Reds Lineup Change Stirred The Offense But Pitching Still Struggled

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Reds' pitching kept the scoring out of double figures but the Reds' re-tooled lineup still came up short.in a 9-8 loss to the Giants.

The Reds shook up the lineup, moving Zack Cozart to leadoff and Brayan Pena to the second spot in the batting order. Jay Bruce was dropped to seventh; Billy Hamilton ninth.

After Reds pitchers allowed 21 runs the last two games, the Giants offense stayed on the attack against Anthony DeSclafani.

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Brandon Belt, who homered in each of the last two games, settled four a double in the right centerfield gap to open the second inning. Hunter Pence, who missed all but two games in spring training, singled to score Belt. Brandon Crawford, who drove in six runs Saturday, singled to Cozart, who couldn't get the ground ball up the middle to Phillips, who trapped the ball. The play held up under review as the tarp was pulled to cover the infield for 24 minutes.

DeSclafani came close to getting out of the inning. He got Matt Duffy to ground out to a pulled-in infield. Giants starter Chris Heston bunted back to DeSclafani, who looked for another out on the base paths.but couldn't find it.  Nori Aoki singled to give the Giants a four-run lead.

The Reds got to Heston in the second inning.

Brandon Phillips and Jay Bruce singled to put runners on first and third with no outs.  Hamilton hit a ground ball in the hole at shortstop that Crawford turned into a force of Bruce as Phillips scored. DeSclafani struck out and Cozart flied out.

The Giants got the run back and then some.

Belt walked. Pence lined his first home run of the season down the leftfield line, just 339 ft but it put the Giants up 6-1.

The Reds loaded the bases with no outs in the third. Pena singled . Votto walked. Frazier singled. Marlon Byrd singled to score Pena. Heston hit Phillips with a pitch to score Votto. Jay Bruce just missed a grand slam. The ball appeared to be heading to the seats but it had a lot of top spin and Pence played it off the wall as Frazier scored.  Hamilton hit a sacrifice fly off Yusmeiro Petit to bring the Reds within a run. Pinch hitter Devin Mesoraco popped up to secondbaseman Joe Panik in shallow center and Cozart popped to short as Petit was able to preserve the lead.

Reds starting pitchers have given up 21 runs in 11 innings to the Giants over the last three games for a whopping 17.18 ERA.

The Giants scored a run against Raisel Iglesias in his first Major League relief appearance on a double by Crawford and a single by Duffy.

Brandon Phillips hit his second home run off Petit in the bottom of the inning, a line drive that just cleared the leftfield wall.  Hamilton singled with two outs and would have tied the game easily on pinch hitter Skip Schumaker's double but the ball bounced into the stands.  Cozart popped to the pitcher..

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Aoki's bunt single off Tony Cingrani scored Crawford, who walked to open the inning to make the score 8-6.

Bruce's third hit of the game, his seventh home run of the season off left-hander Jeremy Affeldt, got that run back.

Belt hit his third home run of the season and series off Jumbo Diaz in the eighth.

The Reds came within a run again when, Pena walked with two outs and scored when Votto hit a bloop double that eluded Aoki in left. Crawford ran it down but the throw hit Pena and bounced out of play.