CINCINNATI _ For the second time in two days _ a span of five innings, about 18 hours apart _ the Padres misplayed a bunt and then allowed a grand slam.
Saturday, in a game moved up an hour and then shortened to six innings by rain, the Reds needed just the second inning to score all their runs in a 7-2 victory at Great American Ball Park.
Six singles, one of them a bunt that pitcher Robbie Erlin let roll thinking third baseman Wil Myers would get it, preceded Joey Votto's 392-foot home run to right field that made it 7-0.
Had Myers run up on the ball, it is conceivable just one run would have scored.
Eric Hosmer's second homer in two games and his 15th of the season made it 7-2 in the fourth.
Water dripped from helmets, from the umbrellas among the few thousand hearty Ohioans and Kentuckians in the stands, from the dugout roof and from Pete Rose's nose on the statue in front of the ballpark.
Players wiped off their bats between pitches. New balls were introduced every time one hit the ground. The grounds crew applied clay to the mound and the base paths between innings.
Just a drizzle fell at the game's start, but it grew progressively persistent around the fourth inning. The warning track was full of puddles, and the infield dirt was becoming infield mud no matter how much the grounds crew did.
Immediately after Jose Pirela singled on a slow roller to second base with one out in the seventh inning, the umpires called the players from the field.
It was the Padres' first rain-shortened game since 2011, when they won an eight-inning game in Boston.
With heavy rain forecast until at least late morning and possibly into the afternoon, Sunday's first pitch was pushed back three hours to 1:10 PT.
The teams are trying to avoid having to reschedule to their only mutual workable of-day, which is Sept. 27.
"We would love, love, love to get these games in here the next couple days," Green said early Sunday afternoon.
