Cincinnati Reds throw away another win by misusing the bullpen
Cincinnati Reds’ reliever Blake Wood was left out to dry vs. the Cubs at Wrigley.
It was another typical 2016 game for the Cincinnati Reds. They had pieced together a decent start by a relatively young pitcher and had a lead before the bullpen took over. That’s when things went bad.
In the previous game the Reds’ ace, Dan Straily, went 6, followed by Lorenzen for 2 and Iglesias for 1 inning and the save. That should mean that everyone except Lorenzen and maybe Iglesias should be available the next game, right? There should especially be pitchers available given that it is September.
Tim Adleman made it through six innings not giving up a single run. In the bottom of the seventh Adleman gave up a lead-off homer to Cubs’ shortstop, Addison Russell. He then got Jason Heyward to line out before giving up another solo shot to catcher Willson Contreras. Adleman had given up 5 hits and no walks in allowing two runs. Then the call went to the bullpen.
The Reds called in Blake Wood. This is a bit unusual. He usually comes into the game in mid-inning, but usually with at least one player on base. It was the seventh inning which is usually Lorenzen time. With Lorenzen out it became Wood time. Wood gave up two hits in the next two thirds of an inning to allow the Cubs to take the lead 3-2.
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The Reds had other options besides Wood.
Then Wood came out to pitch the eighth. The Reds are down by one run vs. the best team in baseball and they send their “get out of an inning pitcher” out for a second inning of work. They have other options that they didn’t use.
The Reds could have elected to go batter by batter and let the lefty specialist Wandy Peralta start the inning vs. Anthony Rizzo. Ben Zobrist came up next, so Peralta’s assignment would be to stay in the game. Then a righty could have faced Addison Russell. Instead, Wood gave up three more and ended the Reds’ hopes.
Really, with Abel De Los Santos and Jumbo Diaz in the bullpen, either could have pitched in tandem with Peralta or individually to face the Cubs in the 8th inning. Sending Wood out there is an inexcusable mistake this time of the year.
They are not testing to see if Wood can be a multi-inning pitcher. Wood has a different role on this team. It just looks like Bryan Price wanted to let the Cubs take the first game of the series.
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