Trouble in 4th comes back to haunt Reds

The Reds’ 4-3 loss to the Pirates in the second game of Friday’s seven-inning doubleheader at PNC Park might be a little hard to swallow.

With a better defensive showing, this game may have resulted in a somewhat easy win for the Reds. But an error by Joey Votto led to a three-run top of the fourth inning that tied the game, and a double-play ball in the fifth decided it.

• Box score

With time running out and ground to make up if they’re to snare a postseason bid, the Reds had to settle for a split of the twin bill with the Pirates, the only team with fewer wins than them in the National League Central.

“We’re already thinking about tomorrow,” manager David Bell said. “There's no time to waste, no time to linger. You give everything you have. You want to win each and every game. There's just simply no time to dwell.”

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It would likely benefit the Reds not to dwell on their loss in Game 2, as it was not a good night for the “home” team. (They batted last due to this game being a makeup of an earlier postponement in Cincinnati.)

The fourth inning opened with a play that looked rather innocuous until it wasn’t. Colin Moran sent a sharp grounder into the shift on the right side of the infield, and shortstop Jose Garcia fielded it on a short hop and lobbed it to Votto.

Votto, who had to scurry to the base to receive the throw, seemed to have plenty of time to plant his feet. He had to reach up and to his right to catch the ball, but it still looked routine. However, the ball grazed off Votto’s glove and sailed behind him. That error turned into a big inning for the Pirates, who scored all three runs with two outs. Anthony Alford tripled to drive in two runs and then scored on a wild pitch by Trevor Bauer.

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After the inning ended, cameras showed Bauer screaming in the dugout before he retreated out of sight. His ire seemed to be directed at someone, though it’s unclear who was in his direct line. Bauer returned to pitch two more innings without incident.

“I was mad,” Bauer said. “It takes a lot of intensity, it takes a lot of focus to win at a big league level, and I was upset with the way that inning transpired, both on my part and on our team’s part. Winning at the big league level is a really thin margin.

“I take pride in my day to pitch, that we’re going to win. I wasn’t happy with how I let that spiral out of control. I wasn’t happy with the way the inning went. So yeah, I was mad. It takes a lot of focus and a lot of energy to win and to be consistent. All season long, we haven’t been able to stack that together night after night after night.”

Bauer blamed himself for the wild pitch. Catcher Tucker Barnhart had to skid over to his right to retrieve the ball and was unable to make a throw to Bauer, who didn’t get to the plate in time.

“I probably made two mistakes on that play,” Bauer said. “I threw a bad pitch, and I didn’t get to home plate quick enough. Those are the margins that are the difference between a tie game and a chance to win, and losing by one. That’s frustrating.”

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Bell chalked the incident up to little more than episodes that are going to happen in a competitive setting. Asked specifically if he had a reaction to Bauer possibly yelling at teammates, Bell put it in more general terms.

“That's something that I've seen before,” he said. “I think it's something that's best to be handled internally. One of our rules is you handle things face to face and man to man. Things happen. Once they happen, the best thing to do is just get together and work it out face to face so that it's not going to be an issue.”