The Cincinnati Reds bid farewell to an 11-game, 14-day losing streak by scoring a 4-1 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals at Great American Ball Park.
| Final | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|
| St. Louis Cardinals (9-5) | 1 | 7 | 0 |
| Cincinnati Reds (3-13) |
4 | 8 | 0 |
| W: Lodolo (1-2) L: Wainwright (2-2) SV: Sims (1) |
|||
| Statcast | Box Score | Game Thread | |||
The big story: Rookie lefthander Nick Lodolo earned his first major league victory with a masterful performance in which 72 percent of his pitches were strikes. After he completed 5 2/3 innings, the bullpen closed the door the rest of the way to preserve the Reds’ third victory before 23,124 at GABP.
The Offense
The home team got off to a quick start in the bottom of the first against Cardinals starter Adam Wainwright, who has a history of struggles at Great American Ball Park. Tyler Naquin led off with a double. An out later, Tommy Pham and Joey Votto both drew walks in lengthy at-bats, with Votto’s having historical significance:
Congrats to @JoeyVotto on his 1,300th career walk! ? pic.twitter.com/lTYxeFFd2G
— Bally Sports Cincinnati (@BallySportsCIN) April 24, 2022
It was the first of three walks on the day for Votto. Colin Moran then delivered:
.@morancolin92 kicks off the 2-run inning for the @Reds, with an RBI scoring Naquin! pic.twitter.com/gGsfFPBePv
— Bally Sports Cincinnati (@BallySportsCIN) April 24, 2022
Nick Senzel followed with a run-scoring single for a 2-0 lead, but after rounding first, Senzel was caught too far off the base to end the inning.
Alejo Lopez and JT Riddle led off the bottom of the second with singles, and a Naquin groundout scored Lopez from third for a 3-0 Reds lead.
After St. Louis scored a run in the top of the sixth, Moran again delivered in the bottom of the sixth:
Second RBI of the day for @morancolin92! pic.twitter.com/YvV1HoDwtI
— Bally Sports Cincinnati (@BallySportsCIN) April 24, 2022
For the season, Moran is 4-for-16 against righties. Not world-beating, but certainly above-average for this current roster iteration. He fits currently as the DH against righthanded pitching.
Pham and Senzel had two hits apiece to pace the winners.
The Pitching
Lodolo had his best major-league start. In 79 pitches, he threw 57 strikes. He painted the edges and recorded key strikeouts in big situations on his 94-95 mph fastball up in the zone. He showed today why hopes are very high for what he can bring to this team this year and over the next several years.
Tony Santillan, Art Warren and Lucas Sims closed things out over the final 3 1/3 innings. By pitching for the second time in as many days, Sims showed very positive signs that he has recovered from his pre-season arm woes. He retired the side in order in the top of the ninth to record his first of what we hope will be many saves.
Any winning this team does this year will be due to pitching excellence. Today was a classic example of how this team will need to win when it is able to do so.
News and Notes
The #Reds have claimed off waivers from the Mets IF Matt Reynolds. pic.twitter.com/JHMwTbTqMY
— Cincinnati Reds (@Reds) April 24, 2022
This move was announced early in today’s game. Reynolds is a righthanded batting infielder with a .212 career average. He’s not a season-saver. 🙂 The Reds DFA’d righthander Ryan Hendrix to make room for Reynolds on the 40-man roster. A 25-man roster move will need to be made before Tuesday’s game to make room for Reynolds.
Up Next for the Cincinnati Reds
San Diego Padres at Cincinnati Reds
Tuesday, April 26, 6:40 p.m. ET
Joe Musgrove (2-0, 1.89 ERA) vs. Reiver Sanmartin (0-2, 7.11 ERA)
Only two away from a winning streak
Actually, only one more. 🙂 A win Tuesday would be a two-game winning streak.
1300 career walks. I would think that alone would put him in Hall Of Fame conversations. Of course there is much much more.
I seen he is the all time leader in strike out.
haha Joey Votto is not the all time leader in SO. He has about 1503 for his entire career so far.
#1 Reggie Jackson – 2597
#2 Jim Thome – 2548
#3 Adam Dunn – 2379
And — Reggie and Thome: Still HOFs.
When did Reggie Jackson and Jim Thome play for the Reds?
There are 15 people with more walks than Joey not in the Hall of Fame including the Big Dunn-key (1317).
Really good baseball game.
Go Reds!
No problem We’re just a 10 game winning streak from being back in this. Castellini’s sitting back thinking. “told ya so”. D-Bag.
Okay, that’s one monkey off our backs. Solid outing by Lodolo. Watched just a little and he looked sharp.
Maybe this is the beginning of something. I celebrated with pizza.
Pizza always a good way to celebrate, no matter the occasion!
Amazing how much better the results are when your pitchers don’t walk a batter an inning. With an off day tomorrow, that’ll give the Reds a two-day non-losing streak. Tomorrow is an ideal day for some staff and roster changes. I see Greene’s next start has been pushed back but Bell assures us he’s “healthy”. What’s the over/under on the number of days before Greene goes on the injured list?
Amazing how the odds of winning go up when your offense score more than 1 run!
I think the success of Nodolo today was helped with the presence of Kolozsvary, they played together at Chatanooga last season so Mark received the must of the Lodolo´s starts and knows pretty well his stuff… they did a great job really today…
Thats a good question
I dont know
Lodolo looked like Chris Sale
Id like to see Stephenson be the next first baseman and a backup catcher
There is some logic to this train of thought. It has occurred to me in watching Stephenson this year that he is not anywhere near the equivalent of Barnhart defensively.
What if Stephenson became the primary DH? And backup first baseman? This year?
Garcia appears to have some skill with the bat. Can’t speak at all for Kolosvzary.
Any downsides to this idea?
Votto is starting his exit tour
Reds arent making the playoffs and next year is literally his farewell tour.
Who is Joey Votto’s replacement?
Its overdue to ask that question
Id say Stephenson and get another catcher
Tom – It would definitely help offensively with this current roster for sure. The argument has always been how many times does a good hitting catcher come along? As I’ve said we could kind of have the best of both worlds but David Bell is afraid to use TS as the DH when not catching in fear of possibly having to use a pitcher as a batter for an inning or two once in a great while if the catcher gets injured. Some say it was a boneheaded move to have them both in the lineup the other day. I say the boneheaded move was not having them in reverse with Garcia catching. David Bell has already shown he wants to give TS regular days off and had a perfect chance to do so without having his bat out of the lineup. Stevenson is not as good as Barnhart defensively but is he not good enough to be a good hitting full time catcher? He does have the potential to get better as time goes by and he gets more settled. If/when we EVER get a good lineup again it will be a big plus to have him as a catcher in my view.
It seems that moving Stephenson to first when Votto’s contract is done makes too much sense to not happen. Why not protect him from the battering catchers take for the next two years? And why not make the Reds’ DH one of the best DH positions in the National League?
These young pitchers need skilled defensive catchers to help them through the growing pains.
Could be right. Wouldn’t it be nice to have both skills? Johnny Bench doesn’t come along too often. There’s only one. 🙂
To me the post Joey infield is 1B de la Cruz, 2B McLean, SS Barrero, 3B India.
@Tom, the only downside is losing an offensive advantage at Catcher. I think Stephenson should be the back up 1B, maybe once every 3 games or so to let his legs rest. Also JV won’t like it, but his body can use the rest to. We really don’t have a successor to JV, so it could be Stephenson, but I bet it’s easier to find a good 1B, than a C, on the FA market.
I thought that Stephenson looked pretty good at first base last year. Playing there would certainly be easier on his knees than catching would.
The Reds don’t have another middle of the line up 1B in the organization. So moving Stephenson to 1B/DH makes a ton of sense.
If the Reds are rebuilding, they have to rebuild with an aim for 2023-24 and remove any player who’s not going to be contributing in those years. It also means getting players into the right positions now to succeed in the future.
As Gretzky said – I don’t skate to where the puck is, I skate to where the puck is going to be. We need to do more of that.
Uh? The Reds need to learn to skate now?
Move Votto to DH most days and Stephenson to first. Give him time to grow and rest JV’s weary bones. Garcia is pushing 30 and has a .224 lifetime BA. Kolozsvary is only 26 but seems to hit less and less as he moves up. So the Reds need a catching solution.
Kolo also caught Greene prior to Greene’s TJ surgery then again at Class AA last year during his dominant run until Kolo left for the Olympic team tryouts.
Nice insight.
About the 3rd inning of his next start, I expect 🙁
Jesse Winker just hit game winning hit for Mariners. I miss Winker’s bat.
The only people who don’t miss Winker are Banana Bob, Born on 3rd Phil, and clueless Nick K.
He is unquestionably good against right-handed pitching. But, so far, he hasn’t had much more luck staying on the field than Senzel has.
great nicknames!
Jesse currently hitting .149 on season and people here would be all over him.
Caught the Mariners about 3 days ago and they said Winker led MLB in walks so there’s that! Geno Suarez has a OPS over .900 as well. I like Seattle’s team
Yes he is, however he is better than Pham, Aquino, maybe even Naquin.
I miss Winker also, especially against righthanded pitching. He came up with the Reds and last season came into his own as an all star. Here today, gone tomorrow applies not only to baseball.
Alejo Lopez appears to have a pretty good bat. He seems to be a guy who makes pretty good, consistent contact.
Will he stay when Max Schrock, Jose Barrero, Jonathan India, etc come back from the DL?
The eye test tells me that Lopez doesn’t have much power. But if he can maintain his current .330 OBP, he certainly should have a place on this team, based on what we know of it at the moment.
If Lopez and Schrock, eventually, are both in the lineup it will make a difference offensively. They’re both ‘old time’ type players in my mind: spray around hits and get on base.
Have there been any Reds’ sacrifice bunts at all this year?
MLB.com statistics say no.
Thanks, Tom. Lazybones here when it comes to digging out into.
This may become more of a rhetorical question as well.
Have we seen the end of the sacrifice in baseball?
Contemporary analytical thinking is that giving up an out via sacrifice bunt does more harm than good. I’m not expert enough in all of the analytics to more fully and accurately explain the rationale.
Tom, is that the same for stolen bases and hit and run as well. I believe Chris Welsh mentioned, the other day, that a baseball runner has to be successful 80% of the time before stolen bases attempts do more harm than good.
Too bad because it makes for a much more exciting game, at least to me. Is that why MKB is looking at things like bigger bases?
@Votto4life It’s because a team is more likely to score with a Runner on first and no outs than they are to score with a runner on second and 1 out. The only scenario where a Bunt is correct is runner on 3rd 1-out is more likely to score than runner on second no-out. However, that assumes a bunt is always successful. I’d say, good luck trying to bunt against a pitcher throwing 100.
The data definitively says Outs are way more valuable than it’s been thought in the past. Stolen Bases are fine, as long as you are good at it. The 80% rule Welsh talked about is a reference to how important outs are.
I believe a recent Red’s manager was a big proponent of the sacrifice bunt, Jim Riggleman.
Exactly why give up an out to move a runner to 2nd base when you can just give up the out by striking out?
The same question occurred to me.
Tom I always enjoy your comments in this section. Thank you.
Thank you for the kind words.
Steven Spielberg is from Cincinnati and is a huge baseball fan. Last I heard, he was working on a film about Cincinnati native Miller Huggins.
I would sure love to see Spielberg buy the Redlegs.
Spielberg, Sheen family, and Lacheys would be far more motivated than what we have currently
Hmmmm, where is my rolodex?
Part of me is happy they won. part of me is a weird way wants them to lose 125 games this year.
if you are a baseball fan living in Cincinnati or Pittsburgh are you really happy with the state of mlb right now? if you a redsox, yankees or dodgers fan you are ecstatic about the state of the game. for us, not so much. neither team really has been relevant since the 1990s. we have just not adapted well to the 21st century style of baseball of just buying homerun hitters and strike out pitchers which is really what the game has boiled down to today.
i just feel like the game has to collapse and be rebuilt again in a different way. it will have collapse from the bottom up not the top down. if the weaker teams continue to lose 21-0 and lose 120 games /year that will at least start the conversation for change. if we just continue treading a long winning 68 games/year nobody will say a thing i am afraid
Rednat, Very well stated. I probably like a bitter, old man and I probably am, but I think analytic has ruined a gain.
Analytics may be smarter based, but it’s also burning baseball. Give me hit and runs, stole bases and triples anytime over exit velocity and spin rates.
* sound
I also like the game better as it was. I sound like a bitter old man, too, but there was more to watch. Home runs, situationally, can be very exciting, but for me, at least, they pale in comparison to a straight steal of home.
With you 100% on that. Too many statistics and nonsense. Pitcher is throwing 95 and now Mr. Batter has to calculate his launch angle, barrell percentage, etc, etc, etc. Nonsense. At 95 you have to decide whether to swing or not swing and how hard. Not much time to do anything else.
Only need 10 more consecutive wins to be right back in the thick of things 🙂
Tom, enjoy you answering questions and interacting with fans…My condolences to Tom Browning…Tom, what is your take on David Bell as manager?
Thanks for the kind words. I have no issue with David Bell. I certainly don’t have the disdain for him that many of the regulars here do. Most of the comments about Bell that I read here have to do with his use of the bullpen. Last year, he had a big bunch of nothing to work with, for the most part, so I don’t know how you fault someone for that. This year, he currently has pretty much the equivalent of an expansion team roster to work with, so again, how do you take issue with a manager whose team is batting .186 and is pitching at a 5.40 team ERA? I think during the COVID year, he kept the team steady and guided them to the playoffs, even though it was an expanded playoffs. I would have no problem if the front office signs Bell to an extension.
I enjoyed the day outside yesterday so I didn’t watch the game. I’m glad the Reds won to stop the skid. I did watch on YouTube the big Reds/Cards brawl when Brandon Phillips came to the plate and Molina started yapping. That was great fun when there actually was a Reds/Cards rivalry that meant something.
Saw over on MLBTR that India is close (maybe for Tuesday) and Stephenson is likely out until early May. The former is encouraging The latter is very frustrating. I saw Voit went on the IL with a biceps strain … maybe arm contact to the helmet pushed that along.
Didn’t realize Koloszvary was so short, but I wonder if there’s an unseen benefit—getting more pitch calls. The strike zone probably seems really large looking over his shoulder versus a 6’4″ guy like Stephenson. Lodolo was the beneficiary of a generous strike zone. Something to keep an eye on. Also didn’t realize Koloszvary’s pop time to second was so good. In fact, it’s better that Barnhart.
Overall, the Red’s catching situation is good.
Kolozsvary is why it made no sense to even flirt with the idea of paying Barnhart $7.5m this year if Stephenson was going to be the primary catcher in 2022.
TB has started the season with something of an offensive flourish in his new digs; but, the record says as he wears down over the season, the floor will fall out of his offense. Why pay $7.5m for what you can get for $700K
Maybe if they had held TB through the lockout, they would have found a better deal than they got for him but maybe they end up having to pay out several million to move him for a not significantly better return.
Actually, Barnhart is hitting .259 with 0 RBI with the Tigers so he’s not doing much and indeed it would have made no sense to re-sign him. Garcia looks like one of the better hitters on the Reds right now (admittedly, that’s not saying much).
@Maloney63
TB’s current OPS+ is 106 against a career average of 84; so, I gave him the benefit of the doubt. However, it has been since 2018 (OPS+=88) that he matched or bettered his career average OPS+
Looking at his OPS+ through the years, the period 2016-2918 (OPS+ = 86/95/88) set him up for the big contract which ends after this season.
The vaunted White Sox have lost 7 straight and the Cubs lost 3 of 4 to the Pirates. Baseball’s a weird game. Not saying the Reds have a prayer, but losing streaks and looking godawful for stretches is normal.
If you’re ever in the area, Chattanooga Lookouts games are a lot of fun. I went to one in 2019 and Eric Davis and Barry Larkin were there. I approached ED and told him how I got his autograph at a card show in 1989, and how he was my favorite player. He said he appreciated that and shook my hand. Larkin was very standoffish, also about 5’7″ when his card says he was 6′. Haha.
Barry is a great guy, and has no attitude like you suggest. Is it possible he was distracted by something else and you didn’t catch him at his best?
I’ve chatted with him and Junior after games a number of times and they are just kind of mellow, low key guys I think. More prone to talk about their kids than themselves. And I am just a friend of a friend so no big deal.
I didn’t say he had an attitude. He just wasn’t interested in conversing with me, which is perfectly fine.
I liked that we saw Sims throwing more fastballs and sliders off of them versus mixing sliders and curves.
His curve and slider are virtually the same speed; and, I think that opens the door for the issues he has at times.
Anyone have the Reds link for post season tix?
Skate to where the puck is going to be. You will find them there.
Blue Jackets are in their1st year of a declared reset (I believe that’s the term they have used) and by the way NHL figures it, they are at an even .500 with 3 games to play (but about 20 standing points out of the post season).
Their downside is that they may end up in the no man’s land where despite being out of the playoffs, their record will be too good to get into the draft lottery.