Reds fans are furious at the wrong man after Emilio Pagán’s latest disaster

Cincinnati Reds fans directed their anger at reliever Emilio Pagán after the team's 5-1 loss to the Chicago White Sox on Tuesday night, but he's hardly the (only) one who's to blame. If we're being honest, this loss falls at the feet of so many others, not the least of which is manager Terry Francona.

Francona has burned through the Reds bullpen over the past few weeks — though some of that has been out of necessity. Chase Petty's poor performances, coupled with a Nick Lodolo clunker earlier this month and a horrid start from Brady Singer over the weekend, along with injuries to Hunter Greene, Carson Spiers, and others have left the Reds bullpen out of gas.

On Tuesday night, the Reds (inexplicably) trailed the White Sox 1-0 for the majority of the game. Francona turned to his normally reliable trio of Graham Ashcraft in the seventh, Tony Santillan in the eighth, and Pagán in the ninth. Those three combined to allow three hits and no runs through three innings. But disaster struck in the 10th inning after Francona sent Pagán back out to the hill.

Reds fans should be pointing the finger at Terry Francona and Nick Krall after Emilio Pagán’s latest disaster

This was the first time all season that Francona had asked Pagán to go more than one inning, and it didn't work. After back-to-back outs to start the inning, Pagán walked Matt Thaiss and then allowed an RBI single to Chase Meidroth. The next batter, Miguel Vargas, hit a three-run homer to break the game wide open. Pagán was then lifted in favor of Luis Mey who got the final out of the inning.

The question needs to be asked — why didn't Tito go with Mey to start the inning? After throwing just 14 pitches on Saturday in Houston, the Reds' flamethrower didn't pitch on Sunday and enjoyed the off-day on Monday. Prior to that, Mey hadn't toed the rubber since Thursday against the Atlanta Braves.

Sending Pagán back out for the 10th inning was the wrong decision, and every Reds fan knows it. Be honest for just one second, if former Reds manager David Bell was in the Cincinnati dugout last night instead of Francona, you'd be calling for him to be fired this morning.

If David Bell was still managing the Reds, fans would be screaming for him to be fired

But the problem goes beyond Francona; this is an organizational issue. Francona revealed that he apologized to the team for leaning so heavily on the bullpen during the team's road trip in Houston, saying that the organization didn't want to send any of the relievers down because they'd been pitching so well. That level of loyalty is admirable, however, it may be a penny wise, but a pound foolish.

As a result of not wanting to derail the confidence of Mey or Lyon Richardson — the only relievers other than Ashcraft with minor-league options — the Reds put themselves in a pickle once again.

While Yosver Zulueta and Alexis Diaz may not be the answer for this exhausted Reds bullpen, maybe Zach Maxwell, Reiver Sanmartin, or Albert Abreu would be. Ian Gibaut is working his way back from an injury, as is Sam Moll. If the Reds bullpen is that taxed, it's time to make some wholesale changes in order to give some of these players a break.

It's also worth mentioning that the Reds chose to push back Andrew Abbott's start from Sunday to Tuesday and rolled with Petty instead. Cincinnati then burned through four relievers on Sunday after using six on Saturday. Whoever made the decision to go with Petty over Abbott this past weekend also has some explaining to do.

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