The Reds offense got off to a great start on Wednesday night when they collected three straight hits off Mike Soroka to start the game. The Reds were only able to scratch across one run in that inning and two more hits the rest of the night. Tanner Roark battled through five innings, but a Yasiel Puig error gave the Braves the lead in the fifth inning. They would go on to win 3-1.
| Final | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|
| Atlanta Braves (12-11) | 3 | 8 | 0 |
| Cincinnati Reds (9-14) | 1 | 5 | 1 |
| W: Soroko (1-1) L: Roark (1-1) S: Minter (3) | |||
| FanGraphs Win Probability | Statcast | 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 Yasiel Puig’s error on a single by Nick Markakis off Tanner Roark. Runner from first base scored, Markakis to third base with 1 out. That play decreased the Reds chances of winning by 19.2% (from 37.1% to 30.5%).
Positives
Jesse Winker had two hits, including an RBI single in the first inning.
Joey Votto lead the game off with a walk and had 2 walks on the evening. I really like him in the leadoff spot. Opposing pitchers having to face that tough of an out right away is nice.
Amir Garrett pitched two, no-hitting innings in relief.
Meh
Tanner Roark gave up a home run on the first pitch of the game to Ozzie Albies. Roark survived the night despite 3 walks and a HBP thanks in part to some good luck. Roark had two lineouts against him that had expected batting averages of .920 and .680. Roark’s final line looked decent: 5.0 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 3 BB, 4 K. Roark’s FIP on the night did not look so good: 6.52
Negatives
The Reds offense got off to a great start with three straight hits, but only mustered 5 for the entire night and just 1 run. This was the 6th time this season that the Reds have score 1 run or less.
Yasiel Puig had a brutal misplay in the 5th inning. He came charging too hard for a ball and let what should be a single (runners on first and second) be a run scoring triple.
That works.#ChopOn pic.twitter.com/Shu8hlxo19
— Atlanta Braves (@Braves) April 25, 2019
Robert Stephenson walked the leadoff batter he faced in the 9th inning, leading to a big insurance run when he gave up a double to Ozzie Albies.
Not so random thoughts……..
One really cool moment in tonight’s game came after the top of the 5th. Tanner Roark went up to Yasiel Puig as the two players were entering the dugout and was clearly trying to encourage Puig after his error.
Scott Schebler had a brutal break in the bottom of the 6th. He pinch-hit with the bases loaded and hit a lineout to Freeman. The exit velocity was 102.7 and the expected batting average was .420. What a tough break for Scott.
Up Next:
Reds vs Braves
Thursday, 6:40 PM
TV: FOX Sports Ohio
Luis Castillo (1.47 ERA) vs Julio Teheran (5.61 ERA)
Since the west coast and now Atlanta watching all these young 21, 22, 23 year olds holding their own (for the most part) against the Reds makes you wonder ?. What the hey is going on down there in Reds farmland? All these years of stinking and our best prospects are all “still a couple years off”. Huh? Thom brought this up and Chris says, “well, the Reds are conservative”…yada yada. Maybe all these teams have better talent scouts? Bad luck? Who knows? Reds got one guy, Senzel and he’s ready, he’s not, maybe…when he learns a new position.
I’d rather watch Senzel have to learn on the job like Tatis Jr. than watch Schebler strike out 4 times a night…it would at least be something, the future…
Frustrating to see that acuna is same age as Trammell with similar minor league numbers. Yet Taylor is stuck at AA while we’re running Schebler out there to swing with his eyes closed.
@T Bone: yep, and by attempting to make Senzel a CF, aren’t you in turn now blocking your best natural CF in Trammell? ? Can someone explain this logic?
Ronald Acuna Jr and Taylor Trammell do not have anything remotely close to similar minor league numbers. They are the same age. Taylor Trammell hit .posted a .781 OPS last year in Advanced-A. A year younger than that, Ronald Acuna Jr hit .325/.374/.522 between Advanced-A, Double-A, and Triple-A, getting significantly more playing time in Double-A and Triple-A than he had in Advanced-A. I’m a big Taylor Trammell fan, both as a person and as a baseball player. He shouldn’t be compared to Ronald Acuna.
i’m admittedly not a close follower of minor leagues, but Acuna didn’t really break out until he got to AA. Before that he wasn’t even in the Braves’ top 10 prospects. TT seems to be having a similar AA breakout (albeit in only 70 PA) . It would make sense for him to be a year behind Acuna based on when he was drafted, but not 2+ years behind, as he is currently.
Acuna was the Braves #6 prospect after the 2016 season when he barely played in A-ball as an 18-year-old. And he started to break out in Advanced-A, the league just hides it because it’s so pitcher friendly. That season the FSL had an OPS of .680. His was .818 before he was promoted.
That’s a very interesting comment. It makes me remember the last impact player drafted & developed by the Reds I think was Jay Bruce, that hit the majors back in 2008. That’s a dreadful decade of a number of failed prospects and trades, including the likes of Stephenson, Romano, Reed, Finnegan, Lamb, all the forgettable guys that came in exchange for Aroldis Chapman, etc. Now the hope is on Winker, Senzel, Greene, India or Trammel to take over, but still the future doesn’t look as bright as in Atlanta or San Diego that already have promoted players like Acuna and Tatis Jr.
@Scott
Great question about impactful guys and after Bruce you had Stubbs, Mesoraco, Frazier, and Leake. Hopefully Winker is the next one from 2012.
Many of the very young stars in MLB are Latin Americans: Acuna, Albies, Robles, Soto, Tatis Jr, VG Jr (debuting tonight).
The amateur development systems in the Latin countries are different than in the US, with its soul-crushing travel ball. The Latin systems seem to be better at producing young hitters.
Meanwhile, the Reds are MLB’s most hapless and most inept at signing and developing Latin American hitters. To me, it is the franchise’s biggest deficiency, one that has festered for 50 years. It is the functional equivalent of not scouting California.
50 years, huh? Three of the Great Eight from the BRM days were Latin American. Today’s roster is about 1/3 Latin American.
On paper the Reds should match up well vs Teheran tomorrow but that doesn’t mean they will hit. Been 5 weeks of baseball and this offense still struggling. I like what I’m seeing from Winker though looks like he’s heating up. As for Schebler he’s probably going to the minors once Senzel is ready.
Votto walking a lot more now. Possible harbinger that he is getting zeroed in?
After season’s first month it’s clear that it doesn’t make much sense to maintain players like Kemp, Schebler. Duke or Hughes in the roster, they’re just stealing playing time from younger guys that should be in the majors already to prove themselves. Ervin is already up replacing Kemp, so that’s one less, next should be Senzel replacing Schebler. There’re also a few candidates having quite good numbers in AAA as well, like Sims, Bowman and Bass, that should easily replace them.
How bout Ian Krol instead of Puke,I mean Duke?
Statcast reportedly showed that Winker had 5.9 seconds to run 108 feet 36 yards) for that ball. That Winker is incapable of running a 6.0 40-yard dash tells you all you need to know about his defensive future. If you can’t outrun Garo Yepremian, you can’t play outfield in the major league. Winker is a first baseman in real life. We know what can of worms that fact opens for the franchise.
They apparently shifted him to left center, based on spray charts. I believe that teams read too much into spray charts and shift too much in the outfield.
It would seem that he more things change, the more they stay the same (at least when it comes to offense). This is going to be like the last few years. At the end of the season, they will probably end up in the upper tier of total scoring, but this will be a rouse because they will score in spurts during some games, but get nothing in many others… The Braves young pitcher last night was consistently hanging his off speed pitches, yet the Reds batters looked clueless and were swinging and missing what was right there for a bomb! I see other teams crushing those type of pitches when our guys throw them.
No we wouldn’t be at .500 and I agree, no thanks. The Reds OF defense was known to be marginal at best this year and unfortunately, marginal is proving to be where it’s at. On top of that, most of them aren’t hitting, although I still think that will change.
I sure hope we will! Let’s see if we can get this offense going. Boy oh boy I sure hope we can!!
1. The Braves are way more athletic (and aggressive) than the Reds. They turned a double into a triple on a grounder into the left-field corner, because the Reds LF isn’t quick enough to prevent it. Several times the Braves took extra bases, or the Reds did not do so. The speed and energy of the Braves’ offense is missing from the Reds.
2. The single worst play last night was in the bottom of the 7th, with the Reds down 2-1. Votto had walked, and Suarez was facing Luke Jackson, a 27-year-old who in limited duty with the Braves over 2018-19 had averaged about 4.5 BB/9. Saurez hooked the first pitch (a slider) into a 5-4-3 DP. Suarez needed a much better AB than he gave there.
Exactly! The Reds hitter’s insistence on swinging at the first pitch immediately following a walk is mind-blowing. Schebler did it too in his at-bat and I’ve noticed it all season. It seems like they’re going up there with zero regard for what just happened in the AB before them. Not to mention, they’re swinging at first pitches in every other AB at a very high rate.
The only games televised where I am are when our guys play Atlanta, so I have been glad to see this series. Roark did not impress: poor control of the breaking pitches, many bad misses, and the fast ball did not look confident. It seemed like Atlanta had 2+ runners on base every inning, yet the only earned run was the one served on a tee to start the game . . . so good battling.
Glad to see Barnhart working to frame pitches . . . much better job in game two than in game one. Keep working on it.
Soroka impressed me after he settled down following the first inning. After our first three base runners in the first, our guys at the plate were overly aggressive and chased many pitches well out of the zone to bail him out of trouble. Can’t help but wonder how things would have gone if they had shown better plate discipline and put up 3 in the first.
I have wondered why they were not playing the “no doubles” position as well.
I have asked that question frequently lately.
Also curious as to why winker/kemp are playing left center rather than more towards the line by so much.Winker had a huge run towards the line on that critical pop fly that dropped in and created a big inning the other night