{"id":227294,"date":"2025-08-05T16:56:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-05T16:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/227294\/"},"modified":"2025-08-05T16:56:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-05T16:56:10","slug":"why-cincinnati-reds-manager-terry-francona-planned-meeting-if-team-had-lost-to-cubs-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/227294\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Cincinnati Reds manager Terry Francona planned meeting if team had lost to Cubs"},"content":{"rendered":"

CHICAGO \u2013 If Cincinnati Reds<\/a> manager Terry Francona seemed as locked in as his players during this week\u2019s high-adversity series opener at Wrigley Field<\/a>, maybe it\u2019s because he was.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was so into the whole game,\u201d he said, \u201cbecause we wanted to win. And nobody felt sorry for themselves or for us.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIn fact, if we\u2019d have lost, I probably would have talked to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blindsided by an unplanned bullpen game for the second day in a row after their long, wet ordeal in the Bristol Motor Speedway sideshow game<\/a> over the weekend, Reds reliever after Reds reliever kept the Chicago Cubs<\/a> in check for a comeback, 3-2 win Monday night<\/p>\n

No need for a message after a finish like that. Besides, veteran Brent Suter did the inspirational honors well enough after the game anyway, Francona said.<\/p>\n

But had they lost another tough one after all that rain, extra travel and the sudden finger blister that waylaid their hottest starting pitcher in the second inning?<\/p>\n

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\u201cThat\u2019s what mean,\u201d Francona said. \u201cWe\u2019ve had a lot thrown at us. And sometimes your margin for error\u2019s less. \u2018OK, then let\u2019s not make errors. Let\u2019s just play the game the way we know how.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cThis can be our time to shine. We don\u2019t have to feel sorry for ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Reds went from the mess of Bristol, Tennessee, into the teeth of a final 50-game stretch run that opened with three against the Cubs and two of the next three series after that against two more of the NL\u2019s top teams: Philadelphia and Milwaukee.<\/p>\n

\u201cDivisional games are huge, especially where we are in the season,\u201d said closer Emilio Pag\u00e1n, who earned a career-high 24th save with a 1-2-3 ninth. \u201cAnd so we talked about it as we\u2019re not going to have any excuses moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

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That seems to especially apply to bullpen core that has carried a heavy load at times \u2013 none more than Scott Barlow, who has pitched in six of the Reds\u2019 last seven games, including two innings Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody down there just wants the ball at all times,\u201d Barlow said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve just kind of had the attitude of, \u2018Bring it on.\u2019 \u201c<\/p>\n

This story was updated to add a gallery. <\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Reds manager Terry Francona planned meeting if team had lost to Cubs<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHICAGO \u2013 If Cincinnati Reds manager Terry Francona seemed as locked in as his players during this week\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":226168,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2400],"tags":[5,1549,26770,24,535,50,4259,1105,843,4,144,536,11148,1175,738],"class_list":{"0":"post-227294","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cincinnati-reds","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-brent-suter","10":"tag-bristol-motor-speedway","11":"tag-chicago-cubs","12":"tag-cincinnati","13":"tag-cincinnati-reds","14":"tag-cincinnatireds","15":"tag-emilio-pagan","16":"tag-milwaukee","17":"tag-mlb","18":"tag-philadelphia","19":"tag-reds","20":"tag-scott-barlow","21":"tag-terry-francona","22":"tag-wrigley-field"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/114977216108635295","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=227294"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227294\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/226168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}