The Joe Nuxhall Memorial Honorary Star of the Game
Was Sonny Gray at his absolute best on Tuesday against the Milwaukee Brewers? Not exactly, no.
That said, the righty battled, grinded, [insert past tense of token verb here], and managed to get out of trouble each time it presented itself, and the Cincinnati Reds were all better because of it.
Gray’s final line was a good one - 6 IP, 5 H, 0 ER, 4 BB, 9 K on a season-high 103 pitches. In fact, he’d not yet topped 90 pitches in a single game since joining the Reds, so it was certainly interesting to see Gray pushed to that point. Of course, former Brewers pitching coach Derek Johnson is now his pitching coach, so perhaps there was enough inside information to make that decision the prudent one.
Honorable Mentions are due to: Nick Senzel, who tripled, walked, and scored; David Hernandez, who fanned 2 in another scoreless IP; Amir Garrett, who fanned 3 in his scoreless IP; and Phil Ervin, who doubled, walked, and scored.
Key Plays
- Senzel got the party started right off the bat with a triple to the wall in left-center to lead off the Top of the 1st. Eugenio Suarez walked two batters later, and both later moved up - Senzel scoring - on a Gio Gonzalez wild pitch. That put Suarez in scoring position for Phlerv’s RBI double to the wall in CF, and Ervin himself later scored on a groundout off the bat of Kyle Farmer (with Farmer beating out the relay through on what could’ve been an inning-ending double play). Just like that, the Reds were out to a 3-0 lead.
- Oh hey, that’s it. That’s all the scoring!
Tony Graphanino
Source: FanGraphs
Other Notes
- The Reds and Brewers will wrap this odd, abbreviated series with a matinee tomorrow. Luis Castillo and Zach Davies in a matchup of two of the stingiest pitchers in all of baseball so far this year (by ERA, at least). First pitch is set for 1:10 PM ET.
- Tunes.