Reds Battered Battery Recharged

The Reds knew something was wrong.  David Hernandez was so strong early in the season but the two weeks on either side of the All-Star break were rough on him.

The 34-year old ace reliever had seven straight scoreless outings, Hernandez hit the skids with eight appearances in which he allowed 14 runs in just 4-1/3 innings for a 29.08 ERA.

The Reds put Hernandez on the 10-day Injured List with shoulder fatigue.  The Reds recalled Lucas Sims who flourished as an emergency starter in the May 28 doubleheader.  He threw seven scoreless innings but gave up a three-run home run in the eighth inning to Kevin Newman of Pittsburgh.

Although Sims was a starter in the Louisville Bats rotation, he will pitch out of the Reds' bullpen while he is here.  Amir Garrett is nearly ready to come off the IL.   Alex Wood is expected to be ready after one more rehab start.  He pitched two scoreless innings for Louisville on Wednesday night.

The other end of the battery ran , down with a rash of injuries.  Tucker Barnhart was already on the Injured List with a strained oblique.   Curt Casali was catching with a strained right knee.  The Reds put him on the IL retroactive to Tuesday.  The luxury of having a third catcher in the versatile Kyle Farmer, became a less opulent group when Farmer took two direct hits in the mask off foul balls.  The second seemed to be a knockout blow.  He finished the game but the Reds put him into concussion protocol for seven days.  Cincinnati purchased the contract of Juan Graterol, who was with the team in spring training.  Graterol started against the Chicago Cubs in Wrigley Field on Wednesday afternoon.

The Reds went shopping and signed a journeyman catcher,Ryan Lavarnway, who was released by the New York Yankees on Wednesday.  He was the sixth round pick of the Boston Red Sox in the 2008 draft. The 31-year old Yale graduate has appeared in  146 games in the Big Leagues, including six with Pittsburgh last season.  For his career Lavarnway has a .208 average, hitting seven home runs and driving home 43 runs.  The Woodland Hills, California native has a slash line of .208/.268/.326.  Lavarnway played for Boston, Baltimore, Atlanta, Oakland and Pittsburgh.   He broke in with the Red Sox on August 18, 2011.

"These guys are a little banged up right now," Lavarnway said.  "I played with a few of the guys around here and played against most of them."

Lavarnway was told last night that the deal was a probability after the game last night in Scranton, PA.

"The final termination was completed by 11:30, Lavarnway said.  "I had to get my life together real fast.  The Yankees were trying to do right by me.  They are super deep at the catching position.  At-Bats were getting fewer for by the day. I had to find a flight real early and bring my life with me but if it's in the big leagues I'd do it 100 times."

"We will just keep helping those guys through this,"  David Bell said.  "We can't wait to get them back and most important is to get them healthy.  In the mean time we are going to do our best to replace those guys.  We feel good about how we've done that.  From a baseball standpoint, this is to be expected. The challenge of every season is to survive this and get through it."