Rank Relief: Reds make it back to back apperances

Broxton barely looks as Starling Marte jacks a homerun to take the lead for good.

Yesterday we gave Dusty Baker a hard time for going to JJ Hoover constantly despite his plus 6 ERA.  Well apparently we can no longer blame him as seemingly everyone in their bullpen is pitching awful.  Frankly, this should be a team award for giving up 10 runs to the Pirates in the 7th and 8th innings.  But, alas, the rank relief performance most squarely sits with Jonathan Broxton (he of the 3yr/$15M deal).  The bullpen was supposed to be strength of the Reds when Aroldis Chapman moved back with Chpaman, Broxton, and Sean Marshall  taking care of things.  Marshall is hurt, Chapman almost never pitches and Broxton…well this is what he did today:

Two outs, two home runs, 3 walks, and 5 runs given up while he was in there and another charged to him later.  The Reds were swept by the Pirates and on two occasion they had the lead or were tied when the bullpen had the ball.  That isn’t going to cut it for a team trying to reach the World Series.  It’s a long season, but Reds fans will be lighting up the switchboard to complain about the bullpen.