Failure, thy name is Trevor Bauer. The rookie pitcher for the Arizona Diamondbacks had a nightmarish time on the mound last night at Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati, getting lit up for four runs during his team's 4-0 loss to the Reds.
During what was arguably his roughest start since being called up from the minors last month, Bauer (1-2, 6.06 ERA) struggled with his command of the baseball, walked five batters, tossed a couple wild pitches -- one of which resulted in a run -- and lasted only three innings.
In many ways Tuesday's shutout was the complete reversal of Arizona's 5-3 win on Monday, where the D-backs got to Cincinnati's Bronson Arroyo. Only this time, Bauer played the sucker.
The opening frame of the game was filled with fail for Bauer, Arizona's first-round draft pick in 2011. First, he walked Drew Stubbs to begin the inning. Stephen Drew then allowed Zack Cozart to make it to first base with a bumbled throw. An errant pick-off attempt by Bauer allowed both Reds batters to advance one base and then one of the aforementioned wild pitches gave Stubbs an opportunity to dash to the dish.
Although Bauer settled down for the second inning, serving up back-to-back strikeouts, he became unhinged in the third when he walked both Cozart and Brandon Phillips right before Ryan Ludwick unleashed a 393-foot homer for three runs. Josh Collmenter took over in the fourth frame and kept Cincinnati scoreless, but the damage was done.
While Arizona has certainly overcome bouts of feeble pitching before, they weren't able to do so on Tuesday evening. Not with Cincinnati ace Johnny Cueto (11-5, 2.28) toeing the rubber for the Reds. Despite suffering from a blister on his throwing hand, the Dominican-born pitcher definitely brought the heat, shutting down the D-backs and forcing batter after batter into ground outs or strike outs.
The closest that Arizona came to a rally went down during the sixth inning when both Aaron Hill and Justin Upton singled and Chris Young got the base-on-balls treatment. With two outs already recorded, Cueto worked his way out of the jam by taking Gerardo Parra to a full count before dispatching the D-backs batter with a 94-m.p.h. fastball.
Next up in the pitching rotation for the D-backs is Ian Kennedy (6-8, 4.55) who will start this afternoon's game against the Reds and will attempt to find consistency and secure his first win since the end of June. Opposing him will be Cincinnati's Mat Latos (7-2, 4.10). First pitch is at 4:10 p.m. TV: Fox Sports Arizona. Radio: KTAR 620 AM. More info: www.dbacks.com.
