Derek Dietrich’s extra-innings dinger leads Reds to 3-2 win over Padres

The Joe Nuxhall Memorial Honorary Star of the Game

I wrote a decent bit about Derek Dietrich before the godawful new edition of this CMS decided to eat it up with zero evidence it had ever existed.

It included a good bit about how awful the Miami Marlins are for letting Dietrich, among others, go - they just fired their hitting coach tonight, too, as if it’s his fault that Dietrich, Christian Yelich, Giancarlo Stanton, Marcell Ozuna, and J.T. Realmuto all got traded away - and even had a Joe Randa reference mixed in.

Put it this way, Dietrich and his penchant for big dingers has already become a thing of lore for these Reds, and his 11th inning blast to down the San Diego Padres on Friday only added to that. It’s hard to envision where these Reds would be after their poor offensive start had Dietrich not bailed them out time and time again, so thank heck he’s managed to pull that off so far.

Honorable Mentions are due to: Anthony DeSclafani, who allowed just a lone ER in 6 IP, with 2 H and a lone BB on his ledger in a solid bounce-back outing; Raisel Iglesias, who fired another perfect inning of relief (while striking out the side); and Eugenio Suarez, who bonked a dinger.

Key Plays

• Matt Strahm was the Padres starter on the night, and he is a lefty. Eugenio Suarez chomps, chews, mashes, gnarls, terrifies, and gorges himself on lefties. So, it was wholly unsurprising when Geno bonked a solo dinger in the Top of the 1st to immediately put the Reds ahead, 1-0.
• Disco was rolling until the Bottom of the 3rd, at which point he left a meatball over the plate that Fernando Tatis, Jr. belted over the CF wall for a solo dinger that leveled the score, 1-1.
• After some two hours of zero hits and nary a baserunner on either side, the game scooted into extra innings with about as much drama as a bag of leaves. The Top of the 11th, though, finally brought some fireworks. Jose Iglesia opened the inning by reaching on a throwing error by Tatis, and that put an extra run on the board when Dietrich later followed with a 2-run tater into the LF seats. Reds led, 3-1.
• Zach Duke allows runs, and that’s what Zach Duke did when Zach Duke was tasked with pitching with a lead in extra innings. Zach Duke...why...? Anyway, the Padres scraped across a run before the Reds could finally manage to hammer down the win, and that was that. Reds won, 3-2.

Tony Graphanino

Other Notes

• Unsurprisingly, these two clubs will tussle again on Saturday, since that’s just how MLB weekend series work. The Reds will send ace Luis Castillo to the mound, while the Padres will counter with another lefty in Eric Lauer. Considering tonight’s lineup was tailored for lefty starter Matt Strahm, I’d be shocked if there’s too much difference between the lineup the Reds rolled out tonight and the one they’ll feature tomorrow - though with David Bell at the helm of the Reds, who the hell knows. First pitch is set for 8:40 PM ET on Saturday.
• Tunes.