Reds beat Cardinals 4-3 on Joey Votto walk-off single

The Joe Nuxhall Memorial Honorary Star of the Game

Joseph Daniel Votto added to his GABP-best total of walk-off hits with an RBI single in the Bottom of the 9th, and for that we celebrate the hell out of him.

Honorable Mentions are due to: Tucker Barnhart, who smoked a 2-run tater; Shogo Akiyama, who scored the winning run for the Cincinnati Reds as part of a 1 for 2 night that featured 2 runs scored, a walk, and a ribbie; Raisel Iglesias, who pitched a thorny 1.1 IP to set the stage for the walk-off; and Tyler Mahle, who battled hard with a beleaguered bullpen behind him for 7 innings of solid 3 ER ball.

Key Plays

• Brad Miller drove in 7 runs yesterday. Brad Miller, a 30 year old who has spent time in 5 organizations in his big league career, has been released no fewer than four times in his career. Brad Miller, who signed for $2 million to play this year after posting a career .733 OPS, clubbed a solo homer off Mahle in the Top of the 2nd as the Cardinals cleanup hitter, again putting the Reds in a hole early, 1-0.
• Suarez’s leadoff double got the Reds going in the Bottom of the 2nd, fortunately. A wild pitch eventually moved him up to 3B, and after back to back strikeouts courtesy of whatever the hell home plate Nic Lentz thought was a strike zone, Shogo poked a clutch 2-out single up the middle to tie the game.
• Yadier Molina homered off Reds pitching, because of course. Top of the 5th, first pitch of the inning. Tyler O’Neill got on base while I was still rolling my eyes, and he scored when Kolten Wong picked up his 74th hit of this 3 game series, an RBI double into the gap in left-center. Reds trailed, 3-1.
• Rookie Johan Oviedo had mostly cruised into the Bottom of the 5th, but the Reds finally got to him at that point. He plunked Shogo with a pitch to put a runner on for Barnhart, who popped it for a 2-run blast over the wall in CF. That tied the game, 3-3.
• The game remained tied until the Bottom of the 9th, where the Reds finally got some positivity (finally). Giovanny Gallegos was on the bump for the Cardinals, and walks to both Shogo and Curt Casali brought Joey to the plate with a game-winning run in scoring position, and the Reds 1B poked a single into RF to bring it in. Reds win, 4-3!

Tony Graphanino

Other Notes

• We found out this evening that former Cincinnati Reds ace, longtime ace of the New York Mets, and 1st ballot Hall of Famer Tom Seaver passed away at age 75. Rest in peace to a true baseball legend.
• Tomorrow will be a very rare off-day for the Reds, one that’ll be much needed given their 4-games-in-3-days series in Pittsburgh slated for the weekend. They’ll open it with a doubleheader on Friday, one that will feature Luis Castillo on the mound in Game 1, which is set for a 4:05 PM ET start. Trevor Bauer, I believe, is set to start the second 7 inning game later that evening.
• Tunes.