The Cincinnati Reds and Colorado Rockies staged a weird series finale today with a missed base, a lost fly ball and wild pitch that turned into an out.
The game had a familiar feel as well as the maligned Reds bullpen blew a three-run lead in the eighth inning, but Cincinnati’s Tucker Barnhart plated Brandon Phillips with a walkoff single in the bottom of the ninth to lift the Reds to a 6-5 victory and series win before 12,979 at Great American Ball Park.
The fluke happenings began in the seventh when Colorado’s Dustin Garneau couldn’t find third base while rounding it on a pinch-hit single by Ryan Raburn that appeared to tie the game.
After Garneau scored, Reds manager Bryan Price went to the mound to take out starter Raisel Iglesias and bring in reliever Blake Wood. The first thing Wood did upon entering the game was make an appeal throw to third, and umpire Adrian Johnson called Garneau out to preserve the Reds’ 3-2 lead.
The Reds built a 3-0 lead on back-to-back home runs by Jay Bruce and Adam Duvall in the second inning. But Colorado closed within 3-2 on a Carlos Gonzalez RBI double and Gerardo Parra RBI single in the fourth, which was the only inning in which starter Raisel Iglesias struggled during his best outing of the season.
Cincinnati added two runs in the bottom of the seventh after Colorado left fielder Ben Paulsen lost Adam Duvall’s fly ball in the sun with two outs and Tucker Barnhart and Ivan De Jesus followed with RBI doubles.
But Wood gave up a single and walk to start the eighth, and Tony Cingrani surrendered a pair of a walks, a run-scoring fielder’s choice and a two-run double by Paulsen to knot the game at 5-5.
Cingrani appeared to send in the go-ahead run with a wild pitch, but the ball caromed hard off the wall and right to Barnhart, freezing Rockies baserunner Mark Reynolds and making him an easy out at third.
Iglesias went 6 2/3 innings, allowing two runs on five hits with eight strikeouts and a walk in the no decision.
Ross Ohlendorf (3-2) pitched a perfect eighth to get the win.
Colorado’s Christian Bergman (0-3) gave up three hits in the bottom of the ninth to take the loss.
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