Cincinnati Reds’ Bullpen Spoils John Lamb’s Gem in Loss to Cardinals

W: Jonathan Broxton (3-5)

L: J.J. Hoover (8-2)

SV: Trevor Rosenthal (47)

Cincinnati Reds have lead, bullpen blows lead. It’s something we’ve seen far too many times in 2015. It happened again on Monday night, as J.J. Hoover‘s eighth inning meltdown blew a Reds lead and allowed the St. Louis Cardinals to steal a win, 2-1.

The latest bullpen blow-up spoiled John Lamb‘s best career start. In six innings — the longest outing of his career — Lamb shut the Cardinals out, allowing only five hits and one walk while striking out six.

The only offense that the Reds were able to provide Lamb with came in the first inning. Jason Bourgeois led the game off with a walk and moved to second on a wild pitch. Joey Votto followed with a single to put runners at the corners and Brandon Phillips drove home the only Reds run of the game with a liner to right field.

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That would be the only run that Lamb would need. He didn’t allow a baserunner until the third inning, when opposing pitcher Jaime Garcia singled. The southpaw was sent out for the seventh inning, but was quickly taken out after giving up a leadoff double to Kolten Wong.

Manager Bryan Price then turned to Burke Badenhop, who retired the only hitter he faced on a fly out. Manny Parra then struck out Matt Holliday and got Matt Carpenter to fly out to center.

The bullpen didn’t fare as well in the eighth. Per usual, Hoover was called on for setup duty and allowed a triple to leadoff batter Tommy Pham. Two batters later, Jhonny Peralta singled to score Pham and just like that, the game was tied and Lamb’s chance at his second career win was gone. The speedy Peter Bourjos pinch ran for Peralta, which paid dividends for the Cardinals when Stephen Piscotty doubled. Bourjos scored all the way from first on the extra-base hit to give the home team a 2-1 lead.

The Reds mounted a threat in the ninth off of Trevor Rosenthal on singles by Phillips — his third hit of the game — and Todd Frazier, but they were left stranded.

Other Notes

With a sixth inning walk, Votto broke his own Reds record for walks in a season with 136.
No one outside of the top five hitters in the Reds lineup reached base, as Jay Bruce, Adam Duvall, Ramon Cabrera, and Lamb combined to go 0-for-12.
After the game, it was announced on Fox Sports Ohio that Billy Hamilton will be shut down for the remainder of the season and have surgery on his right shoulder on Friday.

Up Next: Keyvius Sampson will get the ball for the Reds in game two after having his last start skipped, opposed by John Lackey. First pitch is scheduled for 8:15 p.m. ET.

Next: Series preview: Reds vs. Cardinals

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