Reds defeat Tommy Henry as Ketel Marte shines with two home runs – Update

CINCINNATI — D-backs left-hander Tommy Henry has been very effective lately, largely because he has thrown strikes. Over his past nine starts he walked only 18 batters (an average of two per start) and hit one batter. 

But in Arizona’s 9-6 loss to Cincinnati on Friday night at Great American Ball Park, Henry walked four and hit two. As a result, Henry only lasted 4 1/3 innings and the Reds proceeded to beat up on the D-backs’ bullpen.

“I kind of shot myself in the foot with those walks,” Henry said. “They came at a bad time. I’ve got to be better than that. I was probably a little too fine in hindsight. You’ve got to attack the width of the plate, and trust the fact that good hitters get you seven times out of 10.

“I didn’t do a good job [of it] tonight and it bit us.”

Offensively, it only took Ketel Marte two pitches to give the D-backs an early lead with a solo homer, cranking an 82.6 mph changeup from right-hander Ben Lively a Statcast projected 351 feet and 101.2 mph to right for his 16th long ball of the year.

The Reds tied it in the bottom of the first with an unearned run — the result of shortstop Geraldo Perdomo’s error — and then they pulled off a double steal.

“That was my fault,” Henry said.

The Reds loaded the bases in the second on two walks and a hit-by-pitch. It looked like Henry would escape when he induced what was initially ruled a 6-4-3 double play. But it was overturned on replay, giving Cincinnati a run and the 2-1 lead.

“We just weren’t efficient in a lot of different areas,” Arizona manager Tory Lovullo said. “It was a ground ball or two that was picked up. [Perdomo] has taken responsibility for that. We’ve already had a great conversation. He’s accountable. He knows what those plays meant.

“There was a ton of other things that happened. Six or seven fastballs to good fastball hitters. We’ve got to be better and smarter — have a high baseball IQ.”

Perdomo made up for that key error with an RBI single in the third.

But Henry’s control got the club in trouble in the fourth. He walked back-to-back runners with two outs and allowed Spencer Steer to rope a line drive into left to drive in both baserunners.

The D-backs got a gift run in the fifth; Perdomo started the sequence with a two-out walk. Then Marte hit a line drive to right that Will Benson initially broke in on, then retreated and tried to make a leaping catch. But the ball glanced off his glove for an RBI triple, cutting Arizona’s deficit to one run.

As soon as Henry exited (after 4 1/3 innings), though, the Reds pushed the lead to 9-3. The key blow? Matt McLain’s first career grand slam.

Justin Martinez, who gave up the grand slam, had shaken off catcher Gabriel Moreno after getting ahead 0-2. The grand slam came off a 100.9 mph fastball up in the zone, the fastest pitch hit for a slam in the pitch tracking era (since 2008).

“This game is hard,” Lovullo said. “Very challenging in a lot of different ways. Our infielders are all very graceful. I expect us to make tough plays. We normally do. We didn’t. It cost us an extra baserunner. It cost us the ability to get the big out.

“Then we didn’t execute in a very critical situation on the mound. Three straight fastballs to a fastball hitter, a high fastball hitter. We got in his hot zone.”

But the D-backs kept swinging. Alex Thomas homered with two outs in the seventh, and after Perdomo beat out an infield hit, Marte hit his second home run of the night to dead center. It marked his sixth career two-homer game.

Arizona’s persistence wasn’t enough in the end, though. The D-backs got the tying run to the plate in the eighth, but a pair of flyouts ended their chances. Meanwhile, a quartet of relievers behind Martinez held the Reds to just one hit over 3 1/3 scoreless frames.