Cincinnati Reds do the unexplainable with the bullpen again!
Facing the Cubs, Cincinnati Reds’ manager Bryan Price misused the bullpen again.
The Cincinnati Reds’ manager, Bryan Price, used to be one of the best pitching coaches in the major leagues. He had led both the Seattle Mariners and the Cincinnati Reds to pitching success. Then he became a manager and forgot all that he knew.
Facing the Cubs in game three of a three game set in Wrigley, Price saw top prospect Robert Stephenson start the game. It was a good gambit, but he pitched a poor game. Needing to get out of a jam with 2 outs, Price called upon Matt Magill. Not only is a mid-inning jam the specialty of Blake Wood, but they pinch-hit for Magill in the top of the fifth. Why use a potential multi-inning reliever to get one out?
Michael Lorenzen took the damage for the Reds.
Then Price brought in set-up man Michael Lorenzen in the fifth inning. He was ineffective over 1 2/3 and no wonder. When you have been training a pitcher to be ready in the seventh or later for a couple of months, bringing him in the fifth down 4-2 is unexplainable.
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The end the game, the Reds used Ross Ohlendorf and Tony Cingrani each for one inning. Why was this day that Ohlendorf suddenly can’t pitcher multi-innings early in a game? Seriously! Why was this the one day that Price elected to treat Ohlendorf as a veteran?
Ohlendorf hadn’t pitched since for three days and was ready to go. Cingrani in his own right hadn’t pitched for four days! That’s without mentioning that Keyvius Sampson, the Reds’ usual long reliever, was fully available for this game.
The Reds also didn’t use Raisel Iglesias in game two or three of the series. They could have used Cingrani and Ohlendorf for multiple innings each knowing that Iglesias had the last two innings covered. Instead, Price sent Lorenzen out there to flounder. He did a similar thing to Wandy Peralta the day before.
The 2016 version of the Cincinnati Reds was never going to contend for a playoff birth. That doesn’t excuse the ineffectual and often contradictory utilization of the relief pitching. Early in the season when the bullpen was bad, most of it was the fault of J.J. Hoover and other bad pitchers. Once Hoover went down to Louisville, though, the bullpen should have taken off.
Price should be better at managing the pitching staff. Whether he is getting bad advice or doing this himself, this has to stop. Maybe the Reds should get a new manager and make Price the pitching coach again.
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