C. Trent Rosecrans

crosecrans@enquirer.com

It was a bittersweet day for Jumbo Diaz on Friday, as he got called up to the big leagues and then gave up three runs in a devastating loss for his team on the same day. However, Diaz took the loss in stride - he still had a smile on his face on Saturday morning - because he'd accomplished his life-long goal of making the big leagues.

"It's gone, I have to focus on the game today if I get an opportunity," Diaz said before Saturday's game. "I'll try to throw strikes and do my best. I feel like I threw my pitches and they got me. It's a good team and good hitters. I just want to keep working hard and throw the ball."

Diaz threw 31 pitches in his debut and according to BrooksBaseball.net, two of them were 100 mph. One, the only two-seam fastball he threw, and then another on one of his 25 four-seam fastballs. He averaged 97.8 mph on the four-seamer. Of the six relievers the Reds used, he and Sam LeCure were the only ones not to walk a batter.

"He came in throwing hard, throwing strikes," Reds manager Bryan Price said. "This is his next test, how does his stuff play at this level? We all know he brought in pretty good velocity yesterday and they hit good velocity. You still have to locate. The defining factor at this level is how you command your stuff. It really isn't as much as we love and fall in love with Chapman throwing 100 mph, he still has to make some relatively big pitches to get guys out."

MOVING ON: Several Reds had been a part of a similar collapse, as the team had also blown an eight-run lead in 2010 in Atlanta. That year, the Braves had a walk-off win the night before, just as these Reds lost on a walk-off (walk) the day before in Pittsburgh.

The loss in 2010 dropped the Reds from first place, but the team went on to win its next two in Cleveland.

"We're all angry at the end of the day. There wasn't anyone here who wasn't angry with the way that game turned out," Price said. "It was in our hands and we had a great opportunity and we screwed it up. It's on us collectively, players, coaches, manager -- we blew that game yesterday. That being said, these happen very rarely, as you said, we can over-react and say the sky is falling or we can go out there and play the game today and forget about it."

Jay Bruce, who was with the Reds in 2010 as well, echoed those sentiments.

"There's no explanation for it. We obviously weren't trying to give the damn thing up," Bruce said. "Pitchers have been carrying us all year and last night was a little hiccup. That's the bottom line, there's no way to explain it, I don't think it's anything you can really judge. A couple of big innings, a couple of big hits, a couple of at-bats to extend innings and here you are. It's something I don't even. You have to have a short memory in this game and I don't think that's a real good picture of what this team is. Our pitching's our strength and we believe in those guys."