Game 51: Reds Squander Chance for Series Win, Fall in 18

The Reds blew late leads of 6-5, 7-6 and 9-7 (the latter in extra innings) and fell to the Padres, 12-9 in eighteen frames Sunday afternoon and evening.

http://scores.espn.go.com/mlb/boxscore?gameId=280525125

The box and further details are above, but needless to say the game started with frustration (another poor start from the increasingly-overmatched Matt Belisle), continued into elation with multiple comebacks and solid hitting (two-run homer from Adam Dunn, tiebreaking homer from Brandon Phillips that should have ended it). Now all that's left is disappointment and worry, because Aaron Harang pitched four relief innings on two days' rest and Edinson Volquez took the loss pitching an inning and two-thirds on just a day's rest.

Really, once Bill Bray was used and the bullpen was empty, Harang and Volquez were the logical next options, short of pitching Cueto as the long-term reliever for today and calling up someone from Louisville to start Tuesday. A manager quickly runs out of options when the starter only goes four and a third and the game ends up going eighteen. Seeing Harang throw sixty-three pitches three days after throwing 103 is distressing as hell, though, and Volquez threw thirty-nine just two days after throwing ninety-one can't be good for a young arm.

Double-switching Adam Dunn out of the game in the ninth obviously turned out to be a dumb move, because he's been hot and it removed one of the only currently hot bats from the lineup. If Dusty thought Francisco Cordero was going to have no issues closing it out, he shouldn't have double-switched him into the game in the first place, because if he had closed the door in the ninth it would have been a moot point. It was hard not to smell trouble for Cordero as soon as he entered the game; he warmed up for about an hour before getting into a non-save opportunity last night, and had also pitched Friday. He gave up the tying run in the ninth, but pitched a scoreless tenth.

Then came the eleventh, when the Reds got two across to make it 9-7. Ballgame over, right? Well, no; the last arms in the bullpen were Josh Fogg and Bill Bray. Dusty went with Fogg and away went the lead, with Bray having to come in to clean up the mess. As horrible as Fogg has been, why not go with Bray to begin with? Hindsight is 20/20, but that's a no-brainer. At the time I had thought Bray pitched Friday, giving him three straight days with appearances, but now that I look at his game log he pitched Thursday and Saturday, but not Friday. I know Bray has been a roller-coaster ride, either great or awful, but with Fogg you have no doubt what you're getting: awful.

Once the Padres scored two to send it to the twelfth, things settled down. The Reds threatened in the seventeenth, but Paul Bako was the only bat left and of course he took two perfect strikes before whiffing. The Padres were pitching their AAA bullpen and the Reds couldn't scatch one across for seven innings. Of course, when the only threats in the lineup at the time were Griffey, Phillips and Votto, it gets pretty easy to pitch around them to get to the easier outs.

I'll stop now because it's hard not to be venomous when your team just lost in 18 innings. The Reds had a shot to get three of four in San Diego and come away with a 3-4 road trip, a miracle after the disastrous LA series (that's a yearly tradition unlike any other), but instead end up 2-5. They're now 23-28 on the season. Thank God there's a day off tomorrow, because the entire bullpen and 40% of the rotation pitched today. Johnny Cueto is slated to get the ball Tuesday against the Pittsburghers. Ian Snell goes for the Bucs. Game time 7:10 Eastern, 4:10 here in Carnitas Burrito Land. I've been watching baseball for nine hours. I'm going to go play some Wii or something. Peace!