Cincinnati Reds lose game, off day, bullpen rest to MLB Speedway Classic mess
BRISTOL, TN – Two hours before MLB’s rain-suspended Speedway Classic resumed at Bristol Motor Speedway on Sunday, the main concession stand serving the infield grandstands around the temporary field had run out of burgers.
About an hour later, the Fan Zone section for the event had been dismantled, including the merch and concession stands.
And by the time the Cincinnati Reds got out of town, a day late and a game short in the win column, an off day was gone, and much of a bullpen was spent in a 4-2 loss that took two days to inflict.
It made a long charter to Chicago seem just a little longer as they braced for a 50-game final stretch that opens with three against the division-rival Cubs.
“It’s never good when you lose a day like that, and then you've got to use guys in the bullpen,” said second baseman Matt McLain, who missed a would-be tying home run in the ninth by about a foot. “But we’ll handle it and get through it.”
For all of MLB’s best-laid plans with this one-off, regular-season, first-MLB-game-in-Tennessee event, it amounted mostly to a very wet, very long-delayed, two-day ordeal for both teams — but an especially hard pill to swallow for a Reds team that just invested at the trade deadline for a playoff chase.
Neither the outcome of the actual game nor the residual effects of the marketing-scheme sideshow did anything for the Reds but make the road to October look just a little more like those steep banks at the NASCAR track that hosted the Saturday-turned-Sunday event.
Manager Terry Francona said the ordeal didn’t make the loss sting any worse even if losing the off day for his bullpen was “the big one” to deal with as he said before the game.
“You deal with what gets thrown at you,” he said, “and hopefully when something does get thrown at you, you deal with it to the point where you can win a game. And we didn’t.
“We were unfortunate, I admit that,” he added. “But that doesn’t mean you can’t win the game.”
The Reds led 1-0 with runners at first and second and one out when the game was suspended. A quick double steal by Elly De La Cruz and Austin Hays upon the resumption of the game put the Reds in position to add on – until Miguel Andujar’s ensuing grounder to third turned into an out at the plate.
“That’s a tough game we felt we should have won,” said Brent Suter, the losing pitcher after taking over when the game resumed. He downplayed adversity of the contrived event.
“A lot of bullpen use today,” he added. “But we got through it. Lyon (Richardson) did a great job, so we got through it with not using too many arms multiple innings. That was a positive.
“But that one hurts.”
Richardson was an emergency callup for the bullpen Sunday. Suter got eight outs in relief of Reds rookie Chase Burns, who pitched a powerful 1-2-3 first inning before the game was suspended.
Braves right fielder Eli White hit his fifth and sixth home runs of the season for all of the Braves scoring, including a two-out, three-run shot off Suter in the second.
The Reds lost for the fourth time in six games.
“Tito and I both understood the situation,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “We both wanted to put that game to bed (Saturday) night and wake up (with) us in Atlanta and them in Chicago, with a day off today. Didn’t happen.”
It seemed especially tough on a Reds team chasing the playoffs on the heels of acquiring three players at the deadline compared to a Braves team that's still 16 games under .500 with its entire opening rotation on the injured list.
“We’re not eliminated yet. We’re still in the hunt as far as I’m concerned,” Snitker said when asked about the Reds getting hurt more by the circumstances than the Braves.
“It’s tough navigating every major-league season,” added Snitker, whose Braves have been in the postseason the last seven years, including a World Series-title season in 2021. “They all represent different obstacles. You can’t bank on anything happening right. Because it just doesn’t. And there’s always hurdles to get through with injuries, scheduling, rainouts, all this kind of stuff. It’s never easy. That’s why the depth in your organization is huge, getting through 162 games in six months.”
The Reds left the bases loaded in the eighth.
And they put the first two men on base in the ninth – including McLain's near home run that White knocked down at the top of the wall in right field – for Elly De La Cruz, who struck out on some walk-off-minded swings against former Reds closer Raisel Iglesias.
Two popups later and the game was over. The bus was running. And Francona was asked what he planned to tell his team.
“We got 52 minutes to get on the bus and get the hell out of here because we’re playing Chicago tomorrow,” he said.