CHICAGO -- It's already been bumpy lately for the Reds' bullpen, but Tuesday brought a blow that certainly will be felt longer than the club's latest defeat.
That became obvious when closer and veteran leader Emilio Pagán injured his left hamstring during the ninth inning of a 3-2 loss to the Cubs in 10 innings.
Summoned from the bullpen for the bottom of the ninth with a 2-2 score, Pagán threw his first pitch of the night to leadoff batter Nico Hoerner when he grabbed the back of his left leg while completing his delivery. He hopped off the mound and collapsed to the ground wincing in obvious pain.
“He’s going to get scanned in the morning. We’ll know a lot more then," manager Terry Francona said of the scheduled MRI exam. "He’s certainly going to be an IL. We just need to see the extent of how bad he did it, because you could see by his reaction that he was struggling.”
As Pagán was being tended to by trainer Tomas Vera, Francona and Reds teammates surrounded him on the field. The reliever was taken off the field sitting up on a medical cart, and was replaced on the mound by rookie Jose Franco.
“It’s a tough pill to swallow," catcher Jose Trevino said. "As one of our leaders, one of our captains, one of our dudes that care about this team more than a lot of us. You know he’s a big piece of this. I don’t know the results yet, but obviously it didn’t look good. So it’s tough, man. We’re going to be resilient about it. E.P. would want us to be resilient about it.”
During his save conversion on April 14, Pagán felt tightness in his left hamstring on his final pitch and limped off the field. He missed a couple of days but was able to return without a stint on the injured list.
That did not appear to be a factor before Pagán pitched, nor during Monday's game when the 34-year-old surrendered a walk-off home run to Michael Conforto for a 5-4 Reds loss.
“I just went and saw him," Francona said. "He said he hadn’t felt it. He said he warmed up just fine. He goes, ‘I would never do that.’ I believe him.”
“You see him come in, how kind of upset and with some tears that kind of does something to somebody," set-up man Tony Santillan said. "Great person, great human, great teammate, great leader. No one wants to see that for anybody.”
After Franco gave the Reds a scoreless ninth in place of Pagán, Sam Moll pitched the 10th. On Moll's second pitch, Michael Busch hit a chopper up the middle that crossed up shortstop Elly De La Cruz. Ruled a single, it enabled automatic runner Dansby Swanson to score the winning run.
“It was in-between," Francona said. "I think [De La Cruz] was kind of seeing where the runner was going to third, but that was a tough play. The ball had a good topspin on it.”
Connor Phillips escaped a bases-loaded jam for starter Andrew Abbott in the sixth inning, but gave up a run in the seventh. In the eighth inning with one out, a Santillan first pitch to Busch was lifted to right-center field for the game-tying homer.
“Obviously, I didn’t do my job. I made good pitches until I didn’t," said Santillan, who gave up the lone run in the eighth inning of a 1-0 loss to the Pirates in his previous appearance.
The Reds (20-16) are 0-5 on their seven-game road trip through Pittsburgh and Chicago with relievers on the hook for the last three losses -- all by one run -- after the team opened the season 12-0 in games decided by two or fewer runs.
In the last seven games -- with six losses -- Cincinnati's bullpen has a 9.76 ERA, the highest in MLB over that span. Until then, the group had the top ERA (2.83) in baseball.
Santillan, who normally has the eighth inning, will likely be a leading candidate to assume the closer's duties while Pagán is out.
“Obviously, it’s a big blow to the bullpen, but at the same time -- I’ve preached on it before -- we’ve got the guys back there," Santillan said. "We’re in a little bit of a skid here but everyone believes in each other."
How important was Pagán viewed in the club's plans? After he stepped up and saved 32 games last season, he was one of the first free agent players Cincinnati signed in the offseason when he inked a two-year, $20 million contract Dec. 4.
This season, Pagán is 2-1 with a 6.43 ERA in 15 games and six saves in nine chances.
“Emilio has done a great job with those guys since last year," Trevino said. "Shaping some of these guys that are going to be able to handle the bigger roles they’re going to get. I’d imagine that Emilio is going to be right there by them to help them.”