With one out, the Reds had Keon Broxton picked off third base, but he avoided the tag of catcher Tucker Barnhart. Instead of throwing to Jose Peraza, who was covering third, to get Broxton as he retreated to the base, Barnhart chased Broxton until he was on the bag and then threw to second base to try to throw out Orlando Arcia. Broxton broke for home on the play and scored when Billy Hamilton’s throw to the plate was wild.
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The Brewers took a 3-1 lead on the play.
“I take full responsibility for that play,” Riggleman said. “I’m the manager of the club, and when we do not execute a rundown correctly — and that’s happened to us a couple of times — that’s on the manager to make sure that doesn’t happen. It did happen. We’ve got to clean that up.”
Riggleman wouldn’t point the finger at any specific player.
“I’m not going to get into the specifics of it,” Riggleman said. “What’s supposed to happen is I’m supposed to make it more clear to them of what we’re supposed to do there, and we’ll do that.”
It was the second straight loss for the Reds (34-48), who have lost seven straight games to the Brewers for the first time. First-place Milwaukee (48-33) has outscored the Reds 34-18 in the last seven games in the series.
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“This is Major League Baseball,” said Reds starter Sal Romano, who allowed two earned runs on seven hits in five innings. “It’s always tough. It’s a grind every single day. It’s a tough two losses, but we have a chance to come back and split the series with (Tyler) Mahle and (Matt) Harvey going the next two days, and I think we have a pretty good shot.”
After winning 12 of 15 games, the Reds find themselves searching for momentum again. They trail fourth-place Pittsburgh by five games and the Brewers by 14½.
“We’ve got to play better,” Riggleman said. “Their pitching has stifled us a little bit the last couple of days. We just have to turn it back on.”
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