Rinse, Repeat: Cincinnati Reds Bullpen Gives Up Lead, Game to Indians, 8-7

Another game, another Cincinnati Reds bullpen debacle.

Reds offense has five-run inning in middle of game to take lead. Reds bullpen then gives up lead in ninth. Rinse. Repeat. It’s become almost a nightly occurrence to see the bullpen surrender a lead late in the game, and Wednesday was no different as the Cleveland Indians tied it at seven in the ninth and won it in the 12th on a Francisco Lindor solo home run off Keyvius Sampson.

Bullpen Almost Holds the Lead

It looked as if the bullpen might get through an entire game without giving up the lead, but rest assured, that was not the case. Tony Cingrani came in for the save in the ninth, walked a batter and gave up the tying home run to Rajai Davis, who is making a serious bid for the Ohio Cup’s Most Outstanding Player.

Jumbo Diaz, in his first appearance since April 18, relieved Brandon Finnegan and got the last out of the sixth. He walked two in the seventh, but escaped after allowing only one run on a groundout. Ross Ohlendorf pitched a 1-2-3 eighth and struck out two batters in the process. J.C. Ramirez and Caleb Cotham both worked scoreless frames in the 10th and 11th.

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Jay Bruce Breaks a Record

After going 8-for-16 on the short road trip, Bruce maintained his hot hitting on Wednesday. With a solo home run in the fourth, he surpassed Adam Dunn as the all-time leader with 127 home runs at Great American Ball Park. He hit a solo home run in the eighth for his second multi-HR game of the season and 19th of his career.

As impressive as the home runs were, more impressive is the opposite field single in the sixth, which extended the inning for Eugenio Suarez. It’s good to see Bruce choking up on the bat with two strikes and when he uses the entire field, it just makes him that much more dangerous.

Sixth Inning Struggles for Finnegan

Finnegan looked to be on his way to a quality start. Aside from a sacrifice fly in the first and solo home run he gave up to Davis in the third, Finnegan was pitching decently through five innings. He also had a 1-2-3 fourth inning, the first time since the seventh inning on Sunday that a Reds pitcher had a perfect inning.

Then the sixth happened. Jason Kipnis led off with a double that Billy Hamilton almost caught in left center field. Two batters later, Suarez committed that error on an easy play at third to let a run score. Finnegan was out of sync after that. He got behind to a couple of batters and allowed two singles before exiting the game. He finished with six strikeouts and zero walks in 5 2/3 innings, giving up eight hits and three earned runs.

Next: A look inside Zack Cozart's hot start

Notes:

• Suarez committed an error on an easy play at third base that allowed a run to score in the sixth. He made up for it in the bottom of the inning with a 3-run home run to give the Reds a 6-4 lead. Of course, the Reds could not hold that lead, but it was a nice moment when it happened.
• Joey Votto looked terrible in his first two at-bats that resulted in two strikeouts against Indians rookie pitcher Mike Clevinger, but bounced back with a two-run double in the sixth. If you were worried about Votto’s hitting, please don’t. He’ll be fine.
• Zack Cozart went 3-for-5 with a run scored and raised his average to .322. His OBP may not be as high as a lead-off hitter’s should be, but his OPS is over .800 and that’s a good thing. Let’s get the #VoteZack campaign going, shall we?