Reds try baseball, lose baseball 6-5 to Phillies.

Another game. Another cold night. Another icy cold loss to send home the Redlegs tonight. Will nothing keep us warm at night?

Cody Reed pitched about the way you expected, and maybe even a little bit better, considering Reds fans expectations at this point (more on that later). Eugenio Suarez was obviously not here to help, as he was put on the DL earlier today. And as it turns out, Jesse Winker is under-the-weather, so he didn’t get the start today, either.

What wasn’t predictable, however, was the fact that the top of the order, replacing Winker and Suarez with Scooter and Peraza, was actually pretty productive tonight. Despite everything seeming hopeless, this one didn’t really feel it tonight.

Which brings us to...

The Joe Nuxhall Memorial Honorary Star of the Game

Tucker Barnhart got “promoted” from his bottom of the order spot to the 5-hole tonight thanks to all of the moving pieces in the Reds lineup. It’s not that he doesn’t deserve it, either, because he’s been the best Reds batter so far this young season.

He kept it up tonight, walking once and cooking his first tater of the season to keep the Reds in the ball game. It’s days like these that will keep Tucker up there even after the other guys get back.

Honorable mention are to Billy Hamilton, Scooter Gennett, and Jose Peraza, who actually kept the bottom-to-top of the lineup productive tonight. They combined for five hits and two walks. Joey Votto hit the ball all over the yard, officially collecting two his but being robbed of two more. He’s starting to round into Joey Votto, it seems.

Austin Brice was fantastic out of the pen, throwing two innings of scoreless ball.

Key Plays

• The Reds opened up the 1st inning with the bases loaded and no outs and somewhat predictably for this early season, ended up with only one run out of it when Adam Duvall walked. Tucker Barnhart broke his bat on a well hit ball directly to 2B, and then former Reds farmhand Ben Lively whiffed the next two. Reds 1-0.
• Carlos Santana reached on a 1-out throwing error by Scooter Gennett and then, after a Odubel Herrera whiff, Rhys Hoskins uncorked on a letter high meatball from Cody Reed for a 2-run home run. Phillies, 2-1.
• In the 2nd inning, Scott Kingery reached down and scooped out the first dinger of his career on a pitch at his ankles to tack on another run. Phillies up 3-1 after two full.
• The Reds were able to tie it up in the next frame, however. Joey Votto hit a 1-out single before Tucker Barnhart trucked his first homer of the season to the left field seats. 3-3, mid-three.
• The Phillies jumped back on top quickly in the bottom half. Cesar Hernandez singled before scoring easily on a Santana double. After moving to 2B on a Hoskins walk, both players advanced another base after a Reed wild pitch. Santana scored on a Franco sac-fly. Phillies tack on two more to lead 5-3.
• Billy Hamilton was able to reach on a fielder’s choice, which was the second out of the inning, but Scooter Gennett smacked his third double of the season to score Hamilton easily from 1B. Reds get one back in the fourth, 5-4.
• Phil Ervin singled and Cliff Pennington walked to lead off the 6th, but Pennington was erased on a Phil Gosselin GIDP, though Ervin would move to 3B. Which was important, because that means he was able to score on Billy Hamilton’s single in the next AB, which tied the game, 5-5.
• Nick Williams absolutely obliterated a Kevin Quackenbush pitch into next week in the bottom of the 8th.
• They won’t have to wait until next week to win, though, because that was the end of the scoring. Reds lose, 6-5.

Tony Graphanino

Other Notes

• Cody Reed was somewhat predictably not-great in this start. I think he was better than it felt like he was, though maybe most frustratingly it seemed like more of the same as we always see. He was missing spots all night long (one of which was straight punished by Hoskins, but admittedly it came after the Scooter throwing error and the fact that Reed should’ve never had to throw that pitch at all). It seems like assuming all went well tonight with Brandon Finnegan that this will be a one-off appearance for Reed this early in the season. He’s definitely still got work to do.
• Speaking of pitching on the farm: Hunter Greene made his Dayton debut tonight. I don’t want to spoil the Farmer’s Only crew, but he was good, by all accounts. Really good, actually.
• The weather was bad in this one, again, because this winter just won’t stop.
• Homer Bailey will make his third start of the season tomorrow evening, and will hopefully give us a little more of “Opening Day” Homer than last-time-out Homer. I’d probably even settle for something in between. He’ll be opposed by Aaron Nola. First pitch is set for 7:05 PM EDT.

Tunes.