Reds Replay! Aristides Aquino’s 3-homer game thread

With no live baseball taking place, or sports at all, what we’re seeing many sports-based channels do is dive into the archives and broadcast games and events in order to fill the void. Tonight, at 8PM ET, Fox Sports Ohio (at least in the greater Cincinnati area) will be replaying the Chicago Cubs vs Cincinnati Reds game from August 10, 2019. Obviously, the title to this post gives away the actual game highlights – but you have to know it’s a good one if they’re replaying it anyways, right? That said, we thought it would be fun to treat this like a normal game thread (here’s the original one from that day if you want to go back!) and maybe give us all a chance to pretend, escape, feel normalcy. So here we go:

After a 5-2 win last night behind an outstanding start by Trevor Bauer that included 11 strikeouts, the Reds (55-59) return to the green grass at Great American Ballpark today to take on the Chicago Cubs (63-53) once again. It wasn’t just Bauer, though, who had a good game – rookie Aristides Aquino went 1-3 with another home run. It was his 4th of the season and he’s now hitting .417/.440/.958 in his first eight games this season, and the homer was his third in as many games.

Starting Pitchers

Kyle Hendricks (8-8, 3.06 ERA)

Over the last three-and-a-half weeks, Kyle Hendricks has been on an absolute roll for the Cubs. In five starts dating back to July 15th he’s posted a 1.72 ERA in 31.1 innings. He’s allowed just 18 hits and walked just eight batters in that stretch. That stretch has lowered his season ERA nearly half of a run.

Hendricks doesn’t show big platoon splits, though in 2019 he has been a little better against left-handed hitters than right-handed hitters. Overall hitters have a current line of .234/.282/.379 against him.

Sonny Gray (6-5, 3.25 ERA)

There’s a lot of similarities right now between Gray and Hendricks. The Reds starter has been on a heck of a run himself, posting a 1.97 ERA over the last five weeks. In those seven starts dating back to June 28th he’s picked up 52 strikeouts, walked just 12 batters, and he’s given up just 29 hits in 45.2 innings.

When it comes to platoon splits, Gray, like Hendricks, isn’t showing much. Both lefties and righties are htiting .196 against him and the difference in OPS is just 16 points. Opposing hitters have a .286 on-base percentage against him on the year, and a .348 slugging percentage.

Starting Lineups

Pregame Notes

We aren’t quite going to treat the pregame notes as if it’s August 10th. So let’s share a few notes that are good for today, March 22nd, 2020.

Korea is playing baseball again. No fans, and it’s just them getting back to their version of spring training, but last night they were broadcasting live exhibition games on youtube. Not sure it’s the best or greatest idea, but it’s happening.

Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association announced earlier this week that they will pay minor leaguers $400 per week through what would have normally been their spring training. That gets them up to April 8th. The two sides are still working on what they will do after that date – but both sides say they are working to figure something out.

Bobby Nightengale of the Cincinnati Enquirer reported on Friday that Eugenio Suarez would resume throwing and swinging next week. Suarez, of course, is returning from shoulder surgery after injuring himself in the pool while playing with his family. Nightengale also provided updates on several other players who were dealing with injuries – including one that I hadn’t seen reported anywhere else – Joel Kuhnel, who’s dealing with a little bit of shoulder discomfort.