Let’s recap tonight’s titanic struggle….
FINAL
Cincinnati 5
Los Angeles 2
W: M. Latos (10-3)
L: Z. Greinke (8-3)
S: A. Chapman (24)
BOX SCORE
POSITIVES
–Superb outing by Mat Latos tonight: 7.2 innings, one earned run allowed on eight hits.
–Xavier Paul had a solo homer in the first to get the Reds on the board. Later, Jay Bruce came through with his 21st homer, a two-run shot that gave the Reds a three-run lead.
–Todd Frazier was 2-4 with a double. Joey Votto went 2-4.
–Cesar Izturis had a hit! And an RBI!
NEGATIVES
–We’re big fans of Shin-Soo Choo here, but this is just embarrassing. Choo also made an error on a throw earlier in the game. Yes, Choo had a rough night indeed, despite a couple of hits and an RBI.
–Aroldis Chapman, rusty because he hasn’t pitched in a week, struggled a bit in the ninth. He gave up a hit and walked a batter, but ultimately recorded the “save.” He was throwing hard, however, reaching 102 on the radar gun.
NOT-SO-RANDOM THOUGHTS
–Another excellent win in what has been a superb second half, thus far. With tonight’s win, the Reds are now 6-2 since the break, 4-1 on this road trip, and they’ve won seven of nine overall. The Redlegs also picked up a game on second-place Pittsburgh, though the Cardinals continue to play great baseball.
–There was a time, during the 90s and 00s, when the Reds would go out west every single year and come home with their tails between their legs. If you weren’t worried about that when this road trip began, you haven’t been a Reds fan for very long. Cincinnati was in a precarious spot when they left to go west, in third place and in danger of falling out of the race before August even arrived.
Well, they may not keep winning on this trip, and this may not be a springboard to a great second-half run…but at the very least, the Redlegs haven’t ruined their season on this trip. For that, we should be very thankful indeed.
–Cincinnati’s win tonight snapped LA’s six-game winning streak.
–With two outs in the eighth inning, Latos had two runners on base (after already surrendering one run). Seems like a good opportunity to bring in Aroldis Chapman for a four-out save, no?
Nope. Manny Parra. Parra did escape thanks to some excellent glove-work by Cesar Izturis on a hard-hit line drive.
–Latos is 10-3 with a 3.39 ERA. That’s good.
–Even though I wouldn’t have chosen Parra in the situation mentioned above, you can’t deny that Parra has pitched awfully well lately.
–The Reds are fifteen games over .500. They haven’t yet been sixteen games over this season.