Raisel Iglesias serves up another walk-off homer, Reds lose to Marlins 4-3 in extras

The Joe Nuxhall Memorial Honorary Star of the Game

The legend of Aristides Aquino just continues to blossom.

On Thursday, the RF phenom belted yet another homer, becoming the first Red/rookie/player/human/what have you to do what he’s done over the course of his brief career. That’s a nebulous way of saying read the Other Notes, but it’s also a way of trying to attempt to relay precisely what kind of rarefied air in which Aquino’s production resides.

Aquino added a pair of other hits on his night, plated a trio of runs to raise his season RBI total to a remarkable 32 in just 27 games played. Mercy. If only the rest of the Cincinnati Reds could have shown up on the night...

Honorable Mentions are due to: Alex Wood, who served up 3 dingers on the evening, but his overall body of work - 6+ IP, 6 H, 3 ER, 2 BB, 8 K on 102 pitches - was pretty danged A-ok; and Lucas Sims, who fired a scoreless inning of relief (with 2 K).

Key Plays

• Joey Votto smoked a laser to the wall in CF with 1-out in the Top of the 1st, and the cut on the liner was enough to make Lewis Brinson misplay it for a 2-base error. That put a runner on for Aquino, which is simply something no pitcher on the planet should ever want to see. A 2-run tater then followed, and the Reds held an early 2-0 lead.
• Alex Wood served up an immediate counter-meatball to Jon Berti in the Bottom of the 1st, however, and the Marlins leadoff hitter parked it in the RF seats to make it 2-1.
• The dingerriffic theme continued in the Bottom of the 5th, as Austin Dean turned around a thigh-high fastball for a solo shot into the seats beyond the LF wall, leveling the score at 2-2.
• Starlin Castro put the fish ahead in the Bottom of the 6th when he hit yet another solo dinger, this one of the opposite-field (screw you, AP stylebook) blast to put the Reds in a 3-2 hole.
• Fortunatly, the Reds found a way to rally in the Top of the 8th, and it was the heart of the lineup at work with 2-outs that did it. Joey Votto poked a single into CF to get it started, and the Marlins made a pitching change to reliever Ryne Stanek in the wake of that hit. He walked Eugenio Suarez on 4 pitches, however, and Aquino then belted a laser of a grounder up the middle that went for an RBI single to level the score at 3-3.
• That, in turn, helped lead to an extra-inning (screw you, AP stylebook) affair, and eventually Raisel Iglesias took the mound for the Reds. 3 pitches later, the Reds had lost, as Harold Ramirez boinked a walk-off (screw you, AP stylebook) solo dinger in the Bottom of the 12th to send the Reds to a 4-3 loss.

Tony Graphanino

Other Notes

• Aquino’s 1st inning dinger broke all sorts of everything. It marked the 40th dinger hit by a Red in the 1st inning this season, which is the most in MLB history. It also marked the 14th dinger he’s hit this month, which is both a) the most by a rookie in any month in NL history and b) tied for the most by any Red in any month, rookie or not. Yahtzee!
• The Reds will head to St. Louis late tonight, and on Friday they’ll begin a 3-day, 4-game series against the division-leading Cardinals. Trevor Bauer will start the opener for the Reds opposite Cards starter Dakota Hudson, though it’s worth noting the Reds have already announced that they’ll recall Tyler Mahle to start one of the games during Saturday’s doubleheader. First pitch Friday, though, is set for 8:15 PM ET.
• Tunes.