striking out seven.

The only run that would cross the plate came off the bat of first baseman Gaby Sanchez, who laid into a first pitch fastball to begin the fifth inning and promptly deposited it into the Reds bullpen.

Leake received some help defensively from Tucker Barnhart, who gunned down both Starling Marte and Chase d’Arnaud on attempted steals. The combination of Leake and Barnhart worked well together, certainly posting a start worthy of a win, but as it has been on so many occasions in 2014, the offense just never came.

Based on the rules of baseball, someone has to lose each and every game that is played (unless we’re talking the 2003 All-Star Game here). Unfortunately, Pedro Villarreal is going to have a big ole “L” next to his name for this one, in which he was admittedly hit hard, but should have escaped.

Ahead of Josh Harrison 0-2 with two outs in the inning, the man that seems destined to win the batting title in the National League, slapped a pitch in the dirt into centerfield for a knock. After that, it was Travis Snider who smoked a sinking line drive out at Jay Bruce in right field, just for him to completely misplay it and have it go rolling by to the fence.

Andrew McCutchen would tag on a RBI double in the next at-bat, making it 3-1 Pittsburgh, a score that would not change again. There were no errors on the play, but for anyone that endured the trauma of Friday night’s eighth inning, they will know that that one short frame was a microcosm of all that has gone wrong with the Redlegs this season.

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Next up for the Redlegs is a Saturday afternoon matinee, which will be televised nationally on Fox Sports 1 as Francisco Liriano gets the ball for Pittsburgh, as the Reds hand the ball to Alfredo Simon. The game will begin at 1:10 p.m. down at Great American Ball Park.