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 inning by Jose Herrera. The early indication is the Diamondbacks dodged a bullet.
“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 OK before we asked him to get back on the field.
“And now that we know that, we'll see how he wakes up and feels [on Saturday]. There's substantial swelling in that area, and we'll try to get that down and get him back on the field as soon as possible.”
After the injury, Mena managed to pitch out of trouble, stranding runners at first and third as the game entered a rain delay following the final out of the inning. It ultimately was suspended with the score tied, 3-3, and will be resumed Saturday before the regularly-scheduled game.
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.”
As for Naylor, the infielder was nursing injuries to his left hand and right shoulder and was taken out of Thursday’s game in the sixth inning after going 1-for-2.
“Josh is OK. … And I made the decision to give him the day off,” Lovullo said. “You take a player out of the game mid-game, I just feel like the best thing to do is to let him recover the following day. He's been grinding extremely hard through some bumps and bruises. That's what our guys do here, him more so than any anybody else because he plays very, very hard. There's a lot of bumps and bruises that he's gone through this year.”