Iglesias fails again in non-save assignment, Reds lose, 5-1

By HAL McCOY

A pair of season-long bugaboos surfaced again for the Cincinnati Reds Wednesday night against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

ONE: Closer Raisel Iglesias is downright awful when he is asked to pitch in a non-save situation.

It was 1-1 when manager David Bell asked Iglesias to keep it there in the eighth inning. When the eighth ended, the Angels had scored four runs, including a three-run home run by Justin Bour.

TWO: The Reds are back in the funk of leaving runners in scoring position, abject failures in producing clutch hits. On Wednesday night they were 0 for 11 with runners in scoring position.

So after splicing together an uplifting six-game winning streak the Reds have suffered a debilitating four-game losing streak.

The Reds were facing 22-year-old Jaime Barrio, whom the Angels called up from Triple-A Salt Lake City to make the start.

He held the Reds to one run and three hits over five innings and walked none while striking out six.

The only damage the Reds did was Yasiel Puig’s 17th home run, leading off the fifth inning.

Tanner Roark matched Barria, giving up one run and four hits over 5 1/3 innings. The only damage done to Roark was a leadoff home run in the fifth inning by Justin Bour, the guy who hit the three-run homer off Iglesias in the eighth. That tied the game, 1-1.

—Here is the litany of stranded runners for the Reds:

—Jose Iglesias and Curt Casali led the third with back-to-back singles. Jose Peraza popped up a bunt attempt. Jesse Winker and Joey Votto struck out.

—Jesse Winker led the sixth with a double and moved to third on Joey Votto’s ground ball to first. Eugenio Suarez drilled one down the third base line, but David Fletcher speared it, held Winker at third, and threw out Suarez. Derek Dietrich lined out to first.

—Nick Senzel led the seventh with an infield hit and stole second, the potential go-ahead run. Yasiel Puig lined to center, Jose Iglesias popped to second, Curt Casali walked on four pitches. Jose Peraza lined to short. That’s two more stranded and the game stayed at 1-1.

—Joey Votto reached second with one out in the eighth when left fielder Justin Upton dropped his line drive down the line. Eugenio Suarez lined softly to first and Derek Dietrich struck out. Still 1-1.

That’s when Raisel Iglesias walked to the mound for the bottom of the eighth in a 1-1 game.

He walked Mike Trout on five pitches. Shohei Ohtani flicked an opposite-field single to left, putting runners on third and first with no outs.

Justin Upton grounded to third and Eugenio Suarez held Trout at third before throwing out Upton at first. Iglesias struck out Brian Goodwin for the second out.

He went to 3-and-2 on David Fletcher and shook off two signs from catcher Curt Casali. When he got the pitch he liked, Fletcher liked it, too, and drove it between third and short. Jose Iglesias stopped it in the outfield grass, but Trout scored from third to break the tie.

Bour broke it open with his second home run of the night, this one a three-run bolt into the right field bleachers to make it 5-1.

Roark was solid. He pitched out of a two-on situation in the first, struck out the side in the second and went 1-2-3 in the third.

It was evident, though, he was weakening in the fourth. He went to 3-and-2 on the last two hitters of the inning.

He was 3-and-2 on the first three hitters in the sixth. He struck out Trout on a full count, but walked by Ohtani and Upton on 3-and-2. His walked to Ohtani was Roark’s first walk in 91 batters.

Bell removed Roark at that juncture and Amir Garrett retired five of the six he faced, walking one. Then Garrett turned the ball over to Iglesias.

It was the Reds’ second straight 5-1 loss to the Angels in the two-game interleague series.

And to show how ineffective Iglesias has been in tie games, his record is 1-and-7, seven losses by a closer before the All-Star break.

After a day off Thursday, the Reds open a homestand Friday against the division-leading Chicago Cubs, a three-game weekend series.