Reds at Cardinals, Game One - Preview and lineups and such

Last night’s loss to the Marlins was … well, it sucked. The bullpen has turned into a real weak spot for the Reds, but the devolution of Raisel Iglesias is the most frustrating. He’s the guy we thought we could count on. He’s the guy making $9 million a year. He’s the guy the Reds signed for $30 million as an international free agent. He’s the closer, the stopper, the bullpen ace. But he has earned ten losses and is giving up nearly two home runs per nine innings. His strikeouts and walks are still okay, but he’s giving up wangoes like a donkey at a firehouse (happy Bad Similes Day!).

Speaking of disappointing pitchers, Trevor Bauer will climb the bump for the Reds tonight as they start a weekend set in America’s Toilethole. In his first five starts with the Reds, his ERA is a ghoulish 7.62. It’s a horrible stroke of luck that he is having a bad month in coincidence with his debut with a new club that spent a handsome penny to get him, but thems, as they say, the brakes. I have every confidence that he won’t be this bad forever or even much longer, but I guess we can take solace in the fact that they aren’t playing for a pennant or anything important, right? #drink365

The Cardinals traded for Paul Goldschmidt this past winter and signed him for $26 million per season through 2024. He has responded with the worst year of his career to date. He has hit a skosh better than our Joey Votto, but only a skosh. Matt Carpenter has seen a much more dramatic diminishment as he has hit just .216/.327/.369 in 103 games. He has cut 200 points from his OPS over last season. I get no small sense of satisfaction from this.

Of course, they are still in first place and in all likelihood will be playing postseason baseball in a month’s time. Goddammit.

One reason is the emergence of young Dakota Hudson. He has thrown 140 innings so far this year with a respectable 3.47 ERA. He is getting by on no small portion of luck, as his K/BB is just 1.49 and his WHIP is a troubling 1.479. But good luck wins baseball games just as well as skill, so whatever. That’s a perfectly Cardinals way to go, huh.

Baseball will commence at 8:15 PM ET.

Reds Lineup

Birds Lineup