The Cincinnati Reds (48-55) win their second series, in a row, as they slipped by the Colorado Rockies (49-57) by a score of 3-2 at Great American Ballpark, Sunday afternoon. Nice to see the Reds’s stance solidify heading into the trade deadline.
The renaissance of Tucker Barnhart continued as he did not make an out and led the Reds lineup, in the victory. He was 3-for-3 with a double, the RBIs, and a walk. His seeing-eye ground ball up the middle, on a 2-2 pitch, in the bottom of the sixth, scored Josh VanMeter and gave the Reds the lead for good.
.@Reds up 3-2 thanks to @Tucker_Barnhart
RBI single up the middle for his third hit of the day.
Watch @Reds ?? on FOX Sports GO:https://t.co/AJA83QJkeW pic.twitter.com/opYHb5JUAG
— FOX Sports Ohio (@FOXSportsOH) July 28, 2019
Since Barnhart’s return from a month-long stint on the IL, he is 5-for-6 and has increased his batting average by 43 points.
His battery mate, Alex Wood, made his 2019 debut with a no decision. He tossed 4.2 innings keeping the scoreboard relatively clean, even if the base-paths weren’t. The Rockies got seven hits and a walk off of Wood in his first appearance in a game since September 29, 2018, and his first start since September 10, 2018. The lefty did manage four strikeouts as he looks to prove he can deal after missing almost two-thirds of the season.
The only other Reds run that did not involve Barnhart came in the bottom of the second when Jose Iglesias hit, quite possibly, the softest hit RBIS of the year. Iglesias nudged the ball over the head of the pitcher, Peter Lambert, and forced the second baseman, Ryan McMahon, to try and make a spectacular play. He did not and VanMeter scored easily from third.
HOT POTATO! @Reds up 1-0 in the ?2??
Watch Reds ?? on FOX Sports GO:https://t.co/AJA83QJkeW pic.twitter.com/ARDIaH5vSd
— FOX Sports Ohio (@FOXSportsOH) July 28, 2019
Speaking of VanMeter, he was 1-for-2 with those two runs scored and a pair of walks. Dude is batting .319, in 69 at-bats, with a .970 OPS. He continues to build a decent case for everyday playing time.
With the win, the Reds are now a solid three games ahead of the Pirates. Also, guess who’s coming to town? Pittsburgh comes to Cincinnati for a three-game set, starting tomorrow.
Also, happy birthday to the Hall of Famer, Marty Brenneman!
And this birthday belongs to Marty! Happy 77th to the Hall of Famer! ? pic.twitter.com/a2bYmRxUDR
— Cincinnati Reds (@Reds) July 28, 2019
I just want to say this right now. If Pittsburgh nails Suarez again this series, it is time for fisticuffs period. They obviously targeted him two years in a row as our most dangerous hitter. After the beaning this year Suarez was in a funk for weeks, so I am sure they look at that and go yea its effective let’s do it again. The only way to stop it is to punish them severely for trying again. Suarez is our core player from the offesnive standpoint we cannot allow other teams to hit him on the hands or even dare to go inside, it must be responded to aggressively and right away so they get the message we ain’t playing around here.
Enough to get the Reds FO interested in offering a team friendly contract that Wood might have a hard time finding elsewhere with his injury history.
Puig is hitting .322 with .936 ops over the last 30 days….yeah he’s terrible. Yeah his D is terrible….lets get rid of him so Winker can patrol the OF everyday.
I’d slow my roll on Alex Wood if it was up to me. I had him in 2017 in fantasy baseball and watched him several times. He was throwing 93-94 mph. Today he topped out at 90. Velocity isn’t everything, but his velocity was down last year too. I doubt anyone wants to trade for him so they’ll get to look at him down the stretch. Time will tell. He does know how to pitch!
I’m also backing away from my petition to get Lorenzen in the rotation. Wayyyyy too many walks and pitching behind in the count. If they trade Roark (and they should) then maybe Sims or Stephenson?
For the 2019 optomists, with 59 games to go the reds need to go 39-20 to get to 87 wins which is probably what will be needed for playoffs.
They need to win 2 of 3 for rest of season.
Wishing this happens but probably not.
Puig has had his hot 6 weeks this season and now is the time to trade the year long rental from dodger trade.
Same for Roark, SS Iglesias and gennett if there are takers for any of them.
Think of whatever is returned for Puig as if they tradedHomer for those players.
Think of the trade for the others as Free Agent signings or waiver wire pickups.
Let the young players play and they could surprise. The veterans have proven for 100 games that the reds are a 7 game under 500 team with them so I do not understand theory of fan revolt for trying some new players. If they are worse team knows what to do for 2020 or the younger guys may just not know they should play under 500 baseball and win a lot in last 60 games.
100 games is a large enough sample size for this fan.
Agree with your “Wishing this happens but probably not”.
More likely and achievable for this team would be 33 wins and 26 losses. That would be a 0.500 team at 81-81: improvement and not another 90 loss season.
This is without any trade moves.
IMHO.
Well if you want to look at career stats then Puig’s career obp is .347. He was clearly trying to do too much in April/May and swinging at everything. Nobody said he’s a great ballplayer, but once he takes his walks then he can be .840 ops type of player. His arm plays huge in gabp! Defensive metrics are insane….they said Duvall was bad, but he never missed a ball and tied for the NL lead in assists. Puig also has potential to be a .900+ ops guy. The talent is there! Aquino? Maybe…..but that seems like a leap to me.
With the flick of his wrist Alex Wood reminds me of Ewell Blackwell, although he’s not a sidearm pitcher. if he stays healthy and the Reds extend him, he could be a real positive for the starting pitching staff.
The Reds have real conundrum with the 25 man/40 man going forward. If I asked any of you on this site without looking. Who is the “youngest” infielder on the 40 man? Would you be right? Probably not. Is it Blandino? Is it Trajan? No. No. Answer. Peraza. Think about that for a sec. Kyle Farmer is your #2 catcher. Think about that.
This team has something they have never had for the last 10 years. They have 7 legit MLB starters. Yes 7. I still think Roark will be traded. If not, even if. Why not go to a 6 man rotation? Obviously they are limiting innings. Yes there are 6. On top of that. Why keep Hughes/Hernandez? Why not give those innings to Herget/Romano? It makes no sense. They are out of it. Cut ties/$$. Play the kids.
Good analysis CI3J.
One question, if they resign Scooter then JVM sits and I think he should be playing 2nd base full time and not the outfield.
Ervin should be the 4th outfielder that platoons with Winker and gives Senzel and Puig (if they are willing to pay him $80 mil for 4 years which is what I think it will take to get him to stay) a day off once a week against right handed pitchers. I do not think that Puig @ $20 mil a year is worth it as he admitted he was only playing hard this year as a contract year. I do not this the team needs a $20 mil player whom will give less than 100% effort every day.
Pereza has not been given the opportunity this year. He has 180 hits in 2018 and was slotted to be starting SS after a very good 2018. He then started slow after being moved back to 2B due to Scooter being hurt. Then was sat down for a on fire DD that cooled just as quickly as the fire started.
Winker, Puig, Votto, Kemp, Schleber, Barnhart all stayed in the daily line up for all of April. Noone will ever know what would have happened in Pereza got to play everyday and work through the slow start like the rest of the starting lineup were allowed to do.
His numbers lately show that he probably would have come out of the slow start.
Oh well