The Reds took care of that, losing to Lynn and the 10-22 White Sox, 5-4.
It was Cinco de Mayo Night, Star Wars Night, Fireworks Night, Full Moon and No-Win Night for the Reds and starter Hunter Greene.
Greene gave up two home runs, a three-run rip to Elvis Andrus and a two-run blast to Luis Robert Jr., the five runs the White Sox needed to stick the Reds with their third straight loss.
The White Sox have dealt with bullpen problems all season, a team earned run average above six. And it looked as if it would bite them again in the ninth inning.
Reynoldo Lopez arrived in the ninth to guard the 5-4 lead and quickly walked Jake Fraley on five pitches, putting the tying run on base with no outs.
Henry Ramos struck out his first three times but drove a one-ball pitch into center field. Fraley thought the ball would fall for in and sprinted head-down toward second. Robert Jr. caught the ball chest-high and winged a perfect peg to first to double up
Fraley.
Lopez blew away Nick Senzel with a 101-miles an hour fastball to put an exclamation point on the game for Chicago.
Amazingly, the top five batters in the White Sox lineup were 1 for 20 with eight strikeouts and talented leadoff hitter Tim Anderson struck out three times.
It was the lower segment that put it to the Reds with six hits that included all five RBI, four runs scored and the two home runs.
Using their preferred smallball approach, the Reds scored a run in the third and two in the fourth to grab a 3-0 lead.
Smallball:
Kevin Newman beat out an infield single and stole second to lead the third inning. TJ Friedl lobbed one down the right-field line to score Newman. Friedl reached third on his hit but overslid the bag and was called out on replay/review.
Smallball:
The first three Reds in the fourth all singled to the opposite field — Spencer Steer, Tyler Stephenson and Jake Fraley. That scored one. With one out, Senzel dropped a run-scoring single to left and it was 3-0.
No smallball:
Greene was wheeling and dealing for four innings — no runs, one hit, six strikeouts. But the White Sox awoke in the fifth with a pair of singles by Luis Robert Jr. and former Reds No. 1 draft pick Yasmani Grandal to open the inning.
With one out, No. 9 hitter Andrus, hitting .197 and homerless on the season, rectified that with a three-run home run that narrowly cleared the wall to tie it, 3-3. It was only the second home run given up by Greene this season.
No smallball:
The tie lasted only until Jonathan India stepped into the box with one out in the bottom of the fifth and crushed a home run over the center field wall for a 4-3 Reds lead.
No smallball:
The end of Greene’s evening arrived in the sixth. He gave up a one-out single to Eloy Jimenez and a two-out home run to Robert Jr., his third hit of the night. When Grandal followed with a single, manager David Bell replaced Greene with Lucas Sims with a 5-4 deficit.
In his previous three starts, Greene gave up one earned run in 14 innings and all he received from it was a loss and two no-decisions. On this night he pitched 5 2/3 innings and gave up five runs, seven hits and fluffed up his earned run average from 2.89 to 3.74.
The White Sox defense gave the Reds an opportunity in the seventh, but nothing came of it. With two outs, catcher Grandal dropped Luke Maile’s fair pop-up for an error. That ended Lynn’s night and relief pitcher Joe Kelly balked pinch-runner Stuart Fairchild to second. India took a called third strike to leave the Reds in arrears, 5-4.
The Reds bullpen was up to it. Sims went 1 1/3 innings with a walk and a strikeout, and Buck Farmer with two perfect innings that included a pair of strikeouts, but the Reds’ offense wasn’t up to it after India’s home run in the fifth.
The Reds didn’t have a hit after India’s homer. Of the last 14 hitters, only one reached base. That was Fraley in the ninth and it ended in an ugly manner.
About the Author