The Joe Nuxhall Memorial Honorary Star of the Game
Eugenio Suarez has been one of the very frew offensive rocks for the Cincinnati Reds as the team bats have struggled to gain consistent footing early in the 2019 season. That certainly continued on Thursday against the Oakland Athletics, which was a boon considering much of the rest of the lineup again fell silent.
Suarez hit his team-leading 11th homer of the season, doubled twice, and even added a pair of stellar defensive plays at 3B in the afternoon contest. Of course, he also had a throwing error and rather indefensible TOOTBLAN late in the game, but on the whole he was precisely the kind of battleship needed to carry the lineup surrounding him.
Honorable Mentions are due to: Tanner Roark, who fired 6 excellent, scoreless innings, yielding 3 hits and 2 walks while fanning 3; Derek Dietrich, who bonked a 2-run homer (because that’s just what he does); David Hernandez, who fired yet another scoreless 1.1 IP; Raisel Iglesias, who bounced back with a scoreless 9th inning for the save (even if he had to scramble to do it); and Yasiel Puig, who singled, swiped a base, and made a number of excellent defensive plays in RF.
Key Plays
- If you heard any noise, it was just Dietrich and the boys boppin’. They bopped early, too, as Suarez dumped a 1-out double into the corner in RF, and Dietrich followed a batter later yanking a hanging Chris Bassitt breaking ball over the RF wall for a 2-run tater. Reds led early, 2-0.
- Suarez tacked on another run in the Top of the 3rd by crushing a Bassitt meatball a full 415 feet well into the seats beyond the LF wall. That solo dinger gave the Reds a 3-0 advantage, and in a story similar to so many others of late, that ended the scoring early. Fortunately, that meant the Reds held on to win in this one, however!
Tony Graphanino
Source: FanGraphs
Other Notes
- Jesse Winker sat out for the second consecutive game. Yesterday, the general perception was oh, it’s a LHP, that makes sense, but when he was again omitted today the grumbling began in earnest. Turns out, he’s dealing with a sore quad, as The Athletic’s C. Trent Rosecrans relayed, and was potentially available if needed today.
- Continuing what has become a bit of a trend for these Reds, they scored the same number of runs as Oakland in this series - 8 - and still exited with a 1-2 record.
- Despite the getaway-day start time, the Cincinnati Reds aren’t going anywhere after this one. Well, they might head over the bridge and walk the Embarcadero, or maybe catch some tunes on a stroll through Golden Gate Park. Point is, next up on their schedule is a weekend series against the San Francisco Giants at Oracle Park, so in the Bay Area they will remain.
- First pitch in Friday’s series opener against the Giants is scheduled for a late 10:15 PM ET, but it will feature ace Luis Castillo on the mound for the Reds. San Francisco will trot out Dereck Rodriguez as their starter tomorrow night.
- Tunes.