Things started out poorly for the Reds early on. They didn’t get any better for Cincinnati after that, either, as the Arizona Diamondbacks just piled on run after run throughout the game and picked up a blowout win on Saturday night to take a 2-0 series lead over the Reds.
| Final | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cincinnati Reds (67-63) | 1 | 7 | 1 |
| Arizona Diamondbacks (64-66) | 10 | 14 | 0 |
| W: Crismatt (1-0) L: Abbott (8-4) | |||
| Statcast | Box Score | Game Thread | |||
The first inning didn’t immediately go awry for Andrew Abbott. He got fly outs from the first two batters he faced. But then he gave up four straight 100+ MPH batted balls in a row – all hits, and three of which were doubles – as Arizona rallied for three runs to take the lead.
Cincinnati would get two runners on in the 2nd inning but failed to cash in on that opportunity. The same thing would happen in the next inning, too. Arizona added to their lead in the bottom of the inning on a 2-run home run by Lourdes Gurriel Jr. that made it 5-0. It became 7-0 in the 4th when Geraldo Perdomo added a 2-run home run of his own.
The 4th inning would be the last one for Andrew Abbott as he put together his worst start of the season. In the 5th inning the Reds sent Zach Maxwell to the mound for his big league debut. His first pitch was a slider for a strike. His next pitch was a 101.5 MPH fastball as he showed off his arm strength. Maxwell would get a fly out of Lourdes Gurriel Jr. to start the inning, then strike out Gabriel Moreno for the second out. But the strikeout streak ended there as Blaze Alexander made it 8-0 on a solo home run. Maxwell would rebound with a strikeout on a 101.6 MPH fastball to Tyler Locklear as he completed his first big league inning. Maxwell would return for the 6th and work around a 1-out triple by striking out the next two batters.
In the 8th inning the Reds would finally get on the board. Elly De La Cruz picked up a 1-out double. Matt McLain came off of the bench to pinch run for him. Austin Hays came through with a 2-out single to score McLain and make it 8-1. Arizona got that run back in the bottom of the inning and then tacked on another one in the bottom of the inning to take a 10-1 lead and that’s where the score remained for the remaining eight minutes of the game as Cincinnati couldn’t get anything done in the 9th as they lost their third game in a row.
Key Moment of the Game
Lourdes Gurriel Jr.’s 2-run home run in the 3rd inning that made it 5-0.
Notes Worth Noting
The Reds pitchers walked no one and struck out 14 batters. Arizona’s pitched walked three and struck out six.
The Reds hitters had two extra-base hits and both were doubles. Arizona’s hitters had three doubles, a triple, and three home runs.
Zach Maxwell struck out five batters in 2.0 innings in his big league debut. He threw a ton of strikes.
Will Banfield took over behind the plate for the Reds in the game. This was his big league debut. The game ended with him standing on deck, so he did not get a chance to hit.
Not a game note for this one, but Sal Stewert homered twice tonight for Louisville and is now hitting .317/.396/.650 through 32 games since being promoted to Triple-A. He has 32 doubles and 19 home runs in 112 games this year between Double-A and Triple-A.
The New York Mets won. That leaves the Reds 2.5 games out of the final wild card spot.
Up Next for the Cincinnati Reds
Cincinnati Reds vs Arizona Diamondbacks
Sunday August 24th, 4:10pm ET
Brady Singer (11-9, 4.18 ERA) vs Zac Gallen (9-13, 5.28 ERA)
“Not a game note for this one, but Sal Stewert homered twice tonight for Louisville and is now hitting .317/.396/.650 through 32 games since being promoted to Triple-A. He has 32 doubles and 19 home runs in 112 games this year between Double-A and Triple-A.”
After tonight’s game that’s the main story. He also had two walks. Is there anything else to say considering the current state of the Reds offense?
The Reds offense is making me glad the Buckeyes football season starts next week, and the Blue Jackets will be playing pre-season games a month from now.
When do the Pacers hit the court, Melvin? 😉
haha Still a couple of months away. I’m a fantasy football guy and a Colts fan. I’m still foolish enough to hope the Reds will get their act together. Crazy huh? The Reds are my favorite sports team. Die hard like most on here I’m sure.
I’ll stick with the Reds till the bitter end because it is in my DNA; but, right now, to borrow from an Eagles line, storms are high and dreams are low. I wish for better, but lack hope that it will happen.
Doug ran a feature here a couple or several months back highlighting that this Reds team is not really a young team. In the time since, they haven’t gotten any younger in a meaningful sense.
This team is what it is, which we see every game, both the good and the lacking. And there is a touch too much of the lacking for them to get the playoff job done, I fear.
Where would they be without Hayes ans Andujar? Where are they with them?
Where, for that matter, are the Reds with Greene. Abbott, Lodolo and Elly? The answer is that they are still marginally in the playoffs picture.
I agree Melvin ! No way he doesn’t belong in this lineup SOMEWHERE RIGHT NOW ! I don’t care where they put him – the dude can hit and he needs to here playing . Why is he continuing to marinate in AAA when this
current lineup has several dudes that can’t hit their way out of wet paper bags ! Maybe he fails when he arrives , but I’d rather find out instead of wondering what might have been ….
From Doug’s minor league update:
“Sal Stewart went 2-4 with 2 walks, a steal (17), 2 home runs (19), 3 runs, and 4 RBI.”
Interesting that he has 17 steals. That may be deceiving. I don’t know. I do know that it would be second on the Reds to EDLC.
It’s very deceiving if you think it means he’s got any kind of speed. He does not. He is not fast or anything like it.
To add to this, there have been 26 players for Louisville this year with tracked sprint speed. Sal Stewart’s 90th percentile sprint speed (meaning the top 10% of his fastest recorded times) ranks tied for 21st with Christian Encarnacion-Strand.
Among players he ranks below: Catcher Will Banfield, rehabbing Jeimer Candelario.
Comparing it to the big league club, he would only rank ahead of Jose Trevino and Austin Wynns. He would be behind the other 21 players on the team this year.
Obviously just opportunistic and wise then without much speed.
Thanks
Trevino wasn’t far away from scoring the other night on a sac fly attempt. I guess you might say from what your’e saying is that Stewart may have had just enough speed to get it done. That’s one way of looking at it possibly?
Tito probably has more speed than Trevino.
The HR to LC went 460 feet
https://x.com/MLBPipeline/status/1959404425425924456
I was still watching the Bats when it happened. It looked like the ball cleared the spectator berm behind the wall on the fly. It seemed to come to ground on a hard surface and took a very high bounce.
From there, the depth perception of the camera view was not very good. The bounce either hit near the top of the screen to keep balls out of the street or skimmed over the screen, fell, and took one more lower but still visible bounce.
Wonder what Francona said when asked by the Cincinnati media why Stewart isn’t up here yet? Oh wait…they probably didn’t even ask him.
“I don’t set the roster” would almost assuredly be his answer.
He’s not the guy to ask that question to.
I hope this is another temporary down in the Reds season as many of them already happened this year and tomorrow they will wake up again and get the win…
By the way , Stewart already has more home runs than CES in 40 fewer PAs at Triple-A…
He has as many as EDLC who is leading the Reds.
Still think the Reds don’t need more offense Krall?
Abbott with a rare dud. It happens. Credit the Diamondbacks with some pop in their lineup too.
Hopes are quickly fading for meaningful baseball in October. Too many offensive woes as they’re now 5 wins, 38 loses, that 43 games now where they’ve scored 2 or fewer runs. Hard to compete with an offensive that goes dormant that frequently.
Wasted some great starting pitching this season which is a shame.
” Too many offensive woes as they’re now 5 wins, 38 loses, that 43 games now where they’ve scored 2 or fewer runs.”
That’s just crazy. They’re very fortunate to be where they are scoring like that. Can’t survive like that forever. It just does’t work.
Starting pitching is set for next year. They need to drastically improve the offense for the 2026 season, and they need to add at least two quality bullpen pieces, be that through free agency, trade, or re-alignment.
Sal Stewart for 1B (Steer back to a utility role)
Spend all the non-pitcher FA cash on 1 guy for either LF or DH
The returning Brandon Williamson converted to the bullpen as a LHRP
Sign at least one RP to an 8 figure per year contract
Either sign another one or trade for one more high leverage reliever
Duke- honestly they need to sign 3 relievers. With Pagan being gone that basically leaves Tony. They need a closer and a 7th inning guy and another 8th inning guy . That stops them from using Tony every night. The bullpen is very weak.
The Reds should be thankful it is just the Mets that they have to catch. It is possible.
At the end of the day, they are still only 2.5 games out. They could be ahead of them by Wednesday. Baseball is weird like that sometimes.
And you realize who the Reds play next, right? Yes, the Reds have seemingly played well against good teams this year. But I’m still not looking forward to this next series.
Games aren’t played on paper. Believe it or not, maybe we take 2 of 3 from the almighty $400 million payroll Dodgers. Hey, we might even sweep them.
Meanwhile the Braves are playing out the season by holding tryouts for next year and the Mets are piling on. Arizona is a really good team, the Reds are not. Ready for next year.Maye Nashville will get an expansion team Sorry but not a football or basketball fan.
Is Burns coming back? When the Reds offense does explode its 3-2 so they need every hand on deck. Burns instead of GA and they probably win a game or two more already. Stewart too….cmon? Cubs did it.
Abbott isn’t quite a #1 yet, but he’s darn good. Just had a bad game. Too bad this team is putting so much pressure on him to be great every outing. They should have traded Petty, Phillips, and Collier for Crochet when they had the chance.
So you think starting pitching is the issue???
Have you been watching at all this year???
The Sox extended Crochet for 6 years and 170 million.
Have you paid attention enough to know the Reds ownership will never fork over that kind of money to any pitcher, especially not an often injured one???
Gurriel would have been a good addition to the Reds outfield at the deadline I think. The moves Krall made were ok I think, but probably not enough for the Offense overall to help push them into the playoffs or have success in the playoffs. This is the team you’ve got though, unless Stewart or someone else is brought up. I think you just hope Hays gets hot, Mclain hits a little better, maybe Steer a little better, Stephenson maybe when he gets back? But it just hasn’t happened for those players too consistently over the season, so it’s hard to see it happening all of a sudden in September.
I daresay that I’m a Krall apologist at this point. He’s hamstrung by ownership. We barely added payroll with the moves he made, and he’s been told no more this year. Krall makes lots of shrew under the radar moves and him and his scouting department are on a roll in terms of the draft, and the international scouting has been pretty solid the last few years as well.
Is am as well Duke. He has made some blunders, but he actually brought in 3 major league level players at the deadline without giving up much and who have made a positive impact.
And them signing of Hays, Barlow have been positive. Trading for Singer and Trevino was awesome. The guy knows his scouting and acquisition. I would like to have Mike Sirota back though.
They still need work on developing more of our minor leaguers. A gap is developing again at the mid levels. Especially pitching.
Agreed 100% and that’s with so many of our top players making very little compared to the rest of the league. Then we lose two of our players through forgetting how to hit that we counted on big time in CES and MM. Counting on young guys is a big risk until they have 3 or so years as an example of their floor/ceiling.
A rare stinker from our starting pitching – but two in a row now. Hope our starters aren’t hitting a wall.
But really, we ought to be scoring 10 runs ourselves against the diamondbacks pitching. I’m afraid too many of our hitters peaked and this is who they are. If it is, we need wholesale changes this off season. We swing at too much stuff out of the zone. Poor strike zone recognition.
The Reds are 4th in MLB in Chase % which is awesome.
Brewers, Dodgers, and Yankees are the only teams ahead of them.
The Reds are 2nd in MLB in Zone % only to Milwaukee….meaning they swing at the 2nd most pitches in the zone of all MLB teams.
So a small conclusion can be assumed. That if they are swinging at more strikes, and not chasing bad pitches, that their bat to ball skills is what is lacking the most.
Where they suffer is quality of contact.
Their barrel % is the 3RD WORST in the league. 6.9% (MLB Avg is 8.6%)
And the craziest stat of all is the Brewers have the worst barrel % in the league at 6.3%.
Wow!! Proves yet again that eye tests and assumptions can’t be relied upon.
@VaRedsFan
Great info, thanks for sharing.
I’d just as soon lose 10-1 than 10-9 and waste 3 games worth of offense.
This game was lost by poor pitching. No way Sal Stewart accounts for nine runs. Same old recycled comments day after day after day.
He wouldn’t account for nine runs, Doc, but the Reds don’t give up ten runs very often: they lose lots of close games. He may prove unable to hit MLB pitching well, but when a player is tearing up AAA and the parent team has trouble scoring runs, it makes sense to find out if he can hit in MLB. Would he be worse defensively at 2nd than Lux? They might have to patch together a rotation involving Stewart and Andujar and 1st base, 2nd base and DH.
Good post greenmtred. Proud of you. 🙂
This shows the severe limitation of the “Know-it-all / Second-Guesser” approach to RLN comments, that some posters rely on.
It’s the stock in trade of the RLN Know-It-All, making assumptions based on one game, or one at bat, or one pitching performance.
Sure, Stewart might not have helped last night.
But for the Know-It-All / Second-Guesser, that’s enough to opine that Stewart shouldn’t be called up at all.
And that those lobbying for his call up aren’t as “smart” as he is.
Thinking strategically (or coherently) won’t do for RLN’s resident Second-Guesser.
It’s more important that he presents himself as Mr. Know-It-All.
But always after the fact, of course.
Same old same old, day after day.
There’s several RLN prognosticators that have unsuccessfully predicted that the Reds series streak would end just about every time they lose the 1st two games of a series. They’ve been wrong EVERY time, but they continue to make their prediction so that they may proclaim to the world how right they are.
LOL so is the comment “same old recycled comments day after day after day”.
As many have said on here we are die hard Reds fans and put up with year after year cheap/poor ownership that can’t even come close to league average in team salaries and the word “hopefully” inserted in front of their names. Ownership counts on guys like us.
Why do you believe one of the smallest MLB market teams would have a close to league average payroll? Doesn’t seem logical.
Today’s line up, one question. Why is Will Benson on this team? Freidl is in an awful slump but Francona refuses to give Will a chance.
I’d venture he’s here to be a backup OF, since he’s put up a .199/.274/.388/.662 line over his 593 PA the last two years (24-25).
Maybe so but he has been known to provide a spark, see Cleveland this year, and this team needs a jolt of lightning.
Mets are seining hot bats. Diamondbacks are swinging hot bats. Reds rely on pitching but didn’t have it the last 2 days. Murphy’s laws at work. Just find a way to salvage the last game and get out of town.