Reds bats fall silent in loss to Cubs.

The Joe Nuxhall Memorial Honorary Star of the Game

Vladimir Gutierrez - 6.1 IP, 9 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 7 K

Gutierrez gave the Reds everything he could tonight but the bats were silenced by an even better performance by Kyle Hendricks. It’s not very often that you see the Reds offense sputter like this and even bad teams win from time to time. It’s really been good to see Gutierrez stabilize after some hiccups earlier in the season.

Honorable Mention: Justin Wilson, Luis Cessa, and Tony Santillan kept the game at 2-1 by not giving up any runs. Cessa got out of a big jam in the 8th that wasn’t all his doing. Nick Castellanos hit a solo dinger, Tyler Stephenson singled and walked, and Tyler Naquin went 2 for 4

Key Plays

• In the top of the 3rd, Gutierrez struck out Kyle Hendricks to start the inning but then walked Rafael Ortega. Walks will haunt as they say, and some guy by the name of Frank Schwindel, who had singled earlier, ambushed a first pitched fastball for a doubled. Ortega would scored and then Ian Happ singled on a 0-2 pitch but Schwindel had to hold at third. Then Patrick Wisdom grounded into a nifty double play. Cubs lead, 1-0.
• Gutierrez gave up a solo donger to Ian Happ. The 0-2 pitch should have been called a strike before that but wasn’t. That happens sometimes even if it hurts. Cubs lead, 2-0.
• With two outs in the bottom of the 6th, Nick Castellanos came to the plate and launched a deep fly into the moon deck in right field. That cut the deficit in half. It was an 81 MPH change up center cut. Tyler Stephenson then hit a single to bring up Mike Moustakas but he flew out to tie the inning. Cubs lead, 2-1.
• The Reds loaded the bases in the bottom of the 8th bringing Votto the plate. The Cubs brought in a lefty to face him. Votto bashed a grounder up the middle and a good defensive play was made to barely get him. The Cubs just barely shifted to the right spot. The Reds failed to score which was sad.
• The Reds went out with a whimper. Cubs win, 2-1.

Tony Graphanino

Source: FanGraphs

Other Notes

• Sometimes even against bad teams you’ll run into their good players. Kyle Hendricks pitched a gem and Ian Happ had three hits. That’s pretty much what remains of the original Cubs team this year. Even if Happ is having a terrible season, he’s been good in the past so I’ll give him a hat tip as a convenient excuse. Sometimes you just get beat.
• Hunter Greene was ejected from his start tonight for Louisville. He was getting crushed, three home runs in two innings and change, and finally was getting a little too aggressive with his inside pitches. It’s something he had been working on but from a picture I saw he definitely threw behind a batter. A Gwinnett player was tossed and so was manager Pat Kelly.
• Shogo made a fantastic catch on a ball I thought was gone at first in the fourth inning. He barely avoided crashing into the wall too. Shogo is really good defense and fun to watch. I just wished he figured out how to hit for a little power.

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