The Cincinnati Reds headed to Atlanta on Monday night to open up a 4-game series and barely avoided being no-hit as a Santiago Espinal single was the lone hit the club recorded. The Braves were only able to score in one inning, but their 4-run bottom of the 3rd was more than enough in this one as they picked up a 4-0 win to begin the series.
| Final | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cincinnati Reds (18-18) | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Atlanta Braves (16-18) | 4 | 7 | 0 |
| W: Smith-Shawver (2-2) L: Singer (4-2) | |||
| Statcast | Box Score | Game Thread | |||
The Reds drew two walks in the first inning, and Elly De La Cruz was robbed of a hit on a fine play by Nick Allen and Cincinnati was unable to cash in on their opportunity. It would be one of very few opportunities they would have during the game.
Things got worse for Cincinnati in the bottom of the 3rd. After keeping Atlanta off of the board in the first two innings, Brady Singer couldn’t do the same a third time around. After Nick Allan led off the inning with a single, Alex Verdugo and Austin Riley both came through with RBI hits to make it 2-0. With two outs in the inning Matt Olson hit a fly ball down the line in left field and Tyler Callihan raced over to catch it but he slammed into the wall in foul territory hard and went down. Olson easily rounded the bases for what was ruled a 2-run inside-the-park home run after Cincinnati challenged that he caught the ball before dropping it with the collision. Callihan exited the game with a broken arm.
Holding onto a 4-0 lead, AJ Smith-Shawver came out in the 4th inning and after getting two outs he walked the next two batters. Cincinnati was once again unable to do any damage as a pop up to second base ended the threat.
The Reds wouldn’t get another baserunner until the 8th inning. With Smith-Shawver on the mount still, Santiago Espinal led off with a grounder up the middle for the first hit of the game for the road team. A pop up and a double play followed up to keep the Reds scoreless and the score remained 4-0. With the no-hitter gone, Atlanta turned to Enyel De Los Santos who worked around a walk of Gavin Lux in the top of the 9th to give the home squad a victory to open up the series.
Key Moment of the Game
The bottom of the 3rd inning for Atlanta that saw them score all four of the games runs.
Notes Worth Noting
Cincinnati batters have five walks and just six strikeouts, but they had very little to show for it.
Scott Barlow and Luis Mey each threw a hitless inning of relief after Brady Singer’s six innings of work.
Up Next for the Cincinnati Reds
Cincinnati Reds vs Atlanta Braves
Tuesday, May 6th, 7:15pm ET
Andrew Abbott (2-0, 2.84 ERA) vs Chris Sale (1-3, 4.84 ERA)
Felt possible at 2-0, but that mess we saw at the LF wall … 😮 😮
End result can’t even reach up to scratch the belly of a Stink. Fish. Pot!!!
And I’m not sure this team has the mental fortitude and toughness to stay focused and undistracted by it.l, honestly.
The tendency that I’m noticing when things are going good is that the hitters approach to plate appearances.
Going good – Working walks, and getting base hits opposite field.
Going bad – Swinging at anything and everything. Most of their contact is to the pull side, and weak contact. It makes you wonder why they go away from what was working.
Sometimes the opposing pitcher has something to do with it, but many of the times they are making the pitcher look good by abandoning the approach from above.
Very good observation. I agree it seems that way
Lack of being good hitters. For instance Fraley rarely works counts. Swings early in the count even when pitchers are on the ropes. Also I noticed some players have a tendency to take one hand of the bat when they are swinging. Results in too many lazy pops.
Man, feel terrible for Callahan. I saw the highlight and that looked bad. Praying that the Doctors can know best how to treat that aside from baseball that he can recover in general to use his arm normally. That’s such a dangerous play always running towards the left field or right field side wall at almost full speed. Hopefully he heals up and is ready to go probably early next year!
Absolutely fee for Tyler. This was his time to seize the opportunity. Hopefully they can fix that and maybe even get him some rehab at bats this year. At least he gets major league pay while it happens.
Boy, this franchise needs some good news.
Callahan caught the ball. It came out after he hit the ground, not because he hit the ground.
Surprised and disappointed that Tito didn’t raise hell. Defend your players, especially one that broke his arm going all out to make a play.
I agree about the catch. The ruling was based on the reviewers’ opinion that he didn’t voluntarily let go of the ball. How would they know? It certainly could have been voluntary; he might have dropped it because it hurt to hold it. Tito did go out and talk to the umps. I doubt that screaming and throwing things would have accomplished anything besides getting him ejected.
So? Get tossed. Show some fire. Your player just broke his arm going all out, only to have the play overturned by a bad interpretation.
Really bad luck for Callihan breaking his arm after a big effort to catch a flyball just in his fourth game in the big leagues…Hope he’ll heal as quick as possible…
We should learn this kind of game by the Reds will be frequent because this team is weak offensively. It’s true they will have games when will hit and score some runs but they will fall in the hole again of not scoring and being unable to hit repeatedly
From here it can only get better… The question is when ? Our main man Espinal comes up with the only hit on the day. Is it time for some Zen ? Got to get the mind right to play ball. Mindset. There are no dress rehearsals. Now is the time to do it on the field of play. Become the master and not the victim.
Their young bats aren’t producing and their discount guys like Hays are hurt which is why he was discount priced in the first place. He’ll be 30 in July and he’s had 500 at-bat seasons twice. Fraley is mediocre at best. Friedl is ok as a 8-9 hitter rolling the lineup over, but he’s not a good leadoff hitter. CES? Horrible. Benson went south. On and on. I don’t see the explosion in Elly’s game anymore either? He’s always going the other way on the ground which doesn’t excite anyone. They might rip off a big run at some point, but they haven’t played LA, Philly, SD, Arizona, etc like the Cubs have. Those teams will score on the Reds
Take a look at my Pacers and maybe that could apply to the Reds. They were borderline playoff team going nowhere and traded their big Double/Double machine in Domantas Sabonis for a young point guard named Tyrese Haliburton. They hit on a few other secondary players that fit their style and finally added a borderline top 20 nba player in Siakam when they were a more established playoff contender. They also got a world champion coach in Rick Carlisle. The Reds matched that part.
What would be the equivalent though? Move Elly and/or HG to find some working parts. Actually hit on some kids like McLain, Marte, Lowder, Burns, etc. This kid throwing 98 with movement tonight is a start. Thats electric. We have mostly also rans in their 30s in the pen. This team is going nowhere as currently constructed.
If they were mostly healthy maybe 82-83 wins, but they’re never mostly healthy it seems
Had the Reds signed Verdugo, which they should have done, Callihan wouldn’t have been in left.
If Tyler Callihan were a pitcher he also wouldn’t have been in left.
Feel horrible about the injury to Tyler Callihan. He gave 110 percent effort to catch that ball. Just praying for a successful medical procedure and a quick steady recovery. I’m guessing that Will Benson will be called up to replace his LH Bat on the roster. As others on RLN have opined it might be time to call up Rece Hinds and send down Blake Dunn. But only if Hinds is going to play everyday and not sit or platoon with Fraley. Hinds should get at least 10-14 games to prove himself. It’s been a disappointing week, but how the Reds respond the rest of the series with the Braves will be a test of the team resolve!! I’m hopeful they will rebound and take 2 out of the 3 games!! Too early to abandon them!! Where else are you going to go?
Our lineup looks lost without Hays in it. That’s not good.
That’s what I’ve been saying, along with wondering how our team could be so dependent on having one guy in the line-up?
Hayes was hitting. He’s out of the lineup now and , probably coincidentally, almost everyone else is struggling to some degree.
It seems like most fans are really down on this team, which is really strange when you consider they are 18 and 18. However when you consider how dead they look on the field I understand how people feel. Tito needs to do something to fire this team up ASAP or this season will be lost before June if not sooner.
I have noticed when reds win a certain crew will comment. Yet, when they lose another crew comes here to comment.
Reds aren’t nearly as bad as some suggest.
Well the problem is the Cubs are already finished with LA and they’ve played 3-4 other top dogs already. Meanwhile the Reds struggled with the Marlins and Nats.
The rotation is pretty good and that will keep them from being bad, but do you see enough in the lineup? I definitely don’t
Yes I do see enough in this lineup.
Kevin: I think this is the legacy of hopes raised and dashed a thousand times.
Do you see enough in this lineup to realistically compete with the rosters of other Wild Card candidates such as the Padres, Giants, etc…? Because, the Reds are not winning the division over the Cubs. I hate to say that, because I love the Reds; I’m just being realistic and not pollyannish.
A five hundred record with 22% of the season in the books plus above average pitching is not a bad position to be in.
The problem is, who are the Reds going to leapfrog for a Wild Card? Seriously? The NL West is a beast; two of the Wild Cards will likely come from that division… that leaves one spot left. I don’t see the Reds having a chance to overtake the Cubs in the division. Playing 500 ball or a few games above won’t get you in the playoffs. Just enough for ownership to say we are “competitive” and are “moving in the right direction” with all of our “young talent”… a lot of spinning wheels with this organization. They are my first love when it comes to baseball and I have so many wonderful memories, but it is all just so frustrating and has been for a while.
I agree cause pitching is not the issue but the Reds need offense or the pitching is wasted in games like yesterday and on Sunday.Reds need to develop hitters or trade from a position of strength to acquire good hitters.Reds will have to see what happens with MM,Marte,CES Steer and others because we just don’t know about them yet based on how many at bats they have in the Majors.At the same time its kind of fools gold to run out guys like Friedl and Fraley who have over 1200 big league at bats and now will be 30 years old this year and expect them to carry the team on their back while we wait on others.To count on Hays and his history is also fools gold.Guy can hit and is good enough on defense but obviously he is injury prone less you don’t get him for 5M.I can wait on and pull for this team to get better but this roster is flawed and in no way built for GABP at this point.Long way to go and hopefully we will see some signs of these younger players getting better.
Yeah we play in a bandbox and our HR leaders Elly/Hays are tied for 57th in HRs with 5.