The Reds lost the first of a three game series against the Chicago Cubs on Tuesday night, 3-0. It was the Reds 12th shutout of 2014. The Reds have now lost 69 games in 2014. Last season, the Reds lost a total of 72 games. In 2012, the Reds only lost 65 games all season.

Biggest Play of the Game

According to Fangraphs WPA statistic (winning percentage added), the most important play of the game was Arismendy Alcantara’s 2-run HR in the 7th inning, giving the Cubs a 3-0 lead. That play decreased the Reds chances of winning by 16.3% (from 25.0% to 8.7%).

Other important plays (+/- indicates how much each play increased or decreased the Reds chances of winning):

• +5.1% – 6th inning: Cueto gets Valbuena to fly out to end the inning. Cubs stranded runners on 1st & 3rd.
• -11.2% – 1st inning: Rizzo hit a solo HR off Cueto. Cubs lead 1-0.
• -4.3% – 8th inning: Frazier grounds out to end the inning. Reds stranded runners on 1st & 2nd

Player of the Game

Travis Wood: 6.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 5 K, 1.97 FIP, 0.37 WPA

The former Red absolutely dominated the Reds for six innings tonight. It’s not like Wood is having a stellar season either. He entered play today with a 4.91 ERA, 4.21 FIP, and 1.52 WHIP.

Positives

Johnny Cueto dominated until the 7th inning, when he gave up a 2-run HR to Arismendy Alcantara. All in all, it was a pretty solid start from Cueto. However, with the current state of the Reds offense, you won’t win many games allowing 3 runs.

Zack Cozart makes playing SS look so easy. Every single night he is making a spectacular play, taking hits and runs away from the Reds opponents. I just love watching Cozart field his position.

Daniel Corcino made a very impressive debut for the Reds (and on his 24th birthday too!). He pitched a perfect 9th inning for the Reds, striking out 2 of the 3 batters he faced. Our own Doug Gray wrote about Corcino on his site earlier this year.

Sam LeCure entered the game in the 7th inning with 2 runners on base and 1 out. LeCure struck out Baez, and got Rizzo to ground out to end the inning. It has been a tough year at times for LeCure (3.69 ERA, 4.04 FIP, 1.53 WHIP), but it was nice to see him get the job done tonight.

The Reds faithful (all 37 of them) got FREE PIZZA this evening, as the Reds pitchers were able to strike out 13 batters.

Negatives

The Reds offense was absolutely terrible, yet again. The Reds were shutout for the 12th time this season. It is just ugly to watch to these guys at the plate.

Not so random thoughts…………….

The Reds very strangely elected to start tonight’s game on time. The rain started pouring as Cueto faced the second batter of the game. The third batter of the game, Anthony Rizzo hit a HR off Cueto (who appeared to have issues gripping the baseball). After the next batter (Castro) got a hit, the game was delayed for 50 minutes. Why on earth would the Reds decide to start this game on time, especially with their ace on the mound? For those who might not be aware, the home team has 100% control on if a game is delayed or not because of rain. Once the game starts, the umpires take over control of delaying the game or not. Maybe the Reds were given poor weather reports, but this certainly looked like a horrible error on the Reds part.

According to Jim Day during the Reds broadcast, Cueto and his teammates were not very happy. Here is what Jim Day said during the top of the 3rd inning:

“I gotta tell you what. There are none too many happy Reds players down here in the dugout right now, and one of them is Johnny Cueto. They are not too happy that they started this game. I know weather is hard to predict, but I’ve never seen Cueto as angry as he was after they called him off the field.”

Yes. That's water. New meaning to "shallow left field". pic.twitter.com/Cvr0N2KU1a

— Brian Giesenschlag (@BGiesenschlag) August 26, 2014