Reds Recap: Early dingers don’t hold up in loss to Giants

The Cincinnati Reds got out to a quick start, but saw the pitching blow another lead against the San Francisco Giants this weekend.

The Offense

The game started out with the Reds having a LAUNCH PARTY, and it went much better than the one thrown by Angela in Scranton, Pennsylvania for Dunder Mifflin. Eugenio Suarez got things started with a 338 foot wall-scraper of a home run that scored Joey Votto. That gave him the team lead in home runs. It lasted for all of one pitch. Jesse Winker came to the plate and launched the next pitch of the game 400 feet into the stands in right-center to make it 3-0. That tied him with Suarez for the team lead in home runs. The next pitch of the game went to Derek Dietrich. He took it upon himself to launch that one even further than the one before it, hitting it 421 feet and way up into the seats in left to make it 4-0. He joined Winker and Suarez for the team lead with 9 home runs.

After that the bats went quiet while the Giants bats woke up. The next time a Reds batter reached base was when Nick Senzel walked with 2 outs in the 6th inning. Josh VanMeter, making his Major League debut, walked in the 7th inning, and after VanMeter stole second base, the Giants intentionally walked Joey Votto. Eugenio Suarez struck out to end the inning, though, leaving the Reds without a hit from innings 2 through 8. The only other hit in the game they would get was a 2-out home run in the bottom of the 9th by Kyle Farmer – his 5th of the season. That pulled the Reds within a run, but a ground out would end the game in another Reds loss.

The Pitching

Much like the hitting, the pitching got out to a great start. Luis Castillo was on the mound for the Reds to start the game and he was dominant early and often. The Giants didn’t have a hit until the 6th inning. But that’s when things went south, and they went south in a hurry. The first hit of the game, a single, was followed up by a walk and another single that scored a run. After a 1-out strikeout, Buster Posey came to the plate. And unfortunately he did what he seems to do to the Reds and ripped their hearts out of their chest. He took the first pitch thrown to him by Luis Castillo and hit it 400 feet into the right-center field seats to tie the game up.

The 6th inning would haunt Castillo as it accounted for the only runs he would allow on the day. He struck out 9 batters over his 7.0 innings on 4 hits and 2 walks. His ERA  jumped up to 1.97 on the season to go along with 19 walks and 59 strikeouts in 50.1 innings pitched this season.

Once Castillo left the game it was left-hander Amir Garrett who took over for the 8th. He continued to make hitters look silly as he tossed 1.1 perfect innings with 2 strikeouts. After the 1st out of the 9th inning Raisel Iglesias came on to face Buster Posey, who again did damage, with a double to left field and put the go-ahead run at second. It wouldn’t matter where he was as Brandon Crawford deposited a 1-0 pitch half-way up the seats in left to make it 6-4 Giants.

Notes Worth Noting

With the Reds wearing their 1911 throwback uniforms on the day, Derek Dietrich really got into the whole “it’s 1911” thing.

Just gonna leave these here. pic.twitter.com/z4Uq2a37KH

— Cincinnati Reds (@Reds) May 5, 2019

• Nick Senzel is the first Reds player to walk in his first three games since the 1940’s.
• Both Nick Senzel and Josh VanMeter picked up their first career steals in the game.
• Amir Garrett’s appearance makes it an even 100 Major League appearances for his career.
• Raisel Iglesias had five losses last season. He’s got five losses this season.

Up Next For the Reds

San Francisco Giants at Cincinnati Reds

Monday May 6th, 12:35pm

Drew Pomeranz (1-3, 4.08 ERA) vs Anthony DeSclafani (1-1, 3.48 ERA)