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The Reds nearly experienced what it was like for another team to blow a game with bad defense and relief pitching on Friday night. Down 5-1 in the top of the ninth inning, the Reds rallied for three runs on four walks, a triple that should’ve been a flyout, and a wild pitch. But their comeback effort fell short against the Cardinals, falling 5-4 for their fifth straight loss. The Reds and Cards are now tied for third place in the NL Central at 9-10.
Offense
Just like last year, the Reds struggled to figure out Cardinals lefty Kwang-Hyun Kim. He held Cincinnati scoreless through five innings, which extended his scoreless streak against the Reds to 16 innings. Nick Castellanos had enough of that in the sixth inning. Amidst a chorus of boos from the St. Louis faithful, he smashed a solo home run to lead off the sixth. Not a bad way to get your 1,000th hit.
A dinger for your 1,000th career hit.
Congrats, Nick Castellanos! pic.twitter.com/o5ECocizgc
— Cincinnati Reds (@Reds) April 24, 2021
That was the only run the Reds could scratch across against Kim, who didn’t issue a walk and allowed only five hits in 5.2 innings. Kim, who had only a 16% strikeout rate last year, struck out a career-best eight hitters. Eugenio Suarez and Joey Votto, the Reds’ third and fourth hitters, particularly struggled against Kim, accounting for half of his strikeouts (two apiece).
The Reds didn’t have any luck against the Cardinals bullpen — until the ninth inning. Then, they experienced what it was like to face a bullpen that couldn’t throw strikes.
With the Reds down 5-1, Alex Blandino — who drew his first start of the season — walked to lead off the inning against flame-throwing Jordan Hicks. Two batters later, Jonathan India hit a lazy flyball to right field (.040 xBA), but center fielder Dylan Carlson and right fielder Justin Williams miscommunicated, allowing the ball to fall in for a gimme RBI triple. Hicks then walked pinch-hitter Tucker Barnhart, prompting a pitching change to closer Alex Reyes.
The new right-hander couldn’t throw strikes either, walking Tyler Naquin to load the bases and Jesse Winker to score the second run of the inning. Castellanos followed with a strikeout, but strike three was a wild pitch in the dirt, allowing Barnhart to cross the plate and make it 5-4. Suarez then got ahead in the count 3-0 against Reyes. The Reds third baseman watched a four-seam fastball down the middle of the plate for strike one, swung at what should’ve been ball four for strike two, and was fooled on a slider up in the zone for a called strike three.
Suarez went 0-for-5 with four strikeouts on the night and now has a 38.6% strikeout rate on the season. Yikes.
Pitching
In his second start of the year, Sonny Gray still didn’t quite look like his usual self on Friday night. He lasted only 3.2 innings and 86 pitches, allowing five runs on six hits and three walks.
The first inning was smooth sailing for the right-hander, as he retired the Cardinals in order and struck out two. In the second inning, Gray allowed a solo home run to Yadier Molina, who turned on a sinker up and in. It wasn’t a terrible pitch; in fact, it was out of the strike zone. Molina just made a good swing.
However, things unraveled for Gray in the third inning, when he allowed four runs. Some of the damage can be attributed to bad luck. Plenty of it was poor execution, too. The inning started with opposing pitcher Kwang-Hyun Kim at the plate. Gray was ahead 0-2 when Kim took a ball on the lower edge of the strike zone (pitch #4 below).
Gray didn’t get the call from home plate umpire Joe West. Kim barely put the next pitch in play at 77.9 mph off the bat, reaching first on a swinging bunt single. The next two batted balls against Gray were 78.6 and 73.2 mph. The first went for a fielder’s choice, but the second found outfield grass for a single. From there, Gray’s command got away from him. He hung a curveball to Paul Goldschmidt for a two-run double, left a sinker over the heart of the plate to Nolan Arenado for an RBI single, and hung another curveball to Molina for a run-scoring double.
Down 5-0, Gray got out of the fourth without further damage. He then struck out the first two hitters of the fourth inning before walking the next two hitters and getting pulled from the game.
It was another disappointing outing from one of the Reds’ co-aces. They have to get better efforts from Gray and Luis Castillo moving forward.
Heath Hembree, who was brought up from the alternate site earlier in the day, was tasked with cleaning up the mess in the fourth inning. The 32-year-old walked the first hitter he faced on four pitches to load the bases, but he got out of the inning on a popout by Arenado. Hembree pitched a perfect fifth inning, striking out two Cardinals hitters. The righty showed off well above-average spin rates with his fastball-slider combo and used both pitches 10 times each. Of the four swings against his four-seam fastball, all four were whiffs.
Ryan Hendrix, who was also recalled on Friday, made his MLB debut in the sixth and was extremely impressive. He needed just 13 pitches to set the Cardinals down in order, striking out two batters along the way. Nine of his 13 pitches were sliders, and the breaking ball was as good as advertised in scouting reports. St. Louis hitters swung at it five times and missed four times. Hendrix’s fastball touched 97.2 mph.
Jose De Leon threw a perfect seventh inning on 13 pitches, striking out two. Between his changeup and slider, he got three swings — all misses.
After struggling to get on track early in the year, Amir Garrett was sent out for a confidence-boosting inning in the eighth with the Reds down by four. His command still wasn’t great as he didn’t strike out a batter or get a whiff, but he did retire the side in order.
Where was this bullpen performance by the Reds against the Diamondbacks?
Stats
Hardest-Hit Balls
- Nick Castellanos: 108.1 mph | Home run in 6th inning
- Tyler Stephenson: 105.3 mph | Lineout in 5th inning
- Eugenio Suarez: 104.0 mph | Flyout in 6th inning
- Alex Blandino: 103.1 mph | Single in 4th inning
- Nick Senzel: 99.9 mph | Groundout in 7th inning
Unluckiest Out of the Day
- Eugenio Suarez: .690 xBA | Flyout in 6th inning
Highest Velocities By Pitcher
- Sonny Gray: 93.5 mph
- Heath Hembree: 95.7 mph
- Ryan Hendrix: 97.2 mph
- Jose De Leon: 92.8 mph
- Amir Garrett: 94.5 mph
Highest Pitch Spins
- Sonny Gray: 3,132 rpm | Curveball
Most Pitch Movement
- Sonny Gray: 68 inches vertical movement | Curveball
- Sonny Gray: 23 inches horizontal movement | Slider
Team Expected Batting Averages (xBA)
- Cardinals: .169
- Reds: .211
What’s Next?
The Reds and Cardinals will do battle again on Saturday afternoon at 2:15 p.m. EST. Wade Miley will look to rebound from a shaky outing as he faces off against St. Louis right-hander John Gant.
Featured Photo: Larry Radloff (Icon Sportswire)
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Suarez swinging at ball 4, which would have loaded the bases for Votto, was sickening.
It was brutal. He’s really struggling right now.
Garrett needs more in the way of low leverage outings. He didn’t get any strikeouts because he didn’t throw a single slider near the strike zone (he did get one swing and miss). He had to rely strictly on his fastball, that’s dangerous.
Based on what they showed tonight, Hendrix and Hembree can help. The Cardinals were missing Hendrix’ slider by a foot.
Cardinal pitchers had 14Ks today. If I am Kerry Wood, Roger Clemens or Max Scherzer I worry about having my record for strikeouts in a nine inning game being broken if deGrom pitches against the Reds.