Stay close and the Arizona bullpen will find a way to give it away.
The Diamondbacks have blown 39 leads this season, the most in MLB, and 33 have come after the seventh inning.
They nearly did it again Friday after taking a 4-2 lead into the sixth and a 4-3 lead into the eighth. The Reds tied it, 4-4, in the eighth.
But in the end, it was the Reds blowing themselves into another excruciating loss.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Reds manager Tito Francona was not in a jocular or talkative mood when he met the media for his post-game dissection of what occurred.
Asked if games like Friday’s were hard to flush from the memory, Francona told reporters, “I don’t know, a loss is a loss and they all hurt.
“When they end like this, it’s a little fresher when you guys (media) get in here. That part is a little harder, but we better flush it quickly because we got another game tomorrow at 4:10. But we will.”
The two teams exchanged single runs in the 10th, but the Reds didn’t score in the 11th and the D’Backs walked it off in the bottom of the 11th.
With the scored 5-5 and ghost runner Corbin Carroll on second, the inning lasted two pitches. Scott Barlow, Cincinnati’s eighth pitcher, delivered his second pitch to Lourdes Gurriell Jr. and he lined it to left field for Arizona’s walk-off win.
Earlier in the evening, the New York Mets beat the Atlanta Braves, so the Reds fell back to 1 1/2 games behind the Mets for the third wild card spot.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
The 10th and 11th innings were eventful on both sides, negatively for the Reds and positively for the D’Backs.
In the top of the 10th with ghost runner Ke’Bryan Hayes on second, Jose Trevino bunted. Arizona pitcher John Curtiss fielded it and winged it past the first baseman, enabling Hayes to score.
Matt McLain bunted Trevino to third. With one out, TJ Friedl lifted a medium-depth foul fly down the right field line. Trevino tagged and tried to score, but right fielder Corbin Carroll threw him out, ending the inning.
“Yeah, he’s a good player,” Francona said, referring to Carroll. “I was fighting myself, ‘Do we run for Trevino?’ I didn’t think that was fair to put the kid in the 10th inning trying to catch (pitcher) Graham (Ashcraft).”
He was referring to rookie catcher Will Banfield, just called up a couple of days ago and has yet to make his MLB debut.
In the bottom of the 10th Arizona ghost runner Alek Thomas was on third with one out.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
What followed was a classic battle between Reds pitcher Graham Ashcraft and Arizona’s Ketel Marte. It lasted 13 pitches because Marte fouled off eight. On the 13th pitch he tied it, 5-5, with a soft single to center.
Friedl was Cincinnati’s ghost runner in the 11th and became involved in a double play for the second time in two innings.
He took third on Miguel Andujar’s grounder to first. Elly De La Cruz lined one to shortstop. Instead of making certain the ball eluded the shortstop, Friedl wandered too far off third and after catching the ball, shortstop Geraldo Peralta snapped a throw to third to double off Friedl, ending the inning without the Reds scoring.
Then came the fatal two-pitch bottom of the 11th, a win for Arizona when all the numbers were stacked against them.
They had played 40 one-run games and lost 24. They were 5-9 in extra-inning games. But Cincinnati’s numbers are not much better — 16-19 in one-run games and 3-9 in extra-inning games.
It was a big off-night for Reds starter Zack Littell. He had zero command of his pitches and lasted only three innings.
He gave up a run in the first, the Reds grabbed a 2-1 lead in the second, but then Gabe Moreno happened.
He was playing his first game after missing two months with a finger injury. And he celebrated his return with a three-run homer in the third to give Arizona a 4-2 lead.
“I thought from the first pitch of the game (a ball far outside the strike zone) that it was a battle for him (Littell),” said Francona. “He was bobbing and weaving. He left a breaking ball up for that three-run homer and that was the biggest damage.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
“Any time you see a pitch count that high (71 in three innings) that early, it’s not going the way you want it to,” he added.
The Diamondbacks had lost the last four games started by Ryan Nelson, but after giving up two runs in the second, he retired 11 straight.
Then Elly De La Cruz happened ... twice.
Nelson struck him out twice, then De La Cruz led the sixth with a sprint triple and scored on a ground ball by Austin Hayes, cutting Arizona’s lead to 4-3.
With two outs in the eighth, pinch-hitter Miguel Andujar doubled and De La Cruz poked an opposite field single to right, tying it, 4-4.
And the Reds had the D’Backs right where they wanted them, but the D’Backs slithered away.
Once again the Reds were guilty of abandoning runners in scoring position, a 2 for 10 night.
NEXT GAME
Who: Cincinnati at Arizona
When: 8:10 p.m., Saturday, Aug. 23
TV: FanDuel Sports
Radio: 1410-AM, 700-AM
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