Titanic Struggle Recap: A quintessential Cincinnati Reds loss

The Good
–Joey Votto collected three hits in five at-bats, including a game-tying homer in the top of the ninth inning. Joey Votto is a good baseball player.

–All in all, not a bad outing by Anthony DeSclafani. Seven innings, three runs allowed on seven hits. I’ll take that.

–Tucker Barnhart reached all four times he went to the plate: 1-1 with three walks. Good stuff.

–Reds had five doubles and a triple on the night: Brandon Phillips, Todd Frazier, Ivan DeJesus, Jr., Jay Bruce, and Skip Schumaker had the doubles. Marlon Byrd hit his second triple of the season.

–DeJesus’ double was of the two-run variety.

The Bad
–Reds lose on a Ryan Mattheus wild pitch in the bottom of the ninth. A walkoff wild pitch. That’s just perfect. Without Aroldis Chapman throwing a pitch, as Chris noted.

–JJ Hoover surrendered a Carlos Gonzalez homer with one out in the bottom of the eighth that permitted the Rockies to tie the game at 4. Next batter: Nolan Arenado tripled, and scored later in the inning on a sacrifice fly. Not good, Hoover. Not good.*

*Hoover needs to thank Votto for the fact that he didn’t get hung with a loss tonight.

–Billy Hamilton couldn’t get a squeeze bunt down in the 8th, and the Reds gave up a great opportunity to extend their lead. Hamilton was 0-4 on the night. Sigh….

Not-So-Random Thoughts
–Just say that again, slowly: our Redlegs lost on a walkoff wild pitch. After leading the game by a run going into the bottom of the eighth. Classic Reds.

–Joey Votto has had four straight multi-hit games, and six in the eight games since the All-Star break. Is that good? It seems good. He’s now hitting .302/.416/.522. He has a higher OPS than everyone’s hero Todd Frazier.

–The Redlegs have lost three one-run games in four outings against the Rockies this year. I don’t know what that means, but it’s interesting.

Hoover needs to get it together. We don’t need Walt/Bob having closer anxiety.

— Chris Garber (@cgarber8) July 25, 2015

–CarGo hit two homers, which is good for my fantasy team, but not good for my Redlegs. (Votto helped my fantasy team, too, though.)

–Does anyone else think it’s a bad sign that Skip Schumaker has as many doubles as Brandon Phillips this year? BP’s power has disappeared.

–The Cincinnati Reds National League Baseball Club makes me sad sometimes. Go Reds.