John Fay

jfay@enquirer.com

LOS ANGELES -- The bullpen struggles continue for the Reds. The relievers have a collective ERA of 4.85 -- worst in the National League by a wide margin.

Meanwhile, Jose "Jumbo" Diaz has a 1.54 ERA at Triple-A Louisville. He's allowed 17 hits, walked six and struck out 20 in 23 1/3 innings. Diaz, the 30-year-old right-hander, throws up to 98 mph, and was impressive at Louisville last year when he went 3-4 with a 1.66 ERA.

Reds manager Bryan Price said the Reds would consider bringing Diaz up, but they haven't reached that point yet.

"We want to have guys down there who are pitching well and give us an opportunity to make changes when we feel it's necessary," Price said. "I don't think we're at that point now. We have a bullpen with guys with track records. It's a lot easier when you have one of these young guys like (Nick) Christiani or (Curtis) Partch that have the flexibility to move up and down that don't have a track record.

"You look back and those are guys who have been efficient and effective. We really don't want to look to make that drastic decision. That being said, we're going to need the best team possible moving forward, so we're going to need to see improvement."

Logan Ondrusek has struggled all year. His ERA is 6.59. J.J. Hoover's ERA is 6.27, although he has a streak of five scoreless appearances. Sean Marshall's ERA is at 10.38.

Diaz is not on the 40-man roster, so he would have to be added to be brought up.