CINCINNATI — JJ Bleday hit his first career MLB home run, but it wasn’t enough to help erase Braxton Garrett’s rough first inning in the Miami Marlins’ 5-3 loss to the Cincinnati Reds on Wednesday at Great American Ball Park.
Bleday lifted a 1-1 changeup at the bottom of the strike zone from Luis Castillo, the top starting pitcher on the market as the MLB trade deadline approaches on Tuesday, and sent it a projected 366 feet to right field, where it landed in the Marlins’ bullpen. It was Miami’s second home run of the game, with Nick Fortes also hitting a solo shot to lead off the third inning.
But Miami (46-52) was playing from behind all game. Garrett needed 36 pitches to get out of a first inning in which the Reds (38-59) scored four runs on five hits and a walk. All three run-scoring hits came with two outs. Two of those hits — a Kyle Farmer two-RBI double and Donovan Solano RBI double — came with two strikes. Matt Reynolds followed them with an RBI single.
Garrett settled in after that, allowing just one run the rest of the way and striking out eight batters overall.
But the deficit was too large for the Marlins erase.
Fortes and Bleday gave Miami two runs with their solo home runs in the third and fourth. The Marlins scored another in the seventh on Jesus Sanchez’s RBI double that scored Lewin Diaz, who led off the inning with a walk and moved to second on a Willians Astudillo single.
Miami’s chance to rally in the seventh stopped there, though, as Castillo struck out Fortes, Luke Williams and Joey Wendle to strand the runners.
This and that
— Huascar Brazoban, who at 32 years old made his MLB debut on Sunday, threw two scoreless innings of relief with five strikeouts.
— Shortstop Miguel Rojas was not in the starting lineup for a second consecutive game.
