PHOENIX – Welcome to the National League playoff race, Cincinnati Reds.
Even if you’re just visiting.
The Arizona Diamondbacks shrugged off a week of clubhouse drama and travel adversity to play the role of playoff-bound bully against the also-ran Reds in a 9-0 win over the visitors in the opener of a weekend series.
The last-place Reds, who didn’t get a hit off Arizona starter Eduardo Rodriguez in this one until the fourth inning, when they trailed 5-0, have lost six of their last eight games and 10 of 15.
After a week of dealing with $116.5-million second baseman Ketel Marte’s Monday no-show in Boston and then getting diverted for an overnighter in Las Vegas from the trip because of storms in Phoenix, the Diamondbacks came out swinging and running against Reds starter Nick Lodolo.
About the time a photo of Marte bellied up to a table at a nearby casino was circulating on social media, the Diamondbacks had circulated around the bases enough for a 6-0 lead they took into the fifth, keeping pressure on the NL West-rival San Diego Padres in the race for the league’s final wild-card spot.
The Padres, who beat the Twins on Friday, lead the Diamondbacks by a game.
Playoff fever.
No wonder it’s so hot in Phoenix.
The Reds, on the other hand …
Five days after an ‘out of gas’ Lodolo took himself out of a scoreless game at 73 pitches and five innings, fatigue and pitch limits were the least of Lodolo’s problems, especially compared to command and hard contact.
Lodolo, who missed 10 weeks this season with two injury list stints for a blister problem on his index finger, got pounded for six runs on 10 hits in 3 1/3 innings by the D’Backs in his third start back from the latest IL stay.
One value to this one: Lodolo extended to 91 pitches.
“Overall, there’s obviously a ton of things I could have done better,” said Lodolo, who suggested he should have thrown his new-grip breaking pitch more often and downplayed the thought of building off the third time back off the IL.
“It is what it is,” he said. “Sh— happened. I gotta be ready to go again Wednesday.”
Meanwhile the Reds watched another player go down when left fielder Michael Toglia suffered a dislocated right (glove-hand) shoulder making a diving catch in the first inning and exited the game.
Toglia had the shoulder popped back into place and was in a sling after the game. But initial X-rays suggested a better prognosis than first assumed, and the club planned to re-evaluate him before Saturday’s game.
“I’m feeling pretty optimistic about it; that it’s just going to be day by day,” Toglia said. “We’re going to see how it progresses (Saturday). It’s definitely pretty sore from being out of place, but I’m not really in any pain right now. And the gentle range-of-motion looked fantastic.”
Manager Terry Francona: “We’ll see how he wakes up, how he’s doing, and we’ll go from there.”
TJ Friedl replaced Toglia in the game.
Friedl, whose deep struggles at the plate this season cost him a minor-league demotion in June, snapped a career-high 0-for-30 skid in his second at-bat with a line single to right in the fifth. It was his first hit since July 11. He also reached in the seventh when hit on the back foot by a pitch.
The Reds managed only four hits, all singles, including an infield hit.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Contending Diamondbacks rout Cincinnati Reds in opener of 3-city trip
Reporting by Gordon Wittenmyer, Cincinnati Enquirer / Cincinnati Enquirer
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Gordon Wittenmyer, Cincinnati Enquirer | USA TODAY Network
