Jose Peraza, Luis Castillo lead Reds past Cardinals 4-1 in series opener

The Joe Nuxhall Memorial Honorary Star of the Game

It’s been quite the brutal start to the 2019 season for Jose Peraza. Once the incumbent starting shortstop for the Cincinnati Reds, his slow start and the success of his peers has seen him move to 2B, initially, before now being relegated to somewhat of a utility role.

Of course, that utility role also includes him getting starts around the field against LHP almost all the time, and on Tuesday that decision by David Bell paid dividends for the Cincinnati Reds.

Peraza, the LF for the evening, had a pair of hits, walked, stole a bag, scored a run, and drove in a pair, one of the very, very few offensive outbursts we’ve seen from him so far this season. Heck, he even added a nifty sliding catch on defense in the outfield, too! And in a game that was low-scoring against the division rival St. Louis Cardinals, that proved to be quite the important contribution on the night.

Hopefully, it’s a sign he’s heating up in a way he did last year after another slow start, since he sure as heck finished the season absolutely on fire.

Honorable Mentions are due to: Luis Castillo, who allowed a lone earned run in his 6 IP; Yasiel Puig, who bashed a homer; Joey Votto, who had another pair of hits; David Hernandez, who fanned 3 in his scoreless inning of work; and Raisel Iglesias, who nailed down the 9th inning for the save.

Key Plays

• Matt Carpenter dastardly led off the Bottom of the 1st with a solo dinger off Castillo, a 413 foot blast that put the Reds behind early, 1-0.
• It took until the Top of the 4th for the Reds to strike back against St. Louis starter Genesis Cabrera, but do so they did. Singles from Jose Iglesias and Kyle Farmer put a runner in scoring position for Peraza’s RBI double into CF, and while it was a bummer that a batter later Farmer was tagged out at home on a fielder’s choice dribbler back to the pitcher, Senzel’s double into the LF corner after that at least gave the Reds both another run and the lead. Reds led, 2-1.
• Puig’s solo blast plated a 3rd run for the Reds in the Top of the 5th, a 420+ foot blast onto the grass beyond the CF wall. Then, with 2-out, Curt Casali dumped a single into CF and moved up to 2B on an error at 3B by Carpenter. That meant the Reds catcher was in scoring position for Peraza’s RBI single into CF, and the Reds held a 4-1 advantage. That, folks, is exactly how the scoreline stayed until the end, and the Reds won.

Tony Graphanino

Other Notes

• Luis Castillo yielded a dinger to the first batter he faced, but settled down quite nicely after that. His final line: 6 IP, 2 H, ER, 4 BB, 8 K on 111 pitches. Quite a nice bounce-back game for him after a tad of a rocky stretch for him of late (relatively speaking), one that included him retiring the final 12 batters he faced.
• Speaking of Castillo, he was the only starter for the Reds on the night that did not record at least 1 hit.
• It will be yet another 8:15 PM ET scheduled start time for the Reds and Cardinals on Wednesday, though with it being the stormy time of the year in that part of the country, who the hell knows if we’ll be up against another ~90 minute rain delay again. Anyhoo, Anthony DeSclafani will toe the rubber for the Reds, while Dakota Hudson will get the nod for St. Louis.
• Did I mention there was a rain delay? There was a rain delay.
• Tunes.