Poor defense and facing Max Scherzer led to the Los Angeles Dodgers defeating the Cincinnati Reds on Saturday afternoon at Great American Ball Park by a score of 5-1.
| Final | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|
| Los Angele Dodgers (95-54) | 5 | 8 | 0 |
| Cincinnati Reds (77-72) | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| W: Scherzer (15-4) L: Gray (7-8) SV: Jansen (34) |
|||
| Statcast | Box Score | Game Thread | |||
The Offense
Cincinnati went 1-2-3 in the bottom of the 1st inning, but in the 2nd the Reds tried to get something going. Joey Votto walked to lead off the inning and Kyle Farmer picked up an infield single to put two on with just one out. Max Scherzer, however, had a different idea than the Reds did and struck out Tucker Barnhart and got Delino DeShields to ground out to second base to end the threat. Jonathan India would double in the 3rd, and Votto would walk again in the 4th, but neither event resulted in much of anything. They didn’t get another baserunner against Scherzer, who exited the game after the 7th. In the 8th inning the Reds went 1-2-3, but saw outfielder TJ Friedl make his big league debut as he came off of the bench to take Joe Kelly. Friedl popped out to third baseman Justin Turner.
In the 9th inning the Reds went to Tyler Stephenson as a pinch hitter for Max Schrock. He hit it hard, but Mookie Betts caught his fly ball on the warning track in right field. Nick Castellanos, like Stephenson before him, got into one, but also flew out to the warning track – his to center. Joey Votto walked to keep the Reds alive for at least one more at-bat. That at-bat went to Mike Moustakas who hit a laser off of the wall in right-center for a double to put runners on 2nd and 3rd for Kyle Farmer. The Dodgers felt obligated to help out as Farmer hit a weak grounder to short, but Corey Seager threw it in the dirt to 1st base for an error, bringing Votto in to score and make it 5-1 and keep Cincinnati is alive. That led to Kenley Jansen entering the game to face Eugenio Suárez, who was called on to pinch hit for Tucker Barnhart. He worked a full count after falling behind 0-2, but he eventually struck out swinging to end the game.
The Pitching
Sonny Gray took a no-hitter into the 4th inning. A 2-out infield single that was highly questionable for the official ruling – many expected it to be an error before the ruling came down – ended the no-hit bid, but a strikeout ended any threat the Dodgers had in the inning.
Things went downhill from there. Justin Turner doubled to lead off the inning. Chris Taylor then grounded the ball to Mike Moustakas who bobbled it, then threw it away to put runners on 2nd and 3rd. Another questionable scoring call ruled that a hit then a throwing error. Gavin Lux then tripled in both runs to make it 2-0. Austin Barnes then grounded out, but plated Lux to extend the lead to 3-0.
In the 6th inning another single from Trea Turner led off the inning and he moved up when Max Muncy walked. A ground out moved Turner to third. That led to Chris Taylor laying down a squeeze bunt to score Turner and make it 4-0. It would be the final inning for Gray who was charged with four earned runs in 6.0 innings with two walks and five strikeouts.
Jeff Hoffman came out for the 7th inning and picked up two strikeouts in a perfect inning of work. Art Warren, who was activated from the 60-day injured list prior to the game today, headed to the mound for the first time since July 11th to begin the 8th inning. Warren would strike out three batters as he worked around a single by Justin Turner.
Amir Garrett took over in the 9th. He got a ground out to start the inning, but then walked Austin Barnes and allowed a single to Albert Pujols on a line drive off of the glove of a leaping Mike Moustakas. Mookie Betts followed up with an RBI single to pad the Dodgers lead and put the game out of slam-range, making it 5-0. That’s where the damage came to an end, but it was more than enough for Los Angeles to hold onto for the win.
Up Next for the Cincinnati Reds
Los Angeles Dodgers vs Cincinnati Reds
Sunday September 19th, 1:10pm ET
Clayton Kershaw (9-7, 3.33 ERA) vs Wade Miley (12-5, 3.09 ERA)
Reds dont have the roster without Winker and Naquin to win.
Tough loss
Garrett hasnt pitched in forever yet still gave up a run. But apparently hes been good since a bad April only despite never pitching when the game matters. Garrets fine .
And so is Moose (fine). .549 OPS since he came back from injury in August and a .439 OPS in the month of September. Plus of course, he can’t field a lick because he can barely move laterally or set and throw properly but he is healthy enough to play every day vs RH pitching.
The Moustakis situation is 10x worse than Suarez. At least Suarez runs intio a pitch every now then and he can field his position. Biggest mistake Bell has made and that says a lot.
Look, at least it’s not gonna be a sweep. Yeah, that’s where we’re at.
I got a laugh out of all the talk about Castillo starting the one-game playoff. What playoff?? With this offense there is no way we’ll even come close to the Big Bad Birds down the stretch. But we might well set a record for most consecutive series winning exactly one game in!
lots of decision the last few weeks make me think the Reds have decided the playoffs aren’t worth it this year;
– Barerro not playing, anywhere
– Hunter Greene not called up,
– Stephenson not playing left field while Max Schrock does.
– Front office not addressing bullpen until July
– Mike Lorenzen not pinch hitting or playing outfield once healthy.
– Jesse Winker not willing to play thru rib cage muscle strain after 4 weeks off
– Dauri Moretta not brought up in September and Brad Brach pitching till recently.
– Votto playing practically every inning in August/Sept, when no 37 year old should.
I’ll be clear, I don’t think the Reds would win any playoff series this year but it certainly is important experience for the young players to get. Overall, I think Reds have had a good year, but the past 6 weeks is sure making it hard to recall the positives.
Suggesting Winker play through a injury like he has had is silly. We all have our opinions I suppose.
Schrock has the highest average on the team. I would also kike Stephenson to get more playing time, but to say Schrock playing means they don’t want to win is wrong. If anything, Schrock should play more.
Hunter Green was not ready, and was at his innings limit (this being his first season after surgery). You need to know more facts before forming opinions.
Offfense is a joke yet Stephenson sets as does Barrero.Joey looking to walk instead of swinging the bat.No chance today or tomorrow.
Yup. Best players and athletes ride the pine while Deshields gets plenty of playing time. Going out with a whimper.
Almost feels like they don’t actually want to win.
I mean they are pretty much forced to play DeShields now with Naquin, Shogo and Senzel all out. But DeShields was getting plenty of time before Shogo and Naquin went down. It just doesn’t make any sense at all.
Hopefully Friedl gets some looks versus RH pitching at least.
How do you have a problem with Votto on base three times (literally half the Reds base runners) when he came up 4 times and never had a man on? The three times he reached were leading off an inning (twice) and two outs, bases empty bottom of 9. That’s a ridiculous takeaway.
Scherzer was really good – no earned runs allowed in the last six billion innings. The Reds beat a really good pitcher last night in Bueller, but tip your cap to Scherzer and move on to tomorrow. Losing series to Pittsburgh, Detroit and Miami is bad. Splitting two games against Cy Young contenders and a bashing lineup? Not a sign of the apocalypse. Go Reds!
Agree not having those 3 additional wins, 1 each vs Pitt. Miami and Detroit define the Reds position and situation at this point. Plus, not holding that early 4-0 lead in a game eventually lost to the Cards last weekend is the spoiler to top it off.
What I said was Joey was looking to walk rather then swing the bat.He was up 4 times and swung twice.One foul ball and a fly out.Joey is on record saying he is trying to hit homers.His walk rate is way down which means he is swinging at more pitches then ever before.Getting on base is a good thing always and I never said it wasn’t.He hits 4th in a bad lineup so if he wants first they will give it to him and it normally takes at least 2 hits or sometimes 3 to score him from first.Joey must swing the bat for us to have a chance.I respect your opinion but it is not a ridiculous takeaway on my part.
Roger, we typically agree on a lot, but bagging on Votto for getting on base 3 times when the Reds were struggling to get base runners is a poor take, regardless of how he got there. The Reds need offense, getting on base is directly correlated to scoring runs. He’s doing what he can to help the Reds offense. If the other hitters behind him aren’t driving him in, then that’s on them.
Rogers issue with Votto walking has zero merit. I watched Tucker strike out twice, with 1 AB being 3 sliders no where near the zone. Same with Moose and Castellanos SOS (sliders out of the zone.
Scherzer was off and would’ve had many more walks if players took the same discipline Votto had. He didn’t swing because he was given like 3 hit table pitches in 4 ABs.
You honestly think Barrero and Stephenson would have made a difference against Scherzer? The man has been lights out for over a month.
They could not have done worse. we keep seeing the same re-runs over and over
The Reds will need more than two hits tomorrow to take the series from LA.
Chad Tromp DFA’d. Love to get him back for 2022 depth behind Stephenson.
I feel bad for Chad as he won’t be experiencing the playoffs with SF. Saw him in AZ Fall League a few years ago. He’s like a human bowling ball behind the plate. He plays with great tenacity and is a good clubhouse presence. I wouldn’t mind at all if the Reds sign him.
How much money do you think it would take to see Farmer at third,Barrero at short and Stephensen behind the plate the rest of the way?Does anybody think Moose or Eugenio or Tucker will have one big hit the rest of the way?I mean coming through with the game on the line that gives us a win?Miley goes tomorrow and Stephensen sets again for the 3rd straight game?Come on this is just awful to watch us go down without a fighting chance.Barrero in the first game against the Cards doubles in the go ahead run and score another on a ball nobody scores on and since then we have 2 wins.One was 1-0 and last night 3-1 all because of our pitching and Farmer’s double last night.Two hits and 2 errors today for goodness sake.
Tucker had a huge hit Friday.
Maybe in a few months we will be able to look back and appreciate all the Reds have accomplished this season.
With the losses, poor play, the collapse of our post season chances, the injuries, the exit of Kyle Boddy (and all that it implies), as well as, the pending free agency of the team’s best hitter, it just hasn’t provided me with a great deal of optimism moving forward.
The team will win 85 games or so. Which is about 10 more than I expected them to win.
The problem is the Reds had almost 70 wins two weeks ago, before we got to Black September.
Not having Winked really hurts! Not having Naquin hurts. Their replacements are somewhere between AAA and AAAA, leaning more toward AAA.
Is that box score right?
I counted 7 hits for the Dodgers, 3 for the Reds. Plus one error for the Dodgers, and 3 (yikes!) for the Reds.
er, I mean line score…..
Reading between the lines of Doug’s recap account because I saw the plays on TV, In addition to the 2 errors charged to Moose and 1 error charged to Votto, there could have been 2 more errors charged among the same pair. One clearly to Moose, the other to either Moose or Votto on a throw which was not picked by Votto:
The play in the 4th inning on which either Moose or Votto might have been charged an error (but neither were):
A 2-out infield single that was highly questionable for the official ruling – many expected it to be an error before the ruling came down
The play in the 5th on which Moose was charged with a throwing error but not charged with a fielding error:
Chris Taylor then grounded the ball to Mike Moustakas who bobbled it, then threw it away to put runners on 2nd and 3rd. Another questionable scoring call ruled that a hit then a throwing error.
I have followed the Reds for a longgggg time. Three things that are certain in life to happen….Death, Taxes, and Injuries to the Reds, especially to key Reds players! Year after Year after Year…
And they ALWAYS lose to the cards. Somehow some way the cards beat them.
And who won the Cards series this year? The Reds.
Wow, people here seem to think that you can play while on the IL. Desheilds is in because he isn’t injured. TS will start tomorrow. News flash. Barreros has shown absolutely no reason why he should displace farmer, and two weeks left in the season is not the time to experiment with it. Reds are playing the best HEALTHY 8. healthy being the operative word, and no team is starting the same catcher for 15 games in a row.
Barrero needs an opportunity to show he belongs…see Jonathan India…
Which he will receive early 2022. Like India did
Why not move Farmer to 3rd. Certainly Barrero at ss can’t be as bad as Moose, anywhere. Why bring him up at all if you won’t give him a shot in this disastrous stretch. Should have left him at Louisville to finish out the season instead of Cincy sitting on his hands
Barrero cannot be worse than the combined .190 or whatever that the Reds are currently getting from the 3b position…so yes put Farmer at 3b, he deserves to be playing, and put Barrero at SS. He cannot help win games, without the chance
This season has been mostly a waste. Now we begin hearing that next year, if there’s not a strike or lockout, there may be a universal DH. That’s just great. Suarez and Moose can both be in the lineup every day.
You have got to be kidding.
There are plenty of people Barrero should replace. It doesn’t have to be Farmer. And he HAS shown quite a bit. When he starts and plays a full game, he has 2 multi hit games out of 3 starts, including a game winning double and hustle run. His average dips because he keeps getting tossed into cold pinch hitting situations where Bell has soomed him to fail.
For the ST Louie Cards, I don’t think they have any main injuries, other than starting pitching Flaherty, unless I am missing something, there regular starting 8 are healthy. Reds just are snake bitten! Either Reds owner does not want to spend money or the Reds don’t have money that the other overall teams have, so each year you have to hold your breath and pray none of there regular everyday 8 players and there starting pitchers don’t get hurt!
Reds do not have a regular starting 8. They have not had that ever since DB has been in charge.
It’s now three games on the loss side. Cards hit a two run homer with two out in the eighth inning to beat the Padres 3-2.
The Reds do nothing to match the Cards urgency, it’s pretty much over now. What a collapse down the stretch, Bell did nothing to stop it, the team is on life support right now.
I concur. Bell sits back and waits for the 3 run jack. Rarely, if ever, does he try to manufacture runs. Larkin mentions this all the time. Case in point: Votto walks then Moose comes up with the entire left side of the infield wide open. Drop down a bunt. You can walk to first. What’s he do? Strikes out.
Reds will need a miracle now, Cards not losing, Pads dead in water.
Tomorrow is a must win, however look at positive. Reds easily can still make the playoffs. Anything can happen. They have been a joy to watch inspite of everything. I know I been down on them recently, but alot worse going on than a team losing a ball game. Perspective goes along way
Very interesting lineup for this afternoon’s game!
J India (R) 2B
K Farmer (R) SS
N Castellanos (R) RF
T Stephenson (R) 1B
E Suárez (R) 3B
A Aquino (R) LF
J Barrero (R) CF
T Barnhart (L) C
W Miley (L) P
GO REDS!
This looks like a lineup formed from a sense of urgency.
Bell seems to be over-emphasizing the lefthandedness of Kershaw but I like it.
Is that every available right-hander in the lineup? Maybe would have like to see:
Lorenzen CF
Barrero SS
Farmer 3B — but this is pretty good. Aggressive.
Desperate times call for desperate measures, I reckon …
Please don’t start the Lorenzen in cf nonsense again
Is this really the announced lineup, Dodgers announced 3 days ago that Kershaw on a pitch count and Goeslien piggy backing ,so why all the righties, means , in 4th or 5th Bell brings in Votto, Moustakas, Schrock just burned most of his bench for maybe 2 at bats sorry just wrong again with his lineup construction
Very interesting line up, the only change I might have made was Votto at first and Stephenson in left, but overall not bad. I doubt if it will work but at least Bell is trying something different most likely to late.
MLB posted this lineup.
Random thought, but I wonder what the Reds record would be this season if we got the version of Suarez that we were expecting back in ST. His struggles over the course of the entire season have really hurt the team IMO. He was supposed to be a foundational piece to the lineup.