The Reds made history in the second inning Saturday, and not in a good way. Rhett Lowder and reliever Connor Phillips combined to walk seven — seven! — consecutive Pirates with one out, including the final four with the bases loaded. At one point in the inning, the Pirates scored four runs without putting a ball in play. Pittsburgh went on to win the game 17-7 (box score).
“It was really impressive,” Pirates manager Don Kelly told MLB.com. “I think it was something that we can learn from as we go through the season. When we’ve been really good offensively and had those big innings, it’s usually been because we’ve been patient. Hunted the middle of the plate, the middle of the field and continued to trust the guy behind us.”
The inning started innocently enough: Lowder struck out Oneil Cruz looking at a 3-2 pitch. From there, the inning went walk, walk, pitching change, walk, walk, walk, walk, pitching change. The run of walks ended when Henry Davis grounded to third base on a 2-0 count. Grounding out on a 2-0 count after seven straight walks is a Kangaroo Court fine if I’ve ever seen one.
Here are the seven consecutive walks:
“No excuses for that,” Lowder told MLB.com after the game. That was bad, but we’ll be back. We’ll be better.”
“Honestly, it was a pretty quick turnaround for me there. I didn’t really give myself the chance to find it in the bullpen,” Phillips told MLB.com. “I never gave myself a chance to slow it down. I wished I would have done things a little differently today, preparing-wise, in the bullpen.”
Lowder and Phillips combined to throw 42 pitches and only 11 strikes. Three of the seven walks were noncompetitive four-pitch walks too. Here’s what a seven-walk inning looks like:
MLB.com
Seven straight walks ties the MLB record. It had been done twice previously. The White Sox walked seven straight Washington Senators in the second inning on Aug. 28, 1909, and the Braves walked seven straight Pirates in the third inning on May 25, 1983. It’s happened only three times ever, and twice was to the Pirates. Go figure
Reds’ pitchers entered play Saturday having walked 11.6% of the batters they’ve faced, the fifth-highest rate in baseball. Pirates’ hitters had drawn a walk in 9.9% of their plate appearances, which is exactly the MLB average. The Pirates deserve some credit, of course, but sheesh. What a terrible stretch of pitching for Cincinnati.
The Reds are 20-13 and in second place in the NL Central despite a minus-21 run differential. The Pirates are 18-16 and in last place in the division. The NL Central is the only division with three winning teams, let alone five.
