Reds Free Fall Continues In Cleveland

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The beatings roll on for the forlorn Reds in a 7-3 loss

The Cleveland Indians took advantage of Mike Leake's uncharacteristic wildness to drive the Reds' starter out of the game while building a 5-2 lead after four innings.

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Leake, who thrives on well placed strikes, walked five and three were in succession to bottom of the Indians batting order, Jose Ramirez (.200), Roberto Perez (.173) and Michael Bourn (.228) in a two run second. 

"There were some near misses, I guess," Bryan Price said. "He was around the zone. He wasn't able to make his pitches. You don't see too many outings like that from him but it's not unheard of that a guy like him struggles for a couple starts."

Leake hates to walk batters and just couldn't explain the lapse in his control.

"I was fine after the first inning," Leake said. "There were a couple guys in the second where I just couldn't throw the ball where I wanted to."

The Indians leadoff batter reached base in all four innings, including Brandon Moss' seventh home run to start the third inning.  Moss drove in two more with a two-out double in the fourth after Bourn singled to start the inning and Jason Kipnis walked.  Leake retired Carlos Santana and Michael Brantley but Moss came through for Cleveland.

Reds starters have been the loser in all six of the games of this losing streak.  Only Johnny Cueto turned in a quality start on the night when the Reds were shut out.

"We have to go back to 2011 when the rotation struggled like this twice through the rotation," Price said. "It's a team that's not playing good baseball right now. You should see the work that the players and coaches are putting in during the afternoon. A lot of it is on me, I'm the one who is in charge of putting the puzzle together. It will end but when you're going through a stretch like this, it is painful. You can't sleep."

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Leake knows the pain is temporary.

"We'll figure it out," Leake said. "It's a long season. It's just unfortunate we're all doing it at once."

The Reds put runners in scoring position for seven at-bats.  Todd Frazier doubled with Brandon Phillips on second for the second run. The first scored on a ground out by Billy Hamilton with Brayan Pena on third. Pena walked and sprinted to third on Jay Bruce's double.  Bruce was on base three times with the double, a walk and a single. The final run scored on a wild pitch as Bruce walked with Frazier on third.

Indians manager Terry Francona wishes the Reds struggle for a couple more days.

"You look at their team and you look at their record and don't understand it," Francona said. "I hope it continues here but they have a lot of good players over there."
Bruce appears to have snapped out of a six-week slump, improving his average to .207

Burke Badenhop walked three but turned in two scoreless innings but the Indians hung two runs on Jumbot Diaz, one scoring as Santana snapped an 0-for-25 slump with a run scoring double.