DENVER – The Cincinnati Reds had a five-run lead in the fifth inning Wednesday, Graham Ashcraft was cruising on the mound and had an offense that received a lot of contributions from the bottom of the lineup.
Then it was like a switch flipped.
Ashcraft allowed five straight batters to reach base, the lead evaporated and the Colorado Rockies never stopped pouring hits in the Reds’ 11-6 loss at Coors Field, dropping two games in their three-game series. The Reds finished their six-game road trip through Miami and Colorado with a 3-3 record.
Coors Field is known for its unpredictability, but this pitching meltdown was stunning. Ashcraft, throwing almost exclusively cutters, gave up three singles through his first four innings and he erased two of them with double plays.
In the fifth inning, Ashcraft issued a bases-loaded walk to Charlie Blackmon, missing the strike zone on a full count cutter, then surrendered a two-run double in the left-center gap to Jurickson Profar. Two batters later, Rockies catcher Elias Díaz poked a game-tying, two-run single into shallow center field with two outs.
Ashcraft returned for the sixth inning and it was more of the same after a ball deflected off center fielder Stuart Fairchild’s glove for a leadoff double. He gave up two more hits before Lucas Sims replaced him on the mound. Sims, who had permitted three hits and one run in 11 innings this season, surrendered two hits and four runs in one-third of an inning.
When the dust cleared, Ashcraft, Sims and Silvino Bracho combined to give up 11 runs and 10 hits across two innings. There were two walks and a hit batter in those innings, but it was mostly a non-stop parade of singles and doubles.
Ashcraft saw his ERA rise from 3.85 to 4.84 after giving up seven runs and a career-high 10 hits in five innings.
Takeaways from the Reds’ series finale against the Rockies
1. Sims, a high-spin pitcher, just didn’t look like himself pitching in Colorado. He generated a few whiffs with his slider, but he left some elevated pitches over the plate. In his two outings at Coors Field this week, he allowed five runs and three hits, plus all three of his inherited runners scored.
At every other ballpark this season, Sims stranded six of his seven inherited runners and allowed only two hits to the 40 batters he faced.
2. Jose Barrero will cede playing time at shortstop to Matt McLain, so he will need to find other ways to regularly contribute to hold a spot on the major league roster. Barrero was out of the lineup for the last three days, but he had some nice moments during Wednesday’s game.
Barrero reached base four times with two singles and two walks. He snared a line drive with two runners in scoring position with a high leap in the fifth inning. It wasn’t a perfect day, running into an out at second base after his RBI single in the second inning, but perhaps some competition will wring some better performances out of him.
3. Luke Maile, the No. 9 hitter in the Reds’ lineup, was a big reason they were initially staked to a five-run lead. Maile hit an RBI double to left field in the second inning and he crushed a solo homer in the fifth inning. Maile, the Covington Catholic product, is 7-for-18 (.389 batting average) with four extra-base hits in his last seven starts.
Stat of the day
The Reds haven't won a series at Coors Field since 2016, winning 23 of their last 68 games at the ballpark.
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