The Cincinnati Reds have done it! On May 8th the team won their first series of the season by taking the series finale from the Pittsburgh Pirates. Colin Moran homered twice, driving in six runs, leading the way for the Reds to pick up the win behind a solid start from Tyler Mahle on Sunday afternoon.
| Final | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pittsburgh Pirates (11-16) | 3 | 3 | 1 |
| Cincinnati Reds (5-23) | 7 | 6 | 0 |
| W: Warren (1-1) L: Peters (3-1) |
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| Statcast | Box Score | Game Thread | |||
The Offense
TJ Friedl led off the 1st inning with a bunt single and he moved up to second on a ground out. Mike Moustakas was then hit by a pitch to put two on with just one out, but back-to-back strikeouts ended the inning with the Reds stranding both runners.
The offense was relatively quiet over the next four innings, but when Zach Thompson was relieved by Dillon Peters to start the 6th inning, Cincinnati’s offense got going again with a little bit of help from the Pirates. Brandon Drury singled on a pop up just over the infield down the right field line to start the inning. Peters then walked Mike Moustakas, Tyler Stephenson, and Tommy Pham to bring in a run. Former Red Heath Hembree then took over with the bases still loaded. After Kyle Farmer struck out, Colin Moran came to the plate. 400 feet later the ball that left the hand of Hembree and then the bat of Moran landed 8 rows deep in right-center and Cincinnati had a 5-2 lead in the bottom of the 6th inning.
After a quiet 7th inning, the Reds and Colin Moran went back to work in the 8th. Kyle Farmer was hit by a pitch with one out and Moran followed with his second homer of the day (and the year) to make it a 7-3 ballgame. Albert Almora Jr. followed up with a double – his second hit of the game. Almora Jr. would be stranded there, but the lead was extended to four and the Reds needed just three outs to pick up the victory. They got them.
The Pitching
Tyler Mahle worked around a walk in the 1st inning with three strikeouts. He couldn’t do the same thing in the 2nd. Michael Perez hit a 2-out, 2-run home run to put the Pirates up 2-0. Mahle would get through the 3rd and 4th innings without allowing a baserunner, but his pitch count tally kept on rising as the Pittsburgh hitters battled and he began the 5th inning having thrown 89 pitches. He would need 17 more in the 5th, but he worked around a 1-out walk to keep the score at 2-0 and get through the inning unscathed.
Art Warren took over in the 6th inning and he struck out the side on 13 pitches. He returned for the 7th inning and worked around a 2-out single for another 13-pitch, shutout inning that held the Reds new-found lead at 5-2. Dauri Moreta took over in the 8th, less than 24 hours after starting against the Pirates. After two quick outs, Bryan Reynolds tagged Moreta for a solo home run to make it a 5-3 game before a strikeout ended the top of the 8th. Hunter Strickland came out with a 4-run lead to protect in the 9th. He got some help from TJ Friedl, who made a nice sliding catch on a line drive off of the bat of Yoshi Tsutsugo for the second out of the inning, but Strickland got the Pirates in order as the Reds picked up their 5th win of the season.
Key Moment of the Game
Colin Moran vs Heath Hembree. Bases loaded, one out and the Pirates were leading 2-1. Moran crushed the 2-1 pitch 400 feet into the seats in the Sundeck in right-center for a grand slam to put Cincinnati ahead 5-2.
Notes Worth Noting
Cincinnati still hasn’t won two games in a row, but they did pick up their first series win of the season and just their second non-losing series of the season by taking 2-of-3 from the Pirates over the weekend.
Up Next for the Cincinnati Reds
Milwaukee Brewers vs Cincinnati Reds
Monday May 9th, 6:40pm ET
Brandon Woodruff (3-1, 5.18 ERA) vs Luis Castillo (season debut)
5 and 23, at least it’s better than 4 and 24. When I look at the Reds record I just can’t believe this season is over 3 weeks before Memorial Day. Looks like a lot of free time this summer.
So happy they won today.
Reds are better than the Pirates now without a lot of their players. Reds wont finish last in the NL Central.
Mariners wont win 80 games.
Imo they’d be doing well to go 58-76 which would avoid 100 losses. We’re getting Castillo back, but the rest of the staff is pretty bad. Good Mahle means 4 innings from this pen and you don’t want to see bad Mahle. Castillo never seemed to be a big winner when they’re good. He’s always around .500. Now the Cubs are down Stroman and Miley so maybe the Reds hold their own there?
In reality it doesn’t really matter. Just get guys back and hope some of the young guys blossom. They have some nice young talent!
That other reply was in the wrong place. Better then the Pirates? Maybe? Their pitching is pretty bad, but I kind of like an offense built around Hayes, Reynolds, and Vogelbach. I guess if India makes it back and Moose/Moran aren’t terrible. Our OF is horrible though
Good job Colin Moran!
The Reds are better than the Pirates.
Reds will be the only team
that gets better later in the year when they stop playing old vets and get back healthy players
September with McClain 3b Barrero SS India 2b Votto 1b stephenson C and DH TBD infinitely better
Of ? Meh
SP MeH
Bullpen gets better every year after the ne’erdwells get DFA’d in august
OS…but what about the service time nonsense with McClain? They can’t play him til 2 weeks into next season unless MLB changed something that I’m unaware of. Which is very possible
Reds 2022 is about development
McClain and Barrero status in August crucial. As is Lodolo and Greene
Only reason to watch
Bill Parcells famously said “you are what your record says you are,” so I am not going to argue the team on the field we have right now is anything other than 5-23. And yet, injuries have decimated the Reds, that and an incredibly slow offensive start that doesn’t reflect the stats on the back of their bubble gum cards. When most of the starters are back and when they hit their offensive averages, then we’ll be with some luck about a .500 team. That being said, a .500 team the rest of the way means a 90-loss season. Ownership/Management had to know, even with everyone healthy and playing to their averages, the Reds would be mediocre team at best. It’s tough to be a Reds fan in 2022 knowing that Ownership/Management was never really willing to field a team that had a chance.
come on bloggers-only Doug cited him for his contributions today. Had to be his best day in the majors-and he got to do it against the team that let him go. without him today, we probably would have had another loss.
Moran, of course,
I came in and watched Henbree give up the granny. So this is how it feels to be on the other end for once. Thanks Heath! For once you didn’t disappoint.
Colin Moran deserves playing time. When Votto comes back, Colin can play DH more.
I want to see more Reds players clutch hit and help the team win.
Could not stand to watch Hsquared pitch. So much time between pitches I’d fall asleep. Mahle looked good as did the team. The season’s still a bust but I,d like to at least be competitive.
+1000
It’s painful watching him pitch. His pitch count almost always is @ 20 pitches / inning. Yesterday, it seemed like the only pitch he could get in the strikezone was his fastball. Pirates weren’t biting at his off speed stuff. Most of those pitches weren’t even close.
I’ve been a Mahle fan for a few years but he just doesn’t seem to be getting any better. But I guess at least he held them to 2 runs over 5. Seems he should be so much better though.
Moran…Drury… Where have I heard those names before? Oh, I remember. Those were the guys many pundits here were trying to get rid of.
Yeah, I love the fans who want to cut players, players who have had previous success, a week or three into the season. Moran has always seemed to do well vs the Reds in the past, but there was no patience with him. Drury obviously belongs in MLB, he just needs playing time.
It’s nice to have Moran as a backup for Votto until he calls it a career. And Moran as DH is a positive. I like the look of Drury. When he’s in the lineup, he seems always in the game.
To be fair it was back when Moose, India, Barreo and Shrock were healthy. And for me it was only Moran
The win felt good. Next series makes me more than a little nervous.
Never heard anyone saying to get rid of Drury. Maybe it was said other places.
Both Drury and Moran are decent guys to have on the bench, I suppose. The problem comes when you depend on either of them for 350 at bats or more a season.
I am happy Colin Moran had a good, one of the highlights of a dreary season so far, but let’s don’t get carried away, after all he was released by the worst team in baseball a few months ago. .
So what, who cares if he was released by the Pirates? Bad teams have good players. It very well could have been a decision based on dollars. If you have a bad team, why pay a veteran who doesn’t factor into your next competitive window?
Derek Dietrich hit three home runs in three at bats for the Reds against the Pirates. Where is he now? Moran and Drury are utility players and Sparky always said there is a reason a utility player is a utility player. Does anyone here believe Drury and Moran will be part of the next competitive Reds team? They are placeholders. Bench pieces. Contractors. In corporate America, they come and they go. There for a project, then you cut them loose.
Earmbrister,
I said I thought he is OK to have on the bench, but he is almost 30 years old is basically replacement level (actually slightly below this season)
If the Pirates cut him because he doesn’t fit into their competitive window, then the Reds definitely should not have signed him, because The Red’s competitive window is no closer than the Pirates.
Do you think he’s a good player?
One need only look at the 2022 Reds to know bad teams often release (or essentially give away) decent major league players for all sorts of ridiculous reasons.
J, I agree with you on that statement in general, but in the case of Colin Moran I don’t think there is any great mystery why the Pirates released him.
The Pirates decided they could get the same or better production with someone making league minimum. Take a look at here career numbers, the Pirates made a good decision.
No reason to be nervous: The Reds are 5-23. If we’re lucky and the young guys–most of them–turn out to be good, we might have reason to be nervous about tough series’ in 2024.
Great for mlb that both league championship series will be LA/NY. How exciting and unpredictable!
Yeah, MLB is getting close to becoming a regional sport. Limited to the coasts with one or two mid l-west teams really competing. You would think MLB, the player association and the TV Networks would realize it is bad for the sport and eventually their bank accounts.
I think baseball has already become a regional sport.
I was flipping through the channels a couple of weeks ago on a Saturday afternoon and found these on the major networks:
Fox – USFL football
NBC – premier league soccer
ABC – Bundesliga soccer
CBS – NWSL soccer
No baseball anywhere.
In Southern California suburbs, more kids follow soccer than baseball – and they have one of the “thriving” franchise in baseball right now
I always pull for whoever plays the Yankees and Dodgers.
It’s nice to see optimism on here but my pessimistic views still far outweigh as Bobby deserves. They may even go 5-5, 6-4 over this little ten game stretch if they can steal one against the Brewers.
But then reality checks right back in. After finishing the series in Pittsburgh I’d be surprised if they finish their final 13 in May better than 3-10
I agree and I also think if the Reds finish say 62-100, Bob and Phil can say “we had a bad year, but almost every season one team will lose close to 100 games. We will bounce back next year”.
There will be a lot more pressure on the Castellini’s if the Reds are historically bad, say 50-112. That type of season is harder to pass off as just “growing pains”
The Reds are going to be no where near 4th place when the season ends. I think it’s in the long term of the team if they are down right miserable. It might lead to real change.
I was suprised by the decent crowd yesterday, considering the start of the season.
I’ll take it a game at a time along with a shrinking IL list.
To me the baseball gods finally took pity yesterday when Sims escaped from the bases loaded no out jam. Nice to see the team finally get some lucky breaks today as well. Here’s hoping these replacement level veterans play just well enough to get traded but not well enough to block any prospects. I don’t need to see Farmer take another at bat for the Reds once Barrero returns. Drury seems the only one worthy of an extended look.
I would add Moran as a backup to Votto and as a DH.
you know a few years ago i was excited about the prospect of a future outfield of tj Friedl, Jose Siri and Taylor Trammell. i was looking at their stats today and they are allhitting well below the .200 mark. it is like the reds draft these players that check all the boxes. they are athletic, they can run, they can play defense, good instincts, blah, blah ,blah. only one problem, THEY CAN’T HIT! I have a feeling i will be saying the same thing about Barrero. I have given up on Senzel already. that is why it is so difficult to rely on the draft / minor leagues for your position player. you really don’t know what will happen until they get to the bigs
@ Rednat – hey man. might want to check their stats. Trammell hit very well in the mirrors and he is only 24. Not everyone is going to be Soto or Acuña Jr or Julio Rodríguez….maybe part of the issue is unrealistic expectations?
No, he didn’t. Trammell slashed .236/.349/.337 at Chattanooga (AA) in 2019 (at only 21), and then only .229/.316/.381 for Amarillo at the same level. In 2021 at AAA, he hit .263/.362/.456 — good, but not want the Mariners had hoped for. He hit .160 in 178 PAs for the Mariners last year, and hasn’t been up yet this year, although he appears to be hurt.
Barrero, who is about a half-year younger than Trammell, was a better MiLB hitter. In 2021, at age 21, he slashed .303/.380/.539 at AA and AAA.
I don’t understand people’s skepticism about Barrero. (And Jonathan, I recognize you didn’t express that skepticism.) Barrero missed a whole year (age 19) due to his defection from Cuba. He improved his stats at every minor league level, and was the Reds minor-league player of the year last year.
He’s played at the MLB level the past two years. In 2020, despite (1) never having seen an AB above High-A ball, and (2) having seen no real-game live pitching in 10 months, the Reds promoted him from Prasco Park and played him at MLB. It was a ridiculous decision, and entirely unfair to Barrero. In 2021, he got 56 PAs in the 42 games he was on the Reds’ roster. That was another ridiculous decision, and Bell should have played him almost every game.
Farmer’s .528 OPS so far should make it obvious even to David Bell that Barrero needs to take over at shortstop.
The Reds’ fanbase can be hard to believe. Most fans root for their team’s top prospects. Not in Cincinnati. Aside from Barrero, a whole lot of Reds fans were picking at Hunter Greene — all 17 years of him — from the day he was drafted. Greene has thrown less than 200 innings since he turned 18 years old, yet he is largely dismissed here as a never-was bust.
i guess i am an old guy but i remember the reds used to have guys like tracey Jones, Chris stynes, jeff treadwell. not stars but when they were called up they could really hit and carry a team for a while. now with these prospects you are shocked when they get one hit
Still way too many players injured, only Castillo, Votto and Senzel are set to return this month leaving 10 more players out. By the time the key players are back it’ll be just too late to make up for this season.
When is Barrero back? I thought it was soon. Has there been a set back?
There was a minor setback but he is expected to start a rehab assignment soon. Aquino had the same injury a year ago but 2 weeks later in the calendar or so and was back with the Reds early june.
This issue with Barrero is there’s no reason to rush him. Give him as much time as needed in AAA to get in a rhythm and playing well and then once he comes up, he’s the starting shortstop every day. If he needs 100 or 150 at bats ,so be it.
Thanks, Old-school.
I have noticed that David Bell and the Reds franchise have made some genuine and heartfelt comments of late, particularly in appreciation of the fans. Those are all class act moves. While Bob still needs to sell the team, I do appreciate their comments.
I agree, Michael – credit where credit is due.
I am all for giving Barrero his chance. However, I have watched him the last two years show he cannot hit MLB pitching, yet. I have not been impressed at all. I hope he can. He was our #1 prospect. Senzel has been #1 as well. I am still hopeful on Senzel, but he cannot stay on the field. India and Stephenson are my favorite young players. Votto is my favorite Red by far. I am all for keeping hope alive. Barrero should be given the shortstop job at some point this year. He should get as many bats as possible. I have my fingers crossed, and I hope Senzel catches fire and has a good rest of the year.
Ugh. See my comments above. Barrero got thrust into MLB in 2020, despite never having played one game above High-A, and not having even seen one pitch in a live game in 10 months, because he was at Prasco Park. It was absurd for the Reds to do that to him. In 2021, Barrero had 56 PAs in the 42 games he was on the roster. What sane organization does that to their top prospect?
Farmer is slashing .198/.257/.271. Barrero did better than that in 2021, even in the absurd role that David Bell stuck him in.
That is part of the Reds’ problem: they are afraid to win.
It is amazing to see what happens when the lineup has the production out of the first baseman that they expected from the beginning of the season.