By Hal McCoy
It is a familiar script written early in the season and it wasn’t written to favor the Cincinnati Reds.
When they need a big hit, a clutch hit, a game-turning hit, for the most part this season they just aren’t there.
It happened once again Saturday night during a 5-3 loss to the Chicago Cubs in Great American Ball Park.
All three Reds runs came on solo home runs. They had 10 other baserunners on eight hits and two walks and all 10 did nothing but leave footprints on the bases.
They were 0 for 8 with runners in scoring position and stranded eight.
The ninth-inning was indicative.
Down two runs, pinch-hitter Tyler Stephenson ripped the first pitch he saw into right field for a single. He then took second on a wild pitch.
Edwin Arroyo drilled one to deep right center, headed for the wall, but Cubs right fielder Seiya Suzuki made an extra-special running catch.
Stephenson took third after the catch, but pinch-hitter Noelvi Marte struck out.
Elly De La Cruz stole second, putting the potential tying runs on third and second with Sal Steward afforded the opportunity for baseball heroism.
But he grounded out to second to end it.
What was so frustrating for the Reds is that the Cubs have 13 pitchers on the injured list, so their bullpen is full of no-names.
Characters named Caleb Thielbar, Jacob Webb, Ryan Robison and Trent Thornton put men on base from the seventh through the ninth, but the Reds couldn’t score.
Over the last 23 games, Chicago’s bullpen has pitched to a 6.00 earned run average with seven blown saves.
They didn’t blow this one, although they tried.
If that frustration was not enough, the blister dilemma hit Reds starter Nick Lodolo again.
The Reds led, 2-1, when Lodolo began the sixth. He threw ball one to Cubs catcher Carson Kelly and then took a long look at his left index finger.
But he stayed in, threw ball two, then Kelly crushed a game-tying home run. And that’s when Lodolo left the game with a blister once again on his left forefinger.
“Frustration is extremely high,” he said. “We keep trying new things and I really thought what we were doing now that I was going to be in the clear, but obviously not.
“I gotta keep trying to figure it out, whether it is something to do or changing my grip or something. But, yeah, my frustration is really high.”
Lodolo described what transpired that led to Kelly’s game-tying home run.
“In warm-ups (before the sixth inning) I threw a pitch and I kinda felt it,” he said. “It didn’t seem to be anything so I threw those three pitches to Kelly.”
When Lodolo was asked if he thought about stopping when he looked at his finger after his 1-0 pitch, he said, “You know, you’re competing out there, you don’t want to think that that is what’s happening.
“I could feel it, but I looked at it and didn’t see anything. But after I threw that next one, I knew,” he said.
Indications that it was going to be one of those many nights surfaced in the first inning.
Elly De La Cruz singled and Sal Stewart reached on an error — runners on third and first, no outs. JJ Bleday took a called third strike and Spencer Steer hit into a double play.
It was instant replay in the third. TJ Friedl singled and De La Cruz singled — runners on second and first, no outs.
De La Cruz was picked off first base by Cubs starter Javier Assad and Stewart and Bleday both flied to center field.
They had runners on second and first with one out in the sixth, but Jose Trevino hit into a double play.
Then came the ninth — same type of scenario same results. Nothing.
The Reds took a 2-0 lead in the fourth when Nathaniel Lowe and Eugenio Suarez, two of the team’s biggest stragglers, hit back-to-back home runs.
The Cubs cut the deficit to 2-1 in the fifth after Lodolo retired the first two. But nine-hole hitter Miguel Amaya singled, Pete Crow-Armstrong walked and Seiya Suzuki singled to make it 2-1.
Then came Kelly’s game-tying home run that he, uh, blistered.
Lodolo was replaced by Calel Ferguson and he gave up a single to Michael Busch and a run-scoring double by Ian Happ to push the Cubs ahead, 3-2.
The Reds, though, tied it in bottom of the sixth. JJ Bleday picked on relief pitcher Drew Pomeranz’s first pitch and deposited it over the right field wall.
Julian Garcia pitched the seventh and walked Suzuki with one out.
That brought up Alec Bregman, 0 for 13 and a guy who was 0 for 4 with three strikeouts during Friday’s 4-0 Reds win.
He wiped his slate clean by pulling a two-run game-deciding home run into the left field seats.
Asked why his team constantly leaves runners in scoring position stranded, Reds manager Tito Francona really couldn’t furnish an answer.
“It’s different every time,” he said. “I don’t think there is just one formula. We had a really good chance in the first inning and we didn’t cash in.
“We also had some really good at bats and drilled three out of the ball park,” he added. “Arroyo laid into that ball (in the ninth) and I thought it was off the wall.
“When you don’t have a ton of opportunities and don’t cash in, it becomes more of a glare.”
For most of the season, that glare is blinding.