Reds squander late rally, fall to Cardinals 4-3

The Joe Nuxhall Memorial Honorary Star of the Game

So much has been said about the performance of Dan Straily in 2016. Picked up at the end of spring training, it was nearly impossible to imagine him being one of the anchors of the rotation for the Reds. But with all the injuries and inexperience on the Reds pitching staff, Straily has been one of the most consistent pitchers on the staff and has continued to put the team in position to win ball games. Tonight, in his last start of the season, he did just that: He put the team in position to win. He lasted 6 solid innings, giving up only 3 earned runs on 6 hits with only 2 walks and 7 strikeouts. Have a trophy, Dan, and thanks for surprising us all this season.

Honorable mentions go to: Joey Votto, who bounced back from Wednesday’s game and went 3 for 4 with a double; Jose Peraza, for once again collecting 2 hits in a 2 for 5 night; Adam Duvall, for going 2 for 5 with a double and 1 RBI; Ivan De Jesus, Jr., for going 2 for 3 with a walk; Scott Schebler, for going 1 for 1 and gutting out pain in his hamstring to knock in the winning run; and Jumbo Diaz, for striking out 2 in a scoreless inning.

Key Plays

• The Reds were able to get on the board first tonight, scoring a run in the top of the 2nd. Adam Duvall led off the inning with a double to left field. After a strike out by Eugenio Suarez and a pop-out by Ivan De Jesus, Jr., Tucker Barnhart would line a single into right field to bring home Duvall. Tony Renda would strike out to end the inning, but the Reds led 1-0.
• Unfortunately that lead wouldn’t hold for long, as the Cardinals were able to tie up the game in the bottom of the 2nd. Jedd Gyorko was a real jerk-o and led off the inning with a solo dinger. Dan Straily would still have a little trouble getting out of the inning after walking the next two batters, but he would induce a couple of strikeouts and a ground out to end the inning with the score tied at 1.
• The Cardinals were able to take the lead in the bottom of the 4th. Aledmys Diaz led off the inning with a double and then moved to third on a fly out by Jose Martinez. Alex Reyes would come up and ground out to short, but that was enough to bring in Diaz from third. Matt Carpenter struck out to end the inning, but the Cardinals led 2-1.
• The Cardinals extended their lead to 3-1 in the bottom of the 5th on a toilet-esque solo shot by Yadier Molina.
• The Reds got a run back in the 8th to cut the lead to 1 run. Joey Votto led the inning off with a double to left field, but then Tommy Pham decided to be a big ol’ meanie and hit Joey in the chin with his throw and force Votto to leave the game. Tyler Holt would be his replacement and would come around to score on a single by Adam Duvall to cut the lead to 3-2.
• The Reds were able to grab another run in the top of the 9th to tie the game. Ramon Cabrera led off with a double to deep center field. After a strikeout by Jose Peraza, Cabrera would move over to third on a groundout by Hernan Iribarren. Scott Schebler would once again briefly play the hero against Seung Hwan Oh, as he nubbed a slow grounder to third to score Cabrera and tie the game at 3-3.
• Unfortunately toilets. Jeremy Hazelbaker grounded out to lead off the bottom of the 9th followed by a Matt Carpenter walk. After Randal Grichuk struck out, Carpenter would come around to score not score score on a double ground-rule double double by Yadier Molina. Reds lose 4-3.

Tony Graphanino

Other Notes

• The game ended on sort of a weird play. It appeared that the double by Molina hit an area above the wall, which should have resulted in a ground-rule double. The Reds missed their chance to challenge and were unable to get the call reversed.
• It apparently took Bryan Price 33 seconds to challenge the call. The rule is that you have 10 seconds at the end of the game to challenge a call. It’s absolutely absurd that in 2016 there are still so many issues with the replay system. 10 seconds to decide to challenge a game-changing call that has playoff implications is absolutely absurd. I shouldn’t matter, because there are plenty of ways to get this right, and it shouldn’t be the job of Bryan Price or Mike Matheny to make sure the umpires, MLB, and the whole screwed up replay system do their job correctly.
• With that loss, the Reds finished the season 9-10 against the Cardinals. Bummer.
• The Reds head home for the final series of the season to face the Chicago Cubs. Josh Smith (3-2, 4.77) will make the spot start against Jake Buchannan (0-0, 9.00) at 7:10 PM ET.
• Tunes.