Three late dingers can’t save Reds, who lose to Cubs 9-3

The Joe Nuxhall Memorial Honorary Star of the Game

Luke Farrell has only been in the Cincinnati Reds system for a few days, but he was called up and given his team debut on Wednesday night after Phil Ervin was optioned and Blake Wood was DFA’d.

Farrell held the line in said debut, too. He allowed a lone hit and 2 walks in 3 scoreless innings of relief, striking out 3 in the process. Considering Asher Wojciechowski got knocked around and exited early just a day after Homer Bailey had to be pulled early, too, that’s the kind of length from the bullpen that the team desperately was looking for. And, well, Farrell provided it.

Welcome to the team, Luke. Here’s to having chances to show your mettle in games where it’s a bit more competitive.

Honorable Mentions are due to: Joey Votto, who homered and singled; Eugenio Suarez, who dingered; Scott Schebler, who dingered, too; Raisel Iglesias, who fired a scoreless inning; and Alejandro Chacin, who allowed a dinger in a short outing, but what the hell - he was making his big league debut.

Key Plays

• Walks. They haunt. Asher Wojciechowski walked a trio of batters in a 35 pitch Top of the 1st, the last of which - to Tommy La Stella - actually walked in a run with the bases loaded. Jason Heyward then followed with a slap single into LF to drive in Ben Zobrist - who had walked - before a bobble by Adam Duvall allowed Anthony Rizzo - who had walked - to score, too. Reds trailed early, 3-0.
• Rizzo doubled to the wall in left-center in the Top of the 3rd, and that put him in prime scoring position when for Heyward’s RBI single into RF a few batters later. Reds trailed, 4-0.
• Pitcher Mike Montgomery and Jon Jay both singled to open the Top of the 4th, which was not good since dinger-honker Kyle Schwarber was in the on-deck circle. He then poked an opposite field 3-run dinger off Wojo, and the Reds were behind a mighty 7-0.
• Still in the Top of the 4th, we were, when an Alex Avila single finally chase Wojo to the bench. Alejandro Chacin, who was added to the 40-man roster and called up earlier Wednesday, was summoned to make his big league debut in Wojo’s stead, and he was immediately initiated into Reds’ bullpen practices by serving up a dinger to the 1st hitter he faced - La Stella - whose 2-run jack put the Reds behind, 9-0.
• After that, things settled way the heck down for most of the rest of the game, but the Reds’ power erupted a bit off Hector Rondon in the Bottom of the 9th for posterity. Each of Votto, Suarez, and Schebler clubbed solo blasts off the Chicago reliever, but that was all the offense the team could muster. Reds lost, 9-3.

Tony Graphanino

Other Notes

• Blergh.
• In Cincinnati’s endless search for pitching that will allow fewer than a dozen runs a game, Sal Romano will start again on Thursday against Chicago in the series finale. He’ll be opposed by Jake Arrieta, with first pitch scheduled for 7:10 PM ET.
• Tunes.