The Cincinnati Reds took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the 1st inning and then their offense went silent. From the 2nd inning until the end of the game, the offense managed just one baserunner while the New York Mets grinded out a 2-1 victory to even up the series.
| Final | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|
| New York Mets (18-19) |
2 | 10 | 0 |
| Cincinnati Reds (15-21) | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| W: Verlander (1-1) L: Greene (0-3) SV: Robertson (7) | |||
| Statcast | Box Score | Game Thread | |||
Hunter Greene began the night with three straight strikeouts. In the bottom of the 1st inning his offense would help him out when Jonathan India singled and came around to score on a double by Jake Fraley that missed being a home run by a matter of inches. That would put the Reds up 1-0, and Fraley would move to third base on the throw to the plate. But after Tyler Stephenson walked he attempted to steal second base, or something like it, and was caught stealing to end the inning.
Cincinnati’s lead was gone on the first pitch of the 2nd inning when Pete Alonso hit the ball into the seats in left field. The game remained tied until the 4th inning. Luis Guillorme started a 2-out rally for the Mets with a double and came in to score the go-ahead run on a Brandon Nimmo single.
Hunter Greene struck out the side to start the game, but his next strikeout didn’t happen until he fanned Daniel Vogelbach to lead off the 6th inning. He followed up with his fourth walk of the night and put Luis Guillomre on 1st base. It was his 105th pitch and it was his final one as the Reds went to the bullpen to bring Ian Gibaut into the game. He would get a force out and a fly out to get out of the inning and keep the Reds deficit at one run. Gibaut returned and tossed a scoreless 7th inning.
Buck Farmer would take over the game in the 8th for Cincinnati and he got himself into a 2-out jam after Daniel Vogelbach and Luis Guillorme both singled to put runners on the corners. After a visit to the mound, Farmer got things right and struck out Francisco Alvarez to end the inning.
Alex Young took over in the top of the 9th. He gave up a leadoff single to Brandon Nimmo before retiring Francisco Lindor on a pop up to Tyler Stephenson. But then the Reds shaky defense showed it’s face once again as a grounder to Jonathan India looked to set up a potential double play, but a low throw from India clanked off of the glove of Barrero near the bag and no outs were recorded. That was that for Young, and Casey Legumina entered the game from the bullpen. It took Legumina one pitch to get out of the inning as he induced a grounder to Nick Senzel at third, who fired to India at second and his throw beat Pete Alonso to the bag by inches to complete the inning-ending double play.
The Reds hadn’t had a hit since the 1st inning and trailed 2-1 entering the bottom of the 9th inning, but had the top of the lineup coming to the plate. Jonathan India worked a full count but looked at strike three on the outer third of the plate for strike three. TJ Friedl also worked a full count, but he would strike out swinging. Spencer Steer came up, representing the Reds last hope and after the previous two hitters had extended at-bats, he flew out to center on the first pitch he saw to end the game.
Key Moment of the Game
Tyler Stephenson’s caught stealing to end the 1st inning with two men on base. The Reds had hit the ball very hard against Justin Verlander all inning and from that point forward they were limited to one walk in a 1-run loss.
Notes Worth Noting
The Reds had just one baserunner after the 1st inning.
Hunter Greene remains without a win on the season through eight starts despite having an ERA of 3.69.
Ian Gibaut lowered his ERA to 2.30 on the season with his 1.2 shutout innings.
Up Next for the Cincinnati Reds
New York Mets vs Cincinnati Reds
Thursday May 11th, 12:35pm ET
Kodai Senga (4-1, 3.38 ERA) vs Derek Law (2-4, 3.00 ERA)
At 15-21, we might be overachieving.
I am still firmly of the opinion that with a better manager, this team as currently constructed would put up a .500 record.
@CI3J if you go back and read the game recap comments to this point you may find that many posting here believe we should be undefeated with a different manager.
You are not alone
A good possibility compared to last season. Counting on Lively today to help Reds take the series.
Some of our friends here tell us constantly we must get rid of our players in their 30’s because they are all washed up. Bring up those 23-year-olds they say. That’s all it would take to compete and we can watch them with more fun as they learn. Well, someone who’s 40 just beat us down.
There is no other 40 year old on planet, available to the reds or not, that can do what verlander does
True, however he is very rare evidenced by the 40+ million he gets for playing one year.
Yes, “some of our friends” understand that the Age Curve is a real thing and the vast, vast majority of MLB players have their most productive years in their mid-to-late 20’s.
There will always be outliers, but that’s not instructive on how to build a MLB team.
Tell that to the yankees,, and I am sure other teams who have veterans in their 30’s.
The age thing is only “real” to some on here.
Verlander is the real deal. At age 40, he bust the theory some on here suggest.
He’s a black swan, a statistical outlier.
Pete Rose batted .325 and led the NL in hits in 1981 at age 40.
Yeah, but Pete was a black swan, too. Exceptions that prove the rule. It isn’t that players can’t be productive in their 30s: it’s just that they’re likely to be better when they’re younger. The Reds won’t pay to acquire the expensive 30-something outliers.
Frustrating loss, but full props to Verlander’s waging war on Father Time and winning.
Senzel 4 for his last 27. I think I’ve been his #1 basher on here, but I was fully ready to eat my crow with a big bowl and some milk. Who knows how he fits in? Or Steer too for that matter? This season is all about sorting things out and developing young guys.
I will say the numbers say this pen is going to crash in a major way at some point. Its like Butch & Sundance said “Who are those guys?” If it does get ugly then I have to go with the majority and hope for a new manager.
Counting tonight, Senzel is 4-23 over the last 7 days, Barrero 3-13, Myers 2-15, Ramos 1-15, Stephenson 4-20. The Reds have a hitting problem far bigger than Barrero. Myers is looking more and more like the $7.5m should have been spent on a starting pitcher.
We keep saying that over and over, “reds should’ve gotten a pitcher with x money”
I’m truly curious what offers the reds actually made. For all we know, they asked everyone and their sister to come pitch for $7.5 mil and got told no
Agree but which starting pitcher of any significant would have taken $7.5M to play in the bandbox that GABP is. Got to grow our own unfortunately. New owner should sacrifice some seats for moving the fences back.
Sonny’s only at 12.7. They threw stacks at Moose so whats another 5.2 from 7.5. Oh well
Yes, a decent pitcher would likely have been a better investment. Credit where it’s due, though: Myers is a very solid and thoughtful defender.
Hard to be down on the team. first inning was huge lost opportunity. Stephenson with a rookie mistake but he isn’t a rookie.
Verlander is masterful. I hope our young pitchers were paying attention – pinpoint control and doesn’t try to throw everything past you. He is ok with allowing some contact because he knows its going to be weak.
Good job by bullpen keeping it close. And I agree, this bullpen is having to work so hard that its going to implode if having to continue to cover 4-5 innings every night. Starters need to go deeper.
If our starters can get deeper, we aren’t that far away. Need 2 more offensive players. I don’t think Barerro or Steer are going to get much more time to show what they can do.
I remain a cautious Steer fan. He’s very patient at the plate: a good foundation for a solid hitter.
Senzel has shown in the past month or so that he’s the best defensive third baseman on the roster. If he can hit in the .270 range consistently with a bit of pop, he’s got to be the guy. You’re trying to build this team around players who show they can play at this level. If he stops hitting, then all bets are off. This team MUST fix the infield defense. I saw a Tweet this evening that the Reds infield has a -17 Defensive Runs Saved. I think that means that their plays have allowed 17 more runs to score than a team with an average infield defense would have allowed. That’s in 36 games. It’s almost half a run per game. This team cannot win under those circumstances.
Tom>> My only disagreement is that Senzel should not be a core piece because he has only 2 more years of team control. If he has the type of season you suggest, he will be priced out of the Reds range for a guy at the back end o team control.
Marte is starting to cook at AA. EDLC has actually played more 3B than SS so far at AAA. If guys at AAA move up, Marte probably comes to AAA and could be ready by mid 2024.
I don’t get a chance to watch many games @Tom, what or who do you attribute the poor infield defense too. When I do get a chance to watch, I am not impressed by India’s defense. I haven’t seen any of the others play much this year.
@Jim — I’m not necessarily calling Senzel a core piece. If he stays for the next two and a half years and then leaves, maybe that’s the time for Marte to step in at third. I think we have to seriously weigh what we actually see from players’ performance at least as much as, if not more so than, the “prospect” scouting report. Senzel only becomes a keeper if he continues to hit in the .270 range with pop. If not, he becomes the next version of Kevin Newman. I don’t like him as an outfielder. He’s only average at best there, IMO. I’m excited about the prospects — I actually for the first time ever turned on a Louisville game today since it was on the MLB app — but I took very seriously one of the points C. Trent made in his recent article about all of the prospects. He pointed out the risk of damaging career paths by “rushing” players, and named some examples like Jay Bruce, Todd Frazier and Homer Bailey who may have been “rushed.” He didn’t quote anyone as making those comments, but we know he has a solid relationship with Krall.
@RedsVol — I usually rely on my eye test because I trust it. I see India as a defender who has limited range going to his left or right, and as a guy who can “get away” with that due to his excellent bat. Steer is average at best, which is actually not bad for this group. Barrero is OK, but not the kind of defensive standout he must be to stay in the big leagues if he isn’t going to hit. I think Senzel is the top defender they have on the infield presently. Regarding the -17 Defensive Runs Saved statistic for the infield, another Tweet I read claimed that -10 of that is attributable to the second base and shortstop positions. So India and Barrero/Newman are allowing .33 runs per game so far with plays they don’t make that average infielders do make. It’s just too much. Infield defense is a huge problem on this team that gets overshadowed by many other issues.
Defense is undervalued on RLN, but the ups, and mostly downs of Senzel’s career makes me hesitant to make him a big piece of any plan. If the plan is EDLC, Marte, McLain, or CES to take over 3B when they are deemed ready to go, Senzel would need to find a new role. I am in favor of playing my best available players, and Senzel is currently that at 3B imo.
@tom. Good insights. The club is going to have to approach India about moving off 2nd for the good of the team then.
Defensive stats are getting better and something is clearly amiss with our defense. I thought barerro would be better and I think he would be if we could be more patient with him.
If the defense is bad that plays into how committed a young pitcher is to throwing certain pitches or thinking he has to throw the perfect pitch. They won’t admit it but I’m certain it does. And we’ve been playing non first basemen at first base all year.
Senzel is the Reds 4th best hitter so far in wRC+ @92, a tick behind Steer’s 95, but his splits are wild. Senzel is hitting .522 against lefties and .161 against righties. Steer has actually been better against righties.
What’s killing this team is they are getting nothing from Myers( wRc+ 56 with -0.5 bWAR) and nothing from SS and little to nothing from catching. For all the handwringing with taking turns and sharing SS, Barrero( wRC + 59) and Newman(wRC+56) have both been bad.
Stephenson has had a sluggish start to put it mildly.
Reds are sorting and I think within 2 months (mid-July) there will be major roster shake-ups. Reds are moving on from Barrero at SS.
The only question becomes when does EDLC make his season debut as the Reds SS.
Reds need to sell tickets with summer weekends approaching.
Reds play a 7 game homestand against the Yankees and Cards May 19-25th and another 7 game series against the Brewers and dodgers June 2-8. Reds could sell a ton of tickets as the weather warms and some premium teams come to town if EDLC gets the call up and makes his debut at GABP. Bring the kid up for the Yankees weekend series.
IRM>>> And Sonny was under Reds control for 2023 (via team option) when traded. 😉
Sonny Gray doesn’t get you many IPs due to injuries and his inability to get past the fifth inning. You get more in return when you trade a player who is under team control.
Hang in there Reds fans! Better times are on the way! We got guys down in AAA making history every other day it seems. Tough to be Hunter Greene right now. He knows facing the other teams # 1’s and 2’s, he has about one run to play with and it’s over. I’d say that may have something to do with his high pitch counts and occasional struggles. He will be better because of this when this team can actually score some runs!
When a pitcher like Verlander is on, it’s tough for any team to score the needed run or two.
We have players in the minors having good seasons, but making history every other day? Come on.
Abbott and EDLC are doing exactly that. Making history.
Again there is no one dangerous in our line up other than maybe India and Fridel. Most pitcher don’t have much fear of our lineup. Anyway it’s a transitionary time and everything is in flux.
I would gladly take many, many losses if it meant seeing the kids come up and play. This team is mostly rental pieces and that’s it. Most fans know that this team has no chance of making the playoffs. I would love to see CES, EDLC, McClain, Abbot. HECK, Marte is smoking the ball right now in AA. We just need to get some better young pitchers in the minors, but we don’t have much to trade. Unless, we trade some of the surplus shortstops. Would you guys?
i am proud of how the reds have played this series so far. they are really competing against a team that is far superior in talent. I think Bell has really motivated his players so far this year and they are definitely overachieving.
had an interesting conversation with a mets fan tonight. I was ribbing him about the mets payroll, which then led to a conversation about how over the past couple of decades NYC gentrification has really helped the Mets as they have really been able to jack up ticket prices. JUST makes me wonder how a team like the reds will ever be able to really compete again. tv contracts going away, cheaper tickets, smaller crowds , and fewer good position players left to entice to come here will make it very challenging indeed.
Where in the world is Joey Votto?
I heard Joey was having lunch with Carmen San Diego and Waldo 😀 😛
You beat me to it. I was going to say he was off with Admiral Halsey and Task Force 34 chasing Japanese decoy battleships and carriers while the whole world wondered
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_world_wonders
Ah, Bud Halsey……taken out of the battle of Midway by a bad case of the Shingles. Public service announcement – get your Shingles vaccine!
The Marlins are calling up their 20 yr old phenom from AA (Is that allowed?) to face the Reds on Friday.
Pérez is universally-regarded as one of the top prospects in baseball and will make his highly anticipated major league debut on Friday night against the Reds at loanDepot park in Miami. The towering 6-foot-8 right-hander holds a sparkling 2.32 ERA, 0.81 WHIP and 42/9 K/BB ratio across 31 innings (six starts) this season for Double-A Pensacola. The 20-year-old is skipping Triple-A altogether.
Sounds like a perfect time to bring up a couple of our top prospects to face him.
Uncertain we will ever see Joey Votto again. Maybe coaching in the future?
Future has EDLC, McClain, and CES along with Marte in the Infield . And maybe the future is now. Barrera and Steer both need to be at Louisville trying to regain their power and learning to make more consistent contact. Ramos and Fraley are not the answer. Friedl seems to be a keeper but he is the only OF we have who will be with the team in the future.
Fraley’s already won 4-5 games w/clutch rbis. 308 at-bats as a Red w/14 doubles, 14 hrs, 7 steals, and 40 walks. He can hit, but he definitely wouldn’t be hitting 3rd-4th on a contender
May 8, 1976: Batting just .157, Dave Concepción looks to “get hot” by climbing into the clubhouse dryer at Wrigley Field. Pat Zachry turns it on and Concepción takes a few tumbles. He goes 3-for-6 that day and hits .304 over the remaining 129 games. #RedsVault #BigRedMachine
Really enjoyed watching Verlander practicing his craft with an assist from the commentary of the Cowboy. Oh, the Reds well, they should be doing much better. Their division is pathetic, the bullpen has come around, we have the “Big 3” and there is at least one and a potential few other breakthrough players plus no significant injuries. As @Tom Mitsoff has pointed out, infield defense is a big problem and the current configuration really doesn’t work. Whether pitching, hitting, defense, or baserunning I just do not see an overall disciplined approach. Furthermore, this nibbling nonsense for power pitchers is inexcusable and catchers don’t fool anyone by pretending to steal second.
Your last several sentences make the case for why Bell is not the person to lead the Reds into contention and beyond.
You watched greatness last night. At 40 years young, Verlander was a joy to watch. Classic gotta get ‘um early. Naturally, we run out of potentially scoring more than one run in the 1st with Stephenson CS. WTF?
Greene was good. Relievers good. Tip your cap to Verlander.
I attended the game yesterday. The Reds lost, but the game was enjoyable. The Reds have a logjam in the infield with these three top prospects coming soon. Of course, Senzel could be moved to the outfield, but he looks too good at third base. Please help me understand why the Reds are not selecting an infield prospect and giving him experience in the outfield. Everyone is not going to be able to play shortstop. Glad to see Barrera getting time in center. He needs to start hitting because I think he is better that what he is showing so far.
Perhaps because they have already concluded that most of the infield will be displaced or traded because the prospects in Louisville have so much better upside. Senzel found his place at 3B (his original position, imagine that!) but his future with the Reds is probably less than 50-50. Steer is also on the “OK” side but not as a 3B. Barrero still deserves a fighting chance (and no “help” from Neuman) but his future seems shaky as well. Votto plays when he wants, I guess.
That leaves India. Like him obviously but wonder what trade value he would have as the Red’s only bishop class piece? If the hype from Louisville continues, might he and and perhaps several others be traded to let all youngsters in? That’s the future, not this mishmash of platoons and positional confusion that we see today. Now, about that David Bell guy…enough said.
In the past, there has been a lot of talk about the (St Louis) Cardinals way of doing things being a model the Reds should follow. In the Cardinals way, India would be traded as the lead piece of a package for a solid starting pitcher, a power bat for the outfield, or maybe a catcher who was solid on defense and at least a league average offensive player capable of catching 110-120 games a season.
Thanks, Jim wasn’t aware of that Cardinal’s way. In this case, I just believe India might be the odd man out if the Louisville stars show and maybe our only means of obtaining the kind players you mention.