The Short Version: Reds waste Scooter Gennett’s fourth grand slam of the season — and perfect relief work by the home team — and allow the Red Sox to come back for a 5-4 win.
| Final | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|
| Boston Red Sox (89-64) | 5 | 6 | 0 |
| Cincinnati Reds (66-88) | 4 | 9 | 1 |
| W: Porcello (11-17) L: Romano (5-7) S: Kimbrel (34) | |||
| FanGraphs Win Probability | Box Score | |||
The Good
–After Sal Romano escaped a first inning bases loaded, no out jam with just one run scoring, the Reds came to bat in the bottom half, down 1-0. Four batters later, the Reds had a 4-1 lead.
Billy Hamilton singled in his first at-bat since returning from the disabled list. Zack Cozart doubled off Jackie Bradley’s glove in center field, advancing Hamilton to third. Joey Votto walked on four pitches…then Scooter Gennett did what Scooter Gennett does. Grand slam.
–Cozart was 3-5. Votto singled and walked twice. Hamilton had two singles. Tucker Barnhart celebrated his new contract by getting a single and a walk.
–I don’t understand Ariel Hernandez. Another excellent performance tonight, with two perfect innings. Some nights, he looks like the best pitcher on earth. Some nights, he’s completely hittable. If he figures it out, he can really help the Reds bullpen next season.
–Asher Wojciechowski pitched two scoreless innings, allowing just one hit. You know, it’s a small sample, but his numbers as a reliever this year aren’t bad. You could look it up!
–Deck McGuire also pitched a perfect inning.
The Bad
–He’s been on a good run lately, but tonight wasn’t Romano’s best outing: five runs allowed on five hits and four walks in four innings.
Not-So-Random Thoughts
–Virginia leads Boise State 28-14 in the third quarter of an intercollegiate American football contest.
–The Reds had the tying run on base in each of the last six innings of the game.
–That was Scooter’s fourth grand slam of the season, best in the big leagues and a Reds franchise record. He’s also the first player in baseball history to have four grand slams and a four-homer game in the same season. (According to Zach Buchanan, Lou Gehrig did both, but in different seasons.)
—Votto has reached base 304 times this season, the most in MLB. His career high (and all-time club record) is 319 in 2015.
–Eight games left. Why are we still watching? Why are we still recapping these games here at redleg nation dot com. Who am I? Why am I here?
Tonight’s Tweets
The entire Reds IF is in the top 25 in the NL in wRC+ (min 400 PA):
Votto 164 (1st)
Cozart 143 (10th)
Gennett 127 (20th)
Suarez 125 (25th)— ɴɪᴄᴋ ᴋɪʀʙy (@Nicholaspkirby) September 22, 2017
Billy Hamilton is fun to watch, 10/10 would watch again
— Zach Buchanan (@ZachENQ) September 23, 2017
That last inning, when Marty shared his memories of the '75 World Series *while* calling play by play, is why he's a Hall of Famer.
— Chris Garber (@cgarber8) September 23, 2017
Todd Frazier just got hidden-ball-tricked pic.twitter.com/Ry2MN5Sodp
— Ozzie (@OzzieStern) September 22, 2017
Going for the end of the season 12 game losing streak. A third of the way there.
Todd Frazier tricked by the hidden-ball. I’m sure he’s still in shock over the child hit and seriously injured by the foul ball.
Tricked? Another verb to say he was called out.
Chad, I am still following my beloved Reds and reading every recap. Please don’t stop! You are Chad and you are here to recap games.
Haha, yes, that’s why we’re here.
I’m probably going to stop recapping games after next week. For a few months, anyway.
To Chris Garber, watching the Reds of Fox & the announcers I feel like Dizzy Dean listening to Harry Carey when Dean said “is he watching the same game I am?”. Last night whoever didn’t know what position one of the Red Sox played. Heard another say an outfielder made a catch against the wall when he wasn’t even on the warning track.
Its all about throwing strikes with two pitches for Hernandez.If he does it he will have a bunch of good outing and a rare bad one.
I hope it comes with more experience and it should.Big league hitters don’t miss cookies very often but they shouldn’t see one with two strikes.You must throw strikes to control the count but once ahead you have to do exactly what Jim T said.Good experience for Sal because the Sox aren’t the Bucs and Mets.Bob will learn something today as well but if he can control the count then his nasty stuff does look good out of his hand and often is no where close but they swing anyway to protect.You don’t blow people away you get ahead and make em chase.
It’s all about learning how to pitch. This is his first go-round against the best hitters in the world.
Here was the strike zone for Romano:
http://www.brooksbaseball.net/pfxVB/cache/location.php-pitchSel=607219&game=gid_2017_09_22_bosmlb_cinmlb_1&batterX=0&innings=yyyyyyyyy&sp_type=1&s_type=3&league=mlb&pnf=&zlpo=&cache=1.gif
About five pitches called balls that were strikes. A couple more really close. I don’t think I see a pitch call a strike that was actually a ball, so maybe a tighter zone yesterday.
Not much mystery if Price is still the manager; Billy will be leading off.
I suspect these ‘kids’ know this. It’s execution.