FRIDAY’S GAME
Brewers at Reds, 7:10 p.m., FS Ohio, 700, 1410
Cincinnati Reds manager Bryan Price was a bit dismayed to hear his bullpen’s stretch of 22 straight games with a run allowed referred to simply as “The Streak” in a pregame interview Thursday.
No one talked about the stretch of futility until this week when the bullpen challenged and then broke the all-time baseball record. Now no one’s going to stop talking about it until a Reds starter throws a complete game or the bullpen gets through a game without allowing a run.
“It would be nice to go out there and have a great start and have one or two guys shut the door,” Price said, “so we don’t have to talk about it anymore.”
The streak almost ended Wednesday in a 7-3 victory over the San Francisco Giants. Ross Ohlendorf got two outs to start the ninth inning but then allowed back-to-back doubles.
Ohlendorf got the win April 10 with a scoreless ninth inning in the last game in which the bullpen didn’t allow a run. Here are five more facts about the streak:
- The bullpen has a 7.58 ERA in 78 1/3 innings in the 22 games. That's 66 runs in 22 games, or three runs per game.
- J.J. Hoover and Caleb Cotham have allowed runs in five games during the streak. Here's the tally for the other relievers: Ohlendorf (4); Blake Wood (4); Tony Cingrani (4); Drew Hayes (3); Jumbo Diaz (3); JC Ramirez (2); Tim Melville (2); and Keyvius Sampson (1).
- Entering the start of a four-game series against the Brewers on Thursday at Great American Ball Park, the Reds were still eight games away from tying the 2003 Cleveland Indians for a different record. That bullpen allowed runs in 30 straight games in which a reliever appeared, but a complete game by Jake Westbrook broke up the streak into runs of 14 and 16 games with at least one run allowed.
- The bullpen has allowed multiple runs in all but three of the 22 games.
- Reds relievers have allowed 20 home runs in the 22 games. By comparison, the team with the best ERA in baseball, the Chicago Cubs (2.32), has allowed 17 home runs all season in 26 games, and that number includes their starters. The New York Mets lead baseball in fewest home runs allowed (12 in 26 games).
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