Brandon Finnegan leaves start with hamstring issue

Left-hander Brandon Finnegan entered Monday as the iron man of the Cincinnati Reds' rotation. He was the only pitcher to begin the year healthy and in the rotation and make every subsequent start as April rolled along.

The Reds hope that trend continues, even after Finnegan left Monday’s 9-6 loss to the San Francisco Giants with hamstring tightness. Finnegan exited at 88 pitches after giving up three runs in six innings.

“I’ll be fine,” Finnegan said. “Nothing serious at all. They checked it out and nothing bad. I’ve just got to take care of it and get treatment every day and I’ll be fine. I’m not going to miss any starts.”

The Reds must really believe that, because Finnegan felt his left hamstring grab at him after the third inning, not the sixth. But with one of Major League Baseball’s most unreliable and overworked bullpens, manager Bryan Price’s calculus was that Finnegan could power through another three frames to save the rest of the staff.

The young lefty was placed on strict orders not to run on the basepaths or break too hard for any balls hit his way. After a sixth inning in which Finnegan worked around a two-out single, Price decided he’d pushed his luck enough.

“He was very confident that it wasn’t going to get worse,” Price said. “However, understanding where we are, risk-reward didn’t really make sense right here for one extra inning of pitching. I had already done it for three innings and it was a gamble for him to be out there. I don’t think it’s something we’ll look at and go, ‘Oh my goodness, he’s going to be out.’”

Losing Finnegan would be another injury blow for a pitching staff where a trip to the disabled list has almost become a rite of passage. Right-handers Anthony DeSclafani and Homer Bailey had setbacks on the way back from injuries, have yet to pitch this season and are currently shut down. Opening Day starter Raisel Iglesias is on the disabled list with a shoulder issue.

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Righty Jon Moscot had an injury-delayed star to the season, and his ability to start Tuesday is still up in the air after he tweaked his surgically repaired, non-throwing shoulder. Right-hander Alfredo Simon missed a start due to a biceps problem and hasn’t been the innings eater the team hoped for when he does take the ball.

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To fill in the gaps, the Reds have called on a combination of journeymen – many pitching in the majors for the first time – with a couple scattered starts from top pitching prospect Robert Stephenson. While the team tries to balance service-time issues with Stephenson and fellow prospect Cody Reed, the reinforcement ranks are dwindling.

“We want to be conservative in the sense that we don’t want guys to be here if they’re not ready,” Price said. “But sometimes right now, the impetus is that with all the injuries is we have some guys up here that might not yet be ready to compete at this level consistently.”