Relief shines in 2nd bullpen game in 3 days

MIAMI -- Saturday did not go the way the Reds expected. Sure, they eked out a 6-5 win over the Marlins to secure the series win at loanDepot park, but it wasn’t one of those pretty, “tied with a bow” wins.

It started the night before, when Nick Lodolo was scratched for the second time in three days. He headed back to Cincinnati to be examined and, hopefully, determine for sure the cause of his left calf soreness.

So the Reds did what helped them succeed on Thursday, the first of Lodolo’s scratched starts: they turned to Derek Law to set the tone, then to the rest of the bullpen.

It’s a solid strategy. The Reds entered Saturday having won 10 of their previous 16 games dating back to April 24. Over that span, the bullpen put up a 3.03 ERA over 68 1/3 innings while holding opponents to a .223 average and a 9.7 K/9 rate.

Behind Law’s 1 1/3 scoreless innings, the bullpen cruised -- with a few speed bumps. It started with Levi Stoudt, who got the call that the Reds wanted him in Miami minutes before he was set to start for Triple-A Louisville on Friday night.

Cincinnati’s No. 14 prospect per MLB Pipeline, Stoudt entered in the second inning, making his second big league appearance and his first out of the bullpen. Almost a month ago, on April 19, the 25-year-old righty allowed seven runs over four innings in his MLB debut against the Rays.

But he went to work back at Triple-A, and on Saturday, it paid off.

“None of that happens without Levi pitching as well as he did today,” manager David Bell said. “He got us through the bulk of the game right there. And you know, that's not easy to do. That really was the difference.”

Stoudt allowed one run over three innings and set up the rest of the bullpen for success. Behind Stoudt, the Reds called on Buck Farmer, Lucas Sims, Ian Gibaut, Casey Legumina and Alexis Díaz.

Sims entered with two outs in the sixth and got the Reds out of the inning with just one pitch. And it was lucky, too, because according to his skipper, that was all the righty had in him after throwing 34 pitches on Thursday. With the outing, his 11th appearance this year, he has a 0.00 ERA over 10 1/3 innings.

Legumina entered in the eighth to set up Díaz for the ninth inning. Facing his second batter of the inning after a leadoff single, Legumina took a comebacker off the outside of his right ankle. He still made the play, though, but then exited while putting little weight on his right leg. He is day to day with a right ankle contusion.

“That [play] was a huge part to the success of that inning,” catcher Curt Casali said. “The adrenaline took over [for him] in that situation, and he made a nice play. I hope he's okay.”

With Legumina out, that meant it was time for Díaz, who had gotten a 15-pitch save in Friday’s win. He threw 40 pitches Saturday with a clutch game-ending strikeout, even after Bell tried to take him out.

“It’s definitely one of the hardest things I've ever had to [do to get a] save,” Díaz said via translator Jorge Merlos. “In the ninth, I got into problems and situations, but when our manager came out, I just told him, ‘Hey, just to let me finish this. Let me finish right now. I got this.’ And sure enough, I was able to go in there and get out of trouble. And because I knew I just had all the confidence to get out of that inning there.”

Nothing really matters except for that last out of the game. A pitch timer violation against Yuli Gurriel aided Díaz, but he still worked through four pitches, a swinging strike and two fouls, then the putaway swinging strike -- with the bases loaded.

“I think that might be the best [win] we’ve had,” said Jake Fraley, who went 2-for-4 with a three-run homer and an RBI single. “I think more because of the stress that our bullpen felt. To have [Bell] trust Díaz in those situations and to keep him in -- that’s that X-factor thing. And when you're put in a situation like that, [it’s] unfortunate, the way that it happened, and Díaz gets put in there, he showed up for us. That was everything.”