Reds blanked by Gio Gonzalez and the Nats, lose 5-0

The Joe Nuxhall Memorial Honorary Star of the Game

I’m going to give this award to the Reds’ collective bullpen effort, especially Asher Wojciechowski’s 2 perfect innings of relief with 4 strikeouts. Ariel Hernandez, Drew Storen, and Tony Cingrani also threw zeroes on the scoreboard, and kept the Reds in the game while the offense wasn’t doing much.

Honorable Mentions are due to: Adam Duvall, who had two hits and the Reds’ only extra base hit of the evening. Scott Schebler gunned down Ryan Zimmerman at the plate, so his defensive effort deserves some praise in this space also.

Key Plays

• Tim Adleman got into some trouble early in this one, as the Nats mounted a 2-out rally in the 1st inning. After Brian Goodwin doubled, and Bryce Harper walked, Adleman was able to get two outs, but allowed singles to Stephen Drew and Anthony Rendon to score 2 runs in the 1st. Nats led 2-0.
• Bryce Harper hit his 21st homer of the year in the 3rd inning, a 2-run shot. Nats led 4-0.
• Bryce Harper hit his 22nd homer of the year in the 5th inning, a solo shot. Nats led 5-0.
• After spending the whole game mowing down Redlegs, Dusty pulled Gio Gonzalez in the 9th, and replaced him with Matt Albers. Albers loaded the bases before being replaced with Matt Grace, who was able to get Tucker Barnhart to ground out to end the game.

Tony Graphanino

Other Notes

• Luis Castillo takes on Max Scherzer tomorrow, which should be a great time. Another 7:10 start.