CINCINNATI — The Reds tend to be aggressive on the bases and emphasize their speed. While making that omelet this season, they were willing to crack some eggs.
But during Saturday’s 4-3 loss to the Red Sox at Great American Ball Park, run problems and outs on the bases only left Cincinnati feeling like egg on its face.
“Baserunning is a strength of our team,” Reds manager David Bell said. “I know we haven’t been perfect. We have kissed on the bases. We’ve won a lot of games with our baserunning. When things don’t go our way, we have to find ways to improve.”
A two-run home run by Spencer Steer in the first inning and a solo home run by Elly De La Cruz in the third inning gave the Reds a 3-0 lead. While Boston scored four unanswered runs to win, three plays on the bases prevented critical safety runs from being scored. He helped the Reds suffer their 14th one-run loss of the season.
With one out in the bottom of the fifth with a 3-1 lead, the Reds had a good opportunity to continue adding. TJ Friedl singled and reached third on a single by De La Cruz.
With Jeimer Candelario batting against left-handed reliever Brennan Bernardino and the Red Sox infield playing, Friedl raced home on a grounder to shortstop. He was out at the plate after David Hamilton’s throw home and De La Cruz took second base.
As Steer batted, De La Cruz took advantage at second base and began breaking toward third when Bernardino began his pitch. The pitcher was able to stop and hit a breakaway throw to second base while De La Cruz was breaking toward third.
“I just looked back and it was more instinctive. I felt like I was probably going to try to get in on that pitch,” Bernardino said. “I knew it was Elly running, and you see him and he looks like he’s ready to go at any moment.”
De La Cruz was caught stealing in the summary that followed.
“I just made a mistake,” De La Cruz said.
“The interior movement is a good play. They use him a lot,” Bell said of the Red Sox. “He makes it difficult. It’s kind of a tie at second base. He has stolen third place quite a bit. Almost always, guess that they are not going to move inward. “They moved inside and made a good play.”
The Reds had runners on the corners again in the sixth inning with one out. Nick Martini hit a slam dunk off catcher Connor Wong. When Jake Fraley went home on contact from third base, Wong was able to scoop up the ball, return to the plate and tag out to Fraley.
“In those situations, we had the right idea,” Bell said. “On the play at the plate, the Red Sox did a good job coming in when (Friedl) was leaving. Jake had the right idea to try and score right there. You can’t wait to see how far he goes. He hesitated a little.”
The Reds lead the Major Leagues with 33 putouts on base this season. But they also lead all teams with 108 stolen bases. They entered the day tied for first in highest percentage of extra bases taken (49 percent). Entering the day, the club ranked second in stolen base attempts per game (1.76) and first in stolen bases per game (1.43).
In other words, don’t expect the Reds to stop running anytime soon.
“We’re going to be an aggressive baserunning team,” Bell said. “We have to continue learning from everything and try to obtain all the advantages in the bases. “It will be part of our game.”
Boston took the lead against Justin Wilson in the top of the eighth. With Ceddanne Rafaela’s ground ball to third base, Candelario’s throwing error took him to second base. Jarren Durán added a single to left field and pinch-hitter Rob Refsnyder’s single to right field scored the tying run.
With one out and Lucas Sims for Wilson, Rafael Devers flied out to foul territory in left field. Durán was able to score on a sacrifice fly when Stuart Fairchild made a bad throw to the plate.
“Candelario was right in my vision,” Fairchild said. “So I couldn’t see exactly where my target was, so I threw it close to where I thought the plate was without having a firm visual idea of where the ball needed to go. That’s why I didn’t do it.” do my best (throw) there.”
