By Hal McCoy
It was an eventful night in Great American Ball Park, but nothing positive for the Cincinnati Reds.
The Reds were shut out, 5-0, by the San Diego Padres. And San Diego Padres third baseman Manny Machado nearly out hit the Reds by himself.
Machado produced a four-hit night, one less than the entire Reds lineup as the Padres outhit the Reds 15-5.
The Padres arrived at GABP after getting swept three games by the Tampa Bay Rays and had lost four of five.
The events?
Reds starting pitcher Brady Singer was hit on the left forearm with one out in the third inning, a 107 miles an hour line drive off the bat of Fernando Tatis Jr.
It raised a baseball-sized welt and the ball left its stitch mark on Singer’s arm.
He finished the inning, leaving the score 0-0, but when he went back out for the fourth the Padres assaulted him for six straight hits — five singles and a double that produced four runs.
And there was a near tragedy before the start of the fifth. Home plate umpire Manny Gonzalez collapsed. It was heat exhaustion from the 90° temperature with no breeze.
He left the game and D.J. Rayburn replaced him behind the plate. Gonzalez’s collapse reminded many of Opening Day of 1996 when on the game’s seventh pitch home plate umpire John McSherry suffered a heart attack and died.
It was trhe 15th time the Reds have been shut out, tying Pittsburgh for the most in MLB, and the 33rd time they’ve lost by five or more runs.
The Reds had San Diego starter Michael King staggering early, but couldn’t break through.
Hector Rodriguez led the firsrt inning with a double and took third on a one-out double by Sal Stewart. But JJ Bleday grounded hard to first and Tyler Stephenson struck out.
King issued a pair of two-out walks in the third, but Eugenio Suarez grounded to short.
San Diego center fielder Jackson Merrill was a robber without a mask.
After Rodriguez’s inning-opening single in the first, Ella De La Cruz drove one to the center field wall and Merrill leaped above the yellow line to snag it.
One hit by Stewart with one out in third was even better thievery. Merrill reached over the wall at the 404 marker and brought back Stewart’s home run bid.
That was about it for the Reds who after six innings were 0 for 7 with runners in scoring position and stranded eight. The finished 0 for 7 and stranded 10 for the game.
Although he entered the game 8-9, King is San Diego’s ace, but he gets less run support than any other MLB starting pitcher.
He held the Reds to no runas, four hits, walked three and struck out six for his fifth straight quality start.
Singer’s 4 1/3 innings led to four runs, 10 hits, no walks and five strikeouts.
The Padres finally gave King all the runs he needed during the fourth inning.
It began with a Machado single, a Ty Farmer single and a run-scoring single by Merrill. Xander Bogaerts doubled home two runs and Dustin Harris singled home the fourth run.
Luis Campusano singled to put two more on with no outs before Singers got a fielder’s choice grounder and an inning-ending double play from Fernando Tatis Jr.
So did the line drive off his forearm lead to the six hits and four runs the next inning?
Both Singer and Reds manager Tito Francona said no and Singer has been hit several times this year.
“I told him, ‘Just get out of the way of those,’” said Francona.
“No, it didn’t affect him, I don’t think,” said Francona. “He has a nice bruise but it’s not on his pitching arm. He went through that (four-run) inning just catching too much of the plate.
“They didn’t kill him, they just went first-to-third and he couldn’t make one pitch to get out of it.”
Singer agreed on both counts.
“It doesn’t feel too bad right now,” he said after the game. “Just a blood vessel blown up a little bit. It hurt for a second, but it’s good now.”
And the big inning?
“They put a lot of hits together and I was trying to stay in the (strike) zone because I didn’t want to start walking guys,” he said. “I tried to stay in the zons and left a lot in the middle and they put good swings on them.”
King baffled the Reds with a tantalizing change-up that led to second baseman Edwin Arroyo striking out four times, two at the right hand of King and once from Kyle Hart and once from Wandy Peralta.
“King had good two-seam movement and his change-up kinda gave a bunch of our guys fits,” said Francona. “We had the runners on early and left them there. That doesn’t help.”
Francona revealed that the team has a plan for Chase Burns to avoid overuse and a posible injury.
His turn comes up Wednesday, but Brandon Williamson will start that game and Burns will be backed up to Friday.
And after that, it will be a Burns-Williamson piggy-back. Burns will start games and pitch two or three innings and Williamson will follow him.
On a heart-rending note, Eugenio Suarez will miss Tuesday and Wednesday to take naturalization tests to become a U.S. citizen.