McCoy: Diamondbacks hammer Reds 10-1, fall further behind Mets in wild-card race

When a team’s so-called stopper is involved in a 10-1 loss, it doesn’t bode well for the immediate future.

That’s what happened to Andrew Abbott and the Cincinnati Reds Saturday night in Chase Park.

Abbott was attacked by the Arizona Diamondbacks for seven runs and eight hits in four innings that included a pair of two-run home runs.

It added up to a third straight defeat for the Reds and the red tail lights of the New York Mets are fast disappearing. With the Reds’ loss and a New York win in Atlanta, Cincinnati trails New York by 2 1/2 games in the wild card chase.

Abbott retired the first two Diamondbacks on three pitches, but his next 21 pitches in the first inning resulted in three runs.

Offensively, the Reds continue to leave runners hugging bases when they are in scoring position. On Saturday they were 1 for 8 and they are 5 for 27 during their three-game losing streak.

Twice early in the game they put their first two runners on base but didn’t score.

After giving up three runs in the first, Abbott gave up two in the third on a two-run home run by Lourdes Gurriel Jr. after a throwing error by shortstop Elly De La Cruz, his MLB-leading 18th error.

Geraldo Perdomo hit a two-run homer in the fourth to make it 7-0. The seven runs are the most ever given up by Abbott and his earned run average continued to creep upward, now at 2.62.

“Uncharacteristically, Abbott threw a lot of pitches that were just catching the middle and kind of thigh-high up, way more than we’re used to watching him,” Reds manager Tito Francona told reporters after the game.

“He threw enough strikes, he got strikeouts (six), but there were just a lot of misses that he is not normally doing,” he added.

Credit: AP

Credit: AP

After getting the first two outs on three pitches, Abbott had two strikes on Corbin Carroll and he doubled. He had two strikes on Gurriel and he singled home Carroll.

He had two strikes on Gabriel Moreno and he doubled home the second run and Blaze Alexander singled home the third run.

“Yeah, I just left pitches over the middle of the plate,” said Abbott. “They put good swingS on them. Other than that, I didn’t do well executing with two strikes. You do that, you’re gonna pay for it.”

And the cost is inflating more and more each day. Abbott, though, insists it isn’t time to punch in 9-1-1.

Asked about the fading wild card chances, he said, “We’re not really worried about that. We’re not scoreboard-watching. We’re just trying to go out and play as well as we can.

“We’re not going to win‘em all, we know that,” he added. “We’re going to try to control what we can. Tonight was not our night and we’ll try to chalk that up, turn the page and come ready to play tomorrow.”

There are fewer and fewer pages to turn in that book, only 32 games remaining.

With the Diamondbacks playing ‘Stomp the Reds,’ Francona was able to give two rookies their first dose of big league activity.

Zach Maxwell, 6-foot-6, 195-pound right-hander they call ‘Big Sugar,’ followed Abbott in the fifth inning and pitched two innings.

Five of the six outs he recorded were strikeouts, but he also gave up a home run to Blake Alexander and a single. But he became only the third relief pitcher in Reds history to record five strikeouts in two innings.

On a night when the Diamondbacks laid out 14 hits, seven for extra bases, Francona gave only faint praise for what he saw on the field.

About Maxwell’s debut, he said, “Yeah, I wish we were up by eight instead of down by eight (actually seven) when I put him in. I thought he threw the ball pretty good, for the most part.

“The home run? He probably supplied the power,” added Francona, knowing he threw pitches at Triple-A Louisville clocked at 103 miles per hour and 102. In his debut he hit 101 a couple of times.