5 games. 5 losses. 7 runs scored. 38 strikeouts. 7 walks. Bumbling defense. General stiffness. Reds induce debilitating setback for Devin Mesoraco right before he was supposed to DH all week. Manager gets thrown out of a game for something that happened the day before.
The Griswold family had better road trips.
Box Score | FanGraphs smart stuff
Raisel Iglesias started for the Reds. If you’re looking for positives, he struck out two batters per inning. Problem is Iglesias only made it through three. He gave up two runs and deserved a little better. On back-to-back hitters, Joey Votto and Brandon Phillips failed to make routine plays on ground balls (Brantley: “crazy plays”). Either could have started a double play that would have ended the inning.
#Reds have thrown 137 pitches so far. 2 outs into the 6th.
— John Fay (@johnfayman) May 24, 2015
It was a bad day for J.J. Hoover. He began the 6th inning by committing an error on an easy ball back to the mound. On the next play, Brandon Phillips booted a “double play ball in capital letters” (M. Brennaman) coming within an eyelash of a second error. Then Votto made a diving play on a hard-hit ball and Hoover couldn’t handle the throw at first, allowing two runs to score with two outs. Meanwhile, Hoover had walked two batters.
Before today, Aroldis Chapman, the best reliever in baseball, had pitched once since May 14. Meanwhile, a pitcher the Reds plucked out of the LA Angels’ dumpster has pitched in four games. This resource allocation is the product of a system where the manager uses the best relievers when the team is ahead and the rest when the team is behind. Booya!
Marlon Byrd’s home run in the seventh inning was his only hit on the road trip.
Brennan Boesch made the last out of the road trip. Remember back in March when there were people who insisted that Boesch’s good spring validated Walt Jocketty’s offseason performance? Boesch is hitting .108/.175/.135 with a big negative defensive number relative to how few innings he’s played. Is there no player anywhere who is better and available?
Joey Votto made a few outstanding defensive plays this series. That said, his fundamentals fielding are terrible and getting worse. He doesn’t get in front of ground balls. He falls backward when he fields. He throws falling backward and below sidearm, killing his accuracy. Little League stuff. Ball in front. Step in the direction you want to throw.
Adventures in Plate Discipline Trevor Bauer, Cleveland’s starter, came into the game with the sixth highest walk rate in baseball. The Reds didn’t manage to work a single base on balls off him today.
When they close the roads, they put up big signs. Like this week.