By HAL McCOY
If Cincinnati Reds manager Bryan Price has a piece paper in his desk, diagramming how to use his pitching staff, it was followed to the last comma and last period Tuesday night.
What he wants these days, with the Reds short of quality starting pitchers because three of his best are on the disabled list, is to get five good innings from his starter.
Then, if he has a lead, he can turn it over to Michael Lorenzen and Raisel Iglesias.
AND THAT IS EXACTLY how it played out Tuesday night against the New York Yankees in a 5-3 victory.
Starter Tim Adleman held the Yankees to three runs over five innings, Lorenzen pitched two scoreless innings and Iglesias closed it out, albeit shakily, for a scoreless two-inning save.
Iglesias is 6 for 6 in saves and four have been more than one inning.
AND THE REDS STUFFED all their offense into one inning, scoring all five runs on six singles in the second inning.
They had only two other hits and all eight hits were singles. After the five-run second inning, they had a single by Billy Hamilton in the sixth and he was out at second trying to stretch it into a double. And Devin Mesoraco was credited with a single in the eighth after center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury dropped his fly ball after a long run.
The Reds singled Yankees starter CC Sabathia to death in the second inning.
THEY WERE DOWN 2-0 after Adleman gave up an upper deck 448-foot home run to Gary Sanchez in the first and a home run to Didi Gregorius in the second.
The Reds’ second began with back-to-back singles by Scott Schebler and Jose Peraza. Devin Mesoraco drew a walk to fill the bases with no outs.
Adleman struck out, but Billy Hamilton, a .400 hitter with the bases loaded, drilled a two-run single to left field to tie it, 2-2.
Zack Cozart singled to reload the bases and Joey Votto singled to center on a 1-and-2 pitch for two more runs and a 4-2 lead. The fifth run scored on Adam Duvall’s single.
And that was it. And that was enough.
ADLEMAN GAVE UP A run in the fourth when Starlin Castro doubled and Gregorius singled.
Adleman left after five, giving up three runs, five hits, two walks and he struck out six. The native of State Island, N.Y. lifted his record to 2-and-1 after he was called up from Class AAA Louisville to replace injured Brandon Finnegan.
Lorenzen took over in the sixth and retired the first two Yankees, then ran into trouble. He walked Aaron Judge, Gregorius singled for his third hit and Lorenzen hit Chris Carter with a pitch to fill the bases.
He escaped, though, when he coaxed a ground ball fielder’s choice from Ronald Torreyes to end the inning
IGLESIAS TOOK OVER IN the eighth and gave up a one-out single to Judge then retired the next two.
It got scary for the Reds in the ninth when he issued two straight one-out walks, putting the potential tying runs on base.
It ended quickly, though, when Sanchez lined out to third baseman Eugenio Suarez and his snap throw to second base doubled off Aaron Hicks to end the game.
So after losing Monday, 10-4, to the Yankees, the Reds split the series and ended New York’s five-game winning streak.