CINCINNATI (AP) — Burke Badenhop’s scoreless innings streak came to an end at a bad time for the Cincinnati Reds, who couldn’t hold an early lead.
A.J. Pollock drove in two runs with a bases-loaded single in the eighth inning as the Arizona Diamondbacks came back from a 4-0 deficit to beat the Reds 5-4 in the opener of a four-game series Thursday night.
The Diamondbacks loaded the bases against Badenhop (1-3) on Yasmany Tomas’ single, Jarrod Saltalamacchia’s pinch-hit double and Ender Inciarte’s walk, setting up Pollock’s two-out hit.
“You didn’t need to talk to me until Aug. 20,” said Badenhop, who gave up his first runs since July 3, a span of 19 innings in 20 appearances. Both were the longest streaks of his career. “It was one bad pitch. I had a chance to get out of the inning. It was a bad pitch on 0-2 to Saltalamacchia, who wasn’t having a good year.”
Saltalamachia came to the plate with a .197 average in 127 at-bats.
Reds’ rookie John Lamb, who went six innings in his major league debut last Friday, lasted 5 1-3 innings in his second career start. The left-hander allowed nine hits and three runs with eight strikeouts.
Chris Owings homered and drove in two runs as Arizona sent the Reds to their sixth consecutive loss.
“I thought I threw the ball well,” Lamb said. “I attacked hitters and kept it simple. I fell behind on the home run and didn’t get the ball in far enough. I tip my cap to him.”
David Hernandez (1-3) pitched a perfect seventh to get the win. Daniel Hudson left two runners on in the eighth and Brad Ziegler pitched the ninth for his 22nd save.
Arizona starter Patrick Corbin (3-4) lasted just two innings. The left-hander allowed eight hits and four runs with two strikeouts.
The Reds, who scored a combined four runs while losing a two-game series to Kansas City on Tuesday and Wednesday, scored that many over the first two innings on Thursday.
Jason Bourgeois led off the first with a single to center and scored on Jay Bruce’s sacrifice fly. The Reds added three runs on five hits in the second, including RBI singles by Tucker Barnhart and Eugenio Suarez sandwiched around Bourgeois’s run-scoring triple.
Lamb lost his shutout in the fifth, allowing Owings’ fourth homer of the season leading off the inning and a two-out run-scoring single by Pollock. Owings added an RBI single in the sixth.
TRAINING ROOM
Diamondbacks: Hopes that RHP Jeremy Hellickson’s left hamstring injury wasn’t too severe were dashed when he couldn’t throw on the side on Wednesday, prompting Arizona to place him on the 15-day DL.
Reds: INF Brandon Phillips was available to pinch-hit or pinch-run on Thursday, one day after leaving Cincinnati’s 4-3 loss to Kansas City with inflammation in his right biceps tendon. … Reliever Aroldis Chapman was unavailable. “He had trouble getting loose on Monday,” manager Bryan Price said of the blown save against Kansas City. “We need to give him a couple days’ rest.”
PLAN ‘B’
Left-handed hitting Brennan Boesch and right-hander Jason Bourgeois will get the bulk o the playing time in left field in the wake of Marlon Byrd being traded to the Giants before Thursday’s game, general manager Walt Jocketty said. That might depend on how long Billy Hamilton takes to come back from the shoulder injury that sent him to the DL on Wednesday.
