Reds rally back, but fall to Padres late

SAN DIEGO -- Twice on Saturday against the Padres, Reds reliever Heath Hembree was one strike away from a clean and scoreless bottom of the eighth inning. Hembree thought he could stymie a sold out crowd that had been creating an electric atmosphere throughout the series at Petco Park.

But Ha-Seong Kim ruined the Reds’ afternoon with a huge two-run home run that sent them to a 7-5 loss -- their third-straight defeat in the four-game series.

“A tough loss, obviously, against these guys, but we're playing them tough and looking forward to coming back tomorrow,” said Reds manager David Bell, who was ejected in the top of the first inning along with first baseman Joey Votto.

Hembree already had two strikeouts behind him during the eighth inning when he had Tommy Pham down in an 0-2 count. But Pham stayed alive for an eight-pitch at-bat that ended with his double to left-center field on a Hembree slider.

Next was Kim, who entered mid-game for an injured Fernando Tatis Jr. In a 1-2 count as 38,765 fans shouted “Let’s go Kim!” he provided them with a big moment by pulling a slider to left field for the go-ahead homer.

“I think for me it was frustrating because I felt like I’m throwing the ball really well,” said Hembree, who has a 10.80 ERA over his last 12 appearances. “I made a couple of mistakes. I threw two sliders that spun. Honestly before I threw that pitch to Kim, I was excited about it. I thought I was going to shut up the whole stadium and sit everybody back down. But it didn’t go my way. I gave him a pitch to hit and he had a cool moment for himself.”

“Just such a special moment,” Padres manager Jayce Tingler noted. “He's up there battling, then all of a sudden you hear the stadium, the fans, the place just chanting his name. When he hit that ball, the place just erupted.”

Despite his numbers, Hembree has had effective games. He has become a late-inning option from the bullpen that is without top reliever Tejay Antone while he’s on the injured list.

“He's got a really good fastball and he kind of sets up his slider with his fastball. That one looks like it just got too much of the plate,” Bell said of Hembree’s pitch to Kim. “I think with Heath his stuff is really good when he executes it, which he's been doing consistently.”

Manny Machado’s two-out, bases-loaded double against Reds starter Vladimir Gutierrez scored three runs and gave San Diego a 5-2 lead in the fourth inning. In the top of the fifth, the Reds responded with their own rally with some big two-out hitting.

Tyler Naquin hit an RBI single past the diving Tatis at shortstop that scored Jonathan India. Tatis was injured on the play and had to exit. Tyler Stephenson worked a walk after being mired in an 0-2 count to new reliever James Norwood. That opened the door for Eugenio Suárez to deliver the game-tying two-run single to left-center field.