Eugenio Suarez homers to back Sonny Gray, Reds beat Nationals 3-0

The Joe Nuxhall Memorial Honorary Star of the Game

Eugenio Suarez bashed an early solo homer, and he later scored after adding a walk at the plate, too. The dinger continued a recent trend that just so happened to begin right after we here at Red Reporter penned an article about how ridiculously pull-happy he’d become, a trend that he’s now resetting by bashing everything either up the middle or the other way.

His 1st inning dinger off Stephen Strasburg went out to right-center, almost as oppo as the dinger he socked off Max Scherzer two days ago. When he’s doing that, he’s again going to be the kind of offensive powerhouse he’s been in previous seasons, and hopefully that’s a sign that Hot Geno is right around the corner.

Matching Geno on the production line for the night was Sonny Gray, who was positively brilliant on the bump. Hell, he singled and scored, too, so he was pretty phenomenal all over the place, but his pitching prowess was particularly spectacular. He allowed just 2 hits and a lone walk in his 6 inning outing, keeping the Washington Nationals completely off the board in the process. He fanned 5, threw 90 pitches, and had his already spintastic pitch arsenal fluttering all over the damn place.

Key Plays

• The decision to move Geno to the leadoff spot continued to pay dividends for manager David Bell, as the Cincinnati 3B bonked a leadoff dong off Stephen Strasburg in the Top of the 1st to give Sonny a 1-0 lead before he ever took the mound.
• Sonny reached on an infield single in the Top of the 5th after it ricocheted off Strasburg, and Geno followed with a walk to push Sonny into scoring position. That proved large when Jesse Winker smacked a single up the middle that became a single when it fortuitously bounced off the bag at 2B and over Trea Turner’s head, a single that scored Sonny. Tyler Naquin later fisted a bloop double down the LF line to plate Geno, and the Reds held a 3-0 lead.
• Gray exited for the Bottom of the 7th - the final inning in this shortened doubleheader affair - and Lucas Sims stepped in to finish what the Reds starter had begun. Reds won, 3-0!

Tony Graphanino

Other Notes

• It’ll be Vlady Gutes day tomorrow, as the rookie will be called up to make his big league debut in Wrigley for the series opener against the Chicago Cubs. In vintage Cubs fashion, it’ll be a day game with a few dozen folks in the stands actually there to watch baseball instead of to be seen, with first pitch set for 2:20 PM ET. Adbert Alzolay will start for the baby bears.
• Of course, there will need to be a roster move between now and then, which I’m sure we’ll hear about in the morning.
• Tunes.