By HAL McCOY
CINCINNATI — It isn’t healthy for baseball teams playing the Arizona Diamondbacks to do the following:
—Permit the D-Backs to fall behind early. They lead the majors with 30 come-from-behind wins.
—Go into extra innings against them because they were 7-and-1 in overtime before Wednesday’s game against the Cincinnati Reds.
—Get involved in one-run games because the D-Backs were 18-and-13 in one-run decisions.
The Reds challenged all three Wednesday and lived to not only win the game, 4-3, but to unbind themselves from a five-game losing streak.
They came back from an early-game two-run deficit, they took the game into extra innings and they won by one run.
ADAM DUVALL POKED A one-out bases-loaded single into right field in the 11th inning to give the Reds the walk-off victory.
It all began in the 11th with Billy Hamilton’s one-out single, his third hit. Zack Cozart then drove one to deep center — a game-winner. No, it bounced over the wall for a ground rule double and Hamilton, who would have scored, had to stop at third. It was Cozart’s fourth hit after he had three hits Tuesday and he homered in both games.
With runners on third and second and one out, Arizona took no chances at facing Joey Votto and walked him intentionally.
Duvall then grabbed redemption. He had a chance to win it in the ninth with two on and two out but struck out.
COZART LAUGHED HEARTILY after the game when somebody said he was robbed of a game-winning hit when his ball bounced over the wall and he said, “That was bad luck there, just pure bad luck.”
But Duvall came through.
“That was a much, much-needed win for us, obviously,” said Cozart. “Tim Adleman (starting pitcher) pitched great and then we scraped it out at the end.”
Of his continued success, Cozart added, “I feel pretty good, yeah. I went through a little stretch where I wasn’t getting too many hits. The difference for me this year is I am walking way more than ever before. That makes those little mini-slumps not so bad.
“It has been a rough and tough start to the second half for the team so to hear those sirens go off after the game and music in the clubhouse is great.”
THERE IS NO SUBTLENESS to the talk that Cozart may be gone within a couple of weeks, gone via trade.
“Zack has been great, just great,” said manager Bryan Price. “We all know there has been a lot of scrutiny going around and things swirling. However, what a pro. What an approach — barrel on the ball and he has been hitting good pitching. He isn’t getting the second guys, he is getting their top starters and their best bullpen guys.”
And Duvall?
“He threw me two good pitches (Arizona relief pitcher T.J. McFarland). “He put them down in the zone, but I put a good swing on it so I feel pretty good about it. I was scuffling tonight for a little bit. In that situation I knew they ‘d walk Joey so I had to be ready to hit and I felt like I was.”
THE REDS TOOK A 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first when Billy Hamilton singled, stole second for his 40th theft, then scored on Zack Cozart’s single.
Arizona tied it in third on double by Jeff Mathis and a single by David Peralta.
The Reds, though, took a 3-1 lead with runs in the fourth and fifth. Cozart homered in the third, his second homer in two games, and Tucker Barnhart’s single scored Scooter Gennett in the fourth to give the Reds a 3-1 lead.
Reds starter Tim Adleman, trying to protect the two-run lead, had two outs with nobody on in the fifth. But David Peralta homered, A.J. Pollock singled and Jake Lamb doubled and suddenly it was 3-3.
Arizona starter Zack Greinke, trying for his 12th win, needed 104 pitches to get through five innings in the 91-degree heat and was gone. He gave up three runs, eight hits, walked three and struck out three.
Adleman made it through six and held the Diamondbacks to three runs seven hits, didn’t walk anybody and struck out seven.
From there, the bullpens took over for both teams and were perfection through 10 innings. The Reds were perfect through 11. Wandy Peralta followed Adleman with 1 1/3 scoreless innings (one hit). Raisel Iglesias followed Peralta with 1 2/3 scoreless and hitless innings with one walk and three strikeouts. Michael Lorenzen finished it off with two scoreless innings and was the winning pitcher, pushing his record to 5-and-2.