Aristides Aquino does not homer, Reds lose to Nationals 3-1

The Joe Nuxhall Memorial Honorary Star of the Game

Jesse Winker had a single and a double.

Joey Votto singled twice and walked.

Nick Senzel doubled and scored thanks to the RBI single from Jose Iglesias, and Lucas Sims fired a pair of scoreless innings of relief. Heck, Bobert Stevietoine tossed a scoreless frame, too.

The fact is, though, that these Cincinnati Reds were largely punchless on the night against the Washington Nationals in one of the more ho-hum games in recent memory.

Key Plays

• Washington plated a run in the Bottom of the 1st, but it took a bit longer than that for it to register with the FS-Ohio crew. Victor Robles got things started with a 1-out double, and he moved up to 3B on a single by Anthony Rendon. Alex Wood then got an inning-ending double play, but since it was 3-6 with Joey Votto stepping on 1B and then throwing to 2B for a tag play on Rendon, enough time elapsed for Robles to cross the plate before the final out of the inning, and the Reds were down 1-0.
• Wood then cruised into the Bottom of the 4th, but that’s when things went awry. He served up a mammoth solo dinger to Juan Soto before Brian Dozier later mauled a hanging meatball for a solo shot into the LF seats, and the Reds trailed, 3-0.
• Joe Ross breezed into the Top of the 7th having allowed nary a run and just a trio of hits, but the Reds did manage to chase him at that point. Senzel smacked a 2-out double off the top of the wall in left-center, and he scored a batter later on an RBI single up the middle by Jose Iglesias. Reds trailed, 3-1, but that was all the action this one could muster. Bollocks.

Tony Graphanino

Other Notes

• Alex Wood had yet another start that at times featured excellent stuff but what otherwise a bit frustrating. His final line: 5 IP, 6 H, 3 ER, 0 BB, 4 K on 78 pitches.
• Jose Peraza did not start tonight, but he did manage to take a walk in his pinch-hit appearance. That marked the first time Peraza had walked since the Hoover administration.
• Speaking of Peraza, he’s going to have plenty of competition for playing time in the upcoming months as it appears that Freddy Galvis - who was activated prior to the start of this one - is going to get a good chunk of time at 2B this year, for some reason. I like the claim of Galvis and the potential for him to be the primary SS in 2020, but him taking time away from, say, Josh Vanmeter at 2B the rest of the way just doesn’t seem like the best of ideas. VanMeter hit freaking cleanup yesterday in more or less a must-win game, and now he’s going to be ceding time to Galvis? It just doesn’t add up.
• Speaking of which, Galvis made his Reds debut in this one as a pinch-hitter with 2-out in the Top of the 9th. He singled into RF.
• Wednesday’s series finale will be a rather odd 4:05 PM start time, which is neither a getaway-day matinee nor an evening game. It’ll likely feature a lot of talk about ‘shadows’ and ‘sightlines.’ Anyhoo, the Reds will send Trevor Bauer to the mound opposite Washington’s Stephen Strasburg in a matchup of two of the more talented arms in the bigs, so I’d anticipate a 10-9 score, or something similar.
• Tunes.