Reds outhit Rockies again, squander basically every chance, and lose 6-3

The Joe Nuxhall Memorial Honorary Star of the Game

Jesse Winker is certainly not sitting on the bench every day like it sounded like he would be just a couple weeks ago. And that’s a good thing, because he reached base three times tonight, with a single, double, and a walk in 5 tries.

Even after all the troubles there in May which prompted the apparently aborted end of the outfield rotation, Winker still has a OBP of .359. That’ll certainly do at the top of the lineup. The ISO and SLG still really needs to come around (the double tonight helps, I guess), but Winker, in his rookie season, is doing exactly what we knew he could do: get on base. When he’s asked to play LF, it all really comes together.

Honorable mention to Joey Votto who hit, doubled, and scored a run (and just missed a couple of different XBH). Scooter Gennett just kept hitting, batting in 2 on a hit and a walk, scoring a run. Eugenio Suarez hit twice and walked, while Michael Lorenzen and Raisel Iglesias allowed nothing out of the pen.

Key Plays

• Big Sal Romano got the first two batters in the Rockies 2nd on strikeouts, but he allowed a 2-out walk to Ian Desmond and then a double into RF to Tony Wolters, which Scott Schebler bobbled a bit in the corner that allowed Desmond to score easy. Jon Gray struck out to end the inning, but the Rockies get on the board first, 1-0.
• Scooter led off the Reds 2nd with a walk before a Eugenio Suarez single, putting runners on first and second with no outs. Schebler struck out, but Jose Peraza hit safely in his ninth straight game, and it scored Gennett, too. Romano failed to lay down a sac bunt and then Billy Hamilton flew out to end the threat, but the Reds tie the game at 1.
• Winker doubled to lead off the bottom of the 3rd and then, after a Barnhart strike out, moved to 3B on a Votto single. He scored on a sac fly to deep CF from Scooter. Reds take the lead after 3 full, 2-1.
• Trevor Story hit a ground-rule double with one out in the top of the 4th and then scored on a Gerardo Parra single to RF. Desmond then lined a 2-run dinger to the seats in left that doubled up the score on the Reds. Rox up 4-2.
• With one out in the bottom of the 5th, Joey Votto doubled to deep center. Scooter then scored him on a double of his own, which looped into RF and, heh, scooted all the way to the corner. Suarez walked thereafter, but the Reds could manage no more, trail 4-3.
• Carlos Gonzalez “doubled” to start the 6th (Billy bobbled the ball in CF and made a pretty bad throw to 2B to allow this to happen, but the box score says a double so let’s go with that). That would be the last batter for Sloppy Sal. Michael Lorenzen showed up and struck out Story and induced a fly out to Parra. Gonzalez moved to 3B on the play. Desmond walked before Wolters singled to right, scoring Gonzalez. Mike Tauchman grounded out to end the frame. Rockies extend the lead, 5-3.
• Some more fuckery in CF allowed Gonzalez 2B again in the 8th, this time a full blown error on Hamilton. Story walked before Parra singled to score Gonzalez. Luckily Story fell down in between 2B and 3B, which forced an out. That would be that (surprisingly Desmond and Wolters didn’t both hit dingers). Rockies up, 6-3.
• The Reds lost when Wade Davis started warming up, basically. He pitched, too. 6-3.

Tony Graphanino

Other Notes

• The MLB Draft wrapped up today with Rounds 11 through 40 in which I’m sure the Reds picked a bunch of dudes you’ve never heard of and, of those, probably only a few that you’ll ever hear of again. But, who cares!? Good for the youngsters. You can read Charlie’s Day Two coverage right here.
• When Homer Bailey is “healthy” enough, recovering from knee inflammation, he’ll head on down to the Reds minor leagues for his rehab stint... as a starter. That was relayed to us today courtesy of the Fox Sports Ohio booth (and maybe somewhere else that I hadn’t read yet). That’s interesting, because it wasn’t two weeks ago that we were told from the Reds manager that Bailey would be destined for the bullpen. Of course, Homer doth protest, so maybe he’s won someone over and it is actually the balky knee that’s produced the results we’ve seen thus far. Look for this story to get uglier before it gets, well, anything else.
• The bottom of the Rockies order really owned the Reds tonight, somewhat inexplicably. Ian Desmond owes his spot in the lineup mostly to his gargantuan contract, as he came into this game hitting .193. So of course he walked twice and hit a dinger. Tony Wolters was actually worse coming in, so the Reds gave up two hits to him (2 RBI). Blech.
• The Reds will attempt to salvage a win in this series tomorrow afternoon. Tyler Mahle will face off against Tyler Anderson at 12:35 PM EDT.
• Tunes.