Titanic Struggle Recap: Insert lame football reference here

The Good
–Joey Votto hit his ninth home run. That’s three homers in his last five games. Fingers crossed; it appears that Votto is finally heating up.

–Jay Bruce doubled in the first inning, then went back-to-back with Votto in the sixth. That was Bruce’s tenth home run of the season, and it was a 452-foot bomb. He followed that up with an 8th inning triple. It was a 3-4 night with 2 RBI, just a mere single away from the cycle.

Don’t look now, but Bruce is hitting .272/.323/.549 on the season, with 10 homers and 33 RBI; that’s roughly a pace for 31 home runs and 100 RBI. His wOBA is .365, and his wRC+ is 126. I’ll take that.

–On Gerardo Parra’s first inning double, Billy Hamilton ran the ball down in the gap and prevented what would have otherwise been a triple. Billy is fast.

The Bad
–Good to see Jon Moscot back. Not good to see him give up a homer and a double and another homer within his first six pitches of the ballgame. Later in the inning, he allowed two more doubles and a single. The score after one inning: 5-0 Rockies.

Then, in the second, Colorado hit two more home runs off Moscot. Score: 7-0. Within the first two innings, each of the Rockies’ first four hitters in the lineup had all homered.

In the third, Moscot was clipped on the right ear with a pitch as he was attempting to lay down a bunt. It just wasn’t that kid’s night. He was removed before the bottom of the third inning after allowing 7 runs on 8 hits in just those two innings pitched.

–Down 7-0 in the third, the Reds loaded the bases with no outs, opening up an opportunity to get back into the ballgame. Unfortunately, they were only able to come away with one run, on a Hamilton walk. Joey Votto and Adam Duvall each struck out, and Jay Bruce grounded out to second.

–Daniel Wright took over for Moscot in the bottom half of the third inning and, just like Moscot, he gave up a home run to the first hitter he faced. In three and a third, Wright allowed four runs on eight hits.

–Dayan Diaz took the mound next, and he had no more luck. In two-thirds of an inning, Diaz walked four, gave up two hits, and allowed five runs, including a grand slam to Charlie Blackmon.

–AJ Morris relieved Diaz. Morris walked the first hitter and gave up a double to the second. He did only surrender one run in two innings, so that’s about as good as we could hope for.

Not-So-Random Thoughts
–By the seventh inning, the Rockies had already broken a team record with 13 extra base hits. They hit more home runs in the first seven innings than the Braves hit during the entire month of April.

–Brandon Phillips was scratched from the lineup just before game time with what was described as a “left ankle/foot injury.” Jordan Pacheco took his spot.

–Well, friends…that was just awful.

Milton was unhappy with Cincinnati’s performance tonight.