The Reds losing streak against the Mets reached thirteen games on Tuesday evening. The Reds have not beaten the Mets since 2014.
The Reds fell behind quickly as Brandon Finnegan allowed a pair of solo home runs in the second and third innings. Adam Duvall responded by hitting his 30th home run of the season in the bottom of the third. The Reds took a 3-2 lead in the fifth inning on a sacrifice fly by Joey Votto.
Yoenis Cespedes spoiled a solid start by Brandon Finnegan earlier this season by hitting a big three-run home run in a game in April. Tonight, Cespedes hit a two-run home run in the seventh inning, giving the Mets a 4-3 lead. Blake Wood allowed a home run later in the ninth, and the Reds would end up falling 5-3. The loss was number 80 for the Reds in 2016.
| Final | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cincinnati Reds (57-80) | 3 | 5 | 1 |
| New York Mets (73-66) | 5 | 8 | 1 |
| W: Smoker (2-0) L: Lorenzen (2-1) S: Familia (46) | |||
| FanGraphs Win Probability | Box Score | Game Thread | |||
Biggest Play of the Game
According to Fangraphs WPA statistic (winning percentage added), the most important play of the game was Michael Lorenzen allowing a 2-run home run to Yoenis Cespedes with 1 out in the 7th inning, giving the Mets a 4-3 lead. That play decreased the Reds chances of winning by 36.5% (from 69.2% to 32.7%).
Player of the Game
Adam Duvall: 1 for 3, 1 HR, 1 BB, 2 RBI, 0.21 WPA
Duvall hit his 30th home run of the season. It is pretty incredible that the “throw-in” piece in a trade for nine starts of Mike Leake has hit 30 bombs at the MLB level. Or is it?
Duvall has hit 53 (!) HR since the start of 2014 at AAA in only 190 games.
— ???? ????y (@Nicholaspkirby) July 31, 2015
Duvall is the sixth LF in Reds history with 30 HR, joining Adam Dunn, Greg Vaughn, George Foster, Frank Robinson and Hank Sauer (1948).
— Reds Media Relations (@RedsPR) September 7, 2016
Positives
Hernan Iribarren had a pinch-hit triple for a second consecutive day! Our own Jason Linden wrote a cool story about Iribarren from his time around the Bats this season.
Hernan Iribarren is the first player to have PH 3B in consecutive games since Scott Cousins of the Marlins on 9/24-9/25/2010.
— Joel Luckhaupt (@jluckhaupt) September 7, 2016
Joey Votto had a hit and a sacrifice fly.
Raisel Iglesias pitched a perfect 8th inning with a strikeout.
I guess this goes in the positives……What happened to Jay Bruce‘s arm? He made a really poor throw on a Votto sacrifice fly in the 5th inning, resulting in the Reds taking a 3-2 lead.
Negatives
Rough night for Michael Lorenzen. He has been great for the Reds in the pen this year, but he got smoked by the mighty Yoenis Cespedes tonight.
Jose Peraza was 0 for 4 with 2 strikeouts.
The second pitch Blake Wood threw ended up in the seats.
Meh
I had to make a separate category for Brandon Finnegan. Looking at the surface, 2 ER in 5.0 innings is pretty solid. Looking at the peripherals, not so much: 2 HR, 4 BB, 6 K, 8.35 FIP. Both of the home runs were solo shots, so that is the best way to give up home runs. He is however very lucky those home runs didn’t happen when one of his four walks were on base. Still, it is nice to see Finnegan finishing the season with success. He has allowed 3 ER or less in 10 of his last 11 starts.
Not so random thoughts…………….
Kudos to the Reds for not wasting service time on Jesse Winker, Amir Garrett, and Dilson Herrera. ICYMI, Dick Williams basically confirmed that those guys will not get called up. There is no reason to call up Winker and Herrera when the Reds already want to get looks at Scott Schebler and Jose Peraza. There is also no reason to rush Garrett like Reed either.
Up Next:
Mets at Reds
Wednesday, 12:35 PM
TV: None; Radio: 700 WLW
Anthony DeSclafani (2.93 ERA) vs Noah Syndergaard (2.56 ERA)
All photographs used courtesy of the Cincinnati Enquirer and Kareem Elgazzar, and are used by persmission. All statistics are used courtesy of Fangraphs, Baseball-Reference, and ESPN Stats & Info.