Jose Iglesias hits grand slam to lead Reds past Pirates 8-1

The Joe Nuxhall Memorial Honorary Star of the Game

Jose Iglesias bonked a grand slam. When you bonk a grand slam, you deserve serious dap, and therefore we here at Red Reporter are going to give Jose Iglesias some serious dap.

The Cincinnati Reds SS hit the biggest of big-flies in the 1st inning of the latter half of Monday’s doubleheader, and while that was the lone time in which he reached base on the evening, who the hell cares. Have a trophy, Jose, and keep on keepin’ on with that awesome as all heck defense of yours, too.

Honorable Mentions are due to: Yasiel Puig, who dingered; Derek Dietrich, who dingered, too; Jesse Winker, who had a 2-hit game (and scored a run); and Nick Senzel, on whom we’ll elaborate more in a bit.

Key Plays

• Pirates starter Mitch Keller started the game by allowing a walk, a single, and a walk, and after a K and Puig’s RBI single, Iglesias unloaded on a meatball for a grand slam into the LF seats. Later, Senzel - who had opened the inning with a walk - cranked an RBI single, and the Reds held an imposing 6-0 lead after a lone inning.
• The Pirates scored once. It wasn’t particularly impressive. Reds led, 6-1.
• The dingers from Dietrich and Puig both came as solo bashes in the Bottom of the 7th, and that wrapped the scoring on the day. Reds won, 8-1!

Tony Graphanino

Other Notes

• We mentioned Nick Senzel was worthy of mention earlier. He went 1 for 3 with a walk, ribbie, and run scored in this one, which was plenty well and good. Thing is, though, that he went 2 for 4 with a walk, ribbie, and run scored in the first game of today’s doubleheader, and yesterday went 3 for 5 with a walk and 4 runs scored. Safe to say the rookie has found his groove of late.
• Oh yeah, the ‘doubleheader.’ The Reds blew leads multiple times in the first game of the day to lose to the Pirates 8-5 with ace Luis Castillo on the mound for the start. Castillo, while still flashing elite and brilliant stuff, has now blown decent-sized leads for the Reds in each of his last three starts, and that’s just beginning to be a tad frustrating.
• As for tomorrow, the Reds will get back to their daft 6:40 PM ET start times in another game against these Pittsburgh Pirates. The Reds have not yet announced who they’ll turn to for the start - odds are on Lucas Sims, who hasn’t started in 8 days for AAA Louisville - while Pittsburgh will turn to Jordan Lyles.
• Tunes.