Let’s recap tonight’s titanic struggle….
FINAL
Stupid Cubs 3
Cincinnati 7
W: B. Arroyo (9-7)
L: T. Wood (4-9)
BOX SCORE
POSITIVES
–The Reds beat the Cubs. That’s always a positive. Boy, the Cubs stink.
–Lots of contributors tonight. Three homers. Six extra-base hits altogether. That’s how you get it done.
–Special recognition to Todd Frazier. 2 for 4 with a home run. I just don’t know how you can sit him at all when Votto comes back. He’s much too good.
–Also have to give a nod to Ryan Ludwick. How he figured it out again at 34 is beyond me, but he certainly has. Love having him in the lineup every night.
–Jose Arredondo got out of a sticky situation for Arroyo.
NEGATIVES
–The Reds did not draw a single walk tonight. This is the primary offensive weakness of this team.
–Aroldis Chapman didn’t strike anybody out. Boo! Hiss!
NOT-SO-RANDOM THOUGHTS
–The Reds are 25 over .500 for the third time this year. They haven’t touched 26 yet. Tomorrow, perhaps?
–I don’t normally get involved in lineup-shenanigan discussions, but go look at the batting order, 1-8 and tell me if it doesn’t make total sense to flip that around. It would certainly make more sense than what Dusty does every night. That would be Hanigan, Rolen, Frazier, Bruce, Ludwick. Phillips, Stubbs, Cozart, for the record.
–Jay Bruce is pretty clearly on one of his hot streaks right now. That’s nice. I keep hoping that one day he’ll get on a hot streak and just never stop. He’s so good when he’s on that it’s hard not to be dissatisfied with the highly decent numbers he puts up over the season.
–The double header tomorrow should be interesting. I’ll probably miss it as other celebrations will be taking place at Casa de Linden, but I’ll be checking periodically to see how it goes.
–Right now, the Pirates and Cards are playing each other. That can only be good for the Reds. Pittsburgh is up 2-1 as a type. This. If that holds, they’d stay six back while the Cards would fall to eight back. This race is getting awfully close to over.
Source: FanGraphs