Lorenzen's injury caps messy extras affair

CINCINNATI -- It was a pivotal game the Reds needed to win Saturday over the Brewers as they tried to keep pressure on the first-place club. Manager David Bell took a chance by using reliever Michael Lorenzen's skills as a hitter and outfielder.

Lorenzen, who missed the entire first half on the injured list with a shoulder injury, made his 2021 debut with a scoreless eighth inning of relief, then moved to right field for the ninth and center field for the top of the 10th. But doom came in the bottom of the 10th inning when his right hamstring went and pulled up lame scoring on a sacrifice fly.

A bullpen that waited so long for Lorenzen may have already lost him again. It was the added cruel blow after Reds relievers were leaky again during a 7-4 loss in 11 innings at Great American Ball Park. Second-place Cincinnati now has a six-game deficit to first-place Milwaukee in the National League Central standings.

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"It’s a little bit early to tell how severe it is," Bell said. "We’re hoping that he responds well [Sunday] and he can avoid going on the IL. Obviously, it’s such a huge loss. He worked so hard to get back. He’s so important to our pitching staff, and I put him in a position tonight where I asked him to do a lot, and he wasn’t prepared to do it. And it’s no fault of his, it’s no fault of anyone’s.

"I put him in that position, and he wasn’t ready for it. I’m hoping, for his sake more than anything, but also for our team, that he comes out tomorrow and it’s not severe. That’s all we can hope for at this point."

Bell and the Reds didn't enter the night planning to make use of Lorenzen as the two-way player he often was in 2019. The flow of the game played a part, as did a wrist injury to regular right fielder Nick Castellanos that left Cincinnati a man short.

After Luis Castillo provided six scoreless innings and left with a 2-0 lead, the wheels were set in motion to eventually need Lorenzen to do extra work.

Amir Garrett opened the top of the seventh inning by allowing two singles. Christian Yelich hit a squib near the first base line for a run-scoring out. Brad Brach took over and gave up the game-tying RBI single to Willy Adames, who went to second base on the throw to the plate.

Brach made an error pickoff throw to second base, which allowed Adames to take third base and had immediate consequences. Despite Shogo Akiyama making a nice sliding catch on an Omar Narváez line drive to center field, it went for a sacrifice fly that scored Adames for the go-ahead run.

It was the second game in a row that the bullpen -- and specifically Garrett -- was responsible for giving up a lead. He has a 7.22 ERA through 39 appearances this season.

"We’ve seen him dominate before," Bell said of Garrett. "We saw him pitch really well against this team in the past and have a lot of success against all teams in this league. Maybe he didn’t dominate the last two nights, but I actually thought he threw the ball well. There wasn’t a lot of hard contact."

For the fifth time this season and third start in a row, Castillo was the victim of a blown save. He gave up five hits and three walks while striking out eight.

Lorenzen gave up a one-out double and a two-out walk in the eighth inning, but kept the game where it was. That set up Jonathan India to hit the game-tying homer off the left-field foul pole to lead off the bottom of the eighth against Brad Boxberger.

"It was a good game, both sides, but we came up short. It’s tough," India said. "We were playing hard, playing good baseball, but it wasn’t enough tonight. Just come back tomorrow and play hard again."

The four-hour, 37-minute game that included a 43-minute rain delay in the bottom of the seventh only got messier. Milwaukee scored a run in the top of the 10th and the Reds rallied to tie the game back up in the bottom of the 10th.

Leading off the bottom of the 10th against reliever Jandel Gustave with Lorenzen on second base as the automatic runner, India blistered a grounder to third base that Luis Urías booted for an error. With runners on the corners and one out, Tyler Stephenson tied the game with a sacrifice fly to left field. Lorenzen, who made his season debut to pitch back in the eighth inning, started hobbling after tagging up but still scored because of an off-target throw to the plate.

"There was a lot going on," Bell said. "I feel 100% good about the way we went to try to win tonight’s game. But each and every game, as important as they are, it’s not even close to being as important as our players’ health.

"But the way the game went was why it worked out. He gets deeper into his return, and we do that every single time and we feel good about it. He just wasn’t ready."

Sean Doolittle gave up three runs (two earned) in the top of the 11th inning to decide the game.