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San Diego 2, Cincinnati 1 - Reds fall despite Jay Bruce's 200th career homer

David Holmberg pitched well, but the Reds' bats fell silent.

By Wick Terrell
Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports

The Joe Nuxhall Memorial Honorary Star of the Game

David Holmberg continued his strong 2015 big league campaign on Monday, as the young Cincinnati Reds lefty kept the San Diego Padres largely off the board during his 6.2 innings of work.  Holmy allowed just a pair of earned runs in his outing, and he was one poor pitch to Justin Upton away from perhaps having an even more memorable evening.  Regardless, the Reds rookie showed yet again that when he's around the strike zone, he may well have what it takes to provide back-of-the-rotation innings for the near future, and while that's far from sexy, it's still a valuable asset in today's MLB.

Honorable Mentions are due to:  Jay Bruce, who dingered; Brandon Phillips, who singled and walked twice; Bryan Pena, who singled twice (and stole a base!); and Ryan Mattheus, who bounced back from his most recent oof-ish outing to post a scoreless inning from the bullpen.

Key Plays

  • Bruce busted the zeros of the Reds' half of the scoreboard in the Top of the 2nd when he blasted a solo dinger off of Ian Kennedy.  Reds led, 1-0.
  • Holmberg kept the Padres in check for the next inning, but Justin Upton finally got to him with a dinger that cleared the wall in right-center, a 2-run shot that put the Padres in front, 2-1.
  • From that point on, the Reds barely managed any semblance of offense, and the Padres pitching kept them off the board.  A Craig Kimbrel save later, and the Reds lost, 2-1.

Tony Graphanino


Source: FanGraphs

Other Notes

  • Bruce's 2nd inning dinger was the 200th of his career.  Congrats, Jay!
  • Padres manager Pat Murphy and home plate umpire Tony Randazzo got into a vintage chin-butting spit-shower of an argument over balls and strikes in this one, with Murphy eventually ejected.  It was rather refreshing to watch in today's age of non-Piniellas.
  • Michael Lorenzen will get the nod for Tuesday's game against the Padres, with first pitch again scheduled for 10:10 PM ET.
  • Charlie Scrabbletunes.

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