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By HAL McCOY

CINCINNATI — It wasn’t a matter of time, just a matter of when there would be a Bullpen Blow-up by the Cincinnati Reds.

No bullpen can sustain what the Reds bullpen was doing over the first 10 games of the 2017 season — a 1.13 earned run average (best in the National League) and a .163 opponents batting average (second in the National League).

The Milwaukee Brewers blew that apart with MOAB-like precision Friday night in Great American Ball Park, dissecting relief pitchers Blake Wood, Wandy Peralta and Michael Lorenzen. The Brewers scored four runs in the sixth inning against Wood and Peralta and four more in the seventh off Lorenzen to turn a one-run deficit into a 10-4 victory.

Those glossy and glittery bullpen numbers took a mammoth hit after it gave up eight runs and eight hits in four innings.

CINCINNATI STARTER Scott Feldman was given an early 3-0 lead and still led, 3-2, when his night was done after five innings (two runs, four hits, five walks, 99 pitches).

Wood started the sixth and struck out the first batter. Then came back-to-back two-strike singles by Manny Pina and Orlando Arcia. Wood balked the runners to second and third and the tying run scored on a ground ball, the second out.

But Jonathan Villar singled home the go-ahead run with two strikes to end Wood’s night and begin Peralta’s.

The first batter Peralta faced, Eric Thames, put a 1-and-2 pitch into the right field seats for a two-run home run and a 6-3 Brewers lead. The night was filled with two-strike counts for the Reds bullpen, but strike three was elusive.

THAMES, A FIRST-YEAR BREWER, played the last three years In Korea for the NC Dinos, where he averaged 40 home runs a season, was the MVP one season and is the only player in Korean League history to hit for the cycle twice in one season.

And he did that under the hardships of having no teammate speak English, having no batting cages and having no clubhouse (the team dressed in hotels and rode to the park in buses).

The Brewers turned the game into a Bullpen Massacre with four more runs in the seventh off Michael Lorenzen.

When last seen Lorenzen pitched three perfect innings in relief against Pittsburgh. But this time, in order, he hit a batter, gave up a double, a single and a triple and mixed in a wild pitch.

“Wood looked so good striking out Santana (his first batter) and then he hit Broxton and Pina gets a two-strike base-hit, as did Arcia, then Villar gets two sliders in then hits a double,” said manager Bryan Price, regurgitating a nightmarish night. “Wood attacked the zone and I can’t complain the way he went after them. He got into those two-strike counts and they got him.

“Wandy came in and got two strikes throwing sliders to Thames and then he tried to sneak a fastball past him and he hits the three-run homer,” Price added. “Our probabilities (of winning) certainly went down after that.”

A two-run home run by Zack Cozart in the second and a solo home run in the third by Joey Votto gave the Reds a 3-0 lead.

But the Brewers bullpen shut the Reds down on no earned runs (one unearned) and two hits (one walk, one hit batter) over the final four innings.

WHILE THE REDS LOST to the Brewers for the second straight night to fall to 7-and-4, the Brewers are 6-and-5 and above .500 for the first time since the end of the 2014 season when they were 82-80. Since then they have played 334 games at .500 or below before popped above it Friday night.

By HAL McCOY

CINCINNATI — When Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Ryan Braun sees red, as in the Cincinnati Reds, he sees red like a bull.

Braun came to Great American Ball Park Thursday night with the most home runs by an opposing players against the Reds over the last 10 years, 35 of them.

And he owned the second most home runs hit by an opposing player in GABP with 20.

Now he has 36 and 21 after his two-run blast into the left field seats in the third inning helped the Brewers to a 5-1 victory, ending the Reds four-game winning streak.

BRAUN’S BLAST CAME OFF Bronson Arroyo after he nearly cleared the center field wall in the first inning, a ball Billy Hamilton ran down.

Braun learned in the first inning that any ball hit to center field that doesn’t land in the Ohio River is chased down by Hamilton. So he made sure he pulled the one he hit in the third inning to straightaway left field.

AND SO FAR, THE ARROYO REDUX is not working. He has lost both starts this year in his first major league pitching in 2 1/2 years. On Thursday he pitched six innings and gave up five runs and seven hits, four of the hits in the third inning when the Brewers scored four times.

“You have to stay out of the big inning, but so far I am missing the velo (velocity) and missing some crispness on some of my pitches,” said Arroyo. “I’m competing and throwing strikes but I am having a harder time putting guys away. Hopefully that’ll come with a little more strength, but there is no guarantee of that.

“I run out there and give it everything I have and hopefully it gets tighter and crisper so I can put guys away in those at bats like Braun after you’ve given up a couple of hits and you have to shut down the inning,” he added. “If you give up four in an inning like I have the first two times it is going to be tough to compete.”

AFTER BILLY HAMILTON LED the bottom of the first with a single, stole second, moved to third on a fly to right and scored on Joey Votto’s sacrifice fly, the Reds took a 1-0 lead into the third.

Arroyo couldn’t protect it. He gave up back-to-back singles to the bottom of the Brewers order — Manny Pina and Orlando Aria — to open the third. After pitcher Jimmy Nelson bunted the runners to third and second, Pina scored on a ground ball, Aria scored on a single by Eric Thames and Thames scored on Braun’s home run.

Thames made it 5-1 in the fifth with a two-out home run to right field as Arroyo struggled to keep the ball inside the walls.

MEANWHILE, AFTER THE FIRST inning the Reds were eating out of Nelson’s right hand during his seven innings — one run, five hits, three of them singles by Zack Cozart. Nelson struck out Adam Duvall three straight times.

Manager Bryan Price heaped praise at Nelson’s feet.

“Nelson was really good, pounding his fastball with good location and you could sense early that he was really confident and comfortable with his fastball,” said Price. “When you feel like that, when you know you can command your fastball you can utilize it in a lot of ways and he did.”

The Reds’ 7-and-2 start, now 7-and-3, hasn’t inflamed the fan base to attend games. Only 13,574 showed up Thursday for the first game of a four-game series against the Brewers.

“I’ve been away from the game for three years and it isn’t easy,” said Arroyo. “It wasn’t easy when I was 25. You go through patches and I can remember plenty of times being 3-and-5 with a 5.00 ERA to start the season here and somehow fighting my way back to a pretty good year. I am hoping my body will respond in that same way but there is just no guarantee. I am in uncharted territory.”

By HAL McCOY

Anybody who thought Amir Garrett could match his major league debut, let alone better it, was thinking with a cloudy brain.

How can you improve upon six scoreless innings against the St. Louis Cardinals in a major league debut?

Ask the Pittsburgh Pirates, who resembled anchored statues in the batter’s box Wednesday night in PNC Park.

Garrett was as untouchable as Eliot Ness for six more innings while pitching the Cincinnati Reds to a 9-2 victory to complete a three-game sweep of the Pirates, who were coming off a three-game sweep of the Atlanta Braves. And the Reds are an unfathomable 7-and-2 to start the 2017 season.

Garrett, the 24-year-old former college basketball player, applied a full-court press on the Pirates — six scoreless innings on two hits, extending his major league scoreless streak to 12 innings.

The spell ended in the seventh when he gave up an infield squibbler hit to Andrew McCutchen and David Freese hit one over the right field wall. But the Reds led 8-0 at the time. Freese’s home run was the one and only extra base hit the Pirates produced in the three games.

Garrett couldn’t finish the seventh. After the home run, he got out, but hit the next batter and his night was finished — 6 2/3 innings, two runs, five hits, no walks, five strikeouts and one hit batter. He threw 96 pitches, 64 for strikes.

PITTSBURGH STARTER Ivan Nova, who pitched six shutout innings in his first game against the Braves, matched Garrett for four innings.

But he got his pitches up in the fifth and the Reds were up, up and away to score four runs on four hits, three of them doubles.

With Nova suddenly looking like a mechanical pitching machine, Zack Cozart led the fifth with a double to left. Tucker Barnhart doubled for his first RBI this season. Garrett bunted and everybody was safe of catcher Francisco Cervelli’s throwing error.

Billy Hamilton singled to make it 2-0 and Jose Peraza doubled for two more and a 4-0 lead.

The Reds turned it into a rout against Antonio Bastardo in the seventh when he had two outs and nobody on. He gave up an infield single, walked two straight, then offered a batting practice full-count fastball to Eugenio Suarez and he blasted it for a three-run double. Scott Schebler followed with a double and it was 8-0.

A struggling Joey Votto entered the fun in the eighth with a run-scoring single that pushed the score to 9-2 and put Votto’s batting average at an anemic .171.

For the first time this season the Reds did not hit a home run, but they had five doubles. Suarez had three hits and drove in three, lifting his batting average to .429. And Jose Peraza had his first three-hit game of the season and is hitting .297.

AS FOR THE OVERALL picture, the Cincinnati Reds and winning have a thing going on their first nine games.

You name it, they are doing it with the efficiency of a Swiss watch. Hitting? Yes. Pitching? Yes, especially the bullpen. Defense? Yes, especially center fielder Billy Hamilton (what’s new) and third baseman Eugenio Suarez (ever improving). Baserunning? Near perfection.

On a somber note, pitcher Rookie Davis was placed on the 10-day disabled list after he was hit on the forearm with a pitch Tuesday. That means he won’t make his Sunday start, a start that probably will go to Cody Reed.

BAD MEMORIES DRIFTED into The Man Cave during Wednesday afternoon’s New York Yankees-Tampa Bay Rays game on MLB-TV.

Former Reds relief pitcher Jumbo Diaz, now employed by the Rays, came into the game with a 3-1 lead and blew it. In only two-thirds of an inning Jumbo gave up three runs (two earned), three hits and a walk. Not only did he blow a save, was pinned with the 8-4 loss.

After the Rays-Yankees game, it was the St. Louis Cardinals against the Washington Nationals, with former Reds pitcher Mike Leake on the mound for the Cardinals.

Leake was the unfortunate loser last Friday, 2-0, against the Reds and Amir Garrett during which he gave up one run and six hits in eight innings.

He was stunning against the Nationals, long hair flowing. Wearing No. 8, a strange number for a pitcher, Leake easily outdueled Nationals ace Max Scherzer in a 6-1 victory.

At one point, Leake retired 19 in a row, including two strikeouts of Bryce Harper. He pitched seven innings and gave up no runs, four hits, walked none and struck out seven.

The Reds traded Leake to the San Francisco Giants for Adam Duvall and the Reds remain ecstatic over the deal.

MEANWHILE, FORMER REDS right fielder Jay Bruce is having an early-season renaissance for the New York Mets.

In his first 35 plate appearances he has four home runs, a team-leading eight RBI, six walks, only four strikeouts, a .724 slugging average and a 1.124 OPS.

By HAL McCOY

It is about time that Scooter Gennett comes up with a new nickname — something like Harley Davidson Gennett.

This guy is no kid’s scooter. He is a high-powered machine.

He was the center of offensive activity Tuesday night in PNC Park when the Cincinnati Reds scored a 6-2 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates, the sixth win in eight games for the Reds.

GENNETT LED THE inning, when it was 2-2 with a double off the right field wall and scored the go-ahead run on Billy Hamilton’s two-out single.

Gennett came up again in the eighth inning and pulled a three-run home run down the right field line to push the score from 3-2 t 6-2.

And the early magic continues.

Gennett has five hits this season so far, three of them home runs. And he leads the Reds with eight runs batted in. And he has only started three of the first eight games.

He started the last two because shortstop Zack Cozart is taking care of a sore wrist. So Gennett played second base while second baseman Jose Peraza moved to shortstop.

GENNETT, 26, MAY BE THE best acquisition the Reds made in the off-season. And he wasn’t signed until spring training was nearly over. He was picked up on waivers on March 28 from the Milwaukee Brewers, along with his $2.525 million one-year contract. It looks like money well-spent.

He was a regular with the Brewers, but the Reds hoped he’d be productive off the bench. Instead, Gennett is making a push to be considered for more playing time.

THE GAME’S START WAS delayed for an hour and 14 minutes by rain and it was started by Rookie Davis.

He lasted only four innings and left the game when he was hit on his pitching arm by a pitch while trying to bunt, but his night was nearly done anyway.

He needed 88 pitches to cover those four innings, mostly because of control problems. He threw a lot of pitches to most of the Pirates hitters and he walked four.

But he gave up only one run and two hits and struck out three.

THEN IT WAS UP to the Reds suddenly near-perfect bullpen and five of them held the Pirates to no earned runs (one unearned) and four hits over the final five innings.

ADAM DUVALL GAVE DAVIS a 1-0 lead in the second inning with a leadoff home run, his third.

The Pirates tied it in the third with a double steal. Gregory Blanco stole second and when catcher Tucker Barnhart tried to throw Polanco out, Starling Marte stole home.

The Reds took a 2-1 lead in the fourth on Jose Peraza’s double and Eugenio Suarez’s two-out single.

A couple of defensive lapses by the Reds in the fifth enabled the Pirates to tie it 2-2. Gennett proved he isn’t Superman when he dropped a throw that would have been an inning-ending double play. Then Peraza threw away a ground ball for a run-scoring error.

THEN GENNETT TOOK OVER offensively with his double that led to the 3-2 lead and his three-run home run, his third hit of the game. The Reds have hit at least one home run in all eight games.

Defensively?

All bullpen all the time.

—Tony Cingrani pitched the fifth and walked one and struck out one.

—Drew Storen pitched the sixth and gave up one hit and the unearned run that scored on the misplays by Gennett and Suarez.

—Wandy Peralta pitched a 1-2-3 10-pitch seventh.

—Blake Wood started the eighth and gave up a couple of hits and manager Bryan Price, with no hesitation, called for Raisel Iglesias with one out and two on to go for a five-out save.

—Iglesias got the last two outs of the inning with five pitches, then gave up a two-out single to Andrew McCutchen before getting the last out for his third save of the season.

SO THE REDS ARE 6-and-2 and clinched this series in Pittsburgh by winning the first two of this three-games series.

Besides Gennett’s three hits, the Dynamic Duo of Duvall and Suarez each had two hits to offset a 0-for-5 night by Joey Votto that dropped his average to .161.

They’ve won the first three series of the season (2-1 over Philadelphia, 2-1 over St. Louis and 2-0 over Pittsburgh). They are the first Reds team since 1990’s wire-to-wire team to win their first three series of the season.

By HAL McCOY

Cincinnati Reds manager Bryan Price told anybody who would listen closely all winter long that he planned to use his bullpen in an unconventional manner.

On Monday night in Pittsburgh, Price kept his word and it helped the Reds scoot to a 7-1 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates in PNC Park.

With starter Brandon Finnegan on the precipice of giving away a five-run lead after two innings, Price called upon his best relief pitcher, Michael Lorenzen, out of the bullpen to put a muzzle on the Pittsburgh Pirates.

CONVENTIONALLY SPEAKING, Lorenzen is a set-up guy in the eighth or a closer in the ninth. But Price could sense the disintegration of an early lead and brought Lorenzen into the game in the third inning into a seemingly impossible situation.

The Pirates had the bases loaded with no outs in the third inning with one run already home. Lorezen retired the side, 1-2-3, without a run scoring.

Then he retired the next six, nine in a row for his night, to preserve the Reds victory.

LORENZEN WAS NEEDED because Finnegan was off the mark from the beginning.

It was a near miracle that the Pirates only scored one run against him because he put nine of the first 15 Pirates he faced on base.

—He put the first two on in the first inning, then got a fly ball and a strikeout.

—He put the first three on base in the second inning and escaped with two strikeouts and a fly ball.

—When he put the first three on base in the third, the magic was over. He walked the fourth hitter, forcing in a run.

And that’s when Price made his decisive decision to bring in Lorenzen.

REMEMBER THE SONG, ‘Wild Man,’ by Kate Bush? It wasn’t about Pittsburgh starter Tyler Glasnow, but it could have been.

The Pirates No 1 pitching prospect, a 23-year-old righthander, gave up a leadoff single to Billy Hamilton. Then with one out, he walked four straight batters on 3-and-2 counts, two in a row that forced in two runs.

In the second inning he gave up singles to Hamilton and Jose Peraza. After a double steal, he gave up a two-run single to Adam Duvall and a walk to Eugenio Suarez.

His day, short as it was, was done — 1 2/3 innings, five runs, four hits, five walks, one strikeout. And the Reds stole five bases in the first two innings. He threw 64 pitches, only 33 strikes.

UNFORTUNATELY FOR THE REDS, Finnegan wasn’t much better. After pitching seven scoreless innings against the Phillies in his first game, Finnegan couldn’t last long enough to qualify for the win.

His day, short as it was, lasted two-plus innings — one run, four hits, four walks, four strikeouts. His pitch count nearly matched Glasnow’s — 64 pitches, 34 strikes.

Eugenio Suarez homered leading off the fifth and the Reds have hit at least one home run in each of their first seven games. Scooter Gennett, playing in place of Zack Cozart (sore wrist) homered in the eighth to make it 7-1.

AND THE REDS BULLPEN continues to be nearly impeccable. After Lorenzen’s three perfect innings, Cody Reed followed him with three perfect innings. And he struck out the side in his third inning.

Willy Peralta finished it off in the ninth with another 1-2-3 effort, meaning from the third through the ninth the Reds bullpen retired 21 straight, nine via strikeouts.

So the Reds are off to a 5-and-2 start and sit ceremoniously atop the National League Central standings — with only 155 games to go.

By HAL McCOY

Scott Feldman is one interesting hombre — a man of Jewish faith who was born in Hawaii as a son of an FBI agent.

And on Sunday afternoon in St. Louis he was one fantastic pitcher while the Cincinnati Reds piled on the Cardinals, 8-0, in Busch Stadium.

Feldman pitched six-plus innings and held the Cardinals to no runs, four hits, walked one and struck out six.

FANS IN REDS COUNTRY asked, “Scott who?” when he was signed in January to a one-year $2.3 million contract.

He was signed to possibly pitch in long relief, if he made the team, with some possible spot starts as needed.

He was needed. Immediately. When Homer Bailey and Anthony DeSclafani were judged unusable to start the season, Feldman was not only thrust into the mix as a possible starter, he won a spot in the rotation. And he won the Opening Day assignment.

HE STRUGGLED A BIT ON Opening Day and was the loser to the Philadelphia Phillies, giving up three runs and seven hits in 4 2/3 innings.

But his second start Sunday was dazzling. Not a single Cardinal found third base and he took a three-hit shutout into the seventh and had retired eight straight, four on strikeouts.

But he issued his first and only walk to Matt Carpenter on a 3-and-2 count to open the seventh and gave up a single to Matt Adams and his day was done.

THE REDS, WHO LOST to the Cardinals 10-4 on Saturday, gave Feldman strong support with some help via defensive lapses by the Cardinals.

Adam Duvall, who had three hits, opened the scoring with a home run off Carlos Martinez leading off the second inning. Martinez was upset because he thought he had Duvall struck out on the pitch before the home run.

It stayed 1-0 until the fifth when Martinez hit Scott Schebler with a pitch and Zack Cozart tripled him home, extending Cozart’s hitting streak to six games to open the season.

Everything fell apart for Martinez and the Cardinals in the sixth when the Reds scored four runs on only two hits, with the Cardinals tossing in three errors during the inning.

Duvall’s third hit made it 3-0, two errors on the same play by third baseman Jhonny Peralta made it 4-0 and Schebler’s two-run double made it 6-0.

The seventh run came in the seventh on Billy Hamilton’s double and Jose Peraza’s single and Joey Votto homered in the ninth to make it 8-0.

MARTINEZ ENTERED THE game with a 5-and-1 career record against the Reds, 3-and-0 in St. Louis. But his pitching line this day was besmirched — five innings, six runs (five earned), six hits, one walk, three strikeouts, a wild pitch, two hit batsmen, a home run and a partridge in a pear tree.

After Feldman left, Blake Wood pitched two scoreless innings (one hit, one strikeout) and Tony Cingrani gave up a leadoff hit in the ninth, then retired the final three, two on strikeouts.

After issuing 12 walks in Saturday’s game, Feldman’s one walk was the only free pass issued by Reds pitchers.

The Reds banged 11 hits, three by Duvall and two by Suarez that including Duvall’s home run, Cozart’s triple and doubles by Stuart Turner, Schebler and Billy Hamilton.

So the Reds took two of three in St. Louis, winning both games via shutouts after Amir Garrett’s Friday gem. And the Reds have won four of their first six, three via shutouts.

 

 

By HAL McCOY

Neither Bronson Arroyo nor Robert Stephenson will scribble any positive notations in their personal journals about April 8, 2017.

It was a Bad Day at Busch for both. And it was a nasty afternoon for the Cincinnati Reds, a 10-4 whipping from the St. Louis Cardinals.

Arroyo, making his first major league appearance in nearly 2 ½ years, was greeted with scorn by the Cardinals, particularly by 26-year-old shortstop Aledmys Diaz.

Diaz faced Arroyo twice and homered twice as part of a Cardinals victory Saturday afternoon in Busch Stadium that ended Cincinnati’s three-game winning streak.

ARROYO PITCHED FIVE INNINGS and gave up six runs, six hits and, most noteworthy, three walks. Walking people is not something Arroyo did during his first stint with the Reds and the rust on his arm was obvious.

Meanwhile, Stephenson replaced Arroyo for his first appearance this season in the sixth and it was plug ugly. In just 1 1/3 innings Stephenson walked six and gave up three runs and three hits.

Up to that time, the Reds bullpen had given up just one run in 15 1/3 innings and was working on 12 straight scoreless innings.

ARROYO, 40, WAS THE FIRST Reds pitcher 40 or older to make a start since 1945. The last time somebody over 40 started for the Reds was a back-to-back event when 46-year-old Hod Lisanbee and 40-year-old Boom Boom Beck pitched on June 8 and June 9 of 1945 against the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field.

Of course, that was during World War II and most able-bodied major leaguers were doing duty in the military.

And it was the first time somebody over 38 started for the Reds since the iconic Joe Nuxhall, at age 38, pitched his last game for the Reds in September of 1966 against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

DIAZ WAS THE SECOND batter Arroyo faced in the first inning and he blasted a hanging curveball over the left field wall. Arroyo then walked Matt Adams and Yadier Molina blooped a run-scoring double that plopped on the right field line for a 2-0 St. Louis lead.

Arroyo gave up a walk and an infield hit in the second, but no runs, and pitched a 1-2-3 third.

But all four tires went flat in the fourth. He gave up a double to Jedd Gyrko but had two outs and pitcher Micheal Wacha at the plate, owner of a .192 career batting average.

No matter, Wacha rolled a run-scoring single up the middle. Arroyo walked Dexter Fowler and Diaz repeated his first-inning swing, drilling a three-run homer to left off another hanging curveball to make it 6-1.

STEPHENSON WALKED THE first two Cardinals he faced in the fifth and balked the runners to third and second. But he escaped damage with a strikeout, a ground ball, an intentional walk to fill the bases and a strikeout of Wacha on a 3-and-2 pitch.

But he didn’t get out of the sixth, due to more wildness.

Fowler walked, Diaz singled for his third straight hit. Matt Carpenter walked on four pitches to fill the bases.

Pitching coach Mack Jenkins visited the mound for a stern lecture. Whatever he said fell on deaf ears. Stephenson walked Jose Martinez on four pitches to force in a run.

Stephenson righted himself briefly by striking out Yadier Molina and Randal Grichuk. But Gyrko ripped a two-run single to right to make it 9-1 and Stephenson’s forgettable day was done.

MANAGER BRYAN PRICE DECIDED to give some of his bench players a start Saturday, benching Billy Hamilton, Jose Peraza and Scott Schebler. In their places were Arismendy Alcantara, Scooter Gennett and Patrick Kivlehan.

It didn’t work.

Alcantara was 0 for 4 with three strikeouts. Gennett was 0 for 4 with a strikeout. Kivlehan was 0 for 4 with two strikeouts.

The Reds scored a run in the top of the fourth on doubles by Joey Votto and Eugenio Suarez.

They scored two in the eighth when Tucker Barnhart singled and Schebler, who entered the game as part of a double switch, homered for the second time this season.

Eugenio Suarez homered with two outs in the ninth for the final run and a 10-4 scored. And 10-4 it was — as in, over-and-out.

In the first four games, Reds pitchers gave up 10 walks. On Saturday, they gave up 12, nine by the bullpen, six by Stephenson.

By HAL McCOY

Amir Garrett not only resembles an exclamation point, but the tall, gangly lefthander pitched with exclamation point emphasis Friday night in his major league debut.

Standing on the mound in the hostile environment of sold out Busch Stadium, Garrett pitched like a salty veteran against the St. Louis Cardinals.

Garrett gagged the Cardinals for six innings, no runs and two hits, and turned a one-run lead over to the bullpen.

AND THE NEW AND IMPROVED bullpen held the fort as the Reds scored a 2-0 victory.

Garrett is the first Cincinnati Reds pitcher to pitch six scoreless innings in a debut performance since Wayne Simpson in 1970. Simpson, though, threw a complete-game shutout against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

As Fox broadcaster Chris Welsh pointed out, when Price picked up the bullpen phone last year he was dialing 9-1-1. So far this year it has been a wildly different story.

Michael Lorenzen pitched a 1-2-3 seventh and Raisel Iglesias pitched the final two innings, retiring the first five before issuing a walk with two outs in the ninth. But he ended it by striking out Stephen Piscotty.

In four games this season, the bullpen has given up one run 15 1/3 innings.

GARRETT NEEDED ONLY 78 pitches (50 strikes) to wade through the Cardinals lineup. But Reds manager Bryan Price decided six innings and 78 pitches were enough for the 24-year-old 6-foot-4, 230-pound former St. John’s University basketball player.

No Cardinals baserunner reached second base against Garrett.

Garrett walked the first major league batter he faced, Dexter Fowler, then retired seven straight before opposing pitcher Mike Leake singled with one out in the third.

The only other Cardinals hit with a two-out single by Kolten Wong with two outs in the fifth.

GARRETT HAD TO BE ON his best behavior because his pitching opponent, former Reds No. 1 draft pick Mike Leake, was on target, too.

Leake pitched eight innings and gave up one run and six hits while striking out six.

Leake matched zeros with Garrett for five innings before the Reds broke through for a run in the sixth. Billy Hamilton led the sixth with a single and stole second — his 24^th steal in 26 attempts with Yadier Molina catching.

IT STAYED 1-0 UNTIL there were two outs in the top of the ninth when Scott Schebler hit a home run to left field, the opposite field, against lefthander Kevin Siegrist. It was Schebler’s second hit of the season and gave Iglesias an extra breath for the bottom of the ninth.

Offensively, the Reds produced seven hits, two each by Billy Hamilton and Zack Cozart, who is hitting .538 over his first four games this season.

There were, though, a couple of blips on the screen. Garrett missed a safety squeeze bunt attempt and Cozart was picked off third base. And after doubled home the game’s first run, he tried to steal third with two outs and was caught.

But it was a night to remember for Garrett.

By HAL McCOY

CINCINNATI — The major league debut of Cincinnari Reds rookie pitcher Rookie Davis went the way so many rookie debuts go — short, arduous and painful, although the Reds recovered and prevailed, 7-4, over the Philadelphia Phillies.

The Davis Debut lasted only three innings, long enough for him to throw 74 pitches and give up four runs, five hits and two walks Thursday afternoon in front of about 1,500 weather-hardy fans in Great American Ball Park..

And two of the Phillies’ hits left the premises, a pair of home runs hit by left fielder Daniel Nava that accounted for the first three runs scored against Davis.

Nava, a non-roster free agent during spring training, made his Philadelphia debut one to remember by homering in his first two at bats as a member of the Phillies.

DAVIS, THOUGH, DID NOT absorb a loss even though he left with a three-run deficit. His teammates removed him as the pitcher of record by scoring three runs in the fourth inning to tie the game, 4-4.

Then, in the season’s biggest shocker so far, pitcher Michael Lorenzen was used as a pinch-hitter in the sixth inning and broke the tie with a home run to dead center, pushing the Reds ahead, 5-4, a lead they never relinquished.

It was his second career home run, the other coming the first game after he returned from bereavement leave following the death of his father last season. It was a three-run blast while he was in the game. This one was as a pinch-hitter because with only a four-man bench manager Bryan Price is forced into improvisation.

THAT WAS AN ASTOUNDING move. Incredibly, the Reds did not have a single pinch-hit home run all last season.

To Lorenzen, though, his home run was not a stunning, shocking, surprise event from a guy who pitched and played outfield at Cal-Fullerton in college.

“People don’t take me seriously when I say I can play both ways,” said Lorenzen. “It is something I believe I can do — be an all-around baseball player. I take pride in not just being a pitcher, a reliever, a starter. I’ve grown up playing the whole game, making the diving play, hitting, running the bases. The game of baseball is fun to me, I love it, all of it.”

ADAM DUVALL GAVE THE bullpen breathing space when he hit a two-run home run in the seventh.

For the third straight game, the Reds bullpen was in shutdown mode, although Cody Reed made it squirmy.
Reed pitched the fifth and sixth and in both innings he walked the first two batters and squimed out of it when the Reds turned double plays in both innings and rookie catcher Stuart Turner picked a runner off second after a missed bunt attempt.

The other relievers were picture perfect: Willy Peralta one inning and two strikeouts (no runs, no hits), Tony Cingrani one inning and one strikeouts (no runs, no hits), Blake Wood one inning and two strikeouts (no runs, no hits) and Drew Storen one inning, one strikeout (no runs, one hit). That’s no runs, one hit, four walks (all by Reed) and seven strikeouts from five bullpen guys over six innings.

AMAZINGLY, BECAUSE OF THE way baseball works, Reed was given the win because the Reds took the lead when he was in the game. The win was his career first after he began his creer last year 0-and-7 as a starter.

As manager Bryan Price said, “It was about time something went his way. He didn’t pitch to his ability today, however, he did have some things go his way.

“He had some struggles last year and he had to struggle to get by today. I want this to be a boost for Cody. He has wonderful stuff and he has to harness it, kind of like what Brandon Finnegan did from last year. He needs to put his delivery together to throw quality strikes,” Price added.

Reed, a starter all last year when he went 0-and-7, made his major league debut as a relief pitcher and laughed and said, “I think I was tired running in from the bullpen from left center. That’s a lot longer than running from the dugout. I had shortness of breath.

“I know last year was a struggle for me, I definitely was on The Struggle Bus,” Reed added. And it was a shaky situation in both innings today, but (pitching coach) Mack Jenkins told me, ‘You battled. You were erratic, but you got the two ground balls to get two outs with one pitch.’”

And Rookie Davis?

“It’s good to get the first one out of the way,” he said. “A coupe of pitches beat me early.” Those pitches were the home run balls to Nava in the first and third innings.

“I have to make better pitches, particularly on the second home run, the two-run home run that came on a 1-and-2 count. I have to make a better pitch than that. But the way the team stepped in, the way they rallied, that was special for me. Next time, maybe I can pick them up.”