It was hard to find a silver lining in the Cincinnati Reds’ series-opening loss to the Washington Nationals.
Reds starting pitcher Brady Singer was the subject of the latest injury scare on the pitching staff, the bullpen faltered behind Singer, and the team’s bats couldn’t provide timely hitting in a 10-4 loss to the Nationals on May 12 at Great American Ball Park.
Washington belted its way to victory, mashing six home runs. Luís Garcia Jr. and Louisville native Daylen Lile both hit two, and James Wood added a fifth long ball. In the eighth inning, Brady House drilled a two-run shot to the stands in the right-center field alley for the visitors’ sixth home run of the night.
In the second inning, Lile hit a line drive that appeared to strike the outside of Singer’s right foot. The grounder was measured at 106.7 mph off Lile’s bat, and Singer stayed on the ground after the play ended.
Reds manager Terry Francona emerged from the dugout to tend to Singer, who eventually walked around the mound, threw a warmup toss and ended up staying in the game.
Singer’s early exit was a disconcerting sight given that Cincinnati was already contending with multiple injuries to its starting pitchers. Afterward, Francona said X-ray results were fine but indicated the team would have to monitor Singer’s foot.
“He was hurting,” Francona said. “And he’ll never say a word but I know he was feeling it. It was the foot he drives off of because his velocity dipped a little bit after that, and I get it. Like I said, we’ll keep an eye on him. He’s limping around pretty good.
“(Singer) takes it very seriously, his being reliable and being accountable and taking the ball. I just started to worry that, you start changing your arm action. I must have asked (pitching coach Derek Johnson) that 12 times because you worry about stuff like that,.”
Singer was hesitant to commit to being available for his next scheduled start, saying he wanted to see how his foot felt after a night’s sleep, saying: “I want to see what tomorrow brings.”
“I didn’t want to, obviously, screw the bullpen there coming out,” Singer said. “Tried the best I could with what I had.”
Trailing 3-0 in the fourth inning, Cincinnati loaded the bases with no outs but only produced two runs from the situation, and one scored on a Washington fielding error.
The Reds ended the night 1-for-12 with runners in scoring position.
Trailing 3-2 in the fifth inning, Washington received homers from Garcia Jr. and Lile, who hit a three-run bomb, to break the game open at 7-2 off Reds reliever Sam Moll.
All five Reds relievers who entered the game − Moll, Luis Mey, Connor Phillips, Tony Santillan and Pierce Johnson − allowed at least one run as the team dropped to 22-20.
“We sure did, we gave up some home runs,” Reds manager Terry Francona said. “You know, we’re just, as a staff gonna have to attack the strike zone better. Seems like it’s either middle of the plate or ball, and we’re gonna have to do better.”
Cincinnati is 2-9 in May after ascending to a 20-11 record on April 30.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Cincinnati Reds drop lopsided series opener to Washington Nationals
Reporting by Pat Brennan, Cincinnati Enquirer / Cincinnati Enquirer
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
