Aquino amazes, but Reds need more vs. Cubs

CINCINNATI – Rookie right fielder Aristides Aquino's first week in the Major Leagues for the Reds has been a sensational one. On Thursday night against the Cubs at Great American Ball Park, Aquino started his second week in powerful fashion with the hardest-hit ball for the team in 2019.

But Aquino alone could not lift Cincinnati, which was handed a 12-5 loss, as the bullpen faltered and the lineup went 3-for-16 with runners in scoring position while stranding 11 men on base. The defeat knocked the fourth-place Reds to eight games back in the National League Central race. They remained 4 1/2 games back in the NL Wild Card hunt.

• Box score

“We all know each other well enough, spend enough time together and communicate enough to know what we need to do the rest of the series,” Reds manager David Bell said.

On the heels of the Cubs' four-run rally against starting pitcher Alex Wood in the top of the third inning to make it a 5-1 game, the Reds returned with a four-run bottom of the third against Chicago lefty Cole Hamels.

Aquino tattooed a 1-1 pitch and launched it 445 feet into the left-field, upper-deck bleachers for a two-run home run. Statcast showed the exit velocity on contact was 118.3 mph, which made that the hardest-hit ball of any kind for the Reds since Statcast started tracking the data in 2015. It was tied for the fourth-hardest in the Major Leagues and tied with Pete Alonso and Gary Sanchez for the hardest-hit homer in MLB this season.

The only other players with a homer of 118.3 mph or more since Statcast's introduction are Giancarlo Stanton (5), Aaron Judge (5), Sanchez (1) and Alonso (1).

“I always know that I hit the ball hard,” Aquino said via interpreter Julio Morillo. “And for the time that I’ve been here, I’ve been joking about it with my teammates, telling them, ‘I’m the guy who has more power on the team.’”

Aquino’s hit appeared to bring the Reds back to life as they added two more runs while batting around. The rally ended when the 10th batter of the inning, Joey Votto, was called out on strikes.

“It seemed like that was a big spot there for us to try to get as many as we could,” Bell said. “Their bullpen was able to throw up a lot of zeros after that. That was really the difference. Offensively, you do expect us to continue to score the way we’ve been swinging the bat. It just didn’t happen tonight.”

Both Wood and Hamels were out of the game after three innings. Tyler Chatwood followed Hamels with three scoreless innings of relief. The Reds bullpen fared poorly in response. In his debut for the club, Kevin Gausman gave up the go-ahead run on Nicholas Castellanos’ second homer of the night -- a solo drive to right field in the fourth. In the fifth, a two-out RBI double from Jonathan Lucroy -- making his Cubs debut -- gave Chicago a 7-5 lead.

Chicago put the game away against struggling reliever David Hernandez, with five runs and six hits over 1 2/3 innings -- including Ian Happ’s two-run homer to right field as part of a two-run seventh. It gave Hernandez a 24.75 ERA with five homers allowed over his last 12 games. Position player Kyle Farmer recorded the final four outs as a reliever.

• As C Farmer saves Reds 'pen, Javy bats ... lefty?

A rout to open the series wasn’t what the Reds needed, especially after coming in winners of 10 of their last 15 games. But the club has won three of the previous four series against the Cubs and can still take this series with three straight wins.

No doubt, there should be more chances to inflict damage for Aquino, who is 9-for-15 (.600) with three home runs and eight RBIs over his last five games. He also started the scoring for the Reds with an RBI double in the first.

“Again, he continues to hit the ball hard, and he's got a really nice approach,” Bell said. “He's still in the early stages of his Major League career. We'll continue to look for opportunities for him, not to play every single day, just to make sure we're mindful of that.”

When he was promoted from Triple-A Louisville on Aug. 1, following the trade of Yasiel Puig to Cleveland, Aquino was batting .299 with 28 homers. The 25-year-old uses an open stance to begin his plate appearances before moving into a more traditional look.

“I think the good thing for me is to keep being aggressive with pitches in the zone,” Aquino said. “That’s what I was doing in the Minors and what I want to be doing up here, too.”

Aquino made his mark defensively as well. He threw out Castellanos at second base trying for a double for an assist in the first inning. In the third inning, he tried to throw out Kris Bryant running from first base to third base on Anthony Rizzo’s single. The throw wasn’t in time, but it was tracked at 101.5 mph.

“You get both spectrums there, I guess,” Farmer said. “He’s a fun player to watch. I haven’t really seen anybody who has hit the ball as hard as he has and throw as hard as he is. He’s a very, very fun player to watch, and he has a bright future, for sure.”