MIAMI — Cincinnati Reds left-hander John Lamb seemed to throw as softly as he could when he struck out Chris Johnson in the fourth inning on three pitches, each a 67-mph curve.
“Their guy had us baffled for a few innings,” Miami Marlins manager Don Mattingly said. “He seemed to have us on a string.”
Lamb totaled a career-high nine strikeouts in five innings Saturday, and in keeping with this miserable season for Cincinnati, that wasn’t enough. The Reds made a series of costly mistakes and lost 4-2 Saturday.
“We needed a couple of things to go right that potentially could have brought that game to a different outcome,” manager Bryan Price said.
Miami’s Martin Prado went 3 for 3 and capped a rally in the fifth inning with a two-out, two-run double that right fielder Jay Bruce misjudged. J.T. Realmuto added two hits and scored three times.
All-Star Adam Duvall hit his 23rd home run for the Reds, and Brandon Phillips had two hits and an RBI with a broken left hand. Phillips played less than 24 hours after suffering a hairline fracture when he was hit by a pitch from Jose Fernandez.
Too often the last-place Reds hurt themselves, and the Marlins capitalized.
“You take wins any way you can get them,” Mattingly said. “We’ve had some losses in these kind of games.”
Defensive lapses contributed to all three runs against Lamb (1-6), with one unearned. Worst was the misplay by Bruce hours after he was added to the NL All-Star team.
“Obviously it looked terrible, and it was embarrassing,” Bruce said. “I felt like I had plenty of time. I looked back up and it wasn’t where I thought it was going to be.”
Prado wasn’t optimistic when the ball left his bat, and Mattingly also underestimated the opposite-field fly. It fell behind a retreating Bruce.
“It was weird — the ball kept carrying for some reason,” Prado said. “It had a weird spin.”
Conservative baserunning likely cost Cincinnati a run in the fifth. Catcher Ramon Cabrera led off with an apparent triple to right field, but third base coach Billy Hatcher stopped him at second.
“There were some opportunities for us to cash in on a few things offensively,” Price said.
Miami center fielder Marcell Ozuna threw out Phillips trying to advance from first to third on a single in the seventh. Phillips was initially ruled safe, but the call was reversed in a replay review, and the Reds failed to score despite three hits in the inning.
“Just an incredible throw,” Mattingly said. “Thank God for replay, right?”
Cincinnati also dropped the ball on a rundown but still came managed the putout, however unsightly. It was scored 1-3-6-3-1-4.
Adam Conley (6-5) singled to start a rally, raising his average to .065. The left-hander also limited Cincinnati to two runs in 5 2/3 innings.
Four relievers combined for 3 1/3 shutout innings. A.J. Ramos pitched around a walk in the ninth for his 27th save and was helped by shortstop Adeiny Hechavarria, who made a leaping catch of a liner by Phillips.
Miami has won the first two games of the series while outscoring Cincinnati 7-3.
The Marlins scored an unearned run in the first inning when Lamb threw a curve that crossed up and eluded Cabrera, allowing Realmuto to score from third on a passed ball.
“My fault,” Lamb said. “Coming into the game we knew our signs and I happened to have a brain cramp.”
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