Cincinnati Reds fall behind early to Detroit Tigers, lose 7-4

The Joe Nuxhall Memorial Honorary Star of the Game

Eh. There was no real star in this one, just a handful of pretty similar, pretty decent outings from the offense of the Cincinnati Reds.

Each of Eugenio Suarez, Mason Williams, and Phil Ervin had a pair of hits and scored a run. Curt Casali continued to impress, with a walke and a 2-run double. Joey Votto singled and walked, because Joey Votto singles and walks. Heck, even Preston Tucker - acquired from the Atlanta Braves in the Adam Duvall trade - chipped in with his first hit as a Red, scored, and drove in a run.

Even Billy Hamilton singled twice, swiped a bag, and drove in a run. Still, that simply wasn’t enough on a day when the team’s pitching and defense simply wasn’t up to snuff.

Key Plays

• Detroit began the scoring with a pair of runs off Sal Romano in the Bottom of the 2nd. Jeimer Candelario opened with a single, and he moved to 3B when Jim Aducci singled two batters later. Jose Iglesias then plated them both with a double into the LF corner, and the Reds trailed, 2-0.
• Romano served up a meatball to Aducci in the Bottom of the 4th, which the Detroit 1B deposited into the RF seats for a solo dinger. Reds trailed, 3-0.
• Romano hung around into the Bottom of the 6th, but a 1-out single by John Hicks prompted Jim Riggleman to turn to his bullpen with his starter at just 90 pitches. Wandy Peralta was summoned, and he immediately allowed Hicks to score when pinch-hitter Ronny Rodriguez ronny’d a double to the wall in LF. Michael Lorenzen then took over and allowed Rodriguez to score on a jam-shot single by Iglesias over a pulled-in infield, and Iglesias then scored when Jacoby Jones lifted a single into LF and Phil Ervin airmailed the cutoff man to allow the baserunners to go wild. Reds trailed, 6-0.
• The Cincinnati bats finally showed up a bit in the Top of the 7th. Consecutive singles by Suarez, Mason Williams, and Ervin opened the frame, and a fourth from Tucker plated the Reds first run of the day. Casali then followed with a 2-run double, before Hamilton singled into RF to plate Tucker. Reds trailed, 6-4.
• Detroit put an insurance run on the board in the Bottom of the 8th off David Hernandez, who was in his second inning of work. Rodriguez began the inning with a single, and he moved up a bag on a sacrifice by Iglesias. Jacoby Jones later dinked a fastball that was otherwise perfectly placed on the outside of the plate the other way for a flare single into RF, and that allowed Rodriguez to come home. Reds trailed, 7-4, which is how things would end, unfortunately.

Tony Graphanino

Other Notes

• The Detroit Tigers had been 9-25 over their previous 34 games prior to this series, which makes getting pretty well handled by them throughout it a bit more of a bummer.
• Tigers starter Mike Fiers, who was nearly traded at yesterday’s deadline, was knocked out of the game after just 2.0 IP after he took a comebacker off the shin.
• Sal Romano had a pretty Sal Romano-esque start, all told. He allowed 8 hits and 4 earned runs in 5.1 IP, fanning 3 while not issuing a walk.
• The Reds will head to the nation’s capital later today, and on Thursday they’ll begin a four game weekend series against the not-yet-rebuilding Washington Nationals, who just scored a billion runs against the New York Mets yesterday. First pitch Thursday is scheduled for 7:05 PM ET, and Tyler Mahle will toe the rubber for the Reds. Max Scherzer will start for the Nats, which will make trying to bust up this losing streak a bit difficult.
• Tunes.