Another Day, Another Reds Loss

This is becoming a disappointing trend, writing articles that end with the Reds losing. The fact that the Reds are losing so much is

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disturbing as well. Saturday night in Arizona the Reds once again lost, their fourth loss in the last five games. Arizona jumped on a shaky Aroldis Chapman in the 9th to take a 4-3 walk off win.

The Reds offense has struggled immensely, if it wasn’t for Jay Bruce the last few games these losses would look even worse than they do now. Saturday in Arizona was no different, Bruce homered in the 2nd to give the Reds a 1-0 lead.

From there the Dbacks answered in the 6th with a 2 run home run taking a 2-1 lead. With the Reds offense this season that is nearly an insurmountable lead, especially on the road.

Something amazing happened, the Reds scored 2 runs in the 9th! Once again off a Jay Bruce home run except this time it wasn’t a solo home run and the Reds took a 3-2 lead. Jay Bruce’s last 7 hits have all been home runs. While that is a great stat that doesn’t win games.

With a one run lead manager Dusty Baker made the move to pull starting pitcher Mike Leake and put in close Aroldis Chapman. Leake pitched one hell of a game, honestly hat off to that man tonight. Leake went 8 innings strong only giving up 4 hits and 2 runs while only throwing 92 pitches.

The move makes sense because Chapman has been great recently so you can’t fault Dusty for making the move. Although pulling Leake when he was so hot doesn’t make perfect sense. A complete game and 20 more pitches would not have hurt Leake and would likely have secured a win.

Chapman had been on a roll since his mini collapse about two months ago. One bad game doesn’t mean jump on the anti Chapman wagon.

This loss hurts though, a win was much needed. Instead the Reds lose a heartbreaker, fall 3.5 games behind the Cards they also fell to third in the NL Central. It hurts.

A team with this much potential can’t afford losses like this. The team needs to find a way to win, that’s what champions do. Look at the Cardinals, they find ways to win, Cincinnati finds ways to lose.

There are multiple things that should change, the Reds need a bat, a managerial change perhaps and stop changing the line up. It has been incredibly frustrating the last week, but no one should give up. We’re not Miami for goodness sake.

Cincinnati returns to the diamond tomorrow where they will be sending Mat Latos to the mound.