Leake grills Marlins: CIN 1, MIA 0

The Joe Nuxhall Memorial Honorary Star of the Game

With all the speculation and hand wringing concerning what, if anything, will be done with Reds ace Johnny Cueto, it's sometimes easy to overlook the fact that Mike Leake's days in red may be numbered as well.  Leake made his Reds debut in 2010, and in my mind, represents the recent era of Reds relevance as well as any player on the team.  I will be sorry to see him go (if he indeed does go), and will surely follow his career with interest.

Tonight, however, he pitched as well as I've seen him pitch ever.  He threw 102 pitches in eight innings, allowing three hits, a walk and zero runs.  He struck out 10, tying a season high.

Jay Bruce gets an honorable mention tonight.  He reached base three times, homering, doubling and drawing a walk, and he scored the only run of the game.  Not much else to report from the offensive side of things in this one.

Key Plays

• After a quick top and bottom of the first inning, Jay Bruce led off the top of the second with a towering home run to right field, his lucky 13th home run of the year.  Reds lead 1-0.
• In the bottom of the fourth, Christian Yelich drew a one-out walk and became the first Marlins baserunner of the night.  Leake worked around the walk and Yelich never moved from first.
• One inning later, with one out in the fifth, Derek Dietrich singled to right field for the Marlins first hit of the game.  Leake worked around the hit and Dietrich advanced to second but was stranded there.
• The only time the Marlins even threatened was in the bottom of the sixth, when Ichiro led off the inning with a pinch hit single, and advanced to second on a bunt and third on a groundout.  He did not advance beyond third, however.
• In the bottom of the ninth, Aroldis Chapman came on to nail down the save.  He allowed a single, but struck out the side around it to close it out.  Reds win 1-0.

Fangraph

<iframe src="http://www.fangraphs.com/graphframe.aspx?config=0&static=0&type=livewins&num=0&h=450&w=450&date=2015-07-10&team=Marlins&dh=0" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" height="450" width = "450" style="border:1px solid black;"></iframe><br /><span style="font-size:9pt;">Source: <a href="http://www.fangraphs.com/livewins.aspx?date=2015-07-10&team=Marlins&dh=0&season=2015">FanGraphs</a></span>

Other Notes

• In the second inning, Mike Leake became the 37th Reds pitcher to pitch at least 1000 innings for the team.  Congratulations, Mike.
• Of the three hits Leake allowed, two went to pinch hitters (Ichiro, Casey McGehee).
• Tunes: My thoughts on Mike Leake.
• Bonus tunes to make up for the disappointing lack of Other Notes: Friday Night Funk!