The Reds lose, again.

The Joe Nuxhall Memorial Honorary Star of the Game

Jose Peraza was pretty good, with 3 hits in 5 tries. Billy Hamilton was on base twice. Jesse Winker had an RBI early, and Gennett had two. Amir Garrett didn’t give up a run in the bullpen which is basically the biggest Holy shit, really?? moment of this recap.

Cliff F’n Pennington pitched the 9th. That’s about what you need to know, really.

Whatever. This sucks. This all sucks.

Key Plays

• Sal Romano had a tough first inning, as Sal Romano is wont to do. He gave up a leadoff single to Dexter Fowler to open this one, before giving up a one out walk to Matt Carpenter. Marcel Ozuna flied out, but Jose Martinez knocked in a two out, one run single, and then Yadier Molina did it, too. Paul Dejong lined out to end the frame with the Cardinals jumping on the Reds, 2-0.
• The Reds made some noise of their own in the bottom of the inning. Billy Hamilton coaxed a leadoff walk and advanced to 3B on a Jose Peraza bloop double down the right field line. Jesse Winker singled on a line drive to LF that squeaked underneath Ozuna’s glove, allowing Hamilton and Peraza to both score. The Reds would stop there, but it’s a new ball game, 2 all.
• Marcel Ozuna, Certified Strong Base Ball Man, walloped a letter high meatball into the seats in left center for another Cardinals run in the top of the third. 3-2, Cardinals.
• The top of the Reds lineup troubled Wacha again in the bottom of the inning. Hamilton singled before Peraza dropped down a perfect bunt for an infield single. Winker was an unfortunate strikeout victim, but Adam Duvall drew a one out walk before Scooter Gennett knocked a single to CF to score Hamilton and Peraza. That’d be it again, but the REDS TAKE THE LEAD!!!! 4-3.
• The top of the 5th inning was... unfortunate. Fowler reached on a fielding error by Peraza to get things started. Tommy Pham singled before a Matt Carpenter walk loaded the bases with no outs for Romano. He got Ozuna swinging, but then walked Jose Martinez and, well *counts* that’s too many baserunners. Fowler scored on the walk, as those tend to haunt, and Romano was pulled for Austin Brice. Brice immediately induced a inning ending double play from Necktat Yadir Molina to escape the jam tied at 4 all.
• Austin Brice could not escape the 6th, however, after giving up a towering tater to Paul Dejong. He got Kolten Wong to ground out before hitting a Cardinals Player Named Harrison Bader. Brice was lifted for Amir Garrett, who made it pretty interesting on himself, but got out of the rest of the inning unscathed (thanks in part to the rare really good defensive stop and throw by Gennett). Cardinals take the lead, 5-4.
• Zack Weiss made his Major League debut and, well, he’s a member of the Reds bullpen, after all. Martinez homered. Molina homered. Then he walked Dejong on four pitches. Then, he walked Wong on five pitches. Then he hit the showers to be relieved by Tanner Rainey... who walked Greg Garcia on four pitches. Fowler and Pham both walked, too. Runs scored on both of them. He got consecutive outs from Carpenter and Ozuna and seemed to be out of the inning when Jose Martinez popped to RF, except Phil Ervin couldn’t glove it, and looked very bad trying. Two more scored before Rainey got the third out, some nine days after the inning started. The Cardinals are winning by a lot at this point. I’m not even sure I accurately chronicled this inning.
• TL;DR: It was bad.
• Cliff Pennington squints yep, that one, pitched the 9th. He allowed another run, of course.
• Reds lost, 13-4.

Tony Graphanino

Other Notes

• You may have noticed that Joey Votto didn’t play in this game. It’s notable just on its face; Joey Votto is really good and this team is better with him on it. However, it’s more than that, as Joey had quite the streak going. This was the first game he hasn’t started since September of 2016. That makes 202 straight games that Votto has started in. Narrow it all the way down to 1,733.1 innings of a possible 1,782.1 and just, wow. Joey’s incredible.
• As you might imagine, there were some Reds “fans” Mad Online about Other Note #1, because bah-gawd, someone might’ve paid good money to watch Joey Votto tonight it’s a slap in the face to Average Joe Fanman if he doesn’t play. Farr Price.
• I’m serious, go look it up on Twitter. (But definitely DON’T go look it up on Twitter).
• In fact, just stay away from Reds Twitter all together after this one.
• The Reds and the Dirty Toilet Birds will do it again tomorrow night. It’s another new, weird, and strange 6:40 PM EDT start. Tyler Mahle will face off against Luke Weaver and, if I had to venture a guess, I’d bet Joey Votto is back in the lineup.
• Tunes.