Chase Burns returned to the mound in Sacramento on Friday night, and that’s the positive takeaway from this game that you should file away into your long-term Cincinnati Reds planning folder.
The rookie fireballer had been sidelined for over a month with a flexor strain in his prized right throwing arm, but returned in a relief role for Terry Francona’s club on Friday in their series opener against the roving A’s of Las Vegas-Oakland-Sacramento. Unfortunately, I’m beginning this recap of a vital game in a playoff push with details of a reliever instead of, y’know, all the other things that would otherwise be important because the rest of the Reds didn’t exactly do much of anything worthwhile on the day.
The A’s swatted a trio of solo homers on the day – two off Reds starter Brady Singer, and one eventually off of Burns himself – while the Reds stranded an entire fleet of runners in a brutal 3-0 series opening loss late Friday night. Burns’surrendered homer came in his second inning of work after he looked positive electric in a 13-pitch first inning of work, his velocity once again touching triple digits while he worked in his patented devastating slider, to boot.
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That came on the heels of another otherwise rock-solid outing from Singer, who fired 6.0 IP of 2 ER ball – both earnies coming via solo long-balls courtesy of the A’s.
The small-ball Reds, meanwhile, had getting to first base firmly in their wheelhouse on the evening. Leadoff man TJ Friedl was on four times – twice via walk, once via HBP, and once via a single – and the team put their leadoff man in damn near every single inning without being able to get them around to score. The Reds coaxed five walks on the game to go with their six hits – including a leadoff Will Benson triple thanks to A’s outfielder JJ Bleday losing the ball in the lights – yet still couldn’t figure out how to get any of those runners around to score.
Not even after A’s starter JT Ginn was forced out due to injury in the Top of the 5th could they figure things out, what with the A’s bullpen entering play sporting a bottom-five ERA and the second-highest walk rate among all relief units league-wide.
The frustrating aspect of it all is that the New York Mets, who the Reds are chasing in the National League Wild Card chase, lost again on Friday, meaning a win yesterday could have pushed the Reds to within a half-game of a playoff spot. Instead, the Reds squandered the opportunity while their Wild Card chasing rivals from San Francisco delivered an epic walk-off grand slam over their own rivals the Los Angeles Dodgers to instead move ahead of Cincinnati in the race.
The Reds now find themselves again on the mat as they’ve waited until the final two weeks of the season to finally push down on the gas. Hopefully, they won’t squander any more opportunities offensively while in Sacramento, one of the most offensive friendly environments they could possibly ask for.