CINCINNATI — As en vogue as it is to contemplate acquiring another bat at the trade deadline, on Saturday afternoon the Braves looked like a team in more need of right-handed relief help.
When Derek Lowe lost his grip on a hot day in a sixth-inning ambush at Great American Ballpark, he was down by only two runs. But the Reds broke it open with seven runs on relievers Scott Proctor and Cristhian Martinez for an 11-2 win.
The Braves fell to 3-3 on this trip, entering Sunday’s series finale against the Reds. They found themselves five games behind the Phillies, their biggest deficit in the National League East since June 25, after they had lost two of three in San Diego.
On a day when Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez needed to rest Jonny Venters and didn’t want to pitch Scott Linebrink or Eric O’Flaherty with a deficit, the Reds unleashed five hits in a seven-run seventh.
Proctor had helped Lowe escape a two-runner jam in the sixth, only to give up four hits and a walk in a six-batter span in the seventh. Martinez, who was just called up from Triple-A Gwinnett on Friday for struggling Cory Gearrin, didn’t help matters. He gave up a bases-loaded walk to Miguel Cairo and a bases-clearing double by rookie Todd Frazier.
“It’s baffling right now; just can’t explain it,” said Proctor, who has allowed 13 runs in his past 7 2/3 innings to watch his ERA rise to 7.36. “We’re all down there to pick each other up and certain guys need a blow, you try to pick them up the best you can. Unfortunately I’ve been very ineffective at best right now.”
Lowe was left shaking his head afterward. His day began with 14 ground-ball outs and only one single allowed in the first five innings. He had a 2-1 lead heading into the sixth. But all that changed when pinch-hitter Jay Bruce doubled to lead off the sixth and start a chain reaction of five consecutive hits off Lowe.
Bruce, the Reds’ regular right fielder, has been out of the lineup this series with an inner-ear infection, but he channeled his inner Dan Uggla and came up with a big hit in the series despite not feeling 100 percent.
Drew Stubbs kept it going with a bunt single and then Edgar Renteria connected for a two-run double to left field against his former team to give the Reds a 3-2 lead. Back-to-back hits by Joey Votto and Brandon Phillips ended Lowe’s day.
“We were just talking, head-scratching, how the game turned around,” said Lowe, now 6-8 with a 4.49 ERA. “I wasn’t able to get a single out. ... The turning point for me was the hanging breaking ball to Renteria. That kept the momentum on their side. It just snowballed from there and turned out to be a laugher.”
Lowe was pitching in a game that was 92 degrees at first pitch with a heat index of 103. But he kept his pitch count low with many ground-ball outs.
“He went out there with 58 or so pitches,” Gonzalez said of the sixth inning. “I thought he was fine. Sometimes the balls find holes.”
The Braves couldn’t find the holes when they needed them against Reds starter Homer Bailey. The Braves left nine runners on base, hitting only 3-for-10 with runners in scoring position. They stranded eight of those runners in the first five innings against Bailey.
Lowe drove in the Braves’ only runs of the game with a two-run, bases-loaded double in the second, an inning in which the Braves left the bases loaded.
“If we would have scored some runs there, it might have been a little easier,” Gonzalez said. “You come out of [the sixth] 4-2 with second and third, you still feel pretty good. You’ve got a chance. The seventh inning just didn’t quite go as well as we wanted to.”
