Bullpen Leak Aids Reds Over Indians

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Johnny Cueto pitched his fourth complete game of the season but did get help from the bullpen to do it.

In perhaps the strangest plays in the long history of the Major Leagues, Cueto and the Reds were saved from a momentum changing Cleveland rally by a wild pitch from Jumbo Diaz in the bullpen.

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Cleveland's David Murphy was the runner on first base, having singled Lonnie Chisenhall to thirdbase with no outs in the eighth inning.  It was just the fourth hit off Cueto, who was on the way to dropping his ERA to an even 2.00 with two more shutout frames.

Yan Gomes hit a slicing line drive away from Jay Bruce in rightfiled just as Diaz threw a high hard warmup pitch on the other side of the rightfield barrier.

As Bruce fielded the carom a ball whizzed past his head.  Diaz errant toss sailed past bullpen catcher Nilson Antgua and rolled toward secondbase.

Kristopher Negron fielded Bruce's throw and tossed it to shortstop Zack Cozart.  Murphy ran around second as Chisenhall scored with his back to rightfield.  He saw the warmup ball rolling toward second and didn't see that Cozart had the ball that was in play.  Cozart threw to thirdbaseman Ramon Santiago and Murphy was out.  Instead of runners on second and third with no outs, the Indians were left with a runner on second and one out.  Cueto turned it up a notch.  Chris Dickerson grounded out and Jose Ramirez flew out to Bruce.

No one interviewed had ever seen anything like it.

"I looked up and saw a ball coming in and I didn't know what was going on to be honest with you." Cozart said.  "It was almost perfect timing as Jay was picking the ball up that other ball was coming in. I thought the ball came out of the stands.  I got the ball from Negron and I was going to call time after checking Murphy to get the other ball off the field.  Then I saw Murphy get farther off the base and thought 'what's he doing'. I'd never seen anything like it.  I guess we can work on that, get a sign out of the bullpen to throw one on the field."

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From the bullpen, Diaz had no idea what happened until he came to the dugout after the game.

"They told me I was the hero. I said,' what happened? what did I do?" said a perplexed Diaz.  "I just threw a fastball past Antigua on to the field."

Bruce saw the second ball as he turned to throw the ball to the infield.

"I got the ball and looked up and there was a ball flying over my head.  I thought it came out of the stands." Bruce said.  "I threw the ball to Negron, then he threw it to Cozart and then I saw Murphy off the bag and didn't know what he was doing.  They tagged him out and no one said anything.  You think you've seen it all."

Cueto was confused too.

"I thought a fan threw the ball.  Even I was confused," Cueto said. "It was the first time I've seen anything like that. I thank God that it wasn't against me."

Ramon Santiago saw both balls but focused on the ball in play.

"I saw both balls, then I saw Cozart with the ball and Murphy farther off the base," Santiago said.  "It was one of those things that happen.  When you think, you've seen it all in baseball you don't.  The Indians thirdbase coach told Murphy to get back but Murphy was confused when he saw the other ball."

Manager Bryan Price hadn't pieced it together until the postgame press conference was underway.

"There are a lot of things I can say to be flip, but I'm going to stay away from that," Price said.  "I saw the ball caught by Negron, then I saw a ball rolling and thought Negron dropped it or kicked it or something. I saw Murphy off the base and we made a play on him and I still don't know what happened.  I thought the ball came out of the stands.  I knew we had to guys warming up and a ball came out of the bullpen, maybe it hit the plate and bounced out.  Your telling me it was Jumbo.  That's the first I heard that.  You see balls come out of the bullpen but the timing was unusual.  That's one of those (blooper) plays that we'll see between innings for years.  It was unfortunate for their club that it happened and it saved our bacon a little bit."