The Short Version: Reds offense breaks out the bats in the club’s first-ever visit to Target Field in Minnesota, and the good guys come away with a comeback victory despite a horrific outing from starting pitcher Luis Castillo.
| Final | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cincinnati Reds (6-20) | 15 | 20 | 1 |
| Minnesota Twins (8-13) | 9 | 14 | 1 |
| W: Hernandez (1-0) L: Duffy (0-1) | |||
| FanGraphs Win Probability | Box Score | |||
The Good
–Down 7-3, the Reds seemed to be dead in the water. But they weren’t!
–Where to start? The offense was incredible tonight. Let’s run through the highlights, one by one:
Jose Peraza had two home runs in a 4-6 night, scoring three runs and driving in two. Peraza is now hitting .286/.311/.408, which seems impossible.
Joey Votto was, well, Joey Votto. He reached base six times: 3-3 with a homer, a double, two walks, and a hit-by-pitch. Votto is now hitting .280/.393/.430, which is much more Votto-esque.
Eugenio Suarez was 4-6 with a double, two runs scored, and an RBI.
Billy Hamilton had a triple, two walks, two runs, and an RBI.
Scooter Gennett had three hits, a walk, an RBI, and two runs scored.
Adam Duvall had two doubles, two RBI, two runs scored.
Scott Schebler had two hits, two runs, two RBI.
–After disastrous outings from Luis Castillo and Kevin Shackelford (see below), the Reds bullpen got 4.1 innings of shutout relief from David Hernandez, Amir Garrett, and Jared Hughes.
The Bad
–I wrote a piece for Cincinnati Magazine yesterday in which I did a bit of a deep dive into Luis Castillo’s early-season struggles. Things didn’t get better tonight.
Castillo got just three hitters out in his shortest-ever big league outing, surrendering five runs on six hits and two walks. His fastball was as live as ever — 97 mph — but he couldn’t control either the four-seamer or the sinker. It was ugly.
–Kevin Shackelford was not much better after he took over for Castillo. Shack gave up three runs (two earned) on four hits and a walk in 2.2 innings. Shackelford’s ERA after two outings since returning from the disabled list: 12.27.
–Another brutal play on defense for Scooter Gennett tonight. Scott Schebler threw a ball back to the infield and instead of taking the cutoff throw, as he should have, Scooter just did some kind of crazy jump-kick in an attempt to avoid the ball and let it roll back into the infield. It was really a bizarre and embarrassing play.
Not-So-Random Thoughts
–That was one wild baseball game. They looked like the same old Reds early, then the bats woke up and it turned into a slugfest. It wasn’t pretty, but the result was fun.
–Fifteen runs and twenty hits are both season highs for the Reds. I’ll have to check, but that’s probably more runs and hits than they’ve had in every other game combined. Probably.
–Tucker Barnhart was the only Reds starter without a hit, but he did collect two runs batted in, both on sacrifice flies.
–Last time the Reds won in Minnesota was 1999, if that’s the sort of thing that interests you.
–Votto’s on-base percentage before the game: .358. Votto’s OBP after the game: .393.
–I don’t want to alarm anyone, but here are the Reds team leaders in walks:
1. Joey Votto 16
2. Jesse Winker 14
3. Billy Hamilton 13
–Hernandez (who made his Reds debut tonight) and Hughes, the only actual baseball players acquired by the Reds in the off-season, were good in relief. One thing stands out to me about both of them: the movement on their pitches is insane.
Today’s Tweets
joey considered beating the crap out of this pitcher and decided against it lmao pic.twitter.com/mzFSkGyOCR
— paco (@AllaireMatt) April 28, 2018
I miss the good Luis Castillo
— Matt Wilkes (@_MattWilkes) April 28, 2018
Oh, Luis Castillo. pic.twitter.com/h9gHnLDyNp
— Redleg Nation (@redlegnation) April 28, 2018
Nick Senzel is 3-for-4 with a home run and walk tonight. Tyler Stephenson and Taylor Trammell are each 2-for-4 with doubles in the @daytonatortugas game.
*Some* good news at least. #Reds
— OnBaseMachine (@RedsFan_Brandon) April 28, 2018
If this kid doesn't get more plate appearances than any other outfielder on the Reds roster for the rest of the season, I'm going to take a hostage. https://t.co/oqvVBqdosb
— Chad Dotson (@dotsonc) April 28, 2018
Jesse Winker is 8th in the majors in OBP. The Reds have to find a way to play him everyday.
— Ryan Ritchey (@_RyanRitchey) April 28, 2018
I have no patience for the "defense" coming from the second base position.
That ball wouldn't have made it back into the dirt if he had let it go through.
— Chris Garber (@cgarber8) April 28, 2018
When you get your salsa partner back ?? pic.twitter.com/K21mttJRoE
— Cincinnati Reds (@Reds) April 28, 2018
just a reminder that jose peraza is only 23 years old
— paco (@AllaireMatt) April 28, 2018
Peraza: .286-.311-.408-.719
Cozart: .221.-.279-.368-.647#Reds— Lance McAlister (@LanceMcAlister) April 28, 2018
Cozart back to hitting like cozart
Doesn’t matter, he has a free agent contract and a donkey!
Seems like Peraza is finding his groove, more likely Sensel will replace Gennett at sometime. I’d like to know what’s wrong with Castillo. Shackelford looks too shaky for me. Go Reds!
Gennetts d is abysmal
It always has been, even before he came to Cincinnati. Last year it was somewhat negated by his offense. Even so, it seems like he is even worse this year but maybe that’s just my short memory.
I’m wanting and hoping what we are seeing from Jose Peraza is real and sustainable. Time will tell. Good comment from ThinkPitch tonight that nobody batting in front of Votto is going to get walked anyway unless the pitcher is totally wild; so, maybe that’s an ideal spot for a guy like Peraza who nearly always put the ball into play.
Another less than stellar inning from Iggy even if it was otherwise meaningless.
He is running high pitch counts and walking too many in the process so far this season. He was a big part of a 4 run Reds meltdown on Tuesday (1H; 2BB; BS). Although the Reds eventually won that game in 12 innings, the meltdown set the stage for the blown game on Wednesday and perhaps also negatively influenced the Reds pitching lineup in Thursday’s loss.
Winker should be starting
Yeah, no
I’m done with all the “kids will gave up and down nights†talk.
Enough. If you want to be competitive then you need to go out every night and actually be competitive. You either get it done or you don’t. And if you don’t, time to move on
So you want to get rid of Castillo?
As I have been saying, loudly, Jose Peraza can’t hit and Joey Votto is rapidly declining.
This is why the internet needs sarcasm font…
Yippy hoorah!!!
6 and 20. SIX AND TWENTY. That’s of course their record, The worstinf baseball. NOW he’s coming around like predicted not WHEN IT COUNTS. So the team is excusable too, just a slow starter.
Good thing they’ll have yet another top 5 in next year’s draft and Votto’s numbers will be enough for the koolaid fantasy club. Hoorah!
I believe Jose Peraza after being knocked down mentally is crawling back into something special. Maybe all the kid needed was confidence that he could do it. He is progressing well and I love how he puts the ball in play. I want a team that has a roster full of OBP’s above the league average. They are getting there.
It’s gotta be the new beard.
I think that Scooter got to thinking, “I can’t throw I better let that ball through to Joey.” But then he couldn’t get out of the way.
For the first time in years, the Reds don’t hesitate to make obvious moves. Price, Gallarado, Pennington, to name a few. One would think Gennett’s “D”, or lack-thereof, makes him a trade candidate to open up 2B. I can see it already.
I think mid-40’s for most of the game. Marty commented at one point that it was a balmy 46 and that was mid-way through.
Hernandez was impressive in relief. He gets the ball over the plate with good movement. Peraza is not a ‘work the count’ type hitter but as a hacker he’s getting it done.
Joey Votto, man. Love this guy.
“I’ve heard some comments from some people saying that they’d like to play less games, people saying they’d like to play less games and make less money…I say let’s play more, and make more money. Let’s play…I’ll play November and March, another 60 games, what do you say?”
https://www.mlb.com/gameday/reds-vs-twins/2018/04/27/529788#game_state=final,lock_state=final,game_tab=videos,game=529788
With Peraza hitting and Hamilton at the bottom of the order this is a tough lineup to navigate. Castillo must be in an early season mental meltdown; he was bound to have a tough period, hopefully it’s short-lived. But they have to get 6 innings out of Sal today, the bullpen is getting worn out.
Winker needs to start every day!