A pitching duel it wasn’t as neither starter made it to the 5th inning. But the Cardinals got the best of the Reds in the first game of a day-night doubleheader as St. Louis topped Cincinnati 5-4 behind two long home runs from Paul Goldschmidt. The loss, at least temporarily, drops the Reds out of a playoff spot and behind the San Diego Padres in the race for the second wild card spot.
| Final | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|
| St. Louis Cardinals (68-63) |
5 | 14 | 0 |
| Cincinnati Reds (71-63) |
4 | 9 | 0 |
| W: Cabrera (3-5) L: Miley (11-5) SV: Gallegos (4) |
|||
| Statcast | Box Score | Game Thread | |||
The Offense
After a 1-2-3 1st inning the Reds got to work in the 2nd inning, trailing 2-0. Joey Votto led off the inning with a walk and he moved up to second on a Kyle Farmer infield single. Votto would score when Tucker Barnhart single into left field. Wade Miley would then help himself with a 2-run double to put the Reds up 3-2. After the Cardinals tied things up in the top of the 3rd, the Reds went back to work when Nick Castellanos singled and then scored on a double by Joey Votto as Cincinnati took the 4-3 lead.
St. Louis took the lead back with two runs in the top of the 4th. In the bottom half of the inning Tyler Stephenson led off with a single and moved to second base on a wild pitch. Aristides Aquino would pick up an infield single an out later to put runners on 1st and 2nd, but the Reds couldn’t cash in on either runner as Jonathan India popped out and pinch hitter Alejo Lopez grounded out to end the inning.
Nick Castellanos singled on a deep ground ball to shortstop to lead off the 5th, but he was erased a few pitches later on a double play grounded into by Joey Votto. Mike Moustakas struck out to end the inning. The following inning saw Eugenio Suárez flare a double down the right field line with two outs as a pinch hitter. He was pinch run for by newcomer Delino DeShields, but Aristides Aquino’s broken bat line out to second base ended the inning and stranded another runner.
Trailing 5-4 and entering the 7th inning the Reds had one last chance to tie the game up or potentially win it with the top of the lineup coming up. Jonathan India flew out to center to start the inning. Alejo Lopez struck out swinging to follow. That left the game on the line for Nick Castellanos and he flew out on the first pitch he saw to end the game.
The Pitching
It didn’t take long for the Cardinals to get to Wade Miley. Paul Goldschmidt connected for a long solo homer off of the batters eye to make it 1-0 in the top of the 1st. Two hits would follow in the inning, but Miley escaped allowing just the one run. Harrison Bader led off the 2nd inning with a homer of his own to make it 2-0. A hit and a walk would follow later in the inning, but once again Miley escaped with just the one run.
After the Reds scored three runs in the bottom of the 2nd to take a lead, the Cardinals put together three singles to tie things up in the top of the inning. Cincinnati took the lead back in the bottom of the inning, but St. Louis took it away from them with a 2-run homer from Paul Goldschmidt – his 2nd of the day, to make it 5-4. That would be the final inning for Miley, who allowed five runs on 12 hits and a walk in just 4.0 innings as he turned in one of his worst starts of the year.
Lucas Sims threw a perfect 5th inning that included two strikeouts. Tony Santillan took over in the 6th and worked around a walk for a shutout inning to keep the game at a 1-run deficit. Luis Cessa came out for the 7th inning to try and keep the score at 5-4 and give the Reds offense an easier opportunity to try and tie it up or walk it off. Things got dicey when he allowed back-to-back singles with two outs, but he was able to get Andrew Knizner to ground out to end the threat and keep the score the same as it was when the inning began. The Reds offense couldn’t get it done in the bottom of the 7th as the Cardinals pulled within a game-and-a-half of Cincinnati.
Up Next for the Cincinnati Reds
St. Louis Cardinals vs Cincinnati Reds
Wednesday September 1st, 6:40pm ET
J.A. Happ (8-6, 5.76 ERA) vs Sonny Gray (6-6, 3.91 ERA)
Using all the bullets in the 4th inning not wise. With the order sure to turn over again. Had to know that Naquin’s spot would be up again, this time against a righty. Such poor game feel.
Bell uses the expanded roster going right after a middling 4+ ERA bridge LH reliever after just getting behind and displaying immediate urgency that he gets criticized for not having instead of waiting for a desperation attempt against a lockdown closer?
Your right he did all of this after he watched his starter give up the lead 3 times in 4 innings.My thoughts were is that he just woke up and had to show he was awake.The other guy schooled him in a 7 inning game at home in a big big game.He will do it again in game 2 hang around and watch.
Well you do see it all the time where your starters lock in after a some rocky early going and Miley’s your best WAR pitcher. Also being mindful your bullpen’s got 2 games to deal with on the day plus the rest of the week. Miley said it himself, he’s who failed to execute there despite his manager’s faith in him
To be fair, they have an extra bullpen arm for today (Alaniz), have all their relievers rested due to off day yesterday, and only have to cover 7 inning games. In a playoff race, worry about one game at a time and try to win that game.
I have to mention here Castellanos totally misplaced that shallow fly ball I’m the 3rd. He overran it and had to catch it moving away, then spun around before throwing about half a lollipop to home plate with no chance to prevent the sac fly score … it wasn’t very deep and plenty of time to have gotten lined up for a direct throw in w/o the pirouette
Also I would submit that Alaniz is in your innings eating long relief option rile so your point is you expected failure in game 2?
No my point was the bullpen was fully rested, and had an extra guy. I thought I laid that out pretty clearly.
Ugh. Need this 2nd game. Unfortunately, another soft-tossing lefty going for the Cards. Reds still have a schedule advantage after today, so it’s not the end of the world, but they need to get some momentum back.
I didn’t expect the Reds to completely collapse. Miley gave up 12 hits in 4 innings, which is almost impossible in a pennant race and a fully rested bullpen.
They have no chance when they give Moustakas meaningful ABs. He’s hurt, and he’s not going to heal without an off-season to rest. He had no chance whatsoever against Cabrera in the 5th; he could have faced him 100 times and would have struck out 87 of them.
The Reds are now 0-4 since they demoted their best athlete in Barrero and replaced him with a 35-year-old Asdrubal Cabrera.
I kept pleading with Moose to swing the bat. Two called 3rd strikes. Swing the bat and give yourself a chance! Don’t know why he’s playing, he’s clearly hurting.
The same Barrero who did nothing while he was up? Takes some twisted logic to blame this on demoting Barrero when the same team without him had surged to 10+ over .500.
Going, going, almost gone are the Reds chances. The Padres are getting hot and the Cardinals are being Cardinals late in the year and the Reds have reverted back to being the Reds.
I’m gonna need some proof the Padres are getting hot. Their performance right now against the DBacks (down 6-0) is not indicating getting hot. And the schedule only gets tougher from here for them.
Miley didnt have it.
Kudos to him for telling it like it is in the post game media session. Said he didn’t have command and was trying to throw a ball on the first pitch and just miss but left it over and they were jumping on it.
Also said he wanted the 3-2 pitch to Goldy as a do-over.
Tucker called inside cutter and he shook him off and went away with his FB and thats on him
Wish every Red had that level of accountability.
Also , why do the starting pitchers have to answer to the media always but position players and relief pitchers dont?
Sonny Gray and Wade Miley are stand up guys.
As for the 28 man roster, Bell is regressing to his 2019/20 form- 4 pinch hitters in an inning and Stephenson only legitimate MLB player of the 4. Just bring back Peraza and Heineman and Jankowski and Phil Ervin and Matt Davidson and Christian Colon and Josh Vanmeter. We’ve seen this movie before. Bell rotated LF 5x in 1 game in 2019.
4 pinch hitters in an inning…5 left fielders….make it stop.
Again, Bell displays immediate urgency using the expanded roster attacking the middling bridge LHP with RH hitters instead of waiting for a lockdown closer and you’re criticizing that. That’s also yanking Miley’s personal catcher for forum darlings Stephenson and then Lopez and you blast him for this?
Stephenson is a really good young hitter and player.
Yes and you’re criticizing Bell for the moves he made bringing him in
I said Stephenson was the only legitimate MLB player of the 4.
Point being- handedness doesn’t make you a better match up if the player isnt an MLB hitter hitting against an MLB pitcher
Scott heineman
Matt Davidson
Jose Peraza
Aristides Aquino
Asdrubal Cabrera
Phil Ervin
Shogo Akiyama
Christian Colon
Travis Jankowski
Alejo Lopez
On top of that , pinch hitting is a special skill. Joey Votto point blank said he couldn’t do it and how anyone could come of the bench cold and not be a regular player and succeed is very difficult.
It really takes a special veteran to pinch hit. Lenny Harris, Manny Mota, Merv Rettemund.
4 pinch hitters in an inning who have never done is a lottery ticket. That’s not managing.
Assuming handedness is all that matters to succeed in MLB is just wrong
Handedness does matter though, at least the split statistics of actual reality results say so. So you’re going on record stating Lopez is not a major league hitter? Aquino actually got a hit here
I think you can say pinch hitting Lopez who has less than 20 MLB at bats is a long shot.
Aquino got a hit. Did you actually pay attention to the game? He broke an 0-24 streak with an excuse me check swing that went 50 feet and he stood at the plate for 2 seconds and watched and almost got thrown out.
Exit velocity was 51 mph.
So he did successfully get a hit. I pointed out Aquino and Akiyama’s combined o for 31 total lack of hits here Monday. And no I was not watching the game yet in the 4th
A home sweep from Cards would be a really strong punch even unexpected and worrying. Hopefully they can take this finale game to stay close in the race and keep Cards behind with a narrow margin (1.5 games)
Went to my first game since 2019 today. Unfortunately, my streak of not seeing a live-Reds win has been extended. Last one I saw in person was in 2012 when we clinched the division vs the Dodgers.
It felt evident watching the game that Miley was going to have an off day. He was hit early and often and didn’t seem to be fooling anyone. Wish he would have been pulled after giving up 3 through 3. Might have made the difference.
Just felt like the game wasn’t being managed with a sense of urgency or that we’re in a playoff race with regard to pulling a pitcher who doesn’t have it that day.
Was a nice day, had a great view, unfortunately Cardinal fans were on both sides of the wife and I. Hopefully we can get them tonight. The team is scuffling right now and need a W in the worst way.
Reds in free fall.Lets pitch to Goldy again in game 3 and lets see if he has homer 4 or 5 left.Clueless.Guy has beat us twice lets go for the third one.Miley manned up for not having it but what manager leaves a guy out there to give up the lead 3 times in 4 innings in a 7 inning game.The guy in the other dugout wasted no time to get his guy out after 3 innings and 4 runs.Difference in a guy that gets it and a guy that has no clue and still doesn’t.He will get schooled again in the second game.
Yep, that’s the difference, the Cards took out their struggling starter, the Reds left their’s in to lose the game for them.
Cardinals won the game because Schildt let his stud left-handed reliever pitch TWO innings. (The horror!!). He shut the Reds right down after they were showing some offense against the Cardinals starter.
I get it – Cabrera isn’t available to pitch Game 2. But the Cardinals won Game 1. And the series.
He’ll figure something out for Game 2. Adjust and adapt, and keep winning.
Praying for rain at this point.
Two stories that really didn’t age well: JV rediscovering hitting and has since cooled off considerably and David Bell with a winning career record with the Reds, nw 2 under. A third if you consider all the stories about the Reds being favored for the last WC slot.
Votto is the 11th best hitter in all of baseball. ALL OF BASEBALL. I’m pretty good with that.
And he had a double and walk in 4 plate appearances in this game with an RBI and run. Just amazing how some fans will blame Votto for everything.
Not blaming him but his average has fallen appreciably in the last week. I’d still bench him against LH’ers. I would have traded Suarez before the deadline. And I would have fired Bell ages ago. I’d like to see the Reds make the playoffs but I’m not optimistic.
He actually only had 3 PA today, and went 1-2 with a double, walk, run, and RBI. Poor timing to make a negative comment on Votto. Poor form in general to make negative comments on Votto considering his season and career in general.
Again, was more a comment on media than JV specifically. And again, while he has hit well against righties, he hasn’t against lefties. I don’t suffer from hero worship.
Some of you guys are crazy. Votto has a career OPS of .935 while almost every one on here cries about how overpaid he is. Meanwhile, I have seen guys on here wanting to sign Castellanos who currently has an OPS of .936 which is .001 higher than Votto’s career average, to a 4 year $25 MM/year deal.
You are talking career. I’m talking this year. Against LH’ers, JV is hitting .207 with a .654 OPS. In the last 14 days, he’s hitting .158. His numbers against RH’ers are terrific. If it’s any consolation, Suarez’s numbers against LH’ers makes JV’s look like all star numbers.
It’s what the Reds do. Choke in the clutch. Whether it’s the pitching or the hitting, they’re going to choke in the clutch. Always close but no cigar. But make no mistake, this season was lost early on when Tinkerbell was determined to bat Suarez and pitch Garrett (and a few others,..Doolittle, etc.) game after game after game,..loss after loss after loss. Some of those dumb losses count the exact same as the loss today. Bell has to have easily lost 20 or 25 games this year by making bonehead moves that every single Reds fan knew was a dumb move as he was making it. If we had won half of those games (I’m talking games that we had won at the time, before Tinkerbell made his moves), then we would be sitting in the catbird’s seat right now. Instead, the same Reds we saw last year in the post season have resurfaced. You know,..the choking kind. We still could make the post season for the one game only against the Dodgers (which it will be should we get there),..but we’ll need Winker back to do it. And we’ll need for Bell to actually quit making dumb moves. That’s the part I worry most about. But I don’t think that’s possible. It’s who he is.
Right on man! Bell is the worst manager ever. Dude can’t even see into the future. The Reds would be 134-0 if if weren’t for his meddling ways. Einstein, the African Grey Parrot, could probably do a better job, that is if he were still alive. The Reds needed to fire Bell like yesterday already.
And the rest of the Reds need to wake up! Don’t they know they are fighting for their lives? They need to start swinging harder and throwing faster. And stop swinging and missing. Geez they make millions of dollars and they can’t hit a 98 MPH fastball. Bunch of overpaid chokers.
There you go, citizen. Just goes to show. See. You can learn after all.
Phil Castellini needs to invoke the 25th Amendment on his dad and remove him from office. This roster is poorly designed to begin with — way too many slow LH hitters — and they compound it by (1) signing Asdrubal Cabrera of all people, and (2) not putting Moustakas on the IL last week when they had a chance.
I don’t usually pick on GMs, but Nick Krall is in over his head. As somebody said yesterday, Phil Castellini needs to replace Krall with a rising star out of the Rays or A’s front office, instruct the new person to ditch the oppressive Suarez and Moustakas contracts, and then get out of the way of baseball operations and sell tickets and beer.
So wouldn’t it be interesting to know the last professional contact Moose had with the Reds medical staff or even training staff. Watch them run the whole 10 days with Barrera back at AAA then bring him back with the corresponding move being Moose to the IL accompanied by a flowery speech about how hard Moose tried but it just wasn’t in the cards.
Reds reached 12 over .500 for the first time in forever with Krall’s roster, but Krall is in over his head?
Like you said, Bug, Winker may come back but it will be to late and it will not over come Bell’s poor decisions. He is simply a very poor manager and today was a great example. Another point that is getting over looked today is the fact the you would think that our so called great pitching coach would have been telling Bell to get somebody up sooner than he did because a blind man and a dog could tell that Miley didn’t have it and that the Cardinals were jumping all over him. Tonight is Gray’s biggest game as a Red we will see if he can come through. Another point in all 4 loses the opponent has scored in the first inning.
Right on the money, Mark. I love Miley. He’s da man!!! But he was awful today. Every time he crooked his arm they were teeing off. When we took the last lead, Miley should have been jerked,… as everyone knew he would not hold the lead. He didn’t have it. Even he said that. But that’s Bell for you. He always waits a batter or three too late to make a move that obviously should have been made previously. He has done that all year, and that’s why he is solely responsible for losing lots of games. Then he always ends up making the move anyway. He just makes it a batter or three too late. The Reds were good enough to compete with anyone this year. We just needed an average manager,..which we don’t have.
It is going to be a good final wild card race between the Padres, Phillies and the Cardinals.
I’d love to see the Birds go into Dodger Stadium for the 1-game playoff and get skunked 11-0! That would bring a smile to my face! And better them than us!
India 2B
Stephenson C
Castellanos RF
Votto 1B
Suarez 3B
Farmer SS
Aquino LF
DeShields CF
Gray SP
I’ve defended Bell a lot here but when this is your starting lineup for game 2 I’m at a loss
Wow.
Doubling down on what hasn’t worked all season with Suarez in the middle of the lineup. What can you say. The first game Bell said if they face enough LHP they will eventually succeed. In other words, stick with the plan that hasn’t been working in the hopes that it will.
Besides DeShields, this is fine. Much prefer Lopez in left and no DeSheilds, though your defense is going to suffer.
Everybody but India and DeShields is working on a consecutive game hitting streak and we saw how well the Reds hit LHP Monday. Let’s see your lineup
Are you counting Aquino’s 51 mph check swing infield hit that broke an 0-24 streak as a slump buster? I hope he goes for 4-4 with 2 homers but he’s not in my lineup as a .185 hitter since Opening day 2020.
Blind squirrels find nuts and broken clocks are correct 2 times a day so it might happen
Is he on a one game streak or not? It that a busted slump or not?
I still don’t understand why they didn’t bring up Crook, who had an OPS over 1.000 in August, instead of buying Deshields, who can’t hit at all.
We need some forum split stats whether Bell never letting his starters pitch longer in games or whether he always goes to the bullpen that obviously couldn’t get the dead African parrot out too much is the more frequent complaint
And that lineup destroyed the Cardinals 12 to 2 so what do you say now.
Just looked at the comments after game 2, and didn’t see your mea culpa. That lineup did okay, after all, didn’t it?
Lineup out for game 2 vs LHP Happ, and again, Suarez is playing and Cabrera, who can actually hit LHP, sits for the 3rd time with no starts. Meanwhile, Suarez 0-6 with 2Ks in the first two LHP matchups since Cabrera was acquired.
Bell has no clue, at all. Pretty hard for the team to overcome a manager that refuses to put his team in a position to succeed.
And Suarez is batting 5th ahead of Farmer and others. Practically any random fan would be better, and have more success, at filling out a lineup card.
You all whining about batting order are crazy. The best four hitters are 1 through 4. Who cares that Suarez is 5. Spot 6 and spot 7 have struggled lately, and spot 8 is a ridiculous start in my opinion. Does it really matter?
Suarez is batting .428 in two games in September 2 doubles and a home run so what do you say about that… except small sample size. Hope he has a amazing month and sticks it to all of you.
It’s unlikely but honestly watching both games he did look like he was seeing the ball well today and his stroke was solid and looked cleaner than in recent time.
Bell is a horrible manager who has no feel for the game and continues to make the same mistakes over and over, no wonder nobody is showing up.
We have a team that has greatly overachieved in spite of zero ability to hit lefties, an atrocious bullpen for over half the year, and (according to most on here) the worst hitter in the history of baseball starting the majority of games at 3B (sarcasm…).
Bell isn’t perfect, but he’s a good manager. I hope he’s back next year.
Yup that’s what happens when a team overperforms their actual talent level. The fanbase then assumes that the Reds are actually a good team and attributes every loss to the manager when it in fact the team is regressing to their true level of talent. The Reds had been lucky in one run games for most of the season and are now finding out that the outcome of one-run games is decided mostly by luck.
Castellanos, Votto, Winker, India and Stephenson have all outperformed their projections while Suarez and Moustakas have been disappointments. And into that some cluster luck and Reds offense isn’t as good as the number of runs they have scored.
https://thepowerrank.com/mlb/
>>>Bell is a horrible manager who has no feel for the game and continues to make the same mistakes over and over
Yes. I concur. And he does that, and fully expects a different outcome,….which is the very definition of insanity.
I actually think the definition of insanity needs revision: Insanity is following a team which is significantly outperforming its expectations, showing cohesion and overcoming injuries and holes in the roster, and constantly complaining about the manager. That’s insanity.
For being the Cardinals and Reds the stands were really empty for a Sept. game though I know a lot of schools have just restarted too. Both games though had sad attendance.
I think he will be back next no matter what happens from here on out. Who knows maybe he will learn from his mistakes and become a decent manager however the front office must fix this very flawed team. Most of all more athletes , team speed and smarter base running.
Pads do trail 6-0 and phils rained out, but none of that is going to matter if Reds don’t pick it up and start to win some games. After tonight the Tigers will be tough. I hope they are not in free fall.
6 -1 with AZ starter now throwing his 8oth pitch to Tatis leading off the Padre 7th. AZ knocked Darvish out of the box in his 2nd start since coming off the 1o day IL so that’s another encouraging plus
“He will learn from his mistakes” – I hope you’re right but he has been this way from the start of his managing career. As far back as his minor league days. Don’t see him changing! Reds front office is just as inept, especially finding guys off the bench to help. They did go out and find some bullpen help but it sure did take long enough. Again didn’t from the beginning of the season while the contending teams did, see Brewers and Padres. Hope they can start playing well and at least play in a wildcard game, Go Reds!
I know it’s like beating a dead horse but, take a look at the schedule for the Reds, Cards and Padres. No comparison. Now, the Phillies and Braves may be a different story but I fully expect the Reds to take the 2nd wild card. But it doesn’t matter if they don’t figure out their team by October 5th or 6th. The current group does not win against teams with records over .500 and that is the category you will face in the postseason.
Believe me I am a huge fan and eternal optomist, but you have to beat the teams you SHOULD beat. The Cards are no better than us, but down we go again, and losing 3 of 4 to the Marlins was completely unacceptable. The Reds are much better this year, but not quite there yet. Love em though.
Castellanos hits very well at GABP’
Gotta find a way he plays RF next year