Let’s recap tonight’s titanic struggle….
FINAL
Cincinnati 3
Washington 6
W: D. Haren (2-3)
L: M. Leake (1-1)
S: R. Soriano (7)
BOX SCORE
POSITIVES
–Brandon Phillips was 3-4 with an RBI. Shin-Soo Choo homered and walked. Joey Votto doubled and hit the ball hard almost every time.
–Sean Marshall and JJ Hoover pitched perfect innings of relief.
NEGATIVES
–Mike Leake was, well, not good: three innings, four runs allowed on six hits and three walks.
–Alfredo Simon gave up two runs in three innings of work, on four hits and two walks.
NOT-SO-RANDOM THOUGHTS
–The mighty Redlegs have now lost eight consecutive road games. As good as they’ve been at home (12-4), they’ve been terrible on the road.
–The Reds nearly tied the game up in the seventh, when Zack Cozart ripped a ball with bases loaded that was snagged by Nats CF Denard Span. That ball looked like extra bases off the bat.
–Span also robbed Joey Votto of a possible homer (or, at the very least, extra bases) the inning before. Not a stretch to say the Reds win this game if it weren’t for Span out there in center field.
–If the Reds are going to avoid getting swept, and dropping to 0-4 on this ten-game road trip, it’ll be up to Tony Cingrani tomorrow.