Cincinnati Reds stay hot in 11-7 win over Oakland A’s

The good vibes from the series sweep of the Texas Rangers in GABP did not dissipate for the Cincinnati Reds on Friday, neither with their first day-off in weeks nor with the trip all the way out to Oakland for a date with Late Night Baseball. Instead, the offense stayed as hot as it was during its late-inning rallies against Texas, unleashing 16 hits and 11 runs in an 11-7 win over the A’s in the series opener.

It’s hard to pin a Joe Nuxhall Memorial Honorary Star of the Game award on a single person given the outburst, but Jake Fraley (2 for 4, 2-run tater, 3 runs scored, a walk, and 2 ribbies), Jose Barrero (2 for 5, 2 doubles, 2 ribbies), Nick Senzel (2 for 4, 3 runs, 3 ribbies, a walk), and Jonathan India (2 for 5, run, ribbie, walk, stolen base) all deserve some merit in their own right.

In fact, every single position player had at least 2 hits on the night except for Spencer Steer (0 for 6). I’ll let you guess which position player I carry on my fantasy team, too.

In all, a thorough romp, even though the pitching on the night was iffy, at best. Luis Cessa was borderline cromulent by yielding 3 ER in 5.0 IP as a reliever who’s still being tasked with starting games, while Buck Farmer and Lucas Sims combined for 1.2 IP of scoreless ball. That was better than the 2 ER yielded by Derek Law and the other 2 ER yielded by Fernando Cruz, at least.

An 11-7 win over anyone, even the struggling Oakland A’s, is one worth writing home about, even if it happened way after I went to bed last night and made me wake up and catch up about it today.

Tony Graphanino

[Link to interactive FanGraphs WPA chart & box score]

Other Notes

• If my ability to remember random tweets I read hours ago remains sound, Fraley’s homer was the first by a left-handed hitter on the Reds roster since April 4th. That’s insane.
• It was Slyde. Slyde said it on Twitter. My rememberbility remains sound and that remains insane.
• Saturday’s game is of the afternoon variety, with a 4:07 PM ET start time set. Hunter Greene will do the pitching opposite lefty Kyle Muller, so expect a righty-heavy lineup from Cincinnati manager David Bell.
• Morning Tunes.