Cincinnati bullpen blows it in the 9th, Reds lose 6-4

The Cincinnati Reds grabbed an early lead and they held the lead until the 9th inning as the pitching dominated. But then the 9th inning happened as the Giants scored four runs to take the lead and held on to complete the come from behind victory to spoil Opening Day for the home crowd at Great American Ball Park.

Final
R
H
E

San Francisco Giants (1-0)
6
6
0

Cincinnati Reds (0-1)
4
8
0

W: Rogers (1-0) L: Gibaut (0-1) SV: Walker (1)

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The Reds didn’t waste much time to push a run across the plate. Elly De La Cruz fell behind 0-2 but battled back to work a walk in the 1st. Gavin Lux followed up with a walk of his own to move De La Cruz into scoring position. The next pitch was to Jeimer Candelario and he lined a single into the outfield just out of the reach of right fielder Mike Yastrzemski who caught the ball on a bounce, bringing the Reds shortstop in to score and put Cincinnati up 1-0.

Two innings later they were right back at it. TJ Friedl led off with a single. Elly De La Cruz came through with a single of his own. Gavin Lux hit a grounder up the middle that was fielded behind the bag by Willy Adames, but he thought about trying to turn two but couldn’t beat De La Cruz to the bag and then threw to first base and was late – loading the bases for Cincinnati. Just like his previous at-bat, Jeimer Candelario took the first pitch he saw and hit it into right field to bring in two runs and extend Reds lead to 3-0.

Hunter Greene had been cruising through the first three innings of the game. He struck out seven batters and had given up just one hit. In the 4th he gave up a 1-out walk to Jung Hoo Lee. As the old saying goes, walks will haunt. Two batters later, Heliot Ramos won an 11-pitch battle with a 2-run home run to bring the Giants within a run. Greene returned for the 5th and worked around a single for a shutout inning, completing his day on the mound.

From there it was a game of bullpens. And the two sides went back-and-forth at each other. Scott Barlow, Emilio Pagan, and Tony Santillan each threw a perfect inning with two strikeouts to hold onto a 3-2 lead.

With Alexis Diaz on the injured list, the Reds turned to Ian Gibaut for the 9th inning today to serve as the closer. He had four saves in his big league career entering the game. After striking out Willy Adames to begin the inning, Gibaut got ahead of Jung Hoo Lee 0-2, but lost him and walked him on the 8th pitch he threw to him. Matt Chapman took the second pitch he saw and lined a single into right field to move the tying run over to third base. Heliot Ramos struck out on three pitches to record the second out. After falling behind 3-0 to Patrick Bailey, Gibaut gave up a game-tying single on a 3-1 fastball. San Francisco then grabbed the lead when Wilmer Flores hit a 3-run home run and sent Gibaut to the showers.

Sam Moll entered the game and struck out Mike Yastrzemski on three pitches to end the top of the game. After not trailing all day, the Reds had to head to the plate in the bottom of the 9th needing a big rally. The first two Cincinnati hitters made outs, but Jacob Hurtubise came off of the bench to pinch hit for Jose Trevino and was hit by a pitch. He then stole second base and scored on a single up the middle by TJ Friedl. That was all she wrote, though, as Matt McLain flew out to the warning track in left to end the game.