In a must-win game the Cincinnati Reds got out to a horrendous start. The Pirates grabbed an early 5-0 lead, but Cincinnati went on a 9-0 run from there with Joey Votto crushing his 32nd and 33rd homers of the season along the way as the Reds pulled off the come from behind win.
| Final | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pittsburgh Pirates (56-94) | 5 | 8 | 0 |
| Cincinnati Reds (78-73) | 9 | 11 | 0 |
| W: Cessa (5-2) L: Ponce (0-5) |
|||
| Statcast | Box Score | Game Thread | |||
The Offense
Cincinnati was trailing 2-0 before they even came to the plate. And it was 5-0 after the top of the 3rd inning and the Reds only had a Joey Votto walk to show for it. In the bottom of the 3rd things were going in the same direction as the first two batters of the inning were retired. But Jonathan India got a rally started with a 2-out walk. Kyle Farmer followed up with a single to put two men on for Nick Castellanos, and he drove both runners in with a double to the wall in center to put the Reds on the board. Joey Votto followed with a 2-run homer to cut the lead to 5-4.
Two innings later it was Joey Votto once again going yard to tie the game up. Eugenio Suárez followed with a solo homer of his own to put the Reds ahead 6-5. Another two innings later Kyle Farmer planted a ball out in the seats in left field to make it 7-5 and give Cincinnati a little cushion to work with.
The Reds kept moving forward after the Farmer homer as Nick Castellanos singled and Joey Votto and TJ Friedl both walked to load the bases with two outs for Delino DeShields. A pitching change didn’t make a difference as DeShields also walked to extend the Reds lead to 8-5. Tucker Barnhart would fly out to center to end the inning, but picking up additional runs was huge.
Cincinnati wasn’t done playing add on, though they got a little bit of help from the Pirates. Jonathan India was hit by a pitch with two outs in the 8th inning. That brought Nick Castellanos to the plate and he appeared to ground out, but the play was null and void as a balk was called on the pitch, which moved India up to second and gave Castellanos another chance to swing the bat and three pitches later he drove in India with an RBI single to make it 9-5.
The Pitching
Things continued to be a struggle of late for Vladimir Gutierrez. Yoshi Tsutsugo and Bryan Reynolds both connected on solo home runs in the top of the 1st inning to put the Pirates up 2-0 early. in the 3rd inning Pittsburgh played add on with four hits and a walk to bring in three more runs and extend their lead to 5-0.
After the Reds scored four runs in the bottom of the 3rd, Vladimir Gutierrez headed back out to the mound for the 4th inning. He retired Hoy Park to begin the inning, but pinch hitter Anthony Alford singled for the pitcher and that led to a pitching change for Cincinnati. Luis Cessa came on and retired the next five hitters in a row for the Pirates to keep the game at 5-4.
With Cincinnati taking a 6-5 lead in the bottom of the 5th it was time to bring Lucas Sims into the game and he held the score right there with a perfect inning that featured two strikeouts. Michael Lorenzen took over for the Reds in the 7th and 8th inning and the Pirates did absolutely nothing against him but walk back to the dugout as he held onto the lead.
Mychal Givens came out to try and lock down a win in the 9th holding a 9-5 lead. Ben Gamel led off with a double for the Pirates. After a routine ground out by Kevin Newman, Joey Votto made a diving stop down the first base line and tossed to Givens at first for the second out of the inning – saving a run in the process.
Notes Worth Noting
The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Milwuakee Brewers, so the Reds remain 3.0 games behind the Cardinals for the final playoff spot.
Jonathan India was hit by a pitch in the bottom of the 8th inning. It was the 21st time he was hit by a pitch this season, setting a new rookie record for the Reds. He had been tied with Hall of Famer Frank Robinson prior to then.
Up Next for the Cincinnati Reds
Pittsburgh Pirates vs Cincinnati Reds
Tuesday September 20th, 6:40pm ET
Tyler Mahle (12-5, 3.59 ERA) vs Mitch Keller (4-11, 6.14 ERA)
Votto was impressive tonight. In fact, he has been so all season.
yes i like his “try tp do damage approach much better than his “try to get on base “approach for sure
He was too eager to work a walk in prior years instead of driving runs in (which is expected for his spot in the batting order).
What Votto has done defensively this year has been tremendous. It will be highway robbery if he doesn’t get a gold glove.
That’s a joke right?
He’s made a few costly errors, but he’s made lots of good plays. To my eye, he’s addressed some of the issues of the past few years–like drifting in front of the 2nd baseman on a routine grounder or not getting in front of some of the balls hit to him. And he has been saving Reds infielders from throwing errors for years.
I don’t care what advanced baloney says. He’s been good defensively for the most part.
If you go by fielding percentage, which I’ve been informed is a “real” baseball stat to measure defenders by, he’s at .992 for season. Which is better than Farmer’s .987 fielding percentage. What’s more he’s done that in 904 chances while Farmer’s had 389 chances. All I can conclude from the “real” stats is that Votto is a better fielder than Farmer.
hahahahahaha
Hahaha All I’m saying is I trust my eyes and what I see.
I agree with you. Overall, I think Votto does a fine job at 1B. Especially compared to other first basemen. I was more pointing out the fallacy of relying on fielding percentage to evaluate defense.
I think Joey is one of the better ‘scoopers’ on throws to first, he rarely misses any, which keeps ground balls as outs! Not sure if the stats keep track of that.
Yikes
Lol. Did you watch Votto in the Dodger’s series? How about the game in PIttsburgh that they lost due to his bobble at 1st, which delayed the last out in the game, causing the run to score from 2nd on a ball that stayed in the infield. Sorry, but Votto is an amazing offensive player, but he is subpar on the defensive side of the ball. I will concede that he works hard on that part of his game too.
Chris holds a correct opinion. Votto isn’t very good defensively. Got a text this weekend from a Dodger-fan friend, howling at Votto’s defense.
He will make the occasional nice play, but no one should mistake him for Keith Hernandez.
I will concede that he makes an occasional bone headed play but then again, who doesn’t? I’m not saying he should necessarily win another GG. I do think he’s better than he’s given credit for.
Really good game for the Reds two hitting stars Castellanos and Votto. Six hits, 8 times on base, 6 RBI, 4 runs. Can’t expect anything like that every game, but it was huge tonight after Gutierrez dug the Reds a big hole that got bigger when the Cardinals posted their 9th straight win. The bullpen was stellar too. Great win tonight.
I posted about this on Nick Kirby’s “Optimism” thread yesterday, but I really think the Reds need to swap Gutierrez and Santillan. Vlad has struggled mightily lately – maybe just fatigue, it’s been a long season for him – while Tony only seems to get stronger. I’d like to see Santillan pick up the last two starts for that slot.
The Reds do need help from the Brewers and Cubs, but a big tip of the cap tonight for taking care of job one in spite of the deep early deficit. Can’t wait for tomorrow night’s game. Go Reds!
Yes, Vlad has hit the wall. He has the heart, but his arm is dead. Bell won’t make the change because it is so obvious. It might be a good time to skip a start for a start for Miley as well. Give Lorenzen a start. Reds are going to wind up finishing one game behind the cardinals.
I am optimistic for this club in the future.
i do think we need to reconstruct this outfield though.
i have given up on Winker, Senzel and Aquino. We need outfielders that can hit, run, field and are durable and can play every game and these 3 just don’t fit the bill. maybe TJ Freidl can be a piece of the puzzle for next year. i really wish we would have held onto Jose Siri. i think he is going to be a heck of a player.
Wow your comment about Winker just blew me away….. He needs replacing… I think you fell and hit your head. His batting numbers are Huge compared to oh almost everyone in baseball. He is a top 20 hitter in all of Baseball simply put by just his batting stats and he has not been that bad this year in the OF either.
Senzel yes has not really been able to prove anything significant at the major league level and Aquino is clearly a 5th outfielder at best.
Only Winker and Naquin shall be considered as part of the OF line-up for next season as cannot rely on Senzel and his health, Aquino and Shogo do not contribute in any way and Deshields is a bust. If Castellanos finally splits then there’ll be at least two spots to be filled in.
Eliminating someone from contention for past injuries is purely absurd. He very well might play a long career without another single injury. Injuries in sports are most often freak occurrences. Obviously some specific injuries lend themselves to chronic injury, but none of Senzel’s injuries are that. It’s basically been bad luck. He should continue to be considered unless he is currently hurt.
That said, he should be the 3rd baseman next year anyway.
Not trying to pick on Winker as when he plays for the most part he has hit, he has had some down weeks but more good to great weeks than really bad weeks.
He should be part of the future plans but the Reds do need a right hitting outfielder to give Winker days off vs lefty pitching at least 50% of the time. Not a straight platoon but Winker needs at least one day a week off based on his 1st three full (162 game) season.
2017 (call up year) – Out 8-25 to 9-12.
2018 – Out July 26th for the season (89 games)
2019 – Out Aug 19th for the season (113 games)
2021 – Out Aug 16th for the season (110 games)
2017 and 2020 are the only seasons he played at all in September.
Reds need to figure out a way to keep him healthy for September and be available for all 6 months and not just 4 to 4.5 months.
I’m not sure it’s wise to consider Winker part of the long term plans. Not because of performance but because, as you just pointed out, he has yet to play a full season without injury. More than once it’s been a result of swinging the bat so it’s not like you can eventually use him at 1B or DH to keep him healthier. Would we really give him a long term contract when the time comes? I doubt it. Will his trade value be any higher than it is now? Just saying. Remember what the value of Senzel once was and what it is now.
This is a very honest appraisal of Winker. For me, 2021 was most frustrating not just because the team was a contender and he was a key cog but also because it was clear he had spent the sweat equity over the 2020-21 offseason to reshape shape and build up his body. Yet still, his body betrayed him in the crunch time of the season.
Verus RH pitching, Winker has established himself as one of the best offensive players in MLB (1.070 OPS in 2021). The other side of the coin is unfortunately he still is a far below average offensive player versus LH pitching (.572 OPS in 2021). If this was ever going to change, it almost certainly would have been this year. Thankfully for Winker and the Reds, around 70% of MLB pitchers are RH.
Moving forward perhaps as suggested the Reds can mitigate both Winker’s handedness and durability issues by pairing him with a RH hitter as a 1B or DH.
Well once again Votto proved he should retire or be released or given away what a wasted spot in our line up. Please solve other problems we have before you worry about his contract or first base or 3/4/5 spot in lineup. If all our other players were performing as well we would be fine.
Agree, but remember this was a practice game for the Pirates. Scrubs pitching with 7.00 ERA. Can’t buy too much into our hitting in that one.
Mmmm, yes, but, he wasn’t hitting beach balls out…he had to go down for those pitches (first one was a curve ball) and get the barrel on it. Suarez did too, whereas before he probably would have stepped out and waved at it.
Today finally the offense showed some signs of life, with Farmer, Castellanos and Votto all coming back in good fashion. Unfortunately, the combination of Gutierrez and Miley poor performances, Winker’s injury and cold bats led to this September’s debacle. The rest of the rotation and the bullpen have been very good, but the bench was not able to overcome the regular’s offensive struggles as Suarez, Moustakas, Cabrera and Aquino have all been a disaster.
Suarez has not had a bad September. His only month that hasn’t been bad.
I agree Jim. I am not sure what we should do with him going forward. He is more of a keeper than Moose at almost half the cost. Still, 10 million a year is steep if he doesn’t produce. The question is will he carry it forward next season. He is well liked by his teammates and seems to be a leader. You have Barreo and Farmer. I wonder with Barreo getting time in CF if they think the SS of the future is McClain. They could buy time at SS with Farmer until McClain is ready. It will be interesting this off season.
I wonder about that, too. Maybe they just want to see if he has positional flexibility, and center field is more a position of need this year? I would think it’s too early in McClain’s career for them to moving MLB players around to make room for him. Barrero does appear to have the defensive tools of a center fielder, but he does for shortstop, too.
A real meaningful win. It came through, the Reds are going to make a real effort to take the WC2. The offense, hopefully, has come alive.
Votto was a leader last night. And we are fortunate to have Cessa. Seems like the league has caught on to Vlad. His last few outings terrible. Might need to rethink penciling him in for 180 innings next year. Maybe he has just hit a wall.
I liked the lineup tonight for most part, And friedl in there pinch hitting contributed.
Joey Votto Still Bangs! It’s been impressive what he’s done this season. The Reds needed it big time tonight after getting in another big hole from their starting pitching. Relievers did their job tonight covering a good amount of innings.
A couple of things, I was a little surprised Vlad was left in after giving up 4 runs in a must win game where he appeared to be very hittable. It seemed like it was time to pull him before more damage could be done. I was shocked he was allowed to hit for himself when every out mattered if the Reds wanted to mount a comeback. Then he came back out for the 4th inning?! Fortunately the baserunner he allowed there was wiped away and didn’t come back to haunt the Reds. There needs to be more of a sense of urgency within these last few weeks. Can’t expect the offense to put up 9 every night you spot the other team 5 runs.
How would the Reds display the urgency which you think they aren’t showing? I’m not being flippant…it is a common comment that the players don’t care, or Bell doesn’t care, or they’ve given up, which, especially this year with the WC on the line, I think just isn’t true. We certainly are all disappointed that a number of things have collapsed at a most crucial time…but I can’t believe its from a lack of urgency or desire.
I wouldn’t say the players lack urgency. Bell could have showed urgency by pulling Gutierrez after allowing the 4th run to score. The Reds need to win as many games as possible, at this point. Allowing a starter who obviously doesn’t have it that night to continue to labor (and then give up another run) putting your team further in the hole isn’t acting with a sense of urgency. It ended up working out fine last night, but a lot of nights that’s not the case, and less often a team scores 9 unanswered runs.
For instance, in Miley’s September start vs the Cardinals he gave up 3 runs through 3 innings. He was being hit hard and often. He went out for the 4th and gave up two more after the Reds had taken a lead. They lost that game by 1 run. Likewise the last game by Miley he’d given up several runs to the Dodgers but was allowed to stay on and ended up giving up 6 in a game the Reds scored 5. (and yes the bullpen gave up two in the 9th but maybe Hoffman wouldn’t have been in that situation if it were a close game).
If it’s earlier in the season you can maybe excuse it due to “saving” the bullpen or it’s a long season. Well, it’s not a long season anymore. There’s nothing to save the bullpen for. Guys like Moreta wait in the wings if you burn through guys.
For me, it starts with the Moustakas situation. From day 1 when the guy came back, it was very clear he was not in game condition. His lack of defense was key in at least 2 games getting away from them, the middle game in Miami at the start of the downturn and the middle game versus the Dodgers last weekend. He has done next to nothing offensively to boot. Yet he keeps getting chances.
And it is not like the Reds did not have alternatives. They could put Barrero into the lineup at SS and moved Farmer to 3B or positioned them vice versa. Alejo Lopez, a switch hitter, could have been brought up to replace Moustakas and used in the mix.
Then there is the whole issue of Brach being brought back and used in leverage situations that cost them a couple of games when Duri Moreta was available and literally had not been scored on for over a month.
Cabrera was claimed to have an additional RH bat versus LH pitching but has rarely been used in that situation. Stephenson has been grossly underused. Et al and etc
Also good points Jim.
I agree Jim. Also, why Lopez and Moreta weren’t brought up and used is beyond me. Instead they went way beyond what is reasonable with Suarez, Moose, AA, Akiyama, DeShields Jr. and Cabrera. All with almost zero input with the bat. Someone made some terrible decisions on who to put on the field.
They could have put Barrero at short, indeed, but he hasn’t shown that he can hit at the MLB level. I take Luke J’s point below, but, while it’s true that each game is important, it’s also true that each next game is important. Maybe they’re kidding themselves and are done, and should be playing all of the young guys, but I don’t think they believe that yet. Votto doesn’t seem to, and I listen when he talks.
Tough decision when a starter gets hit early. The bullpen is better than it was, but still doesn’t have enough reliable guys. If they have to cover 6 or 7 innings in a game, they’ll be really thin the next day. And despite sentiment to the contrary, the team does have to keep in mind that they’re playing the next day.
I’m not so sure that’s entirely true anymore. Had the Reds lost last night (with St.L. having won), they would be 5 games in the loss column back with 11 to play. That’s about as done as you can get. I think we are past the point of looking ahead to the next game. Every single game is a must win now. Too few games left and too much ground to make up.
I can be a tough decision, but I agree the bullpen is better. I’m not sure I’d agree the bullpen doesn’t have enough reliable guys. In fact, I’d say everyone in the current bullpen has demonstrated some amount of reliability lately. Givens, Cessa, and Lorenzen have been godsends to the bullpen since their arrival. Warren has pitched great out of the bullpen when he’s been healthy. So has Santillan since being added to the bullpen. Hoffman has a 2.32 ERA (4.45 FIP) as a reliever Adding Sims back has been beneficial as well. He’s posted a 4.30 ERA (2.75 FIP) and .170 batting average against since returning at the beginning of August. Wilson has a 3.55 ERA (3.95 FIP, .205 batting average against) since coming over to the Reds. Even Garrett has been pretty solid since June began and pitched to a 3.42 FIP. He’s the weak link, but the other 7 guys have been reliable. It’s time to rely on them when the starters don’t have it, IMO.
Hoffman 3.32 ERA (sorry mistyped).
@Hotto
I’ll take a mid 3 ERA and Mid 3 FIP as well that is very decent compared to what the bullpen was doing the 1st half of the season. I haven’t had any issue with Wilson since he came over to the Reds.
The bullpen certainly is better, Hotto, but don”t you get a mild anxiety attack when Hoffman or Garret comes into the game? I certainly do. Others have pointed out that some starters–ours included–start slowly and settle down, and six innings from the pen is going to leave fewer–or more tired–options for the next game. You guys may well be right, but I think that, with Miley and Guttierez, those were defensible decisions, given how good they’ve been so far.
I’d look at recent trends. Miley has been bad 3 of 4 starts in September. Gutierrez also showing signs of wearing down.
And yeah, Hoffman and Garrett do make me more nervous than the others, but way less so than some other recently jettisoned relievers. But I think there’s a way to pitch them more situationally. If the game becomes close, use other relievers, if the bullpen throws gas on the fire the starter started, use Hoffman and Garrett.
Good discussion fellas
Man, we really really need the Brewers!!!
Yes. And for the young stupid Cubbies to not figure they are young stupid cubbies who are supposed to roll over versus the Cardinals.
This may not be popular but I wouldn’t mind if the Reds traded both Winker and Senzel, you might get a nice package for both. Winker is a good player but missing 1/2 of August and all of September in 18, 19 and 21 shows a pattern that I would like to be somebody else’s problem. Larkin has talked a lot this year about availability being a key quality of a star player and though it may be harsh to say these to guys don’t fit that bill.
I’ll attempt to post a comment this morning that won’t be cancelled. Nice comeback win for the Reds! Kudos to Bell for removing Vlad as he obviously didn’t have “it” from the get go! Great job by the bullpen! Still hoping the Reds can close the gap between themselves and the Dirty Birds! A 3-game differential can disappear in a week or less! Need some help from the Brewers! Wash, rinse and repeat tonight! Let’s not spot the opponent a 5-0 lead this time!
99.9 % of the planet would’ve pulled Vlad much earlier after walking the pitcher to lead off the inning and then giving up 5 rockets in a row.
They’re lucky it wasn’t 8-0.
I think worrying about the lineups is nonsensical, but Bell’s feel for pitchers is as bad as I’ve ever seen in 40 years of studying the game. Don’t let winning the game hide that fact.
Cessa was coming in and was warming up at 2-0
The Reds shut down Hunter Greene out of an abundance of caution because he didn’t pitch a ton last year, yet here we see a clearly gassed Vlad Gutierrez, who had the same experience last year, going every 5th day. At some point you have to prioritize his health…..that is IF they value their young players equally. Do they? From a more practical standpoint he’s simply not getting the job done. It makes the most sense to swap him out for Santillan or Hoffman.
Here’s the thing: the team knew long ago they’d be playing meaningful September games, yet did nothing to plan for it. Had they been proactive, they could’ve skipped Vlad a couple times, given Greene innings limits throughout the year so they’d have an extra bullpen arm in September, brought up Moreta.
It wouldn’t surprise me if they shut down Vlad for the year with ‘shoulder fatigue’.
This is Bell we’re talking about. I expect Vlad and Miley to make every start and give up a minimum of 4 even though everyone knows they’re done
Greene’s innings limit was as much about not pitching in a season since Tommy John surgery as it was about no season last year. If he wasn’t building up after that surgery, his innings count would have likely been higher.
That said, clearly Vlad is hitting a wall. I’m not sure his health is at risk as much as you do, but his effectiveness is.
And I forgot to mention, Greene was on an innings/pitch limit all year. He was rarely ever permitted to go past 5 innings. He did a couple times in AA as they built him up, and they let him go 6 one game in AAA, but it was quite clear he was on strict limitation every single start.
Greene was regularly throwing 95+ pitches an outing at AA and was over 100 at least once or twice. They throttled him back into the 75-85 range soon after he arrived at AAA. He actually went 7 full innings once at AA.
Just checked and Greene in 6 games at AA went less than 6 innings only twice at AA (5.1/ 5.0). In addition to the 7.0 inning game he also had a 6.2 inning game and 2x 6.0 innings.
https://www.fangraphs.com/players/christian-greene/sa3005315/game-log?position=P&season=
Hunter is a bonus baby that throws 104. Vlad is a Rudy. His greatest value to the Reds is they don’t care if he gets hurt.
The first problem with that argument is that the Reds gave Vlad a $4.75 million dollar bonus, just under what they gave Nick Lodolo at $5.43 million. Vlad is pretty much the definition of a bonus baby.
The second problem is that it makes zero sense. Why would the Reds risk injuring a productive pitcher, regardless of his signing bonus? Mahle got a $250,000 bonus, and Graham Ashcraft for $247,500, but they sure don’t want either to get hurt.
The signing bonuses have been paid and are long since under the bridge. An injury would risk losing the value of the player’s future contribution to the team.
This makes way too much sense for David Bell.
I’m not clear on what makes too much sense for David Bell. People have great fun here bashing him, but since our opinions about the players are proven wrong so often, and since the Reds have played good baseball for much of the year, I’m inclined to show him some respect.
I don’t disagree they’re treating Vlad and Hunter different – but they are different. Vlad is 26 years old and a track record of pitching > 100 innings a year. I wouldn’t be surprised if he pitched well over 100 innings when he was in Cuba. I – along with many on here – think the Reds missed a chance on Sept. 1st to bring Hunter up to pitch out of the bullpen. Energize the fan base and the team. I am worried that Lodolo can’t handle the rigors of a major league season – only 50 innings this year. I hope I’m wrong.
Monday was a good win for the team. Votto was vintage Votto; and, Castellanos looked like the guy we had seen most of the season as opposed to the most recent 3 weeks or so.
Reds just have to keep playing and winning until somebody tells them they are officially out of it, which hopefully never comes to pass.
This just my humble opinion. We were all thrilled when we were 12 over.This was accomplished with guys some have been dogging , Suarez, Farmer Tucker and a crappy bullpen. The screaming was for Barrero,Hunter and others while our “career minor leaguers” were getting it done. Losing Castellanos was HUGE. Losing Winker and Naquin was HUGE but neither could hit lefties.I was a huge Suarez critic and couldn’t wait for Moustakis to come back. The 1st game with 3 doubles was exciting but fools gold. When Bell continued to give the majority of playing time to play Moustakis the Reds downfall started. I realized at least Suarez would run into a pitch every now and then. And he could definitely give us adequate defense at 3rd. Maybe we’ll catch lightning’s in a bottle this last week. Go Reds
Yes, Moustakas’ play since coming back has hurt — both offensively and defensively. I really think he should be on the IL.
Suarez, on the other hand, is having a productive September when given the chance. I realize, of course, that this season overall has been a disaster, but the guy still has 27 HRs and 71 RBIs to date. That’s nothing to sneeze at. For the month of September, his numbers are very good: .313 BA / .425 OBP / .750 SLG / 1.175 OPS.
So, given Moustakas’ situation and the seeming resistance to shifting Farmer away from SS, I say play Suarez at 3B from here on out. If he continues to hit the way he has this month, it could make a big difference — especially in protecting Votto. We saw that last night. The No. 2, 3, 4, and 5 guys in the lineup produced — and it made a huge impact.
Baseball is simple isn’t it? When the heart of the line up hits, you win and the manager looks very smart right?
Sparky Anderson’s theory of management:
A team wins 1/3 of its games no matter what the manager does.
A team loses 1/3 of its games no matter what a manager does.
The manager has to avoid doing things that impair the team’s chances in the remaining 1/3 (slight paraphrase on the final 1/3)
So how would you evaluate David Bell under Sparky’s theory Jim?
Sweeping the Pirates is a very achievable goal and beating the Nats 3/4 as well.
Whatever the reason(s) , Reds have lost 8 series in a row.
Playing at homer friendly GABP against mediocre pitchers is the tonic this team needs. The Moose/Suarez platoon hasn’t worked. Moose has played poorly and I would put Suarez in the 5 hole and at 3b every day the rest of the season. Moose is the power bat off the bench and they can do a deep dive in the off-season on that mess.
Suarez is absolutely capable of carrying this offense for 10 days with a 15-35 streak and 8 homers and 4 doubles and 16 RBI over a 10 game streak. The platoon at 3b isnt working.
Go India/Farmer/Castellanos/Votto/Suarez every day 1-5 and ride it. Nothing to lose. Maybe the continuity/confidence/rhythm/cohesion and camaraderie at homer friendly GABP against bad teams can carry this team to the finish.
The Reds have lost their last eight series. The Cardinals have won their last nine games.
We all know that but what are you gonna do about the past?
This is just like a game of bowling now. If the Cards strike out or even mark out, the Reds are beaten; but if the Cards throw a split, the Reds could still win if they strike out. So you just keep putting the X’s on the board and hope.
Funny but nice analogy Jim. Or like 3 holes down with 6 to play in match play. Just take care of your game and hope the other guy chokes.
difference between a winning organization and a losing one.
Beaufort Red: What do you have in mind to deal with the past?
Agree with 1-5. Let’s not throw Shrock in 2 or Moose in 5b for match up or whatever reason. I am a huge fan of having a stable line up. Toy with 6-8 to your heart content DB, it does not matter much anyway lol
Votto is king!! So clutch, go Reds!!
For some reason I said I liked your amplify Jim and got censured. ?? I also said it’s like being 3 down with 6 to play in match play. You just take care of your game and hope the other guy breaks. Not sure what’s so bad about that.
It’s like being 3 down with 6 to play in match play. You just take care of your game and hope the other guy breaks.
Interesting column by Chad Dotson in Cincinnati Magazine on the Reds’ leadership crisis:
https://www.cincinnatimagazine.com/article/the-latest-crisis-in-cincinnati-reds-leadership/
Scary, and something I’ve wondered on/off ever since Dick Williams left. I told my teenage son if they have a home playoff game this year we are going, because who knows how long it may be until we see another one.
Sad but so true and we see every day.Why would any body want to work for or play for this owner?
Weather seems impossible for a game tomorrow and will need to hurry to get tonight’s game in. Could be a lot of Bird watching and the home stand extended to Monday as both Reds and Pirates off. Cards have DH Friday to complete 5 games in next 4 days plus games Sat/Sun for 7 games in 6 days. Pitching fatigue could become a big issue. With 69 losses and the Reds at 73 losses, Cards need to lose at least 3 of these next 5 games and 4 of 7 to get to 73 losses and give the Reds a shot entering the final week.
I guess a good goal now is to finish above .500. I know that is like kissing your cousin, but it’s the only realistic goal at this point.
My biggest concern is what happens after the season. I would like to see David Bell replaced, but with someone who has no managing experience or history of success.
A few weeks ago I was excited about the direction of this franchise, now though I am more concerned.
I am 60 years old and want to see another world championship in my life time. I really hope the Reds don’t reject data driven analytics. If they do this franchise will be lost.
Tonight’s lineup (Friedl with the start in CF):
J India (R) 2B
M Schrock (L) LF
N Castellanos (R) RF
J Votto (L) 1B
K Farmer (R) SS
E Suárez (R) 3B
T Barnhart (L) C
T Friedl (L) CF
T Mahle (R) P
Considering situation looks good. Go Reds
I’d bat Mahle 8th and Friedl 9th, but the best we can muster with this roster.
Lineup posted. Actually best possible considering injuries. Mitch, get beat around keller on the mound