Titanic Struggle Recap: Welcome back, Sam LeCure

The Good
–Back to back homers by Joey Votto and Brandon Phillips in the first. That’s always a good thing.

–Pedro Villareal came on with runners in scoring position and one out in the fourth inning. He was asked to intentionally walk the first hitter. After a strikeout and grounder to third, Villareal had escaped the jam to keep the deficit at one run.

Villareal went on to pitch two more shutout innings, allowing two hits and striking out three. One of his better performances, and it kept the Reds in the game.

–BP was 2-3 on the evening. Eugenio Suarez had a couple of hits, including an RBI double. Suarez also had a nice at-bat with two outs in the bottom of the ninth to extend the inning and give Joey Votto a chance to win the game. Votto couldn’t deliver, but still, it was nice.

–Sam LeCure returned to the Reds tonight for the first time in 2015, and he pitched two perfect innings, the seventh and eighth. Good stuff.

The Bad
–Jason Bourgeois completely embarrassed himself tonight. The Reds loaded the bases in the fifth inning with one out, down 4-3. Jay Bruce works the count full, but pops up on the infield. Umpires promptly called the infield fly rule, but it could be worse. The Reds still had bases loaded, right?

Well, no. Either Bourgeois doesn’t understand the infield fly rule, or he was confused. Because the Royals actually let the ball drop between the pitcher and the first baseman, unintentionally. Just a brain cramp. Well, Bourgeois takes off from third and is tagged easily several feet away from home plate.

Honestly, that’s a pretty inexcusable mistake from someone who is fighting to have a big league career.

–Poor outing for Keyvius Sampson, the first bad start of his big league career, really. He only lasted three and a third, allowing four runs on nine hits and two walks. He surrendered two runs in each of the first two innings, putting the Reds behind the 8-ball from the beginning. In the end, Sampson threw 95 pitches and couldn’t escape the fourth. Ugh.

–Brandon Phillips left the game with inflammation in his right biceps tendon. That doesn’t sound pleasant.

Not-So-Random Thoughts
–The Reds set a Major League Baseball record tonight: twenty consecutive starts by rookie pitchers. Not exactly the most glorious record to hold.

–Big rain delay to start the game, more than an hour and a half. But we knew that would happen, since I’m on Recap duty tonight.

–Glad to see Sam LeCure back on the mound for the Redlegs.

–Tucker Barnhart is fun to watch behind the plate. That guy is a defensive gem.

–Sixteen games below .500. But we’ll still be watching tomorrow, won’t we?