Cleveland D giveth, 0ld H0ss takes and takes. Reds win 4-0

Joe Nuxhall Memorial Honorary Star of the Game

Homer Bailey went 7IP allowing just 4H and 1BB to go with 8K. He even did this after having a liner smack him somewhere above the shoulders in the middle innings. It was a heck of a performance and it brought his ERA down to 3.72 on the season. I love Ol Hoss when it's working, it looks like he's throwing a 9-pound bowling ball at 95 with movement. He also hit a doofy single.

Honorable mentions to Kris Negron, who went 2-3 with a double; Todd Frazier, who walked once and stole a base, which is the only Reds walk since Tuesday; and Billy Hamilton, who went 2-3 with a triple and two incredibly dumb TOOTBLANs.

Key Plays

• Billy Hamilton led off first with a seeing-eye single. Jay Bruce then singled through the shift, and Billy kept going for third. Carlos Santana botched the throw to third, allowing Hamilton to score. Two outs later, Ryan Ludwick hit a single through the left side to bring home Bruce. Reds up 2-0.
• Homer Bailey hit a two-out single through the middle of the infield. Billy then cracked one out to the LF power alley, and it was woefully misplayed by Swisher. Homer scored easily, but Billy slipped going around third for home, couldn't find the ball, kept running a bit, and got caught in a sad rundown. Still, the Reds were up 3-0 after two, pretty much solely because of awful CLE defense.
• Todd Frazier led off the sixth with a walk. He stole second after a couple of outs because, hey, why not challenge Yan Gomes. Kris Negron than sliced an opposite-field double to bring in Todd. Reds 4-0.

Fangraph

Source: FanGraphs

Other Notes

• Kris Negron was named Most Outstanding Player of the Ohio Cup (MOPOC!), which may be a real thing or just something Jim Kelch said. Anyways, the Reds are now masters of Ohio after beating Cleveland 3-1 in the series.
• Milwaukee won, Pittsburgh is up on the Marlins big, and St. Louis is up on the BoSox small as of press time, so it doesn't look like the Reds will gain ground.
• Tomorrow's game will be against the Miami Marlins, who we just saw. Nate Eo "Gabba Gabba" valdi will face off against Mike Leake at 7:10 p.m. ET.
• Derek dropped this in the gamethread, and I like this jam.
• Josh Ritter has songs that'll get you singing without knowing the words.
• Seriously, one of the best things I can say about how the Reds are playing is that it makes me thinkof Josh Ritter songs.