McCoy: Reds squander another opportunity, Greene struggles in 11-5 loss to A’s

Due to those circumstances, the Vagabond Athletics administered an 11-5 beating on the Reds Saturday night in Sacramento.

And it was another opportunity that went gurgling down the drain for the Reds as they lost for the second straight night to the American League West’s last-place team.

The New York Mets lost for the eighth straight time and the San Francisco Giants lost, but with their loss, the Reds remain 1 1/2 games behind the Mets and one game behind the Giants in their fast-fading pursuit of the last wild card slot.

In his previous start, Greene was perfection personified — seven innings, one run, one hit, two walks and 12 strikeouts against the Mets.

But Saturday was the flip side, the ‘B’ side. During the shortest start of his career, 2 1/3 innings, he gave up five runs, four hits (two homers), walked four and struck out three.

He couldn’t find home plate with a compass, GPS, a couple of guide dogs and a Sherpa. He used up 84 pitches, only 46 for strikes, to retire seven batters.

Greene didn’t hide after his dismal day and faced the media, much to his credit.

“My execution wasn’t as strong today,” he told reporters in one of the season’s biggest understatements. “They did a good job of not chasing as much. Those guys are aggressive, a good fastball hitting team.

“So my plan going in was to pitch a little backward. To be able to do that you have to have your secondaries and I lacked that today,” he added.

That meant instead of relying on his 100 and 101 miles per hour fastballs, Greene tried to entice them with sliders and cutters and he didn’t trick anybody. The A’s wouldn’t bite and Greene only threw first-pitch strikes to four of the 14 hitters he faced.

Credit: AP

Credit: AP

But the Reds hitters did what they were supposed to do against A’s

starter Luis Severino, who is 1-and-9 in home games this season.

The Reds scored first on a two-run home run by Will Benson in the second for a 2-0 lead.

But Green gave up a pair of home runs in the bottom of the second, including a two-run shot by Carlos Cortes, his third homer in the first two games of the series.

That gave the A’s a 3-2 lead and they took a 5-2 lead in third, but Tyler Stephenson ripped a three-run homer off Severino in the fourth to tie it, 5-5.

That was it for the Reds. They managed only two hits over the final four innings against one of baseball’s worst bullpens.

Credit: AP

Credit: AP

So it was still 5-5 in the seventh innings.

Nick Martinez shut the A’s down for two innings before Shea Langaliers led the seventh with a double. With one out, Martinez walked Brent Rooker on a full count.

Manager Tito Francona summoned Grant Ashcraft from the bullpen for his first appearance in three weeks. Although he can reach 100 miles an hour with his fastball, Ashcraft offered three straight sliders to Jacob Wilson and he ripped the third one for a run-scoring double to right center for a 6-5 A’s lead.

Credit: AP

Credit: AP

Ashcraft came back out for the eighth and gave up a leadoff single to Darell Hernaiz. Cortes hit a hard grounder to shortstop Elly De La Cruz’s left, a double play ball.

But the ball rolled up his arm and Cortes was credited with a single. Zach Gelof bunted the runners to third and second and Lawrence Butler singled home Hernaiz to make it 7-5.

That’s when Barlow entered and he walked Shea Langaliers on four pitches to fill the bases.

That brought up the A’s Rookie of the Year candidate, Nick Kurtz, 0 for 8 for the series. He rectified that by hitting a grand slam that probably landed back in the Oakland Coliseum, a 493-footer, his 31st home run and it was 11-5.

Asked how it went so bad after the Reds came back to tie it, 5-5, Francona said, “It got spread out late. It got really ugly. Steve-o (Stephenson) had that huge hit to get us tied and we thought, ‘Ok, we’re in this now.’

“We had too many walks (seven) and they came back to bite us really hard,” he added.

Francona knew right away that Greene was not the same pitcher he saw against the Mets.

“He just looked uncomfortable right from the git-go,” he said. “I mean, 84 pitches in 2 1/3 innings. That means something’s not going real well. Walks and spraying the ball.”

Father Time keeps ticking away on the Reds, only 14 games left and they’ve slipped back to .500 at 74-74.

“I think our guys are smart enough to realize what’s going on,” said Francona. “Sometimes the game is hard, harder than you want it to be. Sometimes winning is harder than you want it to be.

“This is baseball and sometimes the other team just plays better than you.”

If that’s the case, Cincinnati’s opposition has played better in 14 of its last 21 games.

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