Reds take commanding lead, spend five hours losing to White Sox thereafter

The Joe Nuxhall Memorial Honorary Star of the Game

Eugenio Suarez has morphed into a complete offensive machine for the Cincinnati Reds, and that was again on full display on Tuesday against the Chicago White Sox.

Geno blasted an early 2-run dinger, walked twice, and scored twice as the Reds spent roughly 4.5 hours wasting a lead against a bad team that they should’ve beaten twice in that time. Man, it’s late.

Honorable Mentions are due to: Scooter Gennett, who blasted another 2-run dinger; Adam Duvall, who belted a 3-run dinger of his own; Jesse Winker, who singled, doubled, walked, and scored; Jose Peraza, who singled, tripled, and scored; and a name that deserves mention after I put a semi-colon here a few hours ago that I’ve not yet found a way to fill-in.

Key Plays

• There are few more entertaining ways to start a baseball game than by watching triple-dinger-walk-dinger, and that’s exactly how the Reds began the Bottom of the 1st off White Sox starter Lucas Giolito. Peraza bashed his triple to CF in front of Scooter, who took an inside breaking ball that looked like it might well hit his back foot and belted it into the bullpen beyond the RF wall. Votto then walked - Votto walks, y’know - before Suarez turned around a meaty inside fastball for another 2-run blast, this one well into the LF seats. Reds led early, 4-0.
• Avisail Garcia singled sharply of Anthony DeSclafani to open the Top of the 4th, which was the first hit the Cincinnati starter had allowed all game. Unfortunately, it didn’t take long for the second hit of the night to come, as Daniel Palka followed with a mammoth 2-run dinger of his own off the batter’s eye in CF. Reds led, 4-2.
• Duvall left his dent in the scoreboard in the Bottom of the 5th, as he belted a Giolito meatball off the facade of the second-deck in LF with both Suarez and Winker already on-base, and the Reds were back in cruise-control with a 7-2 lead.
• Sooo, maybe the balls were carrying quite well on the night. Avisail Garcia lifted a moonshot into the second deck in LF off Disco in the Top of the 6th, and Palka then followed with a solo-shot of his own over the wall in left-center. An infield single later, and Jim Riggleman pulled Disco early once again in favor of Michael Lorenzen. Of course, Lorenzen promptly allowed a single and then an RBI double off the RF wall by Matt Davidson to score that inherited runner, and a later productive groundout tacked on another run to leave the Reds ahead just 7-6.
• Leury Garcia struck with a big pinch-hit RBI single in the Top of the 8th, lifting a broken-bat liner over Gennett and into RF with runners on the corners against David Hernandez that tied the score, 7-7.
• Billy Hamilton helped the Reds get the lead back in the Bottom of the 8th, however, and did so in dramatic fashion. He singled to RF to open things, and moved to 2B on - a bunt? A bunt. Yep, a bunt... - only to then swipe 3B on his own. Then, he motored home on a groundout to 1B by Scooter Gennett, beating the throw home by mere inches as replay confirmed that he’d actually done so. That put the Reds ahead, 8-7.
• Of course, Avisail Garcia made this recap that much less legible by bonking a dinger off Raisel Iglesias in the Top of the 9th, which tied the game 8-8.
• Hours later, Jackson Stephens loaded the bases on some hits and errors and errors and things, and the White Sox eventually got a clobbered Yoan Moncada double into the corner to clear the bases and let us all move on with our lives. Reds lost, 11-8. No, 12-8.

Tony Graphanino

Other Notes

• Tonight marked the first time Disco’s career where he allowed 3 HR in a single game. Of course, thanks in large part to the fact that he a) limits walks at a dang good rate and b) didn’t allow many hits at all, all of those those three dingers only netted the White Sox 4 runs. It’s worth noting that he was again bitten by a) being pulled well before reaching 100 pitches and b) an inherited runner scoring on his ledger, so his final line kinda sucked despite him looking good through most of his outing. His final line: 5.1 IP, 6 H, 5 ER, BB, 5 K on just 82 pitches.
• You’ll remember Disco’s last start when he was yanked after just 88 pitches after allowing just 2 ER in 6.1 IP, only for Amir Garrett so serve up a 3-run dinger that flipped the scoreboard and tacked on an additional 2 ER to Disco’s account. At least that’s a positive in the Reds’ upcoming arbitration argument, I guess?
• Jim Riggleman got ejected in the Bottom of the 73rd inning after arguing about a would-be intentional walk, or something.
• Sal Romano will toe the rubber to start the series finale for Cincinnati, and he’ll be countered by Chicago starter Dylan Covey. First pitch on the July 4th spectacle is scheduled for 7:10 PM ET.
• Tunes.