Cincinnati Reds lose series opener to Miami Marlins

A deluge hit Great American Ball Park around 5 p.m. Monday. A few minutes of rain left small lakes all over the outfield.

The storm soon left. The sun came out. The grass dried. And that was not good news for the Cincinnati Reds, who lost 6-3 in the the opener of a four-game series to the Miami Marlins.

Reds starter Brandon Finnegan gave up solo home runs to Chris Johnson in the fourth and Marcell Ozuna in the sixth.

“I made a lot of good pitches today,” Finnegan said. “I was really efficient. I threw a lot of strikes. They hit a lot of good pitches. I kept the ball down. I just had bad luck on two routine pop flys that somehow carried out.”

Finnegan lasted 5 1/3 innings. He allowed four earned runs on seven hits with three walks. He struck out three.

Finnegan, who made his 24th start, had pitched six innings in his last three starts. His ERA climbed from 4.45 to 4.54.

“(The Marlins) took advantage of some elevation pitches and got them up,” Reds manager Bryan Price said. “I’m sure they’re tickled to death to be hitting here instead of in Miami. It’s a big difference there. They hit some balls good. That ball Johnson hit down the right-field line, it creeps over the wall. Ozuna got one pretty good. And they hit some liners over (Billy Hamilton’s) head, which is hard to do.”

The Marlins took a 1-0 lead in the first inning. Dee Gordon opened the game with a double and scored when the next batter, Martin Prado, singled to right.

The Reds tied the game in the second. Scott Schebler snapped an 0-for-28 slump, the longest active streak by any hitter in baseball, with a home run to center. It was his third home run of the season.

Entering the game, Schebler was hitting .132 in 11 games since being promoted from Triple-A Louisville a day after the Reds traded Jay Bruce to the New York Mets.

The Marlins regained the lead in the fourth on a solo home run by Johnson. They added two runs in the sixth on the home run by Ozuna and an RBI double by Johnson.

The Reds cut the deficit to 4-2 in the sixth when Schebler walked with the bases loaded. Tony Renda struck out with the bases loaded to end the inning.

The Marlins added two runs in the eighth. Two runs scored on an infield single by Gordon.

Billy Hamilton made a leaping catch against the wall in the first inning but couldn’t make the catch on a similar play in the third. He ran into the wall and left the game in the fifth with a right knee contusion.

“He really ran into that center field wall hard,” Price said. “He ran into it twice. He ran into the chain link, and it wasn’t as bad as when he ran into the padded portion. He hit that a lot harder. So really almost the entire side of his body has a massive contusion, from his shoulder down to his knee. He’ll ice a lot, and we’ll see how he’s doing.”

Notes: Marlins right fielder Ichiro Suzuki went 0-for-4. He's 0-for-7 in his career at Great American Ball Park. It's the only existing stadium where he doesn't have a hit. … The Reds' Joey Votto struck out to end the first and struck out with a runner on second to end the game. He went 1-for-4. His average stands at .303.

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