| Final | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kansas City Royals (8-11) |
5 | 5 | 0 |
| Cincinnati Reds (8-10) |
4 | 6 | 0 |
| W: Keller (2-0) L: Miley (0-2) SV: Rosenthal (4) |
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| Statcast | Box Score | Game Thread | |||
The return of Wade Miley lasted as long as the first start of Wade Miley – 1.2 innings. But this time that only resulted in one run before the bullpen had to come on. It’s unclear if it was a result of an injury at this point or not, but either way the Reds had to go to the bullpen in the second inning. Kansas City played add on over the next four innings, taking a 5-0 lead. But the home team put together a rally in the 7th with three homers to make it 5-4. The team got plenty of runners on base in the next two innings but couldn’t come through with a hit when they needed it, leaving the bases loaded with a game ending double play.
The Offense
The Reds offense tried to get going in their half of the 1st inning. Shogo Akiyama led off with a single up the middle and Joey Votto followed up with a 1-out walk to put two runners on. After Eugenio Suarez flew out to center, Jesse Winker walked on four pitches to load the bases for Nick Senzel – but Brad Keller got him to fly out to end the inning with the Royals holding onto a 1-0 lead.
From there the offense went silent for a while. The Reds went 1-2-3 in the 2nd inning. After Shogo Akiyama walked for lead off the 3rd he was erased on a double play in a short inning for Brad Keller, and another 1-2-3 inning followed in the 4th – requiring just seven pitches in the frame.
Freddy Galvis led off the 5th inning with a bunt for a single and the next pitch hit Kyle Farmer in the elbow to put two runners on for the Reds in a game where they desperately needed them. Tucker Barnhart popped out near the visiting dugout for the first out of the inning, bringing the top of the lineup around. Shogo Akiyama hit one up the middle, but the Royals defense was there and waiting and turned an easy inning-ending double play to end the threat.
Cincinnati finally got onto the board in the 7th inning when Jesse Winker unloaded on a laser beam of a home run that probably went through the seats in right field to lead off the inning. Nick Senzel followed with a walk and then Freddy Galvis put another ball into the right field seats, making it 5-3 and putting the Reds right back in the game. Josh VanMeter came off of the bench to pinch hit for Kyle Farmer as the Royals went to the bullpen to bring in Scott Barlow to replace Ian Kennedy. The move didn’t work for Kansas City as VanMeter uncorked a solo homer at 108.5 MPH off of the bat to make it a 5-4 game.
Joey Votto walked to lead off the inning and was pinch run for by Travis Jankowski. Eugenio Suarez struck out on three pitches to follow. Then Jesse Winker did what he’s been doing for the last week and clobbed a hit up the middle, sending Jankowski to third and placing runners on the corners for Nick Senzel. It wasn’t to be for Senzel as he struck out for the second out of the inning, leaving things up to Freddy Galvis. Like the hitter before him, he struck out on a breaking ball at the top of the zone to strand the runners and send the game to the 9th with the Reds down a run.
Trailing 5-4 entering the bottom of the 9th with 8-9-1 due up for Cincinnati. Josh VanMeter worked a full count before drawing a leadoff walk. David Bell then turned to Michael Lorenzen as a pinch runner to put as much speed as possible on first. Tucker Barnhart came up with the idea of bunting, and after missing the first one Lorenzen was almost picked off getting back to 1st by Salvador Perez. The next two times Barnhart squared up he pulled the bat back for balls one and two, but then he bunted it right to the third baseman who turned around to get Lorenzen at second. Phillip Ervin was called on to pinch run for Barnhart at first with Shogo Akiyama at the plate.
Things started to move in the right direction for the Reds at that point as both Akiyama and Nick Castellanos walked, loading the bases with one out for Christian Colon. But after fouling off several pitches from closer Trevor Rosenthal he grounded into a double play to end the game.
The Pitching
Wade Miley came off of the 10-day injured list to make his first start since he injured his groin against the Chicago Cubs on July 27th. While he struggled in the 1st inning, a passed ball on a cross up and a throw that got away from Freddy Galvis on a fielders choice didn’t help. Ultimately he would load the bases but work around that jam, surrendering just one run – but throwing 33 pitches with just 17 strikes.
The 2nd inning started out well enough for Miley, who got two ground outs to begin the inning. But on the second ground out, the Reds lefty had to cover first base and seemed to show something to the dugout that led to the trainer coming out to check him out. Miley stayed in the game, but then walked Whit Merrifield on five pitches, prompting David Bell to come to the mound and bring in Tyler Mahle, who struck out Jorge Soler on three pitches to end the inning.
To start the 3rd inning, Salvador Perez took the second pitch of the inning for a solo homer to put Kansas City up 2-0. The 4th inning began with a hit batter, and after two wild pitches by Tyler Mahle, Aldalberto Mondesi scored on a sacrifice fly by Whit Merrifield to make it 3-0.
The 5th inning didn’t get out to a great start for the Reds after a single, and back-to-back 1-out walks loaded the bases for the Royals. Tyler Mahle got the help of some good defense behind him when Ryan O’Hearn had extra-bases (perhaps a grand slam) taken away from him when Nick Senzel made a leaping grab at the wall that went instead for a sacrifice fly to make it 4-0.
Tejay Antone took the mound to start the 6th and walked the first batter on four pitches. He rebounded with a strikeout of Whit Merrifield for the first out of the inning. After a pop up to shortstop for the second out, Salvador Perez doubled in the Royals 5th run of the game to extend their lead. Antone fired up a 1-2-3 7th inning with two strikeouts to keep the game 5-0.
After 2.0 innings of 1-run baseball from Antone, the Reds turned the game over to Amir Garrett for the 8th. After getting the first out on the first pitch of the inning, Garrett walked the next hitter. Then he fell behind Whit Merrifield 3-0, but the Royals outfielder got the green light and it paid off for Cincinnati as he grounded into an inning-ending double play.
Nate Jones took the mound to start the 9th inning. He made pretty quick work of the first two hitters of the inning, getting a fly out to right field and a ground out to shortstop. But Hunter Dozier made Jones work as he drew a 6-pitch walk to extend the inning for Alex Gordon, but the Reds reliever struck him out to give the offense a shot to put at least one run across the plate and extend the game. They didn’t despite loading the bases with one out.
Notes worth noting
The home plate umpire took a pitch off of the finger in the bottom of the 1st inning. There was blood, an x-ray that eventually revealed a broken finger, and a switch for him from behind the plate to the infield. All of that led to an on-field delay of about 12 minutes while another umpire got into the gear to take over behind home.
Up Next for the Cincinnati Reds
Pittsburgh Pirates vs Cincinnati Reds
Thursday August 13th, 5:10pm ET
Trevor Williams (0-3, 3.52 ERA) vs Anthony DeSclafani (1-0, 0.00 ERA)
With bases loaded and 1 out you have to pinch hit for Colon (a short chubby guy hitting from the right side) with a guy with speed who hits from the left side….the lefty would have a chance to beat out a double play ball….then it would be a tie game with runners on the corners with 2 outs.
I wish they would just own the fact that the Bell hire was a mistake and pull the plug now. Instead in all likelihood we’ll experience more than our share of these crushing losses through at least next year then start over.
Its not even 2nd guessing with Bell. I called the Reds batting order before they came up. Why not save Miley for the Pirates anyway? KCs whole lineup is RH. Sometimes Joe Public is right. I think Bell has to be the smartest guy in the room and overthinks everything. Lorenzen>JVM as a pinchrunner? He almost got picked off. JVM was the 2nd/3rd fastest guy last year timed from 2nd-home. Barnhart forced to bunt with the corners right on top of him….Rizzo style? They may win 10 in a row, but Bell doesn’t have it and doesn’t learn and therefore cannot adapt.
Well I have with held judgement until now, but I think you are spot on Indy. Bell is finding a way to lose. Let the boys play stop tinkering with the lineups. Dusty would never over think this stuff and better yet he would have the clubhouse and the players playing hard for him. God bless Dusty I really feel bad criticizing him back in the day. I have learned in hind sight to appreciate the job he did.
The Losing Culture Train continues guy’s. This team needs Aristides bad!
Can the Reds sign Puig or Gennett, even if they only are bench players? They can’t be any worse than the bench the Reds have now… At least if Dietrich had stayed with the Reds, he would have had a few HBP’s by now.
Doug,
Did you accidentally delete the paragraph about what happened after the Barnhart bunt or was it intentional?
Weird enough, I have no idea what happened. I know that I typed it up, but it most certainly wasn’t there – nor was it in the revision history. I’m guessing that I deleted it on accident before the autosave kicked in. I’ve added something else, a little simpler, to wrap things up.
Thanks for the heads up.
Reds have to really think hard about suicide squeeze when runner at 3rd and one out…..I have just seen countless times, when the Reds either strike out or pop out, and never get the runner from 3rd in!
Yea strange Bell as an over-manager tinkerer type doesn’t experiment with the squeeze more. Perhaps our guys are lousy bunters I imagine many of them are.
Absolutely Jeff. Senzel would have been perfect, when Janko was on 3rd.
If the Reds are going to make the playoffs, the hitting coach better be conveying knowledge, that got him the job, to Reds hitters to improve scoring from third base with less than two outs. And recently hitters, late in the game, have taken too many called third strikes. If you’re going to go down at that point, go down swinging.
If the Reds need me I can personally drive Colon and Barnhart back to Prasco and I’ll come back to GABP with Aquino and Ty Stephenson in return.
Bring Hunter Greene as well….
Who were the other options besides Colon? Matt Davidson? Casali?
Both are absolutely better hitters. With two outs, I think we would have seen Davidson.
Colon shouldn’t be on this team, but I think Bell wanted a contact guy to put the ball in play and hopefully at least tie the game up. Colon did that and he just couldn’t beat it out.
Dietrich was picked up by the Rangers.
1st game: 3-3 with a HBP.
Colon/JVM: 4 hits 40 AB’s
I dont see anyway how this team can go into next year with Barnhart and Casali as their 2 catchers. They both are the same catcher. Barnhart has better defense and Casali better hitter but they both are weak at the plate. They need to keep one and send the other on his way and Stephenson needs to catch most of the time. Its time to move on. Also I’ve watched for at least 3 years Billy Hamilton at the plate with 2 outs and a base hit ties the game and he fails. You cannot hide your worst hitter. They always show up at the worst time and always fail. There isnt a Person out there who thought Colon would get a hit.
I dont agree with learning on the fly. He has had over a year and should have figured everything within a month. If that was you or I at our jobs we would have been given a week or 2 weeks tops to figure it out and then we would be canned. Less than a month in his 2nd year and he is making moves that make no sense. Some of it’s on the players but you have to put players in with a good chance of success. He doesn’t do that.
So many missed opportunities, but the most frustrating was the last and most deflating at bat. Colon should never be in that situation, and at this point I’m not at all sure why he’s even on the roster. Who would you rather have seen in that spot – Colon? or Alex Blandino? or… Curt Casali or Aristides Aquino or even Matt Davidson or Tyler Stephenson? Or, if we’re being thorough, Michael Lorenzen?
This game could have been very different based on plenty of opportunities earlier in the game – looking at you Nick Senzel and Freddie Galvis – but yes, baseball is a game of failure more often than success at the plate. But at least those guys do contribute on a regular basis. Colon should never have been in that situation based on roster construction (front office) and lineup management (David Bell). Frustrating. Easy to criticize after he failed, but there has not been a single Colon at bat this year where I haven’t thought “why is he on this team?” Frustrating!
Sorry but in my opinion Blandino is way better than Colon. What a guy did in 2 at bats 5 or 6 world series ago shouldn’t amount to a hill of beans now. He has done nothing since and is a career minor leaguer. It’s like The New York Giants keeping David Tyree forever just because he caught a ball on his helmet in the Super Bowl. Great catch but a blind squirrel finds a nut once in awhile.
The ownership “got the offense”. We cannot really complain about Moose and Castellanos, great additions. Shogo , the jury is out, we’ll see. Maybe more playing time??. Now the pitchers are going to need paid, Bauer, Disco, Castillo, Gray extension, At some point the manager has to be held accountable. new “hitting”? coach, same offense. We all know you cannot fire the players. So far, DB has proven that it takes more than just looking at the numbers to be successful. Experienced leadership, a belief that the manager trusts them and is putting them in a position to succeed and better in game moves, would help these guys immensely.