The Cincinnati Reds are in a spiral of which they likely feel like they will never escape. After storming back in the top of the 9th inning to take the lead they would watch a 2-run home run in the bottom of the inning tie things up and then watch the Cubs score the winning run in the 10th inning as Chicago sealed their third win of the series.
| Final | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cincinnati Reds (20-17) | 6 | 10 | 0 |
| Chicago Cubs (25-12) | 7 | 10 | 0 |
| W: Thornton (1-0) L: Burke (1-2) | |||
| Statcast | Box Score | Game Thread | |||
The Reds started out the game with back-to-back singles to put runners on the corners, but JJ Bleday was thrown out trying to steal second base with Elly De La Cruz at the plate. Cincinnati would get a run two pitches later when De La Cruz grounded out and brought in TJ Friedl from third. The lead didn’t last very long because the Cubs picked up a 2-out single in the bottom of the inning that was followed up by a 2-run home run by noted Reds killer Ian Happ.
Brady Singer settled in after that for the next couple of innings, but Chicago’s offense got back to work in the bottom of the 4th. Happ led off with a single and then he scored on a double down the line by Seiya Suzuki. The Cubs added another run later in the inning on a groundout. Five minutes later the Reds would get one of those runs back when Matt McLain led off the top of the 5th inning with an opposite field home run into the first row of seats in right field.
After Singer kept Chicago off the board in the 6th, Cincinnati turned to the bullpen in the 7th. Sam Moll gave up back-to-back singles to begin the inning, but got a groundball double play from Nico Hoerner, but saw their lead runner move up to third. The Reds made a move to bring Pierce Johnson in and he got out of the inning with a groundout.
When the 8th inning began Cincinnati made another call to the bullpen to bring in Tejay Antone. The righty was making his first big league outing since 2024 when he tore the UCL in his elbow and had to undergo his third Tommy John surgery. Antone would strike out Alex Bregman to start the inning but Ian Happ crushed the third pitch he saw to dead center. TJ Friedl was tracking it and right as he got to the wall he jumped up and caught the ball as he slammed into the ivy to rob extra-bases from Happ, much to the appreciation of his pitcher. Seiya Suzuki would strike out to end the frame and send the game to the 9th.
Still down by two runs, the visiting team needed to get something going and that they did. Spencer Steer hit a 411-foot home run deep into left-center to lead off the inning and cut the lead to one. Will Benson and pinch-hitter Tyler Stephenson then followed up with singles. Matt McLain then laid down a bunt to try and move the runners up, but reliever Hoby Milner fielded it and tried to get the force at third base but the throw was late and everyone was safe. That brought Dane Myers to the plate with the bases juiced and no outs. The count would go full, but Milner won the battle by getting a swinging strike to end the at-bat. JJ Bleday came to the plate in the lefty-lefty matchup and he came through with a line drive single into right to plate the tying run.
That brought Elly De La Cruz to the plate and he did something you rarely ever see. He hit a deep drive into right field that Seiya Suzuki would catch on a jump near the wall in right field, but he fell to the ground and landed on his butt. He flipped the ball to Pete Crow-Armstrong in center to try and get the ball back into the infield as Will Benson scored the tying run, but Matt McLain was also getting the wave to the plate and as he rounded third the ball was just getting towards the cutoff man and McLain would beat the throw to the plate as two runs scored on the sacrifice fly to put Cincinnati up 6-4.
In the first game without closer Emilio Pagan after he landed on the injured list the Reds turned to Graham Ashcraft to try and close the game out. He would strike out the first batter he saw with some help from Tyler Stephenson who challenged a ball call and got it overturned into strike three. Ashcraft would lose a 7-pitch battle against Carson Kelly on a single into right field, bringing the tying run to the plate in Pete Crow-Armstrong. Tie it is exactly what he did as he came through with a 2-run home run into the first row of seats in left center.
The game would move on to the 10th and the inning started Ke’Bryan Hayes on second base for Cincinnati. A 4-pitch walk to Nathaniel Lowe would get the Reds started, with Blake Dunn taking over for him at 1st base as the Cubs made a pitching change to bring in a righty to face Spencer Steer. That plan worked as Steer grounded into a double play on the second pitch he saw, though Hayes was able to take third on the play. It wouldn’t matter as a groundout ended the top half of the inning.
Cincinnati turned to lefty Brock Burke for the bottom of the frame. The Cubs brought Miguel Amaya to the plate as a pinch hitter and he squared around and laid down a sacrifice bunt to push the winning run over to third. Alex Bregman came to the plate, but also didn’t as he was intentionally walked to set up the double play and put Ian Happ in the right-handed batters box where he’s been a weaker hitter this season. Burke would strike him out on four pitches, but then was asked to intentionally walk Seiya Suzuki to load the bases and get a lefty-lefty matchup against Michael Busch. Burke began the at-bat with three straight balls before a called strike that Busch tried to challenge but the umpire seemed to say he waited too long to do so. The next pitch was way inside and nearly hit Busch, ending the game in a walk-off walk as the Cubs won their 14th home game in a row and beat the Reds in their final at-bat for the third straight day and extended their losing streak to six games.
Key Moment of the Game
The 10th inning walk of Michael Busch that ended the game.
Notes Worth Noting
The Cincinnati Reds losing streak has reached six games. The Cubs winning streak is now eight. Things are not going well for the fans in The Queen City or the team that plays their home games there.
JJ Bleday, Will Benson, and Matt McLain all had 2-hit games.
Elly De La Cruz didn’t have a hit but drove in three runs.
Sal Stewart’s slump continues. After an 0-4 night he’s now hitting just .100/.143/.125 in his last 10 games, going 4-40 during this stretch.
Up Next for the Cincinnati Reds
Cincinnati Reds vs Chicago Cubs
Thursday May 7th, 2:20pm ET
Rhett Lowder (3-2, 5.09 ERA) vs Shota Imanaga (3-2, 2.40 ERA)
Of all the games lost during this 6 game streak. This one annoys me more than anything. Would of, Could of, should of, Reds should have won all 3 games against the cubs.
Moll, Johnson, and Antone pitched well. Singer did well enough. The rest? Once again, too many lost scoring opportunities.
1st and 3rd with no outs THREE TIMES and we only scored one run.
What about the two intentional walks in a row to load the bases in the bottom of the 10th? I know they were trying to go left on left but it had to crank up the pressure on Burke.
Questionable, to say the least.
As Brantley has said in the past…especially with 2 outs…pound the zone…the pressure was already on Burke with a runner on third…no excuse not to throw strikes.
So true, Still a Red. If it would have worked out, nothing would been second guessed.
Were we not in first place recently?
Hey Melvin, did you see who went 3/3 plus a walk today at Louisville with the *lowest* EV being 112.6MPH and two of the hits off an LHP? His initials are RH.
There has to be a way to teach a guy who routinely makes this kind of contact at AAA to be at least an average hitter at MLB. Hopefully, he will find it with the Reds back at Louisville. If not, I hope he lands somewhere they have a guru to get him on the right path.
This is all I am going to say here about this situation.
Yeah I saw it. The whole Hinds situation is exhausting for me. There’s nothing I’d like better than for him to realize his potential and to help the Reds win.
For it all to come together I’m definitely in the “I’ll believe it when I see it mode” now though.
..and Marte went 0-4 batting in front of RH.
Pick his pitch and clobber it. Don’t swing at anything else. BB, backward K, HR.
-Guru
Yeah, it takes getting big league at bats. But the Reds just can’t afford that right now, unfortunately.
I saw the Guardians have a new pitching machine that Hedges says has helped him. Wonder if the Reds have one? Hedges it pitches like a pitcher.
At BillJ, I was reading about pitching machine technology last week, and also wondering what type of pitching machine(s) the Reds have.
I do not know anything specific about the Guardians’ latest setup, but, apparently, most profressional quality pitching machines can imitate both left and right-handed pitches while throwing balls that also imitate breaking stuff along with fastballs. There is at least one machine that can be set to vary release points, which incorporates video of the pitcher, presumably programmable to imitate specific MLB pitchers.
JIM WALKER I FOUND THIS ABOUT THE GUARDIANS MACHINE:
The Guardians have been using a Trajekt machine – a pitching robot that can simulate any pitcher’s delivery and release point – to build this awareness among both catchers and hitters.
The reds get 9 games over and you hope that would lead to building on that ….moving little by little to 15 over then maybe 20 over….instead they have just basically crapped it all away in one road trip… gotta be proud
And it’s not even a west coast road-trip! Or their September nightmare of a schedule…
I dunno, I am at a loss. Especially the last 3 games!! I do like good close baseball games. Sunday was one, however last 3 to me Reds found a way to lose.
I will–briefly–take your role, Kevin, and say that the opponents found a way to win.
As my dad used to say, “they can’t stand prosperity”.
So last season throughout the second half, Elly went through a major slump (we later learned it was due to injury). But he played every game through it. Francona said this winter that he would be giving him days off this year.
Yet now Sal’s in a major slump and Francona continues to pencil him in the lineup everyday.
Good point…yeah I don’t understand not giving Stewart a day off here at some point. Even De La Cruz, give him a day off and let McLain play SS.
Hmmm. Good point, they’re also starting to move him around the infield. He’s a confident guy, but still that’s got to add a bit more pressure.
Maybe Francona thinks the best way for Sal to make his adjustments is in the batter’s box. Maybe, when Suarez returns, he’ll get some rest.
This makes zero sense. AND it seems Reds’ injuries perpetually go unnoticed. Isn’t the trainer supposed to notice this? Pagan, Green, etc.
Reds did a lot of good things actually tonight, Bleday with key hits, McLain showing his value with power and speed, Singer pitched ok, De La Cruz with the clutch 2 run sacrifice fly.
Their slump seemed initially based on bad pitching, Stewart slumping, etc. Now it seems more mental/psychological. Maybe that’s a good thing, as they can potentially turn it around. I’m actually somewhat hopeful because they’re right there with the Cubs in all these games. The bullpen has been so good, but maybe they are missing a dominant closer.
That’s a big letdown for Ashcraft tonight. One game isn’t huge in the grand scheme, and closers have to have short memories to come back the next night after a blown save. But I’m not sure Ashcraft is a night in, night out closer option. It’s a different animal closing a game then getting 3 tough outs even in the 8th I think.
I think maybe closer by committee should be the way the Reds should go. I think if they were doing that tonight, probably Burke would have pitched the 9th. But they want to give Ashcraft that chance. Will just have to see how it plays out.
Reds need a win soon, tomorrow, or at least taking 2 of 3 against Houston. Francona and the clubhouse leadership will be important in not letting this get really out of hand and going below .500. Not sure they’d recover if that occurred.
I think they’re still a solid team, and will snap out of this a bit in the near future.
Great post and thanks.
Alot of positives yes!!! Tomorrow I will be better lol
the sun will come out tomorrow. baseball will be played and we’ll cheer on our Reds like we have for our whole lives.
We will. The irony is that’s what Cubs fans used to say.
The reds will do nothing if they don’t find someone to close….and that person is not in that BP
Hunter Greene when he comes back?! I question whether Greene will be able to go more than 5 innings when he comes back a start so maybe just make him the closer the rest of the year? Hopefully Reds would are still in the race at that time.
I would think that getting up 3 maybe 4 times a week in the bullpen to warm up would cause problems with his elbow. I think so anyway
The Cubs are like a stock that’s on a heater–you think it’ll never drop and you’re going to get rich. that’s just not how baseball works and more to the point if you look at their starting pitching it’s very thin and the guys they’re counting on don’t have full season workloads to their credit except for Taillon. what’s the term? lagging indicator? their issues will catch up with them unless they hit like a beer league softball team all season. Not saying we win the division but it wouldn’t bother me to face them in a playoff series. They barely beat us without having to face Greene Burns and Lodolo.
Let’s win tomorrow and then beat up on bottom dwellers Houston this weekend.
if anyone just listened to Austin Elmore’s rant on WLW extra innings ……I agree with everything he just said…..he was 1000% on!
You’ll have to fill me in. Please do.
Yeah. I heard that. He was spot on
I just already read something on X that I totally agree with and asks “How is every loss more painful than the last?
Aside the come back in the 9th inning the Reds didn’t play well this game especially on the offense and running.. But when the team could take the lead to erase all those bad things, relieving pitching comes to blow it out and lose the game anyway…This roadtrip is showing up every weakness the Reds have…I don’t know what to think for tomorrow but that doesn’t look good
It seemed like they actually didn’t play great against Colorado even though they won 2 of 3. It was like something shifted in a not good way. Maybe Stewart really slumping, Suarez being gone. They lack a mental toughness in some sense I think. But maybe this makes them tougher in a sense in the long run, going through this early season trial.
I don’t know, maybe I shouldn’t question their mental toughness so much. Maybe they’re just in a slump losing some 1 run games. Alright, I’m going to bed, goodnight all!
I agree with everything said in Austin Elmore’s rant on WLW extra innings. Those “Tito” intentional walks were killers. If I said what I really feel right now, I would be banned from this site…but @#%%@@
Go figure, right? Really put Burke in a bind.
He was already in a bind with the runner on third. Bases loaded to get the match up and a force at any base. Come, on all Burke needs to do is throw strikes and let the chips fall where they may instead of trying to nibble.
The Reds didn’t roll over in the 9th so the Over cashed! Didn’t hurt that the Cubs didn’t run their closer out there throwing 101, but I’ll take it. Only possible way to enjoy Reds baseball currently. High leverage blowing games one after another and guys having horrific starts.
I would consider blowing it up if this ends up being the 75-80 win team it looks like.
Yeah our starters could be healthier going into 2027, but these hitters obviously don’t have the talent, bat control, discipline, etc to push across steady runs that we need
When the Reds went 20-11, Tito was a genius. Now? He’s an idiot.
Not a Francona fan but Asking Tito to make chicken salad out of chicken —– on a daily basis is too much. It probably will lead to a few curious in game decisions.
The Bullpen needs a lights out closer, but the FO was fine with Pagan. The roster needs better hitters, but the FO was fine with getting Suarez, Bleday and Myers.
These are the games that will happen with 26 players like the Reds have. Expecting more is fanciful. That said, I hate losing to the Stupid Cubs and the Reds should have taken 2 of 3.
Not real confident we can turn this around quickly. Too many good teams and organizations in the NL.
Yea, I don’t see this team actually contending beyond a quick 2-game WC loss like last year. Can’t run with the big dogs. Too many weaknesses. So much for having the best BP in the league. Seems like the whole season just crumbled in 3 days. When it’s time to show up for a huge divisional matchup with the hard-charging Cubs, they lay an egg, plus Pagan goes down for 2 months or more. This team just sucks the life right out of you.
When the Reds went 12-0 in games decided by 2 runs or less it was a record to start the season. It was the only way a team with this big of a negative run differential could get to 20-11. That is as much luck as not and they are no better than last year and arguably worse without Greene and Lodolo. 81 wins will be a good year but that won’t be enough for the playoffs this year.
Reds are not as bad as they have been playing. But they are not as good as it seemed last week. They got lucky and had a l lot of fortune the first two months of the season. However the last week that fortune has turned out to be fools gold. This is not a good team. They are not really bad either. They are what I thought they would be before the season, mediocre. I still hold think they end up around 83 wins but will miss the playoffs.
I have thought/said this all along. This team is just mediocre. Not really good but not really bad, but can be both at times.
Hello darkness my old friend……
Exactly. Just good enough to sniff around a meaningless WC spot yet again. What’s the point?
I know this doesn’t count for anything because the ump calls balls and strikes, but when you look at ESPN’s play by play at the last at bat, Burke’s 1st 4 pitches look like they all are in their strike zone diagram. The last pitch is clearly a ball. Did anyone watching the game feel like the umpire was squeezing the strike zone? Horrible way to lose.
Stephenson pretty good at appeals. I guess he thought they were balls. But I believe the Reds still had 2 to burn.
First pitch was a strike and the rest were balls. Stephenson had 1 challenge left.
So on May 8, 2001 in Phoenix, almost exactly 25 years ago, Randy Johnson struck out 20 Reds and left after nine with the game tied 1-1. We all remember this.
In the top of the 11th Alex Ochoa hit a two-run sac fly to give the Reds a 3-1 lead. I believe that was the last legit Reds two-RBI sac fly before Elly last night. Ochoa hit it to deep left center. Jason LaRue scored easily from third. Donnie Sadler raced home from second with the second run, beating a feeble throw from Steve Finley and a strong relay from the shortstop… Craig Counsell (!!!)
(Marty’s call – https://youtu.be/D4h1Sgw7Mww?&t=9280)
Anyway, the D’backs tied it with two singles and a Mark Grace double off Danny Graves. Then with one out and first base open, the Reds intentionally walked David Dellucci. And that worked exactly as well as last night – Greg Colbrunn struck out, but Counsell walked and Matt Williams walked and that was the game.
Déjà vu all over again. Donnie Sadler? There’s a name I don’t remember
Just watched the video, with audio synched to the broadcast. Good to hear Marty again, with the Ol’ Lefthander in the background. Marty was so good. Thanks for the post.
Just read a reds article. Sal Stewart says “chill” to those in panic mood. Don’t come yell at me I am just the messenger. Hahahaha
As a fan when watching your team go through losing streaks is tough. Thankfully baseball is a long season and they can get those long winning streaks as well. Have a great day everyone!!
Yes, be like Sal. Even 2 weeks from now much less 2 months from now this series will be an afterthought for both players and fans.
It’s hard to be a Reds’ fans some weeks. A six-game losing streak, a bullpen that was pretty good in April now can’t stop anyone. The good news is that they are still two games ahead of last year’s record and still tied for the last playoff slot. The bad news is that the teams that are ahead or tied with them are all Central Division teams, meaning the Reds are losing all of the tiebreakers. And they can’t count on a Mets like collapse this season. The Reds have played just short of one quarter of the season. It’s no longer early. It’s time to recognize that it’s time to step it up. It’s time to make roster changes. It’s time to adjust their attitude. For example, Trevino’s comment on Pagan: “As one of our leaders, as one of our captains, one of the dudes that cares about this team more than a lot of us”. Hopefully, he was simply being less articulate than one would hope, but the part about Pagan caring more about the team than “a lot of us” isn’t something one wants to hear stated publicly. Stewart’s comments on the Reds were rather tone deaf as well, but then he’s a rookie and can be expected to be a bit inexperienced expressing his opinions. Like I said about Elly a couple of years back – keep the young guys away from the media.
We are basically tied for last wild card spot and playing losing ball lots and lots of ball left The teams above us in the wild card standings from the NL central have to play each other a lot of beating on one another will help us
All true Dennis, but if they don’t win the series against the teams in the division and wind up tied with one of them – they lose. You have to be your divisional rivals. Or beat everyone else so badly that you aren’t tied with anyone.
Yeah … another heaping helping of it upon waking up and seeing the headline. Can’t get out of Chicago soon enough.
Some meetings today so the standard watch on mute. Not sure I’m up for it anyway.
May 7th and multiple gut punches on the road will make you feel that way.
I agree, Driving for a living. I have been able to listen on radio more so than TV. Yet today I may just take a break.
I’m with you both. I feel like the past 3 games have zapped me. I will be working and have several meetings. Hopefully this will refresh me for the Houston series this weekend.
As much as I hate to, you do have to hand it to the Cubs. They came through when the Reds didn’t. Also, some bad luck for the Reds. Elly fooled on Tues. night with the top spin (maybe should have charged it), Crowe’s HR off Ashcraft last night that he golfed just off the ground.
Reds had runners at first and third twice with no outs and could not score…both times they ran on contact on batted balls in the infield and were out at home by a mile.
Agree. Give the Cubs credit. They are really in the zone now! It’s a long season. Our time will come.
I know some will object to this, but Steer is a stud! Not always, but alot. You have to look beyone just the numbers.
Steer a stud? Wow
The 1990 Reds lost 9 in a row. Just sayin’…….
The 1961 Reds lost 8 in a row in April/May that year. From 5-10 (then) to 93-61 and NL Pennant winners. Key midseason trades brought 2B Don Blasingame, P Ken Johnson, and C Darrell Johnson to help make it happen.
Rookie 2B Jim Baumer was hitting .125 BA during the slump. Blazer was a little better (.222 BA) but not much.
Once again the Reds bullpen loves to walk batters and tonight was the cherry on top.
Bullpen leaders in walks
Houston-99
Cincinnati -95
CWS-85
Washington -75
Could make for some long games, time-wise, this weekend.
Gross. How can we not ever fix this?
Would be curious to know how many walks (both SP and RP) end up scoring? I’m sure it is a fairly high percentage. On the flip side, with the Reds batting average the worst in MLB; I wonder how many times the Reds offense takes advantage of other teams walks and score
Despite Tony and Ash and Burke not getting it done,the stuff they have still plays.Sometimes the hitter beats you even with your best stuff.Walks however have to come down and come down a lot.Not worried at all about the pitching cause even minus two starters and now Pagan going down it has been good enough.Reds just can’t hit and to be more blunt they struggle to even hit a ball to the outfield or a grounder up the middle of the diamond when the other team is giving them a run.Now I am sure they talk about and work on it but lets be real does anybody have confidence in any of our guys to get it done?To me I don’t think you always blame the coach but since the Reds are not going to bench any of these players below the Mendoza line or send them down to work it out in Louisville,you have to do something and the coach is the logical choice.Same coach,same players and even worse results then last year.Got to do it.Its a team game and the numbers don’t lie this team can’t hit.One parting rant.If Marte after last year and 29 at bats this year can be sent down to work on his plate approach then why not others.If he is no longer looked at as a starter and he obviously shared time with Benson then who made that decision and why.Others are still riding what they did 2 or 3 years ago.Makes no sense to me at all.GO REDS
The April record and run differential numbers were never compatible long term. One or the other had to give and it is the record that has caved. What we have seen is a regression to the mean. Only three NL teams have a lower run differential so I am not sure we have hit the bottom yet.
The Reds are 20-17, good enough to be atop the AL West and AL Central, but bad enough to be tied for last in the NL Central.
I cannot remember a more frustrating stretch of three games than what we are witnessing.
Ashcraft still does not have the strike out pitch when he needs it like most closers. However not sure anyone on the roster is a better option. Lodolo might be a solution in that the blister arises from throwing too many sliders and if he only pitches one inning at a time doubt the blister is a problem.
The guy with the mentality to close is Antone. The huge questions about him are whether his thrice rebuilt elbow can stand up to the rigors and whether his reinvented repertoire has the quality to get the job done.
Not sure who the Reds are yet. The margin between winning and losing in MLB is so slim. Win 6 out of 10 all year and you win the pennant. 5 out of 10 is middle of the pack. Start the year 12-0 in close games great sign. We’re probably very fortunate in a few of those games. Lose 4 in a row in 8th inning or later to two teams playing very well. Swinging us back to the mean. This team does compete and that’s a great sign. All of this without top two starters. Better days are ahead!
Well, at least we have the Antone feel-good story.
Absolutely stinks to get walked off by the Cubs, but one of the nice (occasionally infuriating) things about baseball is competing in multiple phases of the game. Gotta pitch, gotta hit, gotta field, gotta throw, and gotta run the bases. Gotta do it all to win.
It’s been a flukey week with just the worst failures in the worst spots, but the team is better than this week. The hitting that we wanted to see in April is coming around, the baserunning blunders are frustrating but not definitive, and while the bullpen scuffles, there’s some encouraging work coming from Abbott and even Chase Petty. Win the getaway and come home with some momentum and we will forget this week (Until September, when we start worrying about tiebreakers).
What i cannot understand is that the reds front office could not address this closer situation before it all blew up like now. Pagan was never a closer before last year and became the reds closer because they had nobody else. He had a good year, but, as I recall, started to leak oil and I hoped the reds would have seen that too and not counted on him again this season…..but they didn’t and so here we are. The absolute worse losses are those where you have a lead (although maybe only 1 or 2 runs because your offense is not good enough to build bigger leads) and your BP comes in and blows it all in the 8th & 9th….as witnessed this whole Cubs series
Pagan had 20 SV in 2019 and 9 SV in 2022. He’s definitely had some previous closer experience.
Reds are dead last in baseball in BA and 26th in OBP.
They are 22nd in ERA and 29th in BB and WHIP.
You gotta have something you can hang your hat on. The Reds are going to have to be significantly better across the board or this season is going to be a train wreck.
The Reds are also 30th in BABIP, 8th in EV, 6th in ISO, 8th in SB, and 4th in HR.
Already a train wreck. So happy to see “The sun will come out tomorrow” comment above. Didn’t realize my mother was on this thread. I guess these fledgling flounders winning one game on this current roadie just “wasn’t meant to be”. Ahhhh—Makes me feel so much better.
Find another team to root for
I said this the other day, I think I’d make an extension offer to Lowe.
I think we could probably do it cheap, (3Y $21M) $7M AAV. Maybe add in some performance incentives.
I think he’d be a good guy to have the next few years as we kind of run this core group through their controllability.
This roster has been constructed so poorly that Suarez returning is going to force them to remove a productive bat from a lineup that has 5 or 6 hitters who are contributing nothing. At some point they may need to consider batting average as an important metric. Stop ignoring the outfield, you cannot just stick career .220 hitters out there and hope for a miracle.
What productive bat needs to be out?
C Stephenson, DH Lowe, 1B Stewart
2B McLain, 3B Suarez, SS EDLC
LF Steer, CF Friedl RF Bleday
4th OF Myers
Well your 8 million dollar a year third baseman goes to the bench. Your 15 million dollar third basemen already is sitting at home.
Snake bit last 3 games for sure, but have to look at it that Reds are still within striking distance of their own at 5 games out.
Good times will come their way and hopefully plenty of them with winning streaks.
I like Dunn getting a chance today and Myers in CF.
Stat of the day for me is that Bleday has almost as many hits as Hayes in a little less than 1/3 ABs (9/29 vs 11/91).