Entering tonight’s game, the Cubs had outscored the Reds 24 to 1 this series.  Tonight, the Cubs underscored the Reds 5 to 13.
| Box Score | FanGraphs Winning Percentage |
The Good
Bear with me.  The previous two nights haven’t been fun, so I’m going to write a lot about the good stuff tonight.
Brandon Phillips blistered a double into the left-center field gap which StatCast registered at 105 mph.  On the play, Phillips drove in the Reds 2nd run and was thrown out at 3rd base by Yasiel Puig from RF in Colorado.  Phillips has been hitting the ball hard this year. Harder than this fan expected.  If he can continue this contact quality a few singles will become doubles and he might provide decent production out of the 4-hole.
Zack Cozart had 2 more hits tonight, including a double.  On the season, he’s hitting .380/.377/.560 with a 144 wRC+.  Enjoy the hotness while you can!
Eugenio Suarez, who has been in as bad a slump as anyone lately, homered in the 6th inning off John Lackey to give the Reds a 5-3 lead.  For the season, Suarez is sitting on a slash line of .303/.361/.545 and is on pace for 45 home runs.  Nothing about Suarez’s start to 2016 seems all that unsustainable to me.  He won’t hit 45 home runs, but 22-25 HR with a .270 AVG seems like a lock.
Joey Votto had his first multi-hit game since April 11th at Wrigley Field.  One of those hits was a majestic home run to right-center field.  Perhaps this is the beginning of the Ferrari’s first lap.
Adam Duvall homered in the 6th after a walk by Jay Bruce and an opposite-field single by Devin Mesoraco.  The homer gave the Reds an 8-3 lead. This was your “game winning” hit, since the Cubs ended up with 5 runs. On the year, Duvall is batting .273/.333/.545 and is playing Gold Glove caliber defense in LF.  He’s not a young player at 27, but he’s young enough to be a contributor on the next good Reds team.
Scott Schebler, who has been fairly bad this year, hit his first home run as a Cincinnati Red. Hopefully the first of many. Congrats to him.
The Bad
The bullpen wasn’t great, but they were much better than we’ve grown accustomed to. Caleb Cotham, who had not given up a run before today, gave up two runs in the 7th and threatened to give up more in the dreaded 8th.  He was lifted with 2 runners on base in favor of Tony Cingrani, who promptly walked Jason Heyward to load the bases.  A fantastic pick by Suarez at third on a demolished Kris Bryant ground ball saved at least 2 runs.
The Reds made 2 outs on the base paths tonight.  Seems like a nightly occurrence.
Other Very Random Thoughts
Dan Straily went 4 2/3 innings and gave up 3 runs on 4 hits and 3 walks, while striking out 5.  Around these parts lately, that isn’t too bad.  The Cubs lineup is patient and drove up Straily’s pitch count quite quickly.  He was removed with 97 pitches.
After breaking his 0-19 streak last night, Joey Votto is the proud owner of a 2-game hitting streak.
Votto is 0-15 on ground balls to the right side this year.  Many of those have been swiftly struck.
Caleb Cotham gave up his first runs of the season tonight. He has a 1.86 ERA, 3.34 FIP, and 5.21 xFIP.
Tony Cingrani leads the majors in OBP (Min. PA: 1)
Tyler Holt looks like a very useful 4th outfielder to this Reds fan.
Adam Duvall and Adam Dunn share the first 6 letters of their names.  I think there is something to this…
Home Run Exit Velocities via StatCast
Addison Russell, 107 mph
Joey Votto, 106 mph
Eugenio Suarez, 106 mph
Scott Schebler, 101 mph
Adam Duvall, 100 mph
Tomorrow’s Game
Enjoy tonight’s win while you can.  Alfredo Simon is pitching for the Redlegs tomorrow at 1:10PM and then the Reds head to New York to face Noah Syndergaard on Monday.