The Short Version: Reds jump out to an early lead thanks to Joey Votto and Scooter Gennett, but it is short-lived as the Rockies win going away.
| Final | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cincinnati Reds (19-35) | 2 | 9 | 0 |
| Colorado Rockies (28-25) | 8 | 14 | 0 |
| W: Marquez (4-5) L: Harvey (1-3) | |||
| FanGraphs Win Probability | Box Score | |||
The Good
–After going 5 for 5 yesterday, the legend Scooter Gennett doubled and singled in his first two at-bats today. That was seven straight hits at that point, but that’s when the slump began: Scooter struck out twice in his final two plate appearances.
–Joey Votto singled, doubled, walked, and scored a run in the first inning. Jose Peraza was 2-4. Jesse Winker walked twice in the leadoff spot.
–Jackson Stephens struck out two in a perfect inning of relief.
The Bad
–Going to have to put this one in the bad column, as it was Matt Harvey’s first loss with Cincinnati. Harvey allowed three runs in the bottom of the first — on one of the longest home runs you’re ever likely to see, from Colorado’s Carlos Gonzalez. The Reds never really competed after that, but he actually settled down nicely. Harvey’s final line: 5.1 IP, 4 runs allowed on 9 hits and 2 walks, 4 strikeouts.
–They were down 8-2 in the eighth inning, but the Reds had an opportunity to get back into the game. Winker led off the frame with a walk. Tucker Barnhart followed with a single, and Votto walked to load bases with no outs. The Reds were in business, right?
Not quite. Gennett struck out swinging and Eugenio Suarez grounded into a double play. Inning over.
Not-So-Random Thoughts
–L-W-L-W-L-W-L. One after the other. Maybe the Reds are a perfectly .500 team at this point.
–The last Reds player to collect hits in seven consecutive at bats was the immortal Arismendy Alcantara last season.
–Not much else to say about this one. The Reds head out to Arizona next for a three game series that begins tomorrow afternoon. Homer Bailey will pitch for the good guys.
I would have never guessed Alcantara had 7 consecutive hits last season.
Really? I hope your scooter comments are in jest..
So players can’t have bad games? Players go through streaks all season to judge him off of one game or think he won’t dip to me is just foolish. But then again I don’t buy into the stat view of the game as much as others here. I enjoy watching and don’t worry what a player does day to day.
Or maybe some fans expectations are a bit to high?
A little higher than Gallardo. I don’t mind if Romano is a miss as a quality sp, or Stephenson, or Finnegan, or Reed. But bottom-feeding I can do without.
When was the last time this franchise had quality leadership from owner to GM to scouts to coaches and manager? Outside of 2010-2013 this franchise hasn’t had quality since the 70’s in all those positions at the same time. If you don’t have it there then your only chance of winning is dumb luck which is what happened in 2010-2013.
While still in the trade Scooter camp, I’d love to see him in left to see if he could be passable out there. Bring up Dilson Herrera and get Senzel a look at left in Louisville.
Hey, Scooter Gennett is tied for #1 in BA in the NL. Let another team move him to the outfield if they want. He’s still the best 2nd baseman the Reds have. No contest.
A stinker of a game for sure and enough blame to go around.I am all for the young guys pitching because we need to know about them but we weren’t even in the game offensively at all against well a pitcher that is really bad especially at home.Our offense is really inconsistent and will remain that way I am afraid as long as Peraza and Billy play most of the games.Their stats tell us they are bench players at best.Winker for sure and Schebler by default must play every day in left and right.Try outs begin tomorrow for centerfield.Call up whomever we have at AAA or AA and ley them have at it.Peraza has until the break to prove he can get on base via the walk and raise his obp up to league average and if he can’t then he gets sent down and the audtions for the short stop begin.Start with Blandino and go from there.While I once was satisfied with just finding out about our young starters this year I am becoming just tired of trying to compete with two of the worst offensive players in he league night after night.It puts too much pressure on the other guys not to mention the young pitchers.We were a foot of losing all 3 games against 3 pitchers that wouldn’t even start on our team.
You’re kidding right?
Winder doesn’t deserve anything. He has to earn it and that’s not happening at the moment.
He had a decent April (.307 batting average & .411 obp) and he’s 4-15 in his last 4 starts with a HR, 3 runs scored, and 4 walks (.421 obp). He’s played the least of the 4 OFers in the rotation since Schebler came back. It should be painfully obvious by now that the Reds don’t know what a rebuild looks like because he should be getting the most atbats of any of the 4…or atleast more then Duvall and Billy. I’d leave him at leadoff and play atleast half the time vs lefties too. Why not? Schebler isn’t doing anything much and Duvall/Billy have been horrible offensively.
I am guessing this team will tread water until the deadline at which time a couple of reasonably large trades should go down. I think that is why Duvall and Hamilton will get run out there as starters 2 out of 3 games at least, because you hope they catch fire or build up some trade value. Billy especially could be useful as a runner and defensive switch, but it would be nice if he could raise the average to a more respectable level. Not expecting an kind of haul for him but he could be bundled with centerpiece Iglesias, who, if he is healthy, is the best chip they’ve got and lets pray they get decent return for him since he has a few years of cost effective control. Of course, another part of me, wants to keep Iglesias and try the experiment of using him in the first inning every other game. Riggelman today said a lot of starting pitchers struggle in the first inning, they are facing the top of the lineup as engineered for max. run production. I think Tampa Bay is on to something with the relievers opening the game when your starters are suspect as ours are. Let them warm up an extra inning in the meantime. But I don’t expect that kind of innovation so trade Iglesias while his stock is high and hopefully get a top prospect or a group of very good prospects.
As far as the Tampa experiment goes….Romo is really experienced though and very rough on righties. I doubt they would throw him out there vs Winker, Scooter, and Joey….but it is kind of ingenius in a way! Slow starters like Homer might get a shot at the 8th hitter or the pitcher if they allow a few guys on base in the 2nd inning.
Overall….I’d really try to copy what Milwaukee is doing! Their offense was actually subpar last year but Shaw was a good pickup and they added Yelich & Cain this year. Everyone on RLN wanted Yelich but I started calling for Cain as well last year. He may not be worth his salary in 3-4 years but a .396 obp and .849 ops isn’t bad…plus he’s a world champion and can lead by example! The Reds need to step up and get a quality RH hitting veteran somewhere?
Their calling card is really their pen though! Hughes is a sinkerball guy so he could possibly keep going past 33 years old for a few years and Rainey has unbelievable stuff. They could leave Garrett in the pen and then maybe find 1 guy like Milw did with Jeffress. If they pulled that off then they could trade Iggy and move Lorenzen into the rotation and still have a dominant pen….and with potentially a better rotation then Milwaukee’s. They’re never going to be able to hang with the Cubs with big free agents.
I was throwing Cain’s name out there,,, but then I realized how bad out starting pitching was and thought we should go for Arrieta… but I think we have all seen this team is more than 1 big name away. I think you could have signed two all star free agents and this team would still fall short of playoffs. The Bailey contract is an albatross and Meso’s adds to the burden. They are trying to ride those out and then will make another splash, in the meantime the sorting continues. I agree the pen looks like a strength for once, very refreshing, the Hughes signing was easily the best move of the off season. But almost completely negated by the Gallardo fiasco and slow start. The team has been doomed from week 2 on.
How bout get a real starter for the rotation.Prospects are just that,prospects.We have 2 supposed cant miss prospects and as of now they are missing.Houston needs a closer like oxygen.Why not put billy and iggy together and get a Lance McCullers to fit it now.Losing has gotten really tired.
Losing is tiring when you keep playing the same guys that continue to do the same things over and over and expect them to change.
Thats hindsight.No other team did either.Cant blame them for not seeing that one.Lots of other things to blame them for though.