Toto, we aren’t in St. Louis any more.
The Reds offense had scored four runs in four games. Tonight, they matched that in the sixth inning and added more on way to a 6-1 win over the Milwaukee Brewers, snapping a four-game losing streak /waves tiny Reds pennant/.
MLB Box Score | FanGraphs Game Log
The Good The fateful sixth began with a single by Joey Votto who was leading off. Todd Frazier followed with a walk. Jay Bruce, ignoring Marty Brennaman’s suggestion that he sacrifice his out with a bunt, singled sharply to center. After Brewers’ pitcher Wily Peralta recorded an out (more on that below), catcher Brayan Peña hit a sacrifice fly to deep center field, scoring Votto. It looked like the Brewers might escape giving up just one run until Zack Cozart homered to deep left field, knocking in three runs to make the score 4-0.
Joey Votto blasted homer #5 *over* the Brewers bullpen in left-center field, driving in Billy Hamilton who was on third after tripling to right field. 6-0 Reds. Try this on for size .375/.492/.771. Come on man.
Todd Frazier had a hit and a walk. Brayan Peña had a hit, two walks and the sac fly.
Anthony DeSclafani is making it easy to forget the player for whom he was traded. Fewer tats, fewer runs and no backstabbing. DeSclafani has given up two runs in 21 innings. The guy in Florida gave up 7 in his first inning of the season. Ha ha. DeSclafani pitched eight brilliant innings, giving up one walk and two hits, while striking out five. He continued to induce ground ball outs, with a 50 percent ground ball rate. He threw 15 shutout innings on this road trip.
Kevin Michell wrote here last week: It’s looking like Anthony DeSclafani has a better feel for his entire repertoire than he ever has in his professional career. Having confidence in four different pitches (three of which he’s throwing over 20% of the time) goes a long to allay fears about his ability to stick in the rotation.
Fireworks on the road! Bryan Price lost it before the game. My hunch is this may get mentioned more tomorrow. Wonder if there will be a televised post-game interview.
Clearly, Bryan Price expects Cincinnati media to serve the interests of the team, rather than report on them. http://t.co/GXQyWWW9V5
— Chad Dotson (@dotsonc) April 21, 2015
The Bad [I had a fairly rough paragraph written about Marlon Byrd that included the words killing the Reds, but to celebrate snapping the losing streak, we’ll just let it go for now.] [I also wanted to write about Burke Badenhop giving up a home run in the ninth, blowing the shutout, but not tonight.] [And one could draw the connection between Byrd and Badenhop and point out they were two of Walt Jocketty’s key offseason acquisitions, but so was Anthony DeSclafani, so Jocketty gets an evening pass.]