Reds get another chance to prevent Cardinals from spoiling their season

Friday night’s game between the Cincinnati Reds and St. Louis Cardinals saw prized rookie Andrew Abbott struggle with command at the worst possible moments. Two-out walks begat multi-run swings, and despite their best efforts the Reds offense was unable to rally out of the early 6-0 hole.

The end result? A 9-4 loss that sunk the Reds to 73-70 on the season, now a pair of games back in the loss column from the Arizona Diamondbacks for the final Wild Card spot in the National League. They’ve also fallen behind the Miami Marlins entering Saturday’s slate of games, and have done so at the expense of a Cardinals club who is going absolutely nowhere this season.

There are few things I can imagine that would be more gut-busting than watching a defunct Cardinals club ruin this special season. (Sitting completely idle at the trade deadline is one of them, but I’ll wait until the offseason to revisit that catastrophe.)

Today, with another pair of players (Stu Fairchild and Alex Young) added to the COVID IL, the makeshift Reds will once again be tasked with simply figuring things out on the fly, their cadre of rookies and call-ups forming a nearly all-righty lineup against St. Louis lefty Zach Thompson. That includes the recently recalled Nick Senzel once again, as the former top prospect swatted another homer last night and carries an impressive .312/.366/.581 line in 101 PA against southpaws so far this season.

Is he turning into a more versatile version of Jonny Gomes? Maybe he just needs some more pine tar on his helmet.

Carson Spiers will get another start for the Reds, as Bill’s nephew will once again try to soak up some much needed innings for a pitching staff that’s been a roster turnstile for weeks on end now. Spiers will unwield the first pitch of tonight’s game at 6:40 PM ET, and thankfully this one won’t be on AppleTV again.

Go Reds.

Reds Lineup

Cardinals Lineup

TBD...