Anthony DeSclafani made a mistake at the start of the Cincinnati Reds defeat of the Atlanta Braves

ATLANTA - Anthony DeSclafani entered Thursday's match against the Atlanta Braves with a 2.94 ERA in his last nine matches. He allowed only four hits in each of his last three events.

The Braves have different plans.

Ronald Acuña Jr. opened with a double down of the third base line on DeSclafani's first pitch that night. Two pitches later, Ozzie Albies hit one to the center of the field. Freddie Freeman follows with a three-run homer above the left field wall in an eight-pitch at-bat.

"It was just a difficult situation from the start," DeSclafani said. "Just trying to minimize damage and I didn't do it."

DeSclafani did not allow to run again, but the damage was done quickly in the Reds 4-1 defeat at SunTrust Park in front of 28,677 fans. The match ended after six innings when a thunderstorm rolled into the area.

Under MLB rules, this is an official match after five innings. There waited 106 minutes after the start of the delay, but it never stopped pouring rain. It was the first road match to be shortened by the Reds since June 14, 2004 in Philadelphia.


"This is difficult," said Reds manager Freddie Benavides. "It was the MLB decision they made. I know the rain doesn't stop. There is a lot of rain on the field. It takes a long time to prepare the field. Sometimes, of course, you want to keep playing" You don't want to concede. It depends on MLB and they make decisions. "

David Bell began a six-match suspension Thursday for his role in Tuesday's clearing bench fight. Bell was allowed to be with the team before the match. Benavides, bench coach of the Reds, succeeded during the previous ejections and a one-match Bell suspension in April, and he was sure it would be business as usual.

"I don't think there is a change," Benavides said. "David is still here. We discussed the game plan, together, we've all done it from Day One and he's part of it. We have a very good idea of ​​what we want to do from the first pitch on.

"That's a little more pressure. It's easy to provide scenarios and ideas. Now I have to make a decision. But we do it as a team. We always meet with our pre-match meetings."

DeSclafani said his curveball was "ineffective," so he tried to survive the line of Braves with a mixture of fastballs and sliders. In his fight with Freeman, he wanted to bury the curveball under the zone. It didn't fall and Freeman condemned the 26th homer this year.

"There's really nothing to get them out of fastball," said DeSclafani, who gave up three times with seven strikes in five innings. "They only hunt fast balls, so it will be a difficult day when you do that.

"It doesn't get a slider for a lot of attacks. It just kind of spins on me. I don't go forward with it or get a swing and miss, so it will only be a difficult day."

The Reds did not have many offensive opportunities against left-handed Braves Max Fried, who retired 12 of the last 14 batters he faced before the rain. The Reds have four hits and three of them are singles in the second inning.

After a single-back-to-back single to open the second innings, Fried pushed Aristides Aquino into a double play. José Peraza followed him with the RBI single, scoring Phillip Ervin, but the Reds did not have another ball leaving the field until Joey Votto scored twice in the sixth innings.

Before Votto doubled, Nick Senzel reached the catcher's intervention. Then he was lifted from the first base.

"We can't do anything," Benavides said. "You also have to respect their men."

The Braves loaded the base into DeSclafani in the third innings. DeSclafani managed to get out of the one-out jam by hitting the former Reds outsider Adam Duvall and pushing the inning-ending exit after falling into a 3-0 count.

"He was beaten," Benavides said of DeSclafani. "But he survived, giving us some innings, which are very much needed because we are a little short today."

In the sixth inning, Duvall destroyed a 434-foot solo run, solo to the midfield of left-handed reliever Wandy Peralta. It was Duvall's fifth homer in six matches after he was called up from Triple-A last week.

The Reds sent Duvall to Braves before the 2018 Trade Deadline in return for Lucas Sims, Matt Wisler and Preston Tucker. Sims, who is on the Reds bulls, is the only player left in the organization.

David Hernandez recorded the final match - in the sixth round - when Acuña marched into the middle. This is his first pitching since he was activated from a list of 10 days of injury.

Loading...

Subscribe to receive free email updates: