TJ Friedl started the game off with a home run that kickstarted a 5-run 1st inning and the Cincinnati Reds never looked back as Nick Lodolo set a new career high in both innings and strikeouts in an 8-2 win over the Milwaukee Brewers on Friday night.
| Final | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cincinnati Reds (56-80) | 8 | 17 | 0 |
| Milwaukee Brewers (73-66) |
2 | 5 | 0 |
| W: Lodolo (4-5) L: Alexander (2-3) |
|||
| Statcast | Box Score | Game Thread | |||
The Offense
TJ Friedl led the game off with his 6th homer of the year with the Reds and his teammates took his lead and built upon it. Jonathan India tripled and scored on Kyle Farmer’s single. Jake Fraley was hit by a pitch and and then Donovan Solano singled in a run to make it 3-0. Aristides Aquino walked to make it six straight Reds to reach base to begin the game. A double play off of the bat of Nick Senzel created two outs, but it also brought another run in. Jose Barrero capped things off with a line drive RBI single to make it 5-0.
Cincinnati’s offense wouldn’t score again until the top of the 9th inning when both Jonathan India and Jake Fraley hit their 10th home runs of the season. India’s 433-foot blast came after TJ Friedl led off the inning with a single, while Fraley’s homer was a solo shot that made it 8-2. That was more than enough to start the series off with a victory.
The Pitching
Nick Lodolo was cruising along until the 3rd inning. Luis Urias led off with a single and came around to score on a home run by Tyrone Taylor that cut the Reds lead to 5-2. That would be the last time that the Brewers would do much of anything against Lodolo, who set a new career high by throwing 8.0 innings and allowing just those two runs, walking no one, and striking out a career high 11 batters on 107 pitches.
In the 9th inning the Reds turned the game over to reliever Derek Law. He made easy work of Milwaukee, getting three ground outs to seal the win.
Notes Worth Noting
In the second half, Nick Lodolo has now made nine starts and has posted a 2.80 ERA in 54.2 innings with 18 walks and 64 strikeouts while allowing just three home runs.
Derek Law has allowed not allowed a run in his six appearances with the Reds since being called up on August 30th.
Up Next for the Cincinnati Reds
Cincinnati Reds vs Milwaukee Brewers
Saturday September 10th, 7:15pm ET
Chase Anderson (0-2, 12.60 ERA) vs Adrian Houser (5-9, 4.83 ERA)
Lodolo was a treat to watch tonight. Glad to see the boys supported him with crooked numbers.
Looks like some good things happened tonight. This division is so bad. To think if we would have just spent a little money we could be on top of it. Oh well.
I think St. Louis being able to purchase 2 of the best position players in the NL has something to do with it.
Yes indeed .. a lot to do with it
Lodolo was very impressive.
Watching the newer players was enjoyable. Friedl, Fraley, Barrero, India, and yes, Acquino are showing what they have.
Its so hard sometimes after the Reds have a game like this to not get a little too optimistic. And yet, maybe there are some legitimate reasons to be hopeful. Nick Lodolo, at the very least, is pretty exciting to think about in the coming years. But seeing guys like Friedl, Fraley, Barrero, and Aquino have a good day…well…its hard to temper my irrational tendency to gush. I think the Reds really are trying to have a bunch of guys that are all right enough but if any of them go out, it won’t be that impossible to replace them. Is it impossible to imagine a .240 hitting Aquino? Is it impossible to imagine a 20 homer Fraley?…a 20 homer Friedl? Can Barrero bat .240 with 20 homers? Could Cessa develop into a successful starter? Is it possible to imagine Steer playing a decent 2nd base batting around .250?…Can India play 3rd and hit for a bit more power? Can Stephenson stay healthy? Could a healthy Votto be a daily pinch hitter, dh, and occasional first baseman and still be relevant? Imagine a healthy bullpen somehow coming to form. Imagine piecing together a decent group of starters. Collectively, the odds of all these happening are slim. But the fan in me sees any single example of all those instances as being possible. What if they all happened?
Hey, those are all very likely scenarios and would definitely launch the Reds into contention from 2024 and beyond. My only concern is Bell, a new manager with a more agressive approach and less non-sense moves would be needed.
The Reds are playing meaningless games and have been for some time now. Good teams play well when they are in the middle of a pennant race. When there is actually pressure.
Winning a few games, after you were buried alive, is not really worth writing home about.
The Reds are playing under zero pressure right now. The Brewers are trying desperately to stay in the race. The Reds are looser and it shows.
The Red’s season was over at 3-22. But those first 25 games defined their season, no matter what they have done since.
It would be foolhardy to believe that the Reds have turned a corner and will start next season with the wind to their back.
I agree and disagree.
Yes, the Reds have been out of it for a while. But yet, a lot of guys are still hustling. They have not, by and large, forgotten their pride in playing or professionalism. And yet again, Moustakas is a guy who has forgotten his pride in playing or professionalism. He appears to have not really been in shape this season, and it showed with his constant muscle pulls, etc. I don’t care about the money, I would DFA him because I want his attitude out of the clubhouse. Joey, on the other hand, drove himself to play through pain.
In the Big Red Machine days, when the Reds were always in contention, Sparky used to say the players for losing teams were in “salary drives” at the end of the season; meaning, the team was out of it, but they were playing well NOW for a raise next season. Which was a good excuse for a second division team to beat the Reds in those days.
Yeah, Sparky also said he didn’t count a team’s record after they had been eliminated.
I think we are both saying the same thing.
The question is how well did this team play when it actually mattered? The 2022 Reds failed that test miserably.
Would it be better to continue to lose, and give no one any hope? It is what it is, and next year we’ll find out if it’s any better.
Another big night by Aquino who is now sporting a .733 OPS in his last +100 AB, I hope he’ll be able to sustain it.
Agree. Taking AA back to when he was recalled from AAA on May 22, in 156PAs his AVG/OBP/SLG line is .252/.295/.435/ for a .730 OPS. K Rate 34%.
It would be great if he could get his OBP up into at least the .310-.320 range. However, with his defensive contributions, the .730 range OPS pays the rent for him.
If he continues at this pace or better, what the Reds approach for him be in the off season? He will have value to a contending team as a 4th/5th OF or late game defensive replacement or pinch runner. Given his age (29 next spring), the move for the Reds might be to trade him fir future value or a relief pitcher.
So he finally starts figuring it out and we trade him? Relief pitchers are flaky year except for a very few. He has much more value than the latest Peralta,etc.
Aquino has changed his stance, which is more closed than that we’ve seen during the first few years of his career.I appreciated Eric Davis’ comments about the lack of looseness of Aquino’s hands, but always felt that ridiculous open stance was his hobbler. We were told that it enabled him to “see the ball better”. But at 6’4”/220, to shift the body and move the hips and legs in time to to meet major league pitching, struck me as absurd. It also reflected in his batting avg. Let’s see where this goes but the 3 3-hit games coincide with this adjustment.
Agree. A big key will be to see if he can now identify and lay off sliders that are clearly going to be out of the zone by the time they reach the plate. The walks he has drawn in the last week may be as encouraging as hitting in this regard.
Love the grit displayed by this team nightly. The roster is filled with young players and veterans trying to establish themselves in the league.
The presence of an outstanding young leftie like Nick Lodolo to anchor the Red’s young starting pitching staff along with the plethora of prospects in the farm system bodes well for future Red’s competitiveness. This is more likely if some organizational change is made in the offseason.
Hope to take a step forward next year but we will not compete until 2024. When lots of young talent should arrive and Moose and Votto are off the books.
Lodolo is really coming on strong with an ERA well under 4, 15 starts under his belt and over 80 innings. If Ashcraft and Greene can get back and make a few starts and go into the off-season healthy, job#1 in 2022- develop young pitching- will have been a success. All 3 of these guys are trending in a very positive direction for 2023 as we hit the final furlong of 2022.
@old school couldn’t agree more.
3 doubles! Really Aquino? I keep writing him off, then he does something that makes me have to back peddle. Tantalizing is the exact word for Aquino.
In his last 7 games, Aquino has three 3 hit games. Raised his average 37 points.
Fraley with the homer of a lefty last night. I would like to see him bat against lefties more for the rest of the year. Let’s not label him yet as a “can’t hit lefties ” until he has more at bats into his young career. Reds need to remember how they wouldn’t let Paul O’Neill hit lefties.
To be fair with Fraley, he doesn’t hit lefties well because he usually doesn’t face them
If a guy can hit ML pitching, he can hit. Yes, it may be harder for a left-handed hitter to hit a left-handed pitcher. But these things can be LEARNED given enough experience and practice. If a left handed hitter like Fraley can hit, then he can likely learn to hit left-handed pitching. Maybe. 🙂