Michael Lorenzen helps Reds hang on for 6-5 win over Minnesota Twins

The Joe Nuxhall Memorial Honorary Star of the Game

It was yet another rock solid outing for Luis Castillo, something that’s become the norm for the Cincinnati Reds ace after an uncharacteristically rocky start to the year. Today against the Minnesota Twins, he fired 6 IP of 1 ER ball, yielding only an early solo dinger before settling in.

His final line: 6 IP, 6 H, ER, BB, 7 K on 101 pitches. Now, if only we could clone him and put the other in the bullpen...

Honorable Mentions are due to: Jonathan India, who continued his torrid hitting with a 3-hit day (with a double and a ribbie); Tyler Stephenson, who socked a homer; Joey Votto, who doubled, walked, and smashed in 2 ribbies (that gave him the team lead in that category, to date); Shogo Akiyama, who singled, walked twice, and scored twice; and Michael Lorenzen, who bailed out the bullpen disaster with a 5-out save.

Key Plays

• Jorge Polanco was again that guy, this time in the Top of the 1st with a laser of a solo crank off Castillo to put the Twins ahead early, 1-0.
• That lead held up until the Bottom of the 3rd, at which point the Reds began smacking around offerings from lefty Charlie Barnes. Shogo got the party started with a single and moved up on a sac bunt by Castillo. Jesse Winker then walked, and Shogo came in to score on a ribbie single by Farmer. Then, Votto smoked a 2-run double to the wall in CF to clear the bags aside from himself, and he then scored on Tyler Stephenson’s ribbie single into LF. Reds led, 4-1.
• Shogo instigated things again in the Bottom of the 4th. This time it was via walk, and after Castillo followed with another successful sac bunt, Jonathan India singled into LF to score another Reds run. Reds led, 5-1.
• Stephenson unloaded on a meatball from Minnesota reliever BoBros in the Bottom of the 7th, smoking a solo homer over the wall in CF that made it 6-1.
• Brad Brach ran into a heap of trouble in the Top of the 8th, however, since he is a bullpen arm of The Cincinnati Reds Bullpen [TM] and that’s just something that’s required to happen every damn game. A Miguel Sano ribbie double chased him eventually, leaving a pair of runners still on with none out for Luis Cessa to clean up. Unfortunately, Cessa immediately surrendered a 2-run double to Trevor Larnach followed by a ribbie single to Ryan Jeffers that ended his day, with Michael Lorenzen coming on to clean up the would-have-been-cleaned-up mess. After a double that somehow didn’t score the lumbering Jeffers, he did just that, and the Red held a tenuous 6-5 advantage - one that The Llama would hold in a 6-5 Reds victory.

Tony Graphanino

Other Notes

• The Pittsburgh Pirates will come down to GABP to begin a series tomorrow that’ll last through the weekend. Hopefully, they’ll do so fresh off back to back wins over the Milwaukee Brewers, who they just began playing in an afternoon game today. First pitch on Thursday is set for 7:10 PM ET, and will feature Sonny Gray on the bump for the Reds looking to turn things around. Wil Crowe and his 5.40 ERA will be starting for Pittsburgh.
• Tunes.