D-backs roughed up by Reds as turbulent road trip hits a low

CINCINNATI -- In the span of three days, the Diamondbacks have experienced the turbulent cycle of Major League Baseball life on the road.

On Thursday in Atlanta, they trailed by six runs with one out in the ninth before rallying to a miraculous win.

After the game, they took off for Cincinnati knowing they were dealing with some bumps and bruises to players like Josh Naylor and Corbin Carroll. Before Friday’s opener in Cincinnati, they get the news that ace Corbin Burnes will undergo season-ending Tommy John surgery next week.

On Friday night, they jumped out to a 3-0 lead on home runs from Ketel Marte and Geraldo Perdomo. Then they lost the lead just before a downpour hit, forcing the suspension of a game they were close to winning.

Adding injury to the insult was the hand contusion suffered by starting catcher Gabriel Moreno, keeping him out of the lineup on Saturday. They wound up losing the suspended game in 10 innings when it resumed Saturday because they couldn’t get a runner in from third with less than two outs.

Playing like a team on fumes, starter Ryne Nelson, the pitcher skipper Torey Lovullo pointed to before the game as someone to pick up the slack for Burnes, gave up five runs in the first and two more in the fourth. Reliever Kendall Graveman surrendered six more in the eight-run frame, including a grand slam to Gavin Lux, and the 13-1 Cincinnati rout was on.

“I think the big number in the bottom of the first inning was a lot for us to overcome, and then we were just getting our footing, and then it was another big number, and by that time, I felt like it was too much to overcome,” Lovullo said. “But this team competes, they don't shut down. We know there’s games we've played recently that prove that. They'll be fine.”

Lovullo wouldn’t make excuses postgame for the emotional roller coaster the D-backs have been on in the last 72 hours.

“Terrible. I'm mad. I want to win every game that we play, but I know there's nothing we can do about what happened,” Lovullo said. “We’ve gotta get over this. We gotta go out there and play a really good game [Sunday], find out who's available, who can help us win a game.

“Obviously, with Zac [Gallen] pitching, we feel very good about that, but I want him to go out there and execute. When he does, we're going to be okay. But overall, I don't feel great. I want to win baseball games, and I know we're a good baseball team that deserves to win baseball games.”

Ryne Nelson wasn’t himself Saturday from the start. He labored through a 39-pitch, five-run first inning that included a three-run homer from Christian Encarnacion-Strand.

“It was just a lack of command, lack of throwing strikes,” Nelson said. “It's one thing to get beat by hits and homers and everything, but when you beat yourself and you put guys on base for free, it's all that more frustrating. So that's just not how I like to go out there and pitch.”

The Reds were more than aware of what the Diamondbacks did Thursday in Atlanta, so there was no letting up on the gas when the Reds had a seemingly safe 5-1 lead entering into the fourth, when they added eight.

“No lead is safe, we know that especially with that lineup,” Lux said.

While there would be no coming back from this deficit, there were a couple of bright spots.

Eugenio Suárez belted a home run against his former team in the second inning, his 100th career long ball at Great American Ball Park, a stadium he once called home. And 25-year-old right-handed reliever Christian Montes De Oca made his MLB debut, retiring the first seven batters he faced. He struck out two in 2 2/3 scoreless innings as the 27th man for the second game Saturday.

“It was a lot of fun to watch that type of stuff coming out,” Lovullo said of Montes De Oca. “It’s 96, 97 [mph], with a really, really aggressive breaking ball. And he looked like he'd been here for five years. He was unfazed by the situation, and for his first outing, first strikeouts, first outs, first appearance. It was a great day for him.”

Arizona could only move on and look ahead to Sunday with Gallen on the mound, where a win in the series finale would clinch a winning road trip.

“I think everything is a test every single day,” Lovullo said. “It's not an easy game. But this team's resilient. They're going to turn the page, and they're going to come out here [Sunday] and play, hopefully, their finest game. That's our expectation.”