CINCINNATI -- For a team that already had a banged up starting right fielder and first baseman and had just received news that its ace needed Tommy John surgery, the last thing the Diamondbacks needed was another injury.
But when Cristian Mena’s 86.5 mph curveball to Will Benson in the pouring rain landed in the dirt and caromed off the top of Gabriel Moreno’s right hand in the sixth inning against the Reds on Friday night at Great American Ball Park, that’s exactly what they got.
Moreno was immediately seen by training staff and manager Torey Lovullo. The welt on his hand was obvious on television replays. Moreno was replaced for the remainder of the game by Jose Herrera.
“He got X-rays. Everything's negative, but just taking him out of the game was precautionary,” Lovullo said. “The trainer recommended, after watching him throw the ball, that it would be smart to just make sure he was okay before we asked him to get back on the field.”
Moreno said there’s a possibility he’d be available for Sunday if the hand improved significantly.
“I was trying to feel the ball, just a little bit weak,” Moreno said. “Obviously, it's important to grip the bat. Yeah, gripping the bat was a little weak. So gotta keep doing strength things for my hands.”
After the injury, Mena managed to pitch out of trouble, stranding runners at first and third as the game was stopped after the final out of the inning.
When the game resumed Saturday, the Diamondbacks had a great chance to win when they put runners on first and third in the 10th but couldn’t push the go-ahead run across.
Facing Ryan Thompson (1-2), Christian Encarnacion-Strand, who had tied the game Friday night with a solo homer off Mena, doubled home Jake Fraley from second base when center fielder Alek Thomas didn’t get a clean read on the sinking liner to center. Fraley scored easily and Cincinnati ended Arizona’s four-game win streak with a 4-3 walk-off win.
The Diamondbacks also appeared to catch a bad break in the top of the 10th when an 0-2 pitch in on the hands of Tim Tawa deflected and the pitch was ruled a foul ball instead of a hit-by-pitch, despite trainers coming out and spending several minutes looking at the hands of Tawa during the review challenged by Lovullo.
Instead of bases loaded, Tawa struck out to end the inning. Tawa and Ildemaro Vargas both fanned against Tony Santillan (1-1) as the threat was extinguished.
The Diamondbacks went up, 3-0, on consecutive pitches from Reds lefty starter Nick Lodolo in the third. Ketel Marte belted a two-run homer to make it 2-0, and Geraldo Perdomo followed with his seventh homer of the season to the seats in left-center.
For Marte, his 12th homer extended his on-base streak to 19 games. The three runs provided a nice cushion for lefty Eduardo Rodriguez, making his first start back from the injured list after dealing with left shoulder inflammation.
After giving up a two-run homer to TJ Friedl on a 91 mph four-seam fastball that cut the lead to one in the third inning, Rodriguez faced more trouble in the next two frames but managed to pitch around it.
In the bottom of the fifth, as the rain began to intensify, Garrett Hampson opened with a double to left. Friedl sacrificed him to third, but Rodriguez was able to bear down and retire the next two batters to preserve the lead. The left-hander allowed two runs on six hits over five innings, striking out three and walking none while throwing 72 pitches (48 strikes).
“It was especially nice that E-Rod worked through those five innings,” Lovullo said. “It was very crisp, accurate and clean. His pitch count was [72] pitches. I felt like running him out there for eight [more] pitches was risky, considering the rain and everything that he's been through with his body. Just made sense to take him off the field. But he did a great job for us.”
But Mena could not hold the lead in the pouring rain, as he left an 86 mph curveball up to Christian Encarnacion-Strand. The Reds first baseman reached out over the outside corner and drilled a game-tying homer to the grass berm in center with one out in the sixth.
Cincinnati had a chance to take the lead later in the sixth, but pinch-hitter Gavin Lux grounded out to third with the go-ahead runner at third to end the rally.
“It was a little bit frustrating,” Lovullo said. “The rain came, but it's part of the game. And we fought hard to get through that inning. The umps made a decision to pull the tarp, and unfortunately, we couldn't finish the game.
“But most proud of the way the guys came out. We responded with three quick runs off a very tough left-handed pitcher. It just turned into a very wet circumstance, one that I felt like was getting fairly unplayable. I was glad the umpires made that decision.”
Josh Naylor and Corbin Carroll weren’t in the starting lineup, as Lovullo felt Thursday’s travel from Atlanta, combined with the noon local start and the historic comeback, took a lot out of the club.
“[Thursday] was a really hard day for this team,” Lovullo said before Friday’s series opener. “It was a quick turnaround. It was a 12 o’clock game. Everybody was gassed, totally gassed. And I think it fell on Corbin Carroll a little bit, too, that his body was starting to shut down on him. So I wanted him to have a nice recovery day.”