CINCINNATI -- So you want to be a big league manager? You'd better be able to handle second-guessing.
Reds manager Bryan Price is being second-guessed a lot these days, and Friday's 7-3 loss to Chicago in 11 innings isn't going to quiet things down. Price's job is being made more difficult when timely hits are hard to come by and he's not sure which member of his bullpen staff is going to pitch up to expectations on a given night.
Friday's loss was the second in a row for the Reds, who have scored just seven runs in their last 29 innings after producing 22 combined runs in a wins Monday and Tuesday at Milwaukee. They dropped back to a game under .500 (8-9) with their ninth loss in 13 games when right-hander Burke Badenhop's April to forget continued. After striking out Jorge Soler looking to start the 11th, Badenhop gave up five consecutive hits, including a run-scoring single to Johnathan Herrera and a two-run double by David Ross.
The Reds were hitless in 14 at-bats with runners in scoring position Friday, including going 0-for-4 when opportunities presented themselves in the eighth and the 10th innings and the heart of the order was at the plate. Jay Bruce was 0-for-5 overall and 0-for-4 with runners in scoring position, leaving six runners on base in total.
"We had our opportunities to pull it out and didn't come through tonight," said Bruce. "The writing's on the wall. I don't know how many people we left on base but the opportunity presented itself a number of times. That's baseball. You've got to do the little things like that to win the close games. They're important.
"Tonight we didn't get the job done. That's the bottom line."
This was just the fifth time in 17 games this season the Reds have had a game decided by more than three runs but it was also the fourth extra inning they've already played.
All three runs the Reds scored came on outs; Billy Hamilton scored twice in the first three innings on groundouts, while Marlon Byrd scored on a sacrifice fly in the fourth. They were shut out the rest of the way despite getting the leadoff batter on base in the seventh, eighth and 10th innings. Brayan Pena led off the seventh with a double. Joey Votto walked and Todd Frazier had an infield single to begin the eighth inning. On neither occasion did Price choose to have the next batter try and advance the runners with a sacrifice bunt.
In the seventh it was Zack Cozart, who was coming off a road trip in which he hit .368 (14-for-38). It's no crime or wrong decision to not ask one of your hottest hitters to bunt. If Cozart gets a hit in that situation, everyone praises Price for having confidence in Cozart. Instead, he chopped a come-backer to pitcher Phil Coke that forced Pena to remain at second base. Devin Mesoraco, pinch-hitting, and Hamilton ended the inning with strikeouts.
In the eighth inning, Brandon Phillips hit into a double play and then Bruce struck out swinging to end the threat.
"We invited them back into the game," said Price. "That was a game that was there for us to win. We just weren't able to get it done."
Mike Leake went seven innings, allowing three runs on four hits. Two of those hits left the ballpark, including Chris Coghlan's leadoff home run in the seventh inning that tied the game, 3-3. Jumbo Diaz, Aroldis Chapman and J.J. Hoover all pitched scoreless innings in relief. That was the good news. The bad was Badenhop, who appeared in his eighth game this season and for the sixth time either gave up a run of his own or that of the previous pitcher.
Badenhop came into a bases loaded situation on Tuesday in Milwaukee and gave up a grand slam. This time all the runs scored on his watch belonged to him and his ERA rose to 10.80 in just 6 2/3 innings pitched.
Manager's decisions are always subject to second guessing. That's in the job title. Sometimes it just doesn't seem to matter what that decision is.
