CINCINNATI _ Brad Hand already stretched when the bullpen phone first rang in the seventh inning. Kirby Yates had already walked a guy with one out and hit another. Joey Votto, in the midst of 14-game hitting streak, was walking into the batter's box.
After four pitches to Votto � a handful of Hand warm-ups in the pen � the count was even when the phone rang again. The gate opened. Yates headed to the dugout as Hand jogged toward the mound.
There, his manager, Andy Green, got right to the point: "Well, this is new. Go get him."
The Padres' unflappable All-Star shrugged.
Then Hand buckled.
At last, he broke.
In a 10-3 loss on getaway day at Great American Ball Park, Hand's 24-inning scoreless inning streak came to a thunderous end. The broader point after Scooter Gennett's go-ahead grand slam and Eugenio Suarez's monstrous follow-up blast was this: the Reds beat the Padres' best pitcher to send them to a 2-5 start to a 10-game road trip.
Green wouldn't have it any other way.
"He's coming in into a 2-2 count; it's different and unconventional," Green admitted. "I think it goes back to, if you want to find out what works in baseball, you have to be willing to get outside the box from time to time. That doesn't mean it works. ... At the end of the day, do I want Brad Hand up in the most pivotal situation and do I want him on the mound?
"Without question. He's earned that and over anybody else right now."
Protecting a 3-2 lead, Yates walked a batter and hit another to bring Votto up with a runner in scoring position.
Yates fell behind, 2-1, to Votto before slipping in a 94 mph fastball on the inside corner. That didn't keep Green from going to his new closer in the middle of the at-bat.
Hand trotted in from the bullpen. After additional warm-up pitches on the mound, he walked Votto on two pitches to load the bases.
Two batters later, Gennett jumped on a first-pitch slider and yanked it over the Ollie's Bargain Outlet sign in right for a 6-3 lead.
Eugenio Suarez followed with a 451-foot homer to center, saddling Hand with his first two-homer game since June 10. It was also the last time the Padres' All-Star left-hander allowed a run.
Zack Cozart and Votto added home runs off Phil Maton in the eighth.
Since trading away Brandon Maurer and Ryan Buchter and inserting Hand into the closer's role, the Padres' bullpen has a 5.96 ERA.
The meltdown wasted a solid start from right-hander Dinelson Lamet (five-plus innings, two earned runs), as well as Myers' second home run to right in two days.
