McCoy: Late-inning meltdown costs Reds in loss to Diamondbacks

The Diamondbacks scored three runs on one dubious hit in the eighth inning because Reds pitchers couldn’t find home plate.

Ian Gibaut and Lucas Sims issued four walks and three scored, leading to a 5-2 Arizona victory.

The implications were severe for the Reds. They fell 1½ games behind Arizona for the third wild card spot. And they toppled to six games behind Milwaukee in the National League Central Division.

Both teams carried the same script in their back pockets. Their teams are comeback specialists, the Rally Reds and the Answerbacks.

And the Reds owned a 2-1 lead after the top of the seventh, but it was the DBacks sashaying back for their 35th come-from-behind win.

They tied in the seventh when Reds starter Graham Ashcraft gave up a leadoff home run to Lourdes Gurriel Jr., who launched a 415-footer into the left field seats, a blast on which he immediately flipped his bat and briefly admired the majestic flight of the ball.

For six innings, Ashcraft’s cutter-slider-fastball combination had the DBacks wondering what that little spinning white thing was that Ashcraft was throwing.

The only previous damage done to him with a single by Corbin Carroll and a run-scoring double by Ketel Marte.

After Gurriel’s home run in the seventh, Ashcraft retired the next two and saw manager David Bell trudging moundward. Ashcraft said, “I got this, I got this.”

But Bell replaced him with Ian Gibaut and it worked. He struck out Geraldo Perdomo.

It didn’t work in the eighth. Gibaut walked Carroll on four pitches to open the inning and Carroll promptly swiped second, his 40th theft.

Then he walked Marte on four pitches.

Bell brought in Lucas Sims and to keep the monotony going, he walked Tommy Pham on four pitches to fill the bases with no outs.

Christian Walker lofted a sacrifice fly to center field to push Arizona in front, 3-2. Then Sims walked Gurriel to re-fill the bases. Even Longoria hoisted a sacrifice fly to make it 4-2.

Then came the inning’s only hit, a hit by Alek Thomas that could have been ruled an error. It ricocheted off shortstop Elly De La Cruz’s glove into left field and the fifth run scored.

The Reds trailed, 4-2, in the ninth Saturday night and tied it, then won in 11 innings, 8-7.

Could there be more magic? The Reds were facing Ryan Thompson in the ninth, a pitcher making his Arizon debut after he was released by the Tampa Bay Rays.

But there was no magician in the Reds dugout on this day. Thompson cut them down 1-2-3.

Before the blast furnace meltdown in the eighth, the Reds were fundamentally sound.

In the second inning, Nick Martini produced a 14-pitch at bat against Arizona starter Slade Cecconi, making his third major-league start. He fouled off 11 pitches, but the 11th was a foul tip into the catcher’s mitt.

In the fifth inning, Carroll ripped a bullet off the left field wall. He never stopped running and tried for an inside-the-park home run.

Center fielder TJ Friedl threw the ball to De La Cruz in medium-depth right field. De La Cruz unleashed 99 mph arrow to cut down Carroll at the plate.

No pitcher in the game threw a pitch that fast. And Carroll went from home to third in 14.83 seconds, tying De La Cruz for the fastest trip from home to third this year in MLB.

Carroll had two hits, a walk and scored two runs, adding to his Rookie of the Year credentials. He is 13 for his last 25.

The Diamondbacks had a runner on first with one out in the sixth when the game was tied, 1-1. Walker shot one over the third base bag and Noelvi Marte made a classic backhanded stab to start a 5-4-3 double play.

The Reds took a 2-1 lead in the top of seventh via some bold and aggressive base-running by Spencer Steer. He walked to open the inning.

Nick Senzel flied to deep right and Steer boldly and alertly tagged up and took second. That enabled him to score on Noelvi Marte’s two-out single to give the Reds a 2-1 lead.

Then came Arizona’s seventh and eighth innings and all that excellent play by the Reds went awry.