| Final | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cincinnati Reds (62-69) |
8 | 12 | 0 |
| Miami Marlins (47-83) |
5 | 10 | 2 |
| W: L. Castillo (13-5) L: C. Smith (8-8) S: R. Iglesias (27) | |||
| Statcast | Gamecast | Game Thread | |||
“Everyone in Triple A is looking for his shot. Maybe his first shot. Maybe his second or third or fourth and so on.
If being human is about the moment we realize our dreams, or the moment we realize we never will, or the moment we decide to try again—if it’s about how we respond to all of those things and how it changes how we see ourselves—then there can’t be anywhere in baseball more human than Triple A.” — Jason Linden, The Hardball Times
What must be going through the head of Jose Peraza today? He led the Reds in hits only a year ago. Now, he’s off to where there is no third deck, where the amenities are few, and the longing is real. Every at bat for Jose has been an All-You-Can-Eat banquet, his bat determined to devour the entire table, only to find a very unsatisfying meal. Now, as Jason says, it most certainly is all about how he will respond.
The Good
Luis Castillo. The best find a way when everything isn’t going their way, and La Piedra did that tonight, at one point striking out 7 of 8 batters after getting off to a shaky start.
Eugenio Suarez. Gino hit the ball harder than anyone in the Reds’ lineup tonight. He had 3 hits, including a double and a 2-run HR in the first that staked Castillo to an early lead. This has been the Reds’ M.O. this season: strike early. The Reds lead all of baseball in runs scored in the first inning and they continued that theme tonight, with Eugenio Suarez slipping the surly bonds of 501 Marlins Way for a 2-run blast, while making Caleb Smith toil for 30 pitches before trudging for the dugout in the 1st.
Curt Casali. In the top of the 4th, Casali jerked an offering up-and-in out-and-away to a place few fans inhabit—at least in Marlins Park—to tie the game at 3.
Nick Senzel. The rookie was on base 4 times, had 3 RBIs on 2 hits, one a home run. In the 6th, the Reds finally began to separate themselves from the Fish on Senzel’s 2-run honker into the dining area of the Clevelander that extended the lead to 7-3.
Jose Iglesias. Jose had 2 hits, scored 2 runs and even had a walk.
Joey Votto is back. That’s good enough for me, even if he did go 0-5.
The Bad
Luis Castillo. Just when it looked as if he had it on cruise control, he got sloppy with a leadoff walk and shortly after left one up where Jorge Alfaro apparently likes it. 7-3 quickly became 7-5. Soon, Castillo will be a true ace. Right now, he’s an ace with the training wheels still on, IMO.
Amir Garrett. Amir was ineffective and took it out on the home plate umpire as he was leaving the field and bought himself a meaningless heave-ho.
Freddy Galvis and Aristides Aquino were quiet as church mice tonight, going a combined 0-9.
The Ugly
Curtis Granderson is still playing baseball.
The Second Guess
Jose Iglesias got his 24th base hit on an 0-2 count tonight, the most since 1988, when some of you weren’t watching baseball. I’m not sure what this means beyond the fact that Jose—like the recently departed Jose—likes to swing the bat at most of what he sees. As Chris Welsh said, “nobody chases more 0-2 pitches out of the strike zone than Jose Iglesias.”
I’d love to see the Reds keep Iglesias in a bench role. That glove has real value, but the clutch hitting so many are excited about is simply not a repeatable skill. The inability to walk puts too much pressure on that batting average.
Nick Senzel made a swing change and people got upset about it. DON’T DO THAT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE SEASON, they said. Nick’s answer sits in the box score tonight.
Tonight was one game. Nick’s answer will sit in the box scores of the next 20 or so games, and next season.
Complaints center around making a change while the team was still in the race for the last playoff spot, albeit not a high probability. Two weeks of Nick hitting well below the Mendoza line had a significant effect on taking the Reds out of the conversation.
That’s funny, especially taking into account, the 1-8 start and abysmal hitting in April and May when he was not even with the big club.
It’s a different team this past month than it was in April.
“Nick Senzel made a swing change and people got upset about it. DON’T DO THAT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE SEASON, they said. Nick’s answer sits in the box score tonight.”
To me, Richard, that was the best sentence of your entire recap (and it was an excellent recap). Nick wants to get the best out his skills that he can and evidently the team agreed this was needed. I am sorry to those who didn’t like it, but the Reds are not going anywhere this year that was decided in April. The Reds are looking to 2020 and have been for awhile.
He was hitting .285 on August 2. He started the changes the beginning of August and was hitting .195 in August coming into last night’s game. The slumping started with the changes.
I have no doubt he will become even better, but to basically say to look a one night’s box score as proof of the benefit of the changes strains credibility.
for my money Jose Iglesias is the guy for me at shortstop. going forward. The Cowboy said it best in the 7th inning tonight. He plays with intensity but also looks very relaxed out there. I know it is a small sample size but he just appears like a more well rounded player than Gavis.
the infield is set for 2020 basically. at least all the pieces are there, but the outfield is still shaky. Nobody has really grabbed the bull by the horns and secured a position in outfield except maybe Senzel in center. I didn’t like the fact that Aquino could not come up with the double in the first inning. Looked like a catchable ball to me. I think outfield is where we really need to invest this offseason. I Personally wouldn’t mind seeing Puig back in a reds uniform myself.
I agree Jim, I know there is a push to get another catcher over the offseason but I can live with Cassali and Barnhart for the 2020 season
Until Luis Castillo gave up 8 runs to the Rockies, he was in Cy Young award consideration. I dunno why there is any question about Luis Castillo being an ace.
The window is very narrow for the Reds. It is next year. With three aces in Castillo, Gray, and Bauer, plus a solid backend of rotation in Mahle and Disco (and I’m not opposed to an upgrade although one is not necessary), and Raisal Iglesias bound for a rebound in 2020, plus Garrett, Lorenzen, Bob Stephenson and Cody Reed the basis of a decent bullpen (providing Bell doesn’t run them into the ground), the Reds are on solid footing for run prevention by pitching.
Votto will continue to decline (it’s called aging) and be the least productive 1B in the NL Central. VanMeter, Iglesias or Galvis, Suarez, Winker Senzel and Aquino and Barnhart/Casali will overcome – there’s room for offensive improvement for each (maybe not for AA)…..with Dietrich, perhaps Peraza, Ervin and Farmer as subs. Especially expect boosts in performance from Winker and Senzel.
Based on the way he’s pitched this year I wouldn’t be calling Bauer an ace. Really good when he’s on but far to many times when he’s missing with his pitches, throwing way too many pitches and giving up 7 & 8 runs.
Agreed
Agreed, Bauer has really struggled with the Reds so far. I have faith in DJ to get him back on the right track though? I’d love to see him develop a change-up to throw to keep them off his fastball. When he is missing with his breaking pitches, they just take them and lock in on the fastball.
FIFY. “least productive 1B in MLB”
Right now, Trevor Bauer sucks for the Reds. Dude’s been all talk so far. He can deduce, research, and practice all he wants, but until he can execute on the field with positive results, he’s a wasted trade.
Good team win last night, Castillo was off early had a strong run and the offense scored just enough to stay ahead and win. Garrett is upset that batter are no longer swinging at his slider that is not in the strike zone and he is struggling to with fast ball control now. He has to figure out his fastball control again.
Jose Iglesias is playing well this year but it is a career year, baseball historical year as the 24 0-2 count hits is a MLB historical record and 59 of his 124 hits are with 2 strikes. That seems to be a lot of good fortune that most likely is not repeatable.
I think the FO choice will be sign Iglesias or try to sign Castellanos or Puig for a corner OF spot. I do not think the Reds can afford both.
Not sure the Reds can afford a $50 mil starting infield (Votto 25+ Suarez 9.5+ Galvis 5.5+ Iglesias 9) in 2019 with a $60+ million pitching staff and adding the $15 to $20 mil established outfielder that keeps being stated as a must have.
Letting Iglesias go and playing JVM at 2nd and Galvis at SS seems to be the budget smart choice.
I also do not agree 2020 is the start and end of the Reds contention window.
Wood and Jose I are the only free agents after this season
Bauer, Disco, Galvis, Deitrick, Gausman are the free agents after 2020.
All of these should be replaceable parts in 2020 and 2021
Baring a trade the Reds contention window all depends on the development of JVM, Senzel, Winker, Aquino and Ervin. Suarez being equal or better than 2019 and Votto flattening the decline of the last 2 years.
If Galvis and Iglesias are both on the roster they will start 150+ games in 2020 as the middle infielders and then I agree the contention window is 2020 only. All the infielders but Suarez will be over 30 in 2020 and the age 31,32 (year 11,12 of the middle infielders career will be in decline in 2021 and later) and there is not enough spots left for the must develop players to develop for a multi year contention situation.
As the great coach Bill Walsh stated, it is always better for the long term good of a team to let a veteran player go one year early (no matter how good they have been) than 1 years late.
Except in the case of Tony Perez 🙂
Pete 1000+ on the Willie Mays comparison. A lot of people here didnt see it but it was incredibly hard to watch. I love Joey but it will get ugly before it’s over and no team is calling about a trade for him.
Jim, I agree. I remember Jim Brown chose to retire on top, Andrew Luck chose to retire rather than go thru another season and have an injury or trying to play while not 100%. Do you think I’VE would retire and the Reds give him an office or coaching position?
Here we go again, Reds get swept by Pirates and now they are on verge of sweeping the Marlins. What does this prove? They are what the record says they are, barely a .500 ballclub.
I was really looking forward to this season after they had made the offseason trades. So much for that, not that Puig is gone, and Alex Wood appears to be damaged goods. How did he pass a physical?
It is time to get your head out of the sand and realize this team will be going nowhere next year either. The roster does not have the right mix of talent.
Before even getting a chance to get his legs under him, Scooter was castoff for nothing, yet they turnaround and pick up another 29 year old infielder? Puig and promising talent Tramell were traded for Bauer, who has not shown any consistency.
Bullpen was the major need at the deadline, and nothing was done at the time. Moves have finally been, but I still do not believe enough was done. Garrett and Iglesias are not reliable and they should look to move them.
Unfortunately, I do not have the confidence in this Front Office to make the moves that will get this team headed in the right direction. It is time to bring in some experienced people to take over instead of continuing to let the current regime learn on the job.
For what it’s worth, I disagree with the progress that the front office has made. If you look at the last 2 years record as of today, you will find that the Reds were 21 games under .500 in 2017 and 18 games under in 2018 (-7 today.) The run differential in 2017 (-108), 2018 (-85) and today (+14), also shows radical improvement.
This year has been frustrating at times due, in part to them being in pretty much every game instead of 3 or so per week it seems like that has been the norm. But, progress has been made by many of the moves this front office has made…….in fact, what moves have they made that have been clearly wrong? Axing Scooter (at the end of his contract year – due to injury) so that they give the younger guys a look or upgrade to a (cheaper) comparable player under contract for next year…that’s not a bad decision. Aquino has been much better than Puig (who was gone any way), but the Bauer/Trammel exchange will take time to prove out…..but not definitively bad yet. I’m stoked for this offseason, for the first time in a while I feel good about the front office making the right moves for 2020.
I would agree, I agree with most of the FO moves. I think the on field game management and constant lineup shuffle both offensively and defensively has become an issue. Playoff and really good teams do not have a totally different, offensively and defensively, everyday, of course with the the exception of two places, 2nd and 3rd.
I did not say they have improved from the past couple of years. I just do not feel that they will be any better in 2020 as the team is currently constructed. In reference to Scooter, what younger guy are you referring to? Galvis is the same age and his career offensive numbers are not on par with a healthy Scooter. Aquino remains to be seen if he is better. A good start so far, and I do actually like him. I hope you are right.
Oops! my bad, not on the verge of a split, they still have two more with the Marlins!