After missing the first three months of the season, Michael Lorenzen didn't want to ease into anything. Not with the Cincinnati Reds sitting outside the playoff picture.
Lorenzen's season debut came to a disappointing end Saturday when he scored the game-tying run in the 10th inning, coming up lame while sprinting down the third-base line on a sacrifice fly.
He hobbled across the plate, flipped off his helmet and went straight to the clubhouse with a trainer by his side. He will be placed on the 10-day injured list with a right hamstring strain Monday.
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"Obviously, it’s such a huge loss," Reds manager David Bell said after Saturday's 7-4 loss in 11 innings. "He worked so hard to get back. He’s so important to our pitching staff, and I put him in a position tonight where I asked him to do a lot, and he wasn’t prepared to do it.
"It’s no fault of his. It’s no fault of anyone. I put him in that position, and he wasn’t ready for it."
Lorenzen says he wouldn't have changed anything about the way he was used Saturday. Before his injury, he pitched a scoreless eighth inning, stranding two runners and striking out two.
After pitching an inning, he played the outfield for two innings and struck out in his lone at-bat against Brewers closer Josh Hader.
"Our mentalities are to be aggressive," Lorenzen said. "(Bell) has helped me out so much with the pitching side of things, reassuring me to be aggressive and to attack. You’re going to give up a homer here or there, but if you’re going to go down make sure you go down on the attack.
"I gave him those same words. We agreed we would be aggressive and we gave up a homer tonight but we’re not going to change anything with how we go about it. Sometimes this stuff happens. I went to bed feeling just fine. I wouldn’t have changed a thing about it."
With one out in the bottom of the 10th inning, trailing by a run, Reds catcher Tyler Stephenson hit a medium distance fly ball in left field. Lorenzen, arguably the fastest player on the team with Nick Senzel injured, was ready to test left fielder Christian Yelich's arm.
Lorenzen took about four steps down the line before he grimaced and stumbled. Yelich was off the mark with his throw, which allowed a hobbled Lorenzen to score easily.
"When it first happened, I couldn’t believe it," Lorenzen said. "I was just trying to make it home and touch home plate. Once I got to the training room, I thought for sure it was pretty bad. After just taking a couple seconds to sit there and allow it to cool down a little bit, I just went more to an optimistic mindset of we can get through this."
It wasn't planned for Lorenzen to play the outfield in his season debut, but the Reds were already playing a man short on their bench. Nick Castellanos was hit by a pitch on his right wrist Friday and was unavailable Saturday.
As the last out of the ninth inning, Lorenzen was the automatic runner at second base for the 10th inning when the Reds trailed by a run.
Lorenzen thought dehydration may have played a role in his hamstring injury. Soft tissue injuries have spiked throughout the sport this year after last year's abbreviated season.
"The humidity here is different than being in Arizona," said Lorenzen, who rehabbed his shoulder strain at the team's spring training complex. "You lose a ton of fluids. I didn’t even have time to think about drinking water with going to the outfield and coming in, hitting third and then going back to center field and running. It didn’t even cross my mind to consume more and more fluids. That’s kind of on me."
Before speaking with Lorenzen after Saturday's game, Bell blamed himself for pushing Lorenzen in his first game back.
"I feel 100% good about the way we went to try to win (Saturday's) game," Bell said. "But each and every game, as important as they are, it’s not even close to being as important as our players’ health. It’s something that’s important to all of us here, me included. That’s what hurts for me because I’m in that position to make that decision, obviously.
"He gets deeper into his return, and we do that every single time and we feel good about it. He just wasn’t ready."
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