Trio of Cincinnati Reds dingers back Tyler Mahle in 6-5 win over Chicago Cubs

The Joe Nuxhall Memorial Honorary Star of the Game

The middle of the Cincinnati Reds order stayed hot, including the suddenly broiling bat of Eugenio Suarez. He homered as part of a 3 hit (and a walk) day against the Chicago Cubs, one that saw him drive in a trio of runs, and said dinger was his 4th in the last 6 games. Joining him with yet another monster game was Jesse Winker, who simply cannot be contained anymore. He homered and doubled as part of his 3 hit day, one that saw him rise to the top of the MLB wRC+ leaderboard at the time of writing this.

Matching that kind of production was Tyler Mahle, who shrugged off some early dinger issues to log a damn fine game. He struck out 11 and allowed just 2 hits - both solo dingers in the 1st inning - walking just 2 in a rather brilliant 106 pitch, 6.2 IP evening.

Add-in a dinger from Freddy Galvis and a scoreless 1.1 inning of relief from Amir Garrett, and it was a damn fine outing all around - at least until the 9th inning, that is.

Key Plays

• The second pitch of the game was hammered unmercifully by Anthony Rizzo, a solo shot into the LF seats. Several pitches later, Kyle Schwarber shotgunned a Tyler Mahle meatball for an opposite-field solo blast of his own, and the Reds were in a 2-0 divot before they ever touched a bat.
• The Bottom of the 2nd saw Cincinnati get one back, however, with Suarez’s positive vibration off Kyle Hendricks just clearing the wall in LF. Reds trailed, 2-1.
• Jesse Winker’s out there swinging his bat like Zorro with a sword. Doesn’t matter who’s pitching, how fast it is, how much it spins, which arm it came from, nothing - Winker’s gonna see it like a beachball and then mash the living shit out of it. That’s precisely what he did to a Hendricks changeup in the Bottom of the 4th, clubbing it for a solo shot that tied the game. Geno then followed with a sharp double to the LF wall, and he scored a batter later on Matt Davidson’s RBI single. Reds led, 3-2.
• Nick Castellanos bonked a 2-out single into RF in the Bottom of the 5th to get a rally going against Hendricks. Winker followed with a double into the RF corner that put a pair of runners in scoring position, and a Geno jam-shot into shallow CF scored them both. Reds led, 5-2.
• Galvis homered from the right-side of the plate in the Bottom of the 8th as the raindrops fell, a solo shot that put the Reds ahead 6-2.
• Robert Stephenson took the mound for the Bottom of the 9th, and he was a tad unlucky when Kyle Schwarber reached on a single that just skipped off the glove of a leaping Jose Garcia with 1-out. That put a runner on for Willson Contreras, who smashed a 2-run shot over the wall in CF to make this one interesting. Things got even more interesting when Jason Heyward smoked a solo job of his own next to chase Bob Steve, but Raisel Iglesias managed to finally, finally slam the door. Reds won, 6-5.

Tony Graphanino

Other Notes

• It was Jackie Robinson Day across MLB, with every player wearing #42 in honor of the legendary Brooklyn Dodger who broke baseball’s color barrier in 1947.
• The Rizzo dinger was the 29th in his career against the Cincinnati Reds, which is the most he’s hit against any opponent in case you didn’t already know that with every emotion in your fibers. It was also the 19th he’s hit in GABP, which is the most he’s hit in any non-Wrigley stadium in baseball in case you didn’t already have lesions in your brain from knowing that with your heart and soul already.
• Speaking of 1Bs, Joey Votto was on the bench for the third consecutive game today. He’s fine, per David Bell, and Votto spoke at length prior to the game about how he’s earned a spot on the bench for the time being. Word is he’ll be back in the lineup tomorrow, hopefully with a bit of a refreshed approach.
• During the game, the Reds officially traded the recently DFA’d Cody Reed to Tampa Bay for RHP Riley O’Brien. O’Brien comes rated towards the back-end of Tampa’s Top 30 prospects, though that’s a pretty stacked system. FanGraphs rates the future value of his curveball as a 60, which is cool.
• Speaking of tomorrow, it’s another doubleheader day. First pitch of the first game is set for 4:10 PM ET, with the second game set to begin shortly after the end of the first. Yu Darvish and Trevor Bauer are set to start the opener.
• Tunes.