CINCINNATI _ For only handful of minutes Tuesday _ five batters, 23 pitches, about the time it takes to wait in line for a hot dog and get back to your seat _ Jose Urena lost it: command of his pitches, then control of the game, then the result of it.
In that handful of minutes, the Cincinnati Reds scored enough to beat the Miami Marlins, 6-3, at Great American Ball Park, the home team pairing its big first inning with six frames of two-run ball from one-time Marlins prospect Anthony DeSclafani to grab the win.
Urena, who settled in to last six innings, unraveled after easily retiring his first two batters. Three consecutive singles loaded the bases for Ivan De Jesus Jr., who walked to force in a run and draw a mound visit from pitching coach Juan Nieves.
Two pitches later, on a fastball up and in, Tucker Barnhart launched a grand slam into the mostly empty seats in right-center field.
DeSclafani, who the Marlins sent to Cincy in the December 2014 trade that brought Mat Latos to Miami, held the Marlins _ many of them his former minor league teammates _ to seven hits and zero walks.
J.T. Realmuto knows DeSclafani better than perhaps anyone in the Marlins' clubhouse, the pair having worked together for much of the 2013 and 2014 seasons in Double-A Jacksonville (and, for two games in the second of those seasons, with the big league club). But when it came to their first faceoff Tuesday, Realmuto's extensive knowledge of DeScalfani's repertoire meant little. DeSclafani got Realmuto looking at what might have been his best pitch of the night _ an 87-mph slider that painted the low, inside corner _ for a called third strike.
Embedded within a wet, mostly forgettable Ohio night was a glimpse at how the Marlins, if they are really going to make a go of it the next month and a half, will stay offensively competitive without Giancarlo Stanton.
Dee Gordon manufactured a run in the third inning. He singled on a soft grounder to shortstop, stole second, moved to third on Martin Prado's ground out, and scored on a DeSclafani balk _ a taste of the something-out-of-nothing potential the Marlins so missed most of this season when Gordon sat out suspended.
Later, in the eighth, Christian Yelich sent a long home run to left-center. It was only a solo shot and didn't affect the final result, but served as a reminder that this lineup has yet-untapped power.
