Blake Wood fell into a familiar trap - he threw a wild pitch that broke the hearts of the very few Cincinnati Reds fans who are still watching games at this point in the season. As a result, the team fell to the Chicago Cubs in a wild affair on Wednesday night. At least Wood has a teammate he can look to for solace and advice: Tim Adleman, who lost a game the previous weekend in the exact same matter. There must be something slippery in that Reds bullpen.
Wood's wild pitch
Cincinnati was down 6-1 at the end of six innings, so the fact that the ninth inning mattered at all was an accomplishment in of itself.
Still, the panic meter rose when Wood entered midway through the bottom of the ninth; he had been struggling lately. In a tie game, there were runners on second and third base with one out. He needed to record two outs while preventing a ball from getting to the outfield to send the game into extra innings.
He struck out Albert Almora Jr. to get that pivotal second out. Then, the Cubs' biggest threat came to the plate. Kris Bryant could easily lift a single or even a home run to the outfield, so Wood was going to have to be cautious with him. The first pitch was outside for a ball. The second pitch was even more outside, as the slider escaped from the Reds' clutches and sent Javier Baez home on a wild pitch.
Cubs 7, Reds 6 - the loss left Cincinnati stuck at 50 wins for the season.
.@Reds pitcher Blake Wood shares what went wrong for his pitch to go wild, which led to a walk-off Cubs win. pic.twitter.com/Hs3c1WX9oR
— FOX Sports Ohio (@FOXSportsOH) August 17, 2017
Reds can't finish games
It seems like the Reds have nobody to turn to at the end of games.
On Saturday, the team lost to the Milwaukee Brewers under exactly the same circumstances. Instead of Wood being on the mound, Tim Adleman was on the mound. He too threw a wild pitch that brought home the winning run for the other team, leaving everyone stunned on the diamond. It's got to feel like deja vu.
Then again, it doesn't really matter.
The Reds are a terrible team, regardless of whether or not Wood and Adleman are throwing wild pitches to end games. Ironically, Raisel Iglesias has been one of the better closers in the National League, but never gets any opportunities because his team is always trailing. Manager Bryan Price should consider deploying him in these tied games, rather than just wait for the one or two-run lead that almost never comes. That advice is irrelevant at this point in the season, though. For now, the team is just looking to play out the stretch and get home for the winter without any more injuries...or wild pitches.
