The Reds
With a rotation including All-Star Johnny Cueto and emerging star Anthony DeSclafani to pair with fire-balling closer Aroldis Chapman, the Reds would seem to have enough pitching to make a run at October this season. Through 21 games, Cincinnati starters allowed a mere .228 batting average, the lowest in the National League.
So why do the Reds hit town for this weekend’s four-game series with the Braves below .500 (10-11)? How about that bullpen?
Reds’ relievers have a 5.86 ERA, worst in the majors with four blown saves in nine opportunities. It was right-hander Jumbo Diaz’s turn against the Brewers on Wednesday, serving up a Ryan Braun grand slam in a five-run eighth and turning a one-run game into a 8-3 loss.
From AJC.com
Dan Uggla entered this series at Turner Field not knowing if he’d be in the major leagues next week. He’s considered the Washington National most apt to be cut — DFA’ed, which in MLB-speak means “designated for assignment” — when Anthony Rendon returns from a rehab stint in Class Double-A. Uggla entered the series looking exactly like the Dan Uggla we’d come to know too well: He was hitting .114 with one RBI and two extra-base hits.
On Monday, Uggla was thrust into the game only because Yunel Escobar, once a Brave himself, was spiked by Andrelton Simmons. Uggla’s appearance drew boos from the small Turner Field gathering — Chipper Jones would take to Twitter, as Chipper Jones often does, to chastise those fans for their response — and his first at-bat was vintage Uggla, at least as we around here remember Uggla. He struck out looking.
In his next at-bat, Uggla tripled to right field to score Bryce Harper and then, when third baseman Alberto Callaspo couldn’t glove the throw, scored himself. Such an opponent-aided circuit is known as a Little League home run and the thought occurred that it might have been the last big-league home run of any sort Uggla would ever have. But no.
One night later, Uggla — starting because Escobar couldn’t — hit another triple to draw the Nats, who’d trailed 9-1 and 10-2, within 11-10. In 1,701 at-bats as a Brave, Uggla had managed four triples. Now he’d had two in 24 hours. This was getting weird.
Then it got off-the-chart crazy. Down 0-2 in the count against Braves closer Jason Grilli, with one out in the ninth and the Nats trailing 12-10, Uggla hoisted a three-run homer with one out in the ninth that made his latest team an astonishing winner. In two nights as a Turner Field visitor, Uggla had collected three extra-base hits and six RBIs. In the 141 at-bats before the Braves DFA’ed him last summer, he’d managed five extra-base hits and 10 RBIs.
— Mark Bradley
The odds
From ESPN Stats & Information: Over the past five seasons through Tuesday night, teams that held an eight-run lead had gone 1,031-5.
They said it
"There are a lot of guys that I can think of on their club that could ignite them and get them turned around. I never thought it would be that guy." — Braves TV analyst Joe Simpson on Uggla's homer.
