Notes: Garrett, Stephenson both confident

Reds lefty reliever Amir Garrett hasn’t lost any confidence after a bad day on Saturday.

“We're going to keep going, man. That's it,” Garrett said on Sunday. “That's all we can do, keep working and keep going.”

Until this past week, Garrett appeared to have left his dismal April behind with a stretch of seven scoreless appearances, spanning 6 2/3 innings and only two hits and two walks.

On Tuesday at Washington, he gave up a solo home run in the ninth inning before Cincinnati held on for a 2-1 win. And on Saturday vs. the Cubs, he replaced Luis Castillo after Castillo walked the first two batters in the sixth inning of a 2-2 game.

Garrett got a strikeout against his first batter but walked the next two back-to-back to force home the go-ahead run during a disastrous four-run rally before a 10-2 loss. Ahead of the first walk, Patrick Wisdom saw sliders on all six pitches. After an 0-2 count, he took four straight that were low and out of the strike zone.

On a full count to Eric Sogard with the bases loaded, Garrett lost the battle with a ball-four slider in the dirt.

“I would say the one in D.C., not struggling, just a home run. You win the game. Very good pitch. That's baseball. That happens,” Garrett said. “This one, I walked two guys. I wouldn't take those pitches back, though, because I'm not just going to lay the ball over the plate with bases loaded. I can't. I can't lay the ball over the plate. I can't just give them something good to hit. You've got to live and die by what you do best. My slider is my best pitch. I got ahead on the righty and I should have put him away like I was supposed to, but I had him 0-2 right away.

“I couldn't find the zone at that time. It's all good because I woke up today and guess what, I'm going to be in there again today, probably. And again tomorrow. And again, probably, the next day.”

Garrett entered Sunday with an 8.36 ERA in 17 appearances. He still has confidence in his fastball but will continue to lean on his slider.

“My slider is a ground-ball pitch, a weak-contact pitch,” Garrett said. “Even when I throw my fastball in there, the possibilities of it getting hit and getting hit pretty hard and finding the gap is pretty likely. So I wasn't going to give him one of those. Especially with that right-handed hitter, he's a good low-ball hitter. It was probably a better pitch to give him my slider. … I was OK with the pitch selection I had.”

Garrett showed signs he is turning the corner on Sunday, as he pitched a scoreless sixth inning capped by an inning-ending double play off the bat of Kris Bryant.

Stephenson feeling good with at-bats

Rookie Tyler Stephenson snapped an 0-for-13 skid with a double in Friday’s loss vs. the Cubs. On Saturday, his stretch was 1-for-16 when he hit the game-tying double in the top of the sixth inning. Stephenson didn’t feel he had been in a slump.

“I don’t think I would consider it a slump by any means,” Stephenson said on Sunday. “During that time, I’ve been very happy with how my at-bats were going. But yeah, I was happy to get some hits together and get a big hit yesterday and tie the game up.”

Sunday marked Stephenson’s 11th straight game in the starting lineup. Manager David Bell has wanted to give him a day off but has found that difficult with the lineup already missing Joey Votto, Nick Senzel and Mike Moustakas, all of whom are on the injured list. Bell has wanted to keep Stephenson’s good bat in the middle of the order.

Stephenson has alternated between catcher, his usual position, and first base as he often fills in for Votto. He felt like his body is holding up.

“It’s been fine,” Stephenson said. “Ever since my 2018 year in High-A, that’s when I took everything serious in the weight room. Really since then, my body is feeling better and better. I’m doing stuff behind the scenes to make sure I’m ready. It’s good to still stay in the lineup, even when I’m at first. Body wise, I feel great.”