| Final | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|
| Detroit Tigers (0-1) |
1 | 3 | 0 |
| Cincinnati Reds (1-0) |
7 | 9 | 0 |
| W: Gray (1-) L: Boyd (0-1) |
|||
| Statcast | Box Score | Game Thread | |||
Sonny Gray. Mike Moustakas. That’s the story from tonight. Gray dominated the Tigers lineup for 6.0 innings, giving up one run. Moustakas had a multi-hit game, including a home run that landed somewhere in Kentucky as he made the absolute most out of his Cincinnati Reds debut, going 3-4 with four runs driven in. It was more than enough for the Reds to take home a win on Opening Day, beating the Tigers 7-1 on Friday evening.
The Offense
It seems strange to complain about jumping out to a 2-0 lead in the 1st inning, but the Reds probably feel like they left some runs out there after loading the bases with no outs and already up 2-0 on a bases loaded hit batter (Nick Castellanos) and Mike Moustakas single. Those two would get together again in the bottom of the 3rd to extend the lead when Castellanos crushed his 1st double of the year into the left-center gap and scored on another Moustakas single.
After Detroit got a run back on a home run in the top of the 4th, Joey Votto put the Reds back up by three with a solo homer of his own. The next inning saw Shogo Akiyama make his Cincinnati debut with a pinch-hit RBI single that brought in Freddy Galvis to make it 5-1. After a walk by Nick Castellanos in the 7th he was pinch run for by Travis Jankowski, who immediately stole second base. It didn’t matter, though, because Mike Moustakas clobbered a 421-foot homer deep into the right field seats to make it a 7-1 game.
The Pitching
Sonny Gray did what Sonny Gray has done since joining the Reds – pitched well. The right-hander needed 90 pitches to get through 6.0 innings. He allowed just one earned run, coming on a long homer by C.J. Cron. Other than that, Gray was quite dominant. He recorded six ground outs and struck out nine batters with two walks.
The bullpen picked up where Sonny Gray left off. Lucas Sims came on for a hitless 7th inning where he struck out two. Nate Jones followed, making his Reds debut, going 1-2-3 with two strikeouts and an outstanding catch in left field by Shogo Akiyama for the assist. Brooks Raley came on for the final inning looking to hold onto a 6-run lead. A pop up was followed by a strikeout of future Hall of Famer Miguel Cabrera in an 8-pitch at-bat, and was wrapped up with another pop up. Welcome back to the big leagues Mr. Raley.
Notes Worth Noting
Sonny Gray picked up a bunch of strikesouts in the game, but one of them happened to be the 1000th of his Major League career. Gray picked up three more strikeouts to follow and now has 1003 in his career. The start also extended his Major League record of consecutive starts with six or fewer hits allowed to 34. Hat tip to C. Trent Rosecrans of The Athletic on that one.
Shogo Akiyama came on in the 6th inning to pinch hit for Phillip Ervin after a pitching change and officially became the first Japanese player to play for the Cincinnati Reds. He also came through with his first hit and RBI to extend the Reds lead.
It didn’t take long for Mike Moustakas to make his presence felt on the defensive side of things.
"BuT cAn hE rEaLLy pLaY SeConD baSe?" #RedsOpeningDay ? #TakeTheCentral pic.twitter.com/XLuDdXJrIQ
— Cincinnati Reds (@Reds) July 25, 2020
Up Next for the Cincinnati Reds
Detroit Tigers (0-1) vs Cincinnati Reds (1-0)
Saturday July 25th, 5:10pm ET
Ivan Nova (4.72 ERA, 11-12 in 2019) vs. Luis Castillo (3.40 ERA, 15-8 in 2019)
We got em to hit, and hit they did. All I could picture was Krall somewhere pulling a Roger Dorn, yelling to anyone who would listen, “I bought him!”.
Great win.
Very impressive. Team effort Pitching and hitting. I’ll tip the hat also to Votto, as I voiced my concerns earlier. The HUGE difference was he committed to pulling the inside pitch instead of inside-outting it. Maybe he was playing ‘possum in the practice games to lure them inside so he could pounce on it. Keep it up Joey and the Reds.
I know it’s only 1 game but that looked like a team that has a little bit of everything!
I could not agree more. Only 1 game. But, this team has a little bit of everything.
Who would think on OPENING DAY– VS a (lefty) I know,,,,But, Ervin leads off/Davidson get the start as DH.
David Bell has played his hand on line-ups. I like it. Senzel is nowhere near the top. Looks like Akyama/Ervin will bat leadoff. Looks like Davidson/Winker as DH.
Bullpen was lights out…
It’s the way that you hope a game between a first-place team and one of the worst teams in the sport would go on a regular basis. You probably heard the announcers say that Cleveland was 18-1 against Detroit last year.
Nice win, bits of everything.
Good hitting, good pitching, good D.
Now go out and win the 2nd of the series.
One down, 59 to go but remember, we’re playing the Tigers. Let’s see how we do against say the Cubs but this lineup is solid. Top to bottom is impressive. Best Reds team I’ve seen in a long time.
First time poster (or at least in many years). Excited about our Reds again, good start.
Welcome back, Mr. Newton!
Fun to watch baseball again. Thanks Redlegnation for keeping us going through the hard times.
It’s so great to watch live baseball again, and the Reds treated us to a real nice win. Sonny Gray (what an incredible acquisition) continued his domination and is a joy to watch. That HR by Mike Moustakas was crushed. It was estimated at 421 feet but for my life I could not see where it landed. 3-4 with 4 RBIs is a nice start to his season. Akiyama and Castellanos also played well in their Cincy debuts. Exciting times for Reds fans.
I love that Votto is pulling the inside pitches with authority.
Votto is smart enough to know pitchers “think” that’s his weakness. He knows they are trying to pitch him inside because he likes to hit opposite field.
Flip the script Joey. He knows it’s coming inside and it’s time to bring the pain.
The only concern is pitchers with enough heat on the fast ball and Votto’s bat speed. He gets beat a lot with mid 90s inside velocity….then again, most hitters get beat that way.
It’s a nice start and hopefully he keeps it up. Really need him pulling his weight this year for this team to have post season ambition and success.
The entire team looked to be playing as this is a business an i have my job to do, no excuses, we are good, the other team is not good and we cannot think they have a chance to win. That was the Vibe I got while watching a game. The hitters at the plate looked like they knew they were going to be successful.
The hitters looked to be playing, see the ball hit the ball and relaxed at the plate. None of the players looked to be “thinking” while hitting like they did all of 2019.
For the first game the change in hitting coach looks to be a big move in the right direction.
Time to win game 2.
Agreed. They looked focused to me and appropriately loose.
As others have noted, it was the Tigers, but if you control the lesser teams and compete with those equal to or better, the results tend to be good overall.