One of the bright spots for the Cincinnati Reds this season has been the performance of closer Alexis Diaz, but he’ll be aiming to rebound like the rest of his team when they open a three-game series against the visiting Oakland Athletics on Tuesday night.
Diaz served up a walk-off two-run homer to Pittsburgh Pirates catcher Yasmani Grandal in a 4-3 loss on Sunday, just his third blown save of the season in 27 opportunities.
“He has been so good in those spots, so you hate to see Alexis go through it,” Reds manager David Bell said. “Alexis has been through it before, so he’ll bounce back, but obviously he’s not happy with it.”
The Reds have dropped three of four and seven of 10 since pulling within one game of .500 on Aug. 14.
Cincinnati entered Monday 7 1/2 games behind the Atlanta Braves for the final National League wild-card spot with four teams in between.
The Reds have been hoping to get middle infielder Matt McLain back on the field this season. He underwent shoulder surgery in late March and was aiming to return by the middle of this month, but he suffered a slight setback at the beginning of August and there’s no current timetable for his return.
McLain hasn’t played in a year after his stellar rookie season came to an end because of an oblique injury.
Oakland enters the series on a high note after giving up an early two-run homer on Sunday against the visiting Milwaukee Brewers, scoring four runs in the fourth and then holding on for a 4-3 win to salvage a win from the three-game series.
“It was a fun win,” A’s second baseman Zack Gelof said. “Down two in the series, to come out, get punched in the mouth with the homer, we came back to win with situational baseball and good pitching from top to bottom.”
Oakland strung together three straight singles to start the fourth, benefited from a bases-loaded walk, then added an RBI single and two sacrifice flies to score all the runs it would need.
“We haven’t been able to string those hits together or build those innings like we did today in the fourth,” A’s manager Mark Kotsay said. “We’ve done a better job of it post-All-Star break, of not relying just strictly on the home run to win games, so that’s a part of the offense that we talk about, that we work on in (batting practice).”
The Reds had not named a starting pitcher for the series opener, but the A’s plan to start rookie right-hander Mitch Spence on Tuesday.
Spence (7-9, 4.67 ERA) is 0-3 in four starts this month with a 5.57 ERA.
He most recently allowed four runs and seven hits in seven innings of a 4-2 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays last Wednesday. He had a career-best 10 strikeouts on a career-high 105 pitches.
Spence surrendered a two-run home run to Jose Siri in the seventh, but Kotsay let him finish the inning.
“They gave me an opportunity to go out there and figure it out and learn from it, and get kicked down and get back up,” Spence said.
Spence began the season as a reliever before moving into the starting rotation in mid-May.
–Field Level Media
