Let’s recap today’s titanic struggle….
FINAL
Cleveland 1
Cincinnati 7
W: J. Cueto (7-3)
L: J. Gomez (4-5)
BOX SCORE
POSITIVES
–Johnny Cueto is good. Have you noticed that? Tonight, Cueto delivered a complete game victory, surrendering just one run on six hits. He struck out seven and walked none. Beautiful.
–Joey Votto is good. Have you noticed that? Tonight, Votto was 2-4 with 3 RBI, a walk, a 2-run homer, and a run scored. Oh, and he was under the weather, too. What a player.
–How about Wilson Valdez? Yes, batting Valdez second in the lineup was a moronic move, but this provides another example of why I love baseball: yaneverknow. Valdez had three hits, with an RBI and a run scored. Can you believe it?
–Brandon Phillips had two hits. Chris Heisey had two hits out of the leadoff spot, and scored two runs. Todd Frazier had a double.
NEGATIVES
–The Reds bullpen was not able to record a single out tonight.
NOT-SO-RANDOM THOUGHTS
–Very nice win in the first game of this series against an intrastate rival…and a rival that is having a pretty good season thus far, in their own right.
–With a Pittsburgh loss, the Reds have regained a one-game lead in the NL Central.
–I guess we can argue about whether Cueto should have been allowed to throw 122 pitches. Whatever the correct decision was, I kinda enjoyed the scene on the mound when Dusty Baker walked out to talk to Cueto with two outs in the ninth. There was no way in the world that Cueto was going to allow Dusty to remove him from the game.
I guess we could say this all day, every day…but good grief, Johnny Cueto is good. #reds
— Redleg Nation (@redlegnation) June 13, 2012
//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
–Cueto picked off his fifth runner of the season. That crazy new motion he’s been using the last couple of years is clearly deceptive.
–NSFW:
Sometimes, I open up Fangraphs and just stare at Joey Votto’s stats.
— Jason Linden (@JasonLinden) June 13, 2012
//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
–Do you disagree?
Joey Votto is probably the best hitter on planet Earth. That’s not hyperbole. I really believe it’s true.
— Chad Dotson (@dotsonc) June 13, 2012
//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
–Smile, Reds fans!
6-1 #Reds, and the Nation is smilin’.
— Redleg Nation (@redlegnation) June 13, 2012
//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
–Okay, nice win vs. the Indians. Mat Latos will pitch tomorrow with a chance to secure a series victory. Are we all feeling a little better about the team? Is it possible that we shouldn’t overreact to a couple of bad games in a row?
Source: FanGraphs