San Diego and Cincinnati were tied 2-2 entering the eighth inning. Then the Reds broke it open and won 4-3. That's the final, not a tie, and once you look at how it actually ended, the game is a lot more interesting than a shootout.
Fernando Tatis Jr. did his job, hitting his 18th and 19th home runs of the season, both solo shots, in a game San Diego lost anyway. That's not a knock on him. A guy can go deep twice and it still won't matter if the other 90-some at-bats around him don't produce when it counts.
San Diego's lineup didn't produce when it counted: 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position, eight men left on base. This wasn't bad luck. San Diego's offense kept putting runners on and couldn't push them across, taking one-run leads twice and watching Cincinnati answer both times.
The eighth inning is where this game actually turned, and it's on the bullpen. With the score tied at 2, Adrian Morejon walked the leadoff man, let Cincinnati load the bases, and got behind Jose Trevino before Trevino's single scored the go-ahead run. A sacrifice fly from Juan Brito made it a two-run cushion. Morejon took the loss. Emilio Pagán closed it out in the ninth despite allowing Tatis's second homer of the night, and picked up his save anyway.
Cincinnati didn't suddenly become a good team. San Diego's margin for error is shrinking fast in September, and this game showed exactly where it disappears. You can survive missed chances with runners in scoring position if your bullpen holds a tie in the eighth. You can survive a shaky eighth if your lineup cashes in even half those chances. San Diego did neither Tuesday, and against a sub-.500 opponent, that's the kind of game that should worry a team fighting for a wild-card spot.
San Diego won the series opener 5-0 behind a big night from Manny Machado and six scoreless innings from Michael King, so this isn't a team in freefall. But entering play September 1, San Diego held the final NL Wild Card spot by a half-game over Arizona, in a race that's flipped back and forth all season. A loss like this, to a team with a losing record, is exactly the kind of game that can flip it again. If Morejon and the rest of the bullpen can't hold one-run and tied games in high-leverage spots, Tatis's power numbers turn into a highlight reel for a team watching October from home.
The series wraps up Wednesday, and it matters more than a typical getaway-day finale. Split this series and San Diego treads water. Lose it, and the questions about the bullpen's depth and the lineup's clutch hitting stop being theoretical.
