When life gives you a pumpkin, make π. Reds lose 7-3

The Joe Nuxhall Memorial Honorary Star of the Game

Ryan Ludwick went 3-4 with a double and a home run. The Reds took a show of hands to see who would save their season and ended up with a clubhouse of full pockets, but it was nice to see Ludwick turn on a lefty.

Cozart gets an honorable mention for doing some splittin' of his own with a 2-3 night. Carlos "the Janitor" Contreras had a great night in mop-up duty, going two innings with four strikeouts against a sole walk and no hits.

Key Plays

• This game started fun! Golem worked a walk in the second, and that was followed by a Ryan Ludwick line drive double that was misplayed by Corey Dickerson, allowing Mesoraco to score easily (well, as easily as Mesoraco ever scores). A couple grounders got Ludwick to third, and Zack Cozart singled him home to put the Reds up 2-0.
• In the bottom of the second, Simon gave up back-to-back doubles to Corey Dickerson and Wilin Rosario to bring the Rox within one.
• It got worse from there. The next inning, Blackmon, Stubbs, and Morneau led off with three straight singles. Hamilton and Bruce did a good job threatening runners trying to go home, but Corey Dickerson was able to hit a fly deep enough to bring home Blackmon and tie the game.
• It got worse from there. Culberson led off the fourth with a single, and DJ LeMahieu grounded to Simon, who botched the force throw to second and allowed runners to get to second and third. Charlie Blackmon grounded in the go-ahead run and Stubbs then singled with two outs to bring in LeMahieu. Rockies up 4-2.
• It got worse from there. In the Rockies fifth, Arenado and Rosario singled around a Dickerson hard-hit out. Charlie freakin' Culberson ended the foreplay with a three-run "Club"erson to bring the score to 7-2.
• Ryan Ludwick hit a sixth-inning homer for his fellow Wick, though.

Fangraph

Source: FanGraphs

Other Notes

• Tomorrow's game pits Johnny Cueto against Franklin Morales as the former goes for his 15th win. The game will be at 8:40 p.m. ET.
• The Reds are now 60-61, below .500 for the first time since June 21. For the record, Johnny Cueto started on June 22.
• From June 22 for the next 21 games, the Reds went 14-7, so it's not like there's not a chance.
• (but there's pretty much no chance).
• This picture though.
• I'm way behind the times, but I find this song incredibly catchy and do the intro in my own falsetto as I walk through my day sometimes.
• C, Trent put this song in his BAR this morning and I have to say that I totally needed it.
• But today was good, so we'll listen to St. Louis rap.
• Really just the dog in the next few seconds of the video here.