Anthony DeSclafani allowed only one hit through seven innings, but it wasn’t enough as Merrill Kelly and the Arizona Diamondbacks bullpen shut out the Reds offense 1-0 on Saturday night.
| Final | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cincinnati Reds (69-80) |
0 | 3 | 0 |
| Arizona Dbacks (76-73) |
1 | 1 | 1 |
| W: Kelly (11-14) L: DeSclafani (9-9) SV: Bradley (14) |
|||
| Statcast | Box Score | Game Thread | |||
The Good
–Anthony DeSclafani pitched a GEM. He gave up just one hit and one run in seven innings, lowering his ERA below four, to 3.93. He ended his start by retiring the last 15 batters he faced. Unfortunately, he was the victim of a bloop hit down the left field line and zero run support from his offense.
The lone baserunner DeSclafani has allowed through seven innings was a .070 xBA triple to begin the third inning.#Reds SP has been outstanding this week.
— OnBaseMachine (@RedsFan_Brandon) September 15, 2019
–Joel Kuhnel pitched a 1-2-3 eighth inning with a strikeout.
The Bad
-The Reds lineup. All nine batters.
-The Diamondbacks scored the game’s only run on a sacrifice fly by Jarrod Dyson in the third. However, the reason Dyson was able to get home the run by way of a sacrifice was due to the triple Nick Ahmed hit in the at-bat before him. Josh VanMeter had trouble picking up the ball in the left corner, enabling Ahmed to get to third base. If he gets that ball back into the infield with relative ease, Ahmed would have only been at second and the sacrifice likely doesn’t happen.
–Freddy Galvis had to leave the game in the middle of an at-bat in the 7th after swinging and missing at strike two.
Not So Random Thoughts
–Michael Lorenzen’s exit velocity on each of his outs were 97.9 mph, 90.0 mph, and 89.1 mph. That’s not something you usually see from a pitcher. But as you know, Lorenzen is not your typical pitcher. He is one strong guy, even if the contact he makes doesn’t result in a hit.
-Your 2019 Reds:
Reds allowed only 1 base runner and lost. Only other time that has happened since 1908 was 7/30/1971 when the Royals lost 1-0 to the Orioles.
— Joel Luckhaupt (@jluckhaupt) September 15, 2019
-It was the Reds’ 32nd one run loss of the season. That leads all of MLB.
-This was one of the faster games I’ve watched this season, finishing in a tidy two hours, 15 minutes. Rob Manfred would be proud.
Up Next:
Reds at Diamondbacks, 4:10 EDT
Trevor Bauer (10-12, 4.55 ERA) vs. Zac Gallen (3-5, 2.66 ERA)
Same old story: Pitching does everything humanly possible but our offense barely gets out of the dugout. I can’t even wrap my head around losing 1-0 while allowing only one base runner. I know we’ve been out of it for a while now but this is no way to end the season. I feel like there’s still a real possibility that we lose 90 again this year which would be demoralizing. The front office better get serious about improving the bats like they did at improving the arms. And for God’s sake, get we get back to the fundamentals like other teams seem to do: steal, sacrifice, walk, bunt, manufacture some freakin’ runs!!!
Oh My God, did you say bunt and sacrifice. Blasphemy Blasphemy
Three of your manufacturing run suggestions are surefire ways to add more outs to a team that already gives up too many.
Steals across MLB are down. It’s just not worth the risk of an out. Look at the NL leader for several of the past 5 seasons – Dee Gordon. I’m going to go out on a limb and say that Miami wasn’t a much better with him swiping 60 bags a year.
Reds were 90+ losses every year with Hamilton stealing 40-50 bags.
They just need better hitters and plate discipline. That’s it.
No argument about sac bunts and steals generally. In a 1 to nothing loss, though, one or two runs matter a lot, and the offense has otherwise shown that it can’t be counted on. Stealing, as a strategy, isn’t without complication. Would you disagree that doubles are better than singles? Triples better than doubles? Better to have a guy on second than on first? Stealing by a guy with a high success rate has value. Gorden and Billy were stealing bases on teams that were lousy, so the value wasn’t evident. But hitting a single on a lousy team often makes no difference, and nobody is doubting that hitting is important.
Let the kids play, but JVM slips up again in the outfield.
When you plug Senzel and Winker back into this lineup, minus Galvis and Iglesias, I just cannot be convinced sparks will magically fly. This team has no one in the roster who can dominate in the one, two, or five, spot. Everyone bats like they belong in the 8 hole. At least Iglesias makes contact with the ball more often than the others. One or two guys taking walks sure seems futile when no one puts the ball in play.
I like the Diamondbacks approach. Huge field, artificial turf. Good speed in the outfield and at the top of the lineup. Arizona is a tough place for the visitors to win
Both team and pitcher lose a 1-hitter. Baseball is a very strange game.
Offseason objective: offense, offense, offense. If the they would have won just 50% of those 1-run games, the Reds would be leading the division. Tired of the rebuilding.
A real positive performance by DeSclafani. Here’s hoping Trevor Bauer gets it together today. We need him strong in the starting staff next season. The Reds do not need both Galvis and J. Iglesias. It just upsets the idea of playing the young guys. Jose Iglesias is one of the smoothest shortstops I’ve ever seen. Let Galvis go. Peraza is not a regular, but he’s more than adequate as a backup.
After watching Galvis take off for second while the pitcher was still holding the ball in the stretch, I keep Iglesius and do not pick up Galvis option. What a bush league play.
Not so Random Thought: Tucker batting 5th makes zero sense. Always good for a DP. 4 for 28 in September? Yeah, let’s bat him 5th. In the words of David Bell: it doesn’t matter where you bat in the lineup. Lord help us.
I’ll say it again, Van Meter is not an outfielder, nor is Peraza. If they played it for a year at Louisville, maybe they would be adequate. I understand Bell’s dilemma, he just doesn’t have anyone else to play in those positions (O’Grady, Ervin). AD seems to have solidified his role as the 4th starter. Jose Iglesias should be at SS, JVM at 2nd and I would be fine with Ervin and O’Grady in the OF for the remainder of the year. However, I’ll bet Peraza is at 2nd today. If O’Grady plays he’ll be hitting 8th. Mr. Red needs to make out the line up card if we’re going to avoid 90 loses.
OR
Let Marty decide the lineups as a farewell gift.