The Tyranny of Symmetry: Reds Win 6-3

The Joe Nuxhall Memorial Honorary Star of the Game

It's honestly tough to choose a single person in a game where literally every batsman got on base twice, Arroyo went 7IP with 7H, 3ER, 0BB, and 6K, Hoover shut down a jam, and Chapman struck out the side. For sheer change-up of it, I'm going to give the award to Ryan Ludwick for his 2-4 night because his solo Wunderlic tied up the game and set the Reds up for the comeback. But that's really pretty arbitrary.

Honorable Mention goes to literally every other Red who got his cleats dirty tonight.

Key Plays

• The usual suspects for the Brewers struck in the second. Aramis singled, Carlos Gomez singled, Khris Davis doubled because of course, and Scooter hit a sac fly because duh that also. Pirates up 2-0.
• Quiet from then for a while until Heisey crushed a floated-high changeup to left field to make the score 2-1. I love Heisey's home runs. I'd love them more if they were matched with a few walks, but still. It was a pretty, pretty, home run.
• "Wily" Wily Peralta was getting beat up pretty good despite only giving up the one run, so he was taken out for Axford in the sixth. OOPS. Ryan Ludwick led off the inning with one of his stinging line-driver home runs to the LF pole to tie the game. Jack Hannahan singled for his own self, and then Cozart jammed on the ENTER key (props to KSE for the reference) to put the Reds up in a way they wouldn't relinquish. Reds up 4-2.
• Votto led off the seventh against Mike Gonzalez with another home run. He was a bit grouchier early in the game, so it was nice to see. BP dug out a single to shallow right afterwards, and after a bad throw allowed him to move to third, Cozart brought BP home with a single. Reds up 6-2.
• Caleb Gindl opened up the 8th with another homer in his own right against Arroyo. After an Aoki single, Hoover came into the game. Jayj let up a single, but then got a groundout double play that almost caught Aoki getting cute on the third-base end for a triple play. Alas. Anyways, Aramez grounded out to end the threat. 6-3.
• Chapman struck out three batters, mixing in an HBP between all that to keep it interesting. Good times, I swear. Reds win, 6-3.

Source: FanGraphs

• Arroyo just stopped walking people at some point. This is his fourth straight start without handing out a free pass. He's won all four of those games. Weird, huh.
• St. Louis beat Atlanta 6-2. I am watching the Giants beat the Pirates 4-1 so far in the top of the fifth. Liriano has a rough day, but man do I not trust the Giants with a lead right now.
• Tomorrow's game is 1:10 ET. Marco Estrada will take the bump for the Brewers. Cingrani had a rough bullpen session, so he's unlikely to make his scheduled start. If he doesn't Greg Reynolds will. Welp.
• I really don't listen to much music anymore, unfortunately, so I don't know what to do in this part. I did stumble upon Symmetry, who works with Ryan Lewis and in case you had any ideas that Macklemore was the talented one in that duo, well, no, he's not. It's Ryan Lewis. Ryan Lewis is great.
• I saw Slavic Soul Party last week, and this youtube clip doesn't really give away how fucking raucous they are. And they're hitting up the midwest soon, so you may want to go check 'em out.
• Reds still have plenty of time to make their move in the Central. Back in my rowing days, the term for when you gained on a boat at the end of a race is "walking" on them. This is because the way boats are layed out, the rowers face backwards and can see the boats trailing them in a race. So when you are gaining on a boat, you can't see them, but all they can see is them trying as hard as they can and there you are gaining on them. The result is so satisfying:  you can't see them, but you can feel their panic and exhaustion in the air. It's a reminder that humans used to hunt by simply exhausting their prey to death. Anyways, we shouldn't have called it "walking." We should've called it "strutting." The Reds are currently strutting up on the Pirates and the Cardinals in the NL Central, having gone 13-5 in the last 18.