Category: Cincinnati Reds

By HAL McCOY

CINCINNATI — What the Cincinnati Reds needed was a stopper and Anthony DeSclafani was as good as a patrolman stopping traffic at First & Main.

He did it with practically perfect pitching. He did it by holding on base the few runners that reached base. He did it by picking off a runner and he did it by preventing any member of the San Diego Padres from putting a foot on second base.

With the Reds spinning downward on a four-game losing streak, three straight to the last-place Padres, DeSclafani strode to the Great American Ball Park mound Sunday afternoon and stepped on the Padres’ necks.

PITCHING IN DIZZYING HEAT that sent many fans staggering to Cool Rooms, DeSclafani coolly shut down the Padres, scattering five singles over eight innings in a heat index over 100 for a 3-0 victory.

When Tony Cingrani pitched a 1-2-3 ninth, the Reds had their first pitched shutout of the season after they’ve been shut out seven times.

SO IS DeSCLAFANI A legitimate stopper?

“Yes, because he is mature for his age and because of his experience,” said manager Bryan Price. “He doesn’t beat himself and he holds himself to a very high standard. There is no quit in the kid and we have to make sure there never is.”

In addition to holding the Padres to five singles, DeSclafani didn’t walk anybody and struck out five. Of the five baserunners, DeSclafani picked one off first base and catcher Tucker Barnhart threw two out trying to swipe second. No Padre discovered second base on this day.

SO HOW DOES A 25-YEAR-OLD guy making only his fourth start of the season keep from becoming a puddle on the mound under the intense sun?

“I know, it was brutal out there,” he said. “I just tried to stay cool in the dugout with cold rags and I drank a lot of water. It is what it is and you can’t do anything about it.”

On these types of Amazonian days, many pitchers change jerseys, or at least undershirts between innings. Not DeSclafani.

“Naw, I don’t want to change anything on a day like this,” he said..
The Reds took a 1-0 lead in the second with two outs and nobody on, thanks to center fielder Jose Pedraza’s rapidity. His speed enabled him to beat out a ground ball to shortstop and his speed enabled him to score from first on Tucker Barnhart’s double into the right field corner.

Speed was not needed in the fourth. Jay Bruce scored with a slow trot after leading off the inning with his 17th homer, a shot into the right field seats that made it 2-0.

DeSCLAFANI HELPED HIMSELF in the sixth when he batted against San Diego starter Luis Perdomo with two outs and the bases loaded. He shot a run-scoring single to center, breaking a 0 for 47 slide-for-life by Reds pitchers, pushing his lead to 3-0.

“That was the best part of the day,” said DeSclafani about his hit, which is the way most pitchers feel about their bat work. “Hey, pitchers take hits whenever they can get them, especially with runners on. I get my first hit and first RBI of the season and I’ll definitely take it,” he said.

Price was all smiles during his post-game media session and said, “Eight shutout innings by your starting pitcher makes a manager really look good.

“The thing that impressed me most was the rapport DeSclafani had with catcher Tucker Barnhart,” Price added. “When they weren’t on the same page Tucker went out and talked to him about pitch selection and what the intentions of the pitches were. They came to some good conclusions after those meetings.

“It what you need,” he said “It’s a huge boost to get eight shutout innings from your starter, a big lift for the team.”

By HAL McCOY

CINCINNATI — The crowd was announced as 40,871, most of which came to see Pete Rose take his rightful place in the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame Saturday afternoon in Great American Ball Park.

And there was punishment dealt out, too, for those who dared to sit under a blazing sun and watch a moribund baseball game.

They had to watch the Good Ship Cincinnati take on more water and continue sinking toward the bottom of the Ohio River via a 3-0 loss to the San Diego Padres.

It was Cincinnati’s third straight loss to San Diego on this homestead to the inhabitants of last place in the National League West.

THEY HAD TO WATCH a pitcher named Dean Pomeranz, who sounds like a partner in a law firm, hold the Reds to no runs and three hits over seven innings — and he struck out the side in his last inning.

THEY HAD TO WATCH the same Pomeranz, a pitcher, drive in two runs with a fifth-inning home run, the second of his career, and a run-scoring two-out single in the seventh.

THEY HAD TO WATCH San Diego’s first run score in the first inning when Reds third baseman Eugenio Suarez fielded a ground ball and threw to first when he could have thrown home for an easy out.

“That was me, the whole decision to play the infield back,” said manager Bryan Price. “He was deeper because I wanted to prevent a bigger inning and avoid a big pitch-count inning. I think he made the right play, although the fans didn’t like it.”

THEY HAD TO WATCH Brandon Phillips lead the fourth with a double and then foolishly try to steal third with no outs. He didn’t make it. Jay Bruce then singled for what would have been a run.

“You never know those things are going to happen in the aftermath,” Price said of Bruce’s hit. “Brandon has been really good, really effective, at stealing third base the last couple of years. I didn’t think he got a great jump right there.”

THEY HAD TO WATCH Brandon Finnegan pitch another above-average game and get nothing for it except a big, fat ‘L’ next to his name. He pitched 6 2/3 innings and gave up three runs, five hits, three walks while striking out eight. All it did was reduce his record to 3-and-6 with a 3.83 earned run average. Amazingly, the Reds have been shut out six times this year and Finnegan has started four of them.

“It happens and that’s what happens when you go up against the other team’s aces,” said Finnegan. “It is going to happen a lot in my career, I promise you that (face aces). Hopefully I’m around long enough for that.”

Of the home run and run-scoring single he gave up to Pomeranz, Finnegan said, “He just hit one up in the air and that’s what happens here when you get one up in the air in this small ball park. And then he got a hit up the middle. I’m not going to strike out every pitcher, but he did it all today.”

PRICE, HIMSELF A FORMER pitcher, knows the feeling of pitching your wheels off and finishing with nothing but four flat tires.

“Win or lose, Finnegan is pitching winning baseball,” said Price. “Sometimes you pitch winning baseball and you lose. Unfortunately. He is pitching winning baseball and he is not collecting the wins.”

Pomeranz came into the game with a 6-and-7 record but a solid 3.00 ERA and a 20-and-31 career major league record. But other than the Phillips double, no other Red reached second base against him.

“It was a well-pitched game by two starters,” said Price. “And Pomeranz has had a nice year. He has been sharp, getting ahead, using his cutter and his curve in on right handers. He didn’t give us a lot to get excited about.”

CATCHER RAMON CABRERA doubled with one out in the eighth against relief pitcher Ryan Buchter but pinch-hitter Tyler Holt struck out (and was thrown out of the game disputing the call) and Zack Cozart lined to center.

That was it. And did the Reds die meekly? Oh, yes. Seven of the last nine outs made by the Reds came on strikeouts.

Reds Hall of Fame pitcher Jose Rijo, in town for the Rose ceremonies, just shook his head and said, “I’ll tell you had bad it is. I made my 8-year-old son, Jose, watch a couple of Reds games on television and now he’s mad at me.”

He might stay mad for a long, long time.

By Hal McCoy

CINCINNATI — In honor of the 1976 Big Red Machine, honored before Friday night’s game on its 40-year anniversary, the 2016 Reds wore throwback uniforms against the San Diego Padres.

They worry the pullover jerseys with red stripes around the sleeves and belt-less elastic-topped pants.

There was a problem, though. Most of the players wore their pants pajama-style, no sock showing, and they wore different colored shoes with manufacturer’s logos shouting, “Look at me.”

When club president Bob Howsam and manager Sparky Anderson ran The Big Red Machine, all shoes had to be black and the logos shoe-polished into oblivion and all baseball pants had to have stirruped socks showing.

AND LET’S NOT EVEN go into the fact that the 1976 Reds were not permitted so much as a pencil-thin mustache, let along the shaggy-dog beards most players are bearing these days.

The impersonators turned out to be impostors on this night. The 1976 Reds hardly ever lost to the Padres and in mid-July of 1976 they swept a five-game series against the Padres.

The 2016 Reds were used and abused by the ’16 Padres for the second straight night, losing, 13-4, after losing Thursday by 7-4.

It was not a good coming-out party for left handed pitcher Cody Reed, making his home debut. The Padres scored a run in each of the five innings Reed pitched — including a home run to the second batter he faced, Will Myers, and he balked home a run. All told Reed gave up five runs, nine hits, walked two and struck out six, needing 104 pitches to get through five innings.

THE PADRES SCORED RUNS in each of the first eight innings and the incredible streak of Reds relief pitchers giving up home run to the first batter they face continues. Raisel Iglesias replaced Reed in the sixth and former Reds infielder Adam Rosales greeted him with a home run. That’s the 17th time this season a Reds relief pitcher has given up a home run to the first batter he has faced.

Michael Lorenzen, on the disabled list since spring training, made his 2016 debut in the seventh inning and gave up a double and a two-run home run to Melvin Upton Jr. that made it 8-4.

J.J. Hoover tossed flammable fluids on the fire in the eighth by giving up five runs on a bases loaded three-run double by Myers, giving him five RBI, and a two-run home run by Upton for his second homer of the game and four RBI to push it to 13-4.

Before the game, before Reed’s second major-league start, Reds manager Bryan Price talked eloquently about the left hander recently called up from Class AAA Louisville.

“You don’t come into spring training and pitch as the best pitcher in camp of our whole group if you don’t have a certain sense of self-confidence,” Price said of Reed. “You’re trying to compete and trying to make the team and that’s pressure. He understands how to handle it and compartmentalizes it. It is a great opportunity and I don’t think he puts things on his shoulders the burdens of things he can’t control. He just goes out there and pitches. He’s terrific, a very developed young guy.”

The Padres didn’t believe it on this night and took the young phenom to task, unimpressed by those 1976—style uniforms.

By HAL McCOY

CINCINNATI — A few minutes with Pete Rose is like a week with Average Joe Ballplayer. In those few minutes ‘The Hit King’ will provide a lifetime of stories and memories and, mostly, high entertainment.

Like Friday.

It was my good fortune to spend 30 minutes with Rose before the 40-year Big Red Machine ceremony on the Great American Ball Park field.

His one-liners come rapid-fire, like Henny Youngman (ask your grandfather).

WHEN SOMEBODY ASKED which is best, going into the Reds Hall of Fame or having his number retired or getting a statue erected, Rose shot back, “What do you think?” The writer said, “Hall of Fame.”

Wrong answer. “How many people do you know who have a statue? Not too many. Of course, I have a statue and Joe Morgan says he has a sculpture.”

Rose likes to point out that when his statue emerges next year that the first four batters in the Big Red Machine lineup will have statues — Rose (the leadoff hitter), Morgan, Tony Perez and Johnny Bench.

“That’s why I scored more than 2,000 runs — the three guys behind me all have statues and are in the Hall of Fame. I mean, statues, not plaques. You have to be pretty damn good to have a statue. And that’s why I’m so damned tired, scoring all those runs.”

ROSE, OF COURSE, WORE a shirt with ‘Hit King’ stitched on the collar, as if anybody needed a reminder. Of course, Rose is rightfully touchy about the Ichiro Suzuki situation and how some people believe Ichiro is the hit king if they let him transfer more than 1,700 hits from Japan to America.

“After the 1978 season the Reds went on a tour of Japan and played 15 games,” said Rose. “My picture was on every ticket for every game. I had a 14-game hitting streak and went 0 for 3 the last game. That shows you how tough that pitching was.”

ROSE LAUGHED WHEN somebody brought up how former Reds general manager Dick Wagner used to fine players for throwing baseballs to fans in the stands. “He got me seven times in one year,” said Rose. “Now players throw every ball they have in their hands into the stands.”

About his induction Saturday into the Reds Hall of Fame, Rose said, “I don’t know what to expect. All I can tell you is that there will be an ass in every seat. And (Reds owner) Bob Castellini appreciates that.”

ROSE TRIED TO DEFINE the 1976 Reds, the team that swept the Philadelphia Phillies in the National League Championship Series and then swept the New York Yankees in the World Series.

“I would never get in front or any group and say we were the best team in the history of baseball,” he said. “I don’t know about the ’27 Yankees or some of the Dodgers teams of the ‘50s with Jackie Robinson and Duke Snider and Roy Campanella.

“But I will go to my grave saying that The Big Red Machine was the most entertaining team ever,” he said. “We had white stars, we had black stars, we had Latino stars. We had a Hall of Fame manager (Sparky Anderson), we had speed, we had home run leaders, we had batting champions, we had daring base runners.

“And I’m going to tell you why we were so good,” he added. “You can analyze all the teams in baseball today and what teams in baseball today have potential MVPs every year that are catchers (Johnny Bench) and second basemen (Joe Morgan)? None. But that was The Big Red Machine. Then you can throw Tony Perez, Ken Griffey Sr., George Foster, Dave Concepcion and Cesar Geronimo in there (he didn’t say his own name, but he didn’t need to state the obvious) and we had a pretty good team.”

Pretty good?

ROSE, AS ALWAYS, stunned everybody when he was asked which team was the best, the 1975 World Series champions or the 1976 World Series Champions.

“Easy, 1970,” he said, referring to a team that lost the World Series to the Baltimore Orioles in five games. “The ’70 team was 70-and-30 after 100 games. Not too many teams are 70-30 after 100 games. The Cubs were on that pace until they lost four in a row now.”

Rose hammered home a high, hard one when he talked about baseball in Cincinnati.

“We kind of spoiled baseball for this town,” he said. “People don’t want to keep talking about the past. Reds fans talk about The Big Red Machine and we just made it hard for guys who follow. We expect to win here. The culture is different here when it comes to playing baseball.”

JOHNNY BENCH, ALWAYS the unofficial team spokesman for The Big Red Machine said, “We were given that name and it was prideful. Everybody took the greatest pride with that name. Opposing teams came out to watch us take batting practice and infield just because of the way we conducted ourselves. It was a magical time. It was our greatest time. If we didn’t win in 1975 we were going to be the Buffalo Bills. We WERE the Buffalo Bills. We were supposed to be The Big Red Machine and we weren’t. Yet. We hadn’t won anything.”

After the Reds won in ’75, everybody expected the Reds to repeat in 1976 and Bench said, “That’s a lot of pressure. But in that clubhouse it wasn’t pressure, it was what was expected. Every time we went out on the field, even if we were down two or three runs late in the game, we knew we were going to win, they knew we were going to win and we knew they knew we were going to win.”

And that’s what The Big Red Machine did? Ask the ’76 New York Yankees.

By HAL McCOY

CINCINNATI — The scouts came in bunches and they came early to Great American Ball Park Thursday night.

One scout asked another, “Are you here so early to watch batting practice?” And the other said, “You betcha.”

He was disappointed. There was no batting practice because Cincinnati Reds manager Bryan Price told his team to sleep in and not report to the ballpark until 5 p.m. after the Reds didn’t arrive from Dallas early Thursday morning until 3 a.m.

BUT THE SCOUNT STUCK around with the other scouts from Toronto, Kansas City, Los Angeles (Dodgers), Texas, Pittsburgh and the Chicago Cubs, among others, and one said, “You know why we are all here, right?”

Indeed, they gathered in solemn observation of Reds right fielder Jay Bruce, a dangling prize that several teams would like to acquire via trade, sooner better than later.

Bruce is the only reason for a convention of scouts in Great American because the series between the last-place San Diego Padres and the last-place Reds is a series only a mother could love.

THE TWO TEAMS WERE a combined 36 1/2 games out of first place with no hope of playing in October.

The scouts didn’t get to see much from Bruce, an off night of 0 for 4 (two strikeouts and two groundouts.

And the game they saw wasn’t anything to scribble notes about, either, a 7-4 San Diego victory during which the Reds squandered a 4-1 lead.

CINCINNATI STARTER JOHN LAMB was given a 4-1 lead after three innings, but neither he nor the Reds bullpen could sustain it.

The 4-1 lead was constructed in the bottom of the third on back-to-back doubles by Zack Mozart and Billy Hamilton and a three-run home run by Adam Duvall to the right field corner, his 20th home run of the season. Duvall was playing first base while Joey Votto took a third straight night off to recuperate from flu-like symptoms.

“That home run right down the right field line shows a lot of maturity, meaning he is not just trying to yank balls to left field,” said Price. “He isn’t getting caught up in all the stuff even though he is a ‘guy’ now, a guy people talk about and he’s is just going out there and playing baseball.

“And he did a real nice job at first base,” Price added. “He had mostly routine plays, nothing challenging, but he looks very comfortable over there. I can plug him in at first for a day, or at third, or either of the corner outfield spots and he’ll do very well defensively. That’s a real bonus for me.”

The scouts noticed all that, too, but Duvall does not have a ‘For Sale’ sign or a ‘For Rent’ sign dangling from his neck.

LAMB HAD GIVEN UP ONLY one run (a solo home run by Matt Kemp in the fourth) and three hits through the fifth inning, but it all came apart in the sixth. Lamb gave up a walk, a ground ball and a single for a run to cut his lead to 4-2.

He left the game at that juncture for J.C. Ramirez, who quickly gave up a single to Melvin Upton Jr., and a three-run home run to Derek Norris for a 6-4 Padres lead.

“Scanning the stats, it is the home runs and the timing,” said Price. “We’ve given up 40-plus home runs from the seventh inning on and they are a lot of multi-run home runs to either give up the lead or let teams extend the lead. And that’s tough. One swing of the bat and it is a completely different ballgame.

“It has been a bit of a nemesis for us this year, it has been a really big nemesis for us. Let me correct that — it has been a huge nemesis for us.”

OF LAMB’S PERFORMANCE, Price said, “He was a little hot and cold, threw some really good pitches and gave up five very competitive innings. In the sixth (Yangervis) Solarte’s at bat took a lot out of him. He did a real nice job of fighting off pitches until he was able to hit something out to left field for a base hit.

“At that point in time I pretty much was convinced it was time for Lamb to come out of the game and the end result was not very good,” said Price.

That’s when Ramirez gave up a single and the three-run home run to Norris.

The Padres added a run off Ross Ohlendorf in the ninth inning on a double by former Red Adam Rosales and a two-out single by Travis Jankowski.

THE REDS SCORED FOUR runs on six hits and four walks against Padres left hander Christian Friedrich. Before his previous start, he was 3-and-1 with a 2.12 earned run average. But he lost that start by giving up six runs and nine hits in only 3 2/3 innings, raising his ERA to 3.15.

Once the Reds got rid of Friedrich they could do nothing against the Padres bullpen — four innings, no runs, one hit, one walk, seven strikeouts and their 45th defeat of the season.

The defeat ended a streak of seven straight wins for the Reds in the first game of a series.

By Hal McCoy

When Cole Hamels is scheduled to pitch, the Cincinnati Reds would do themselves a favor by staying home and sending cardboad cutouts of themselves to bat.

They are virtual hopeless against the Texas Rangers’ left hander.

After a 5-4 victory in Globe Life Park Wednesday night Hamels is now 10-and-1 with a 1.85 earned run average for his carrer against the Reds.

And on Wednesday night he held the Reds to one run and five hits over six innings and left with a 4-1 lead.

The Reds, though, made a comeback against the Texas bullpen, but it was, as so often this year, it was the Reds bullpen that couldn’t do what was necessary.

It was J.J. Hoover and Tony Cingrani who couldn’t get the job done.

It is an unbelievable statistic, almost unfathomable. Both Hoover and Cingrani gave up home runs to the first batter they faced. That has now happened 16 times this year — a Cincinnati relief pitcher giving up a home run to the first batter he faces.

Reds starter Dan Straily pitched five good innings. Unfortunately he pitched six. After Straily faced the minimum nine batters in the first three innings, he gave up four in the fourth inning.

And his downfall was two walks, the only two he gave up, and a hit batsman. He did that facing the first three batters of the fourth.

With the bases loaded and no outs, Adrian Beltre hit the first pitch he saw for a run-scoring single and the next batter, Prince Fielder, hit the first pitch he saw for a two-run single. The fourth run scored on a throwing error by first baseman Ivan DeJesus Jr., filling in for flu-stricken Joey Votto.

Hoover replaced Straily in the seventh and gave up a leadoff home run to Ian Desmond to make it 5-1.

The Reds reached relief pitcher Jake Diekman for three runs in the eighth on a double by Jay Bruce, his second of the game, a walk to Adam Duvall and a three-run home run by Eugenio Suarez inside the left field foul pole and the Reds were within 5-4.

Cingrani replaced Hoover for the eighth and the first batter he faced, former Reds outfielder Shin-Soo Choo hit a home run to make it 6-4.

Those two home runs made the difference and 6-4 is the way it finished. The Rangers had only five hits, but walks and a hit batsman and two home runs did in the Reds.

The Reds stranded a runner in eight of the nine innings and were 1 for 8 with runners in scoring position.

They had Zack Cozart on second base with two outs in the ninth but Brandon Phillips, the potential tying run, flied weakly to center field.

The Reds split two games in Texas and return home after a 4-5 trip for a seven-game homestand. It begins Thursday nighrt against San Diego, then Friday, Saturday and Sunday in Pete Rose weekend when he will be inducted into the Reds Hall of Fame and will have his No. 14 retired.

 

 

By HAL McCOY

For the Cincinnati Reds, it was Against All Odds Tuesday night against the Texas Rangers.

And they beat those odds handily, whipping the Rangers, 8-2.

The Rangers, owning a solid grip on first place in the American League West, had won seven straight games and 24 of their last 30.

THEY HAD WON 10 straight series and 11 straight series in their home Globe Life Park.

And they were facing pitcher Colby Lewis, who came into the game with a 6-and-0 record and had won 14 straight decisions. In addition, in his previous start Lewis took a perfect game into the eighth inning and a no-hitter into the ninth inning against the Oakland A’s.

The Reds, to say the least, were not impressed on this steamy night in Arlington, Tex.

AND THE RANGERS HAD the Reds right where they wanted them when Jay Bruce hit a three-run home run in the top of the first to give the Reds a 3-0 lead.

The Rangers have come from behind to win games 23 times this season, best in the majors, while the Reds have lost 24 times after leading in a game, worst in the majors.

Not this time, even though rookie Jurickson Profar hit a second-inning two-run home run to cut the Reds’ lead to 3-2.

The Reds, though, added three more against Lewis in the fifth. Then, Against More Odds, they scored two runs after Lewis left against the Rangers’ bullpen, which had gone 21 2/3 innings without giving up a run.

WHILE ALL THE ATTENTION was focused on the 34-year-old Lewis, Reds starter Anthony DeSclafani did the pitching for the night. While Lewis nearly pitched a perfect game in his previous start, DeSclafani lasted only 2 2/3 innings and gave up four runs (three uneared).

On this night, though, after giving up the two-run home run in the second, he pitched five scoreless innings and left after seven — two runs, five hits, one walk, six strikeouts, 106 pitches (66 strikes).

In addition to his three-run home run in the first, his 17^th homer, had two more hits and drove in four with the stands filled with scouts scribbling notes in preparation for a trade.

Zack Cozart, struggling of late, shaved his beard and it worked — two hits that included a home run and a two-run triple for three RBI.

THE REDS COLLECTED 11 hits with first baseman Joey Votto in sick bay and out of the lineup. Adam Duvall made his first start of the year at first base and Jose Peraza made his professional debut in left field.

Raisel Iglesias came off the disabled list and was placed in the bullpen while relief pitcher Blake Wood is taking a paternity leave.

Iglesias replaced DeSclafani in the eighth and quickly gave up a single and a walk. But he was bailed out when center fielder Billy Hamilton caught a fly ball and threw home to wipe out Mitch Moreland trying to score after the catch on a fabulous catch-and-dive tag by catcher Tucker Barnhart. Then Iglesias closed it off with a 1-2-3 ninth.

By HAL McCOY

The Kansas City Southpaws Weekend began Friday night for the Cincinnati Reds in Houston’s Minute Maid Park and John Lamb led the parade.

Lamb didn’t get the win, although he held the Houston Astros to one run and three hits over 5 1/3 innings, but the Reds survived in 11 innings, 4-2.

For the weekend series against the Astros the Reds are sending to the pitching rubber the three left handed pitchers they acquired from Kansas City in one trade for Johnny Cueto — Lamb, Cody Reed and Brandon Finnegan.

Reed is being summoned from Class AAA Louisville to make Saturday night’s start, his major league debut — and several scouts agree that Reed is the best of the bunch.

AN UNLIKELY SOURCE, Eugenio Suarez, ducked his head out of a deep slumber in the 11th inning Friday to pull a run-scoring double off the wall in the left field corner to break a 2-2 tie, scoring Adam Duvall from first base after he led the inning with a single.

Billy Hamilton bunted Suarez to third and he scored on Ramon Cabrera’s safety squeeze bunt to make it 4-2.
Suarez, so slump-ridden he appeared just a few swings away from dispensing Slushees at a Speedway, sat on the bench for the final two games in Atlanta, a mental rest. And he was 0 for 3 with two strikeouts before he delivered.

LAMB WAS ON HIS game early and ended up tying his career high with eight strikeouts. And he hadn’t walked anybody when he had one out in the third inning. But Houston’s Jason Castro worked him for a 15-pitch at bat fouling off 10 pitches.

Castro eventually struck out, but Lamb walked two of the next three hitters and his pitch counted mounted until it reached 107 in the sixth inning.

The game was 0-0 as Lamb and Houston starter Lance McCullers matched zeroes until the fifth when the Reds broke through for a run. A rejuvenated Billy Hamilton, playing his first game after missing eight with a concussion, opened the fifth with a single to left. He was erased when Cabrera hit into a double play, but with two outs Jose Peraza dropped a bunt and beat it for a hit.

Zack Cozart then doubled off the top of the right field wall and Peraza, nearly as speedy as Hamilton, scored from first base for a 1-0 Reds lead.

Houston tied it in the bottom of the sixth when Marwin Gonzalez led the inning with a bunt base hit and continued to second on third baseman Suarez’s throwing error. When Lamb walked two batters to load the bases with one out he was replaced by J.C. Ramirez. His first pitch was pulled into left field by Carlos Gomez for a run to tie it, 1-1, leaving the bases loaded with one out.

Evan Gattis grounded to third and Suarez threw home for a force and Ramirez ended the threat by getting Luis Valbuena to pop out.

THE REDS BARGED BACK in front, 2-1, in the seventh on back-to-back one-out singles by Hamilton and Cabrera and an RBI ground out by Peraza.

Blake Wood, who hadn’t given up a home run this season and hadn’t given up a home run in his lasts 63 innings, came in to pitch the eighth. His first pitch to Carlos Correra ended up in the left field Crawford Boxes, a game-tying home run. Incredibly, it was the 14th time this season that a Reds relief pitcher gave up a home run to the first batter he faced.

And that’s the way it stayed until the 11th, but not without some dramatics.

J.J. Hoover pitched the ninth and the 10th and in the 10th he walked Correa to open the inning. Then he struck out Colby Rasms and Carlos Gomez. Then he walked Evan Gattis, 1 for 35 at the time, putting the winning run on second base. He escaped by striking out Luis Valbuena — two walks and three strikeouts in the eventful inning, enabling the Reds to stage their game-winning uprising in the 11th.

By HAL McCOY

What started out as a profitable project in Atlanta with two victories against baseball’s worst team ended up in a dull stalemate for the enigmatic Cincinnati Reds.

After losing in 13 innings Wednesday night, the Reds followed that up Thursday with a 7-2 defeat in which they appeared to be sleepwalking.

So after the 2-2 split with the 46-loss Braves, the Reds limped out of town and headed for Houston lugging a 20-46 record.

WHEN MATT WISLER TOOK the mound as Atlanta’s starter Thursday he took a 2-and-7 record with him and a 4.36 earned run average, a Whistler’s Mother type of record.

And when the first three Reds of the game reached base, one scoring on a Brandon Phillips single, and the Reds added a second run in the third inning on Adam Duvall’s 19th home run, the 2-0 early lead looked promising.

That was it, though. Over the final six innings the Reds scored no more and had only four more hits, two by Joey Votto (he had three for the game).

THE BNEFICIAR OF THE early lead was Reds starter Dan Straily, 4-and-2 with a 3.18 earned run average coming in and so far this season the best and most consistent Reds starter.

It looked as if the Reds found something in the bargain basement white elephant counter when they signed the 27-year-old right hander a few days prior to Opening Day.

The Reds signed him on April 1 (And it wasn’t an April Fool’s Day joke) after the San Diego Padres dumped him. Amazingly, he was with the Houston Astros and they traded him to San Diego on March 28. Three days later the Padres released him and the pitch-thin Reds quickly signed him.

Hey, why not? He is from Redlands, California, and wouldn’t somebody from REDlands fit in with the Reds, even if he was a 24th round draft pick in 2009 by the Oakland A’s, the 732nd player picked that year?

And in his last start, against another last place team, the A’s, he held Oakland to one run and five hits over seven innings in a 2-1 victory. His start before that he held the first place Washington Nationals to two runs and two hits over seven innings and received a no-decision in the Reds 6-3 win.

This time, though, he couldn’t hold down the lowly Braves. He gave up three runs in the bottom of the third, two coming on Freddie Freman’s two-run home run to give the Braves a 3-2 lead they never relinquished.

FREEMAN ENDED UP WITH three hits. He went 0 for 2 in the Reds 3-1 win Tuesday, but in the other three games Freeman collected 10 hits with three home runs. And in the 13-inning 9-8 Braves win Wednesday he hit for the cycle.

Meanwhile, Wisler who was 0-and-2 in his previous two starts, giving up 13 hits and six home runs in seven innings, wrapped the Reds up in electrician’s tape — 6 2/3 innings, two runs, eight hits, five walks and six strikeouts.

Straitly pitched 4 1/3 innings and gave up six runs and seven hits, plus five walks. And two of those walks were particularly painful.

WIT THE REDS TRAILING 3-2 in the fifth, Straily walked the first two batters. Nick Markakis doubled to the right field corner to score both of those runners and Jace Peterson’s sacrifice fly made it 6-2.

After Wisler left, the Reds had no runs and no hits (two walks) against Ian Krol and Arodys Vizcaino.

Reds relief pitcher A.J. Watson, who left Wednesday’s game with a slight shoulder strain, was placed on the disabled list and replaced with Dayan Diaz, who pitched 2 2/3 innings and gave up two hits and one unearned run.