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The Reds won today by a score of 13-12 in 10 innings. They won the series against an NL Central foe, the Chicago Cubs. The Reds improve their record to 13-14 and will close the gap with the Brewers, who are being blasted into the sun by the Dodgers this afternoon.
The Reds have now won two series in a row after the seven-game losing streak.
The Reds came from behind a couple times and blew a few big leads. Nick Castellanos had five hits, scored four runs and drove in four. Eugnio Suarez had three hits including a home run. As of now, the Reds have the top batting order in the league. They are getting solid contributions from all over the lineup, including the catcher platoon. Yet, it was a disappointing day for several of the better pitchers: Tyler Mahle, Lucas Sims and Tejay Antone.
This was a wild one with massive swings. Headlong highs and lows. Still early, but it’s starting to feel like that’s who the 2021 Reds are.
Offense
After spotting the Cubs a 1-0 lead in the first, Jesse Winker, Nick Castellanos and Joey Votto responded with a walk and two singles to tie it. Votto’s hit was a line drive single to right off a changeup. Mike Moustakas then hit into a double play that scored Castellanos to make the score 2-1.
The Reds found themselves behind 4-3 batting in the third. That was before Castellanos, Moustakas and Eugenio Suarez blasted long balls off Cubs starter Trevor Williams. Winker, who had lined a single to right, was on base for the Castellanos homer. Williams wasn’t exactly painting edges today. Here are the locations of the three 3rd inning homers.
With the score tied 6-6, the Reds took the lead in the 6th. Tucker Barnhart had an infield single. Winker was hit by a pitch and Castellanos singled into left to load the bases. With one out, Joey Votto struck out on three pitches. Mike Moustakas got behind in the count before being hit by an Alec Mills pitch to force in a run. Eugenio Suarez delivered what at the time felt like the knockout punch with a line drive single to left field.
Two things:
1. Geno has three hits today.
2. Good. Vibes. Only. pic.twitter.com/KdzSCkvD1s— Cincinnati Reds (@Reds) May 2, 2021
Winker scored and Castellanos beat a high throw to home to make the score 9-6.
After the Cubs had closed to 9-8, the Reds bats continued the pounding of Cubs pitching. Tucker Barnhart pulled a 2-run h0mer into the GABP Sundeck.
Boom, bam, bop, badabop boomp, POW! pic.twitter.com/nnE7cf02dJ
— Cincinnati Reds (@Reds) May 2, 2021
Noteworthy that Barnhart hit it off a LHP. Nick Senzel was on base.
Two batters later, Nick Castellanos hit his second of the game and 9th this season opposite field.
Update: make its FIVE homers for the @Reds thanks to a Castellanos ? in the 7th! pic.twitter.com/FjMSL4o6r6
— Bally Sports Cincinnati (@BallySportsCIN) May 2, 2021
The homer made the score 12-8 and seemed like a final nail in the Cubs coffin. Seemed like it.
With the score 12-12 in the 10th inning, the Reds started with Jesse Winker as the ghost runner on second base. The Reds had scored the ghost runner in all five of their extra innings games. During Nick Castellanos’ at bat, a wild pitch moved Winker to third. On a 3-1 pitch, Castellanos lined an 86-mph Craig Kimbrel pitch into CF to score Winker with the game-winning run.
Pitching
Tyler Mahle has been one of the Reds brightest lights in 2021. Mahle came into his 6th start of the season among league leaders in strikeouts and the composite stat of xwOBA (contact quality + K,BB). Mahle has relied on a 95-mph fastball with great spin that stays up the zone. Batters swing under it and either miss, popup or hit fly balls. Mahle has always been a bit of a fly-ball pitcher, but he hadn’t given up a home run since the first start.
Today was not Tyler Mahle’s day. His fastball velocity started way down, averaging 91.4 mph in the first inning. The Cubs jumped on him for a run on his first two pitches. Ian Happ hit an under-velocity fastball into the right field corner. Kris Bryant grounded a center-cut slider down the third base line. Mahle recovered with two strikeouts and a soft grounder. He gave up homers to Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo in the 3rd inning on 92.9 mph and 92.8 mph fastballs. If those pitches had been 94-96 mph, the Cubs might not have gotten such good whacks.
The fifth run Mahle surrendered, another homer to Kris Bryant, was on a 90-mph pitch that Statcast called a slider for lack of a better category. Mahle’s Slider averages 87 mph. Mahle threw several pitches that acted like sliders but came in at 89-90 mph. It’s like Mahle was improvising with a cutter, trying to survive the 5th.
Despite Mahle’s struggles, manager David Bell had him come back out for the 6th to face the bottom of the Cubs order. Mahle gave up a double to Matt Duffy, who he had retired the first two PA today. Mahle tried a rare splitter to a right-handed batter and left it over the plate. Duffy came around to score later in the 6th.
All of Mahle’s pitches ended up down in velocity and spin rate. Today was the first time he had given up more than two ER this year and more than three ER since 2019. He had five strikeouts and no walks.
Sean Doolittle relieved Mahle and gave up a run-scoring double to tie the game 6-6. Doolittle has let seven of nine inherited runners score. That’s 77%. League average is 23%. Lucas Sims came in to pitch the 7th and gave up a single and two-run homer to Javy Baez, making the score 9-8.
Sims hasn’t started the season with the same shutdown pitching as last year. Jeff Brantley said from the Reds radio booth that Sims is still suffering from not having a full spring training. The right-hander only got three appearances in Goodyear and then didn’t pitch in the season opening series against the Cardinals. Sims has been the victim of a few bad umpire calls, but he’s also walked a bunch and hung a few.
With two outs in the 7th inning, Bell turned to Tejay Antone to get the final seven outs. Antone did retire the first batter he faced in the 7th. Then pitching with a 12-8 lead, Antone had his first bad inning of the season. He nibbled around the strike zone, walking two. With two outs and the score 12-9, Antone gave up a long three-run homer to Ian Happ that tied the game.
Heath Hembree pitched the 9th and retired Javy Baez, Anthony Rizzo and Matt Duffy on 12 pitches.
Amir Garrett, who had been at the center of controversy and a bench semi-clearing bawl, pitched the 10th, starting with a ghost runner on second. He started by striking out LHH Jason Heyward. The Reds intentionally walked Nico Hoerner so Garrett could face lefty and light-hitting Tony Wolters. Garrett didn’t check the runner, Duffy, at second base and he stole third. Garrett struck out Wolters. The Cubs were out of pinch hitters and had to send SP Jake Arrieta up to bat. Bell brought Ryan Hendrix in to face Arrieta and Hendrix struck him out.
Stats
Hardest-Hit Balls
- Eugenio Suarez | 106.9 mph, single
- Eugenio Suarez |106.3 mph, home run
- Tyler Naquin | 105.7 mph, single
- Nick Castellanos |105.0, home run
- Mike Moustakas |103.6, ground into double play
Unluckiest Out of the Day
- Tyler Stephenson | .410 xBA | Popup
Highest Velocities By Pitcher
- Tejay Antone | 97.7 mph
- Lucas Sims | 97.3 mph
- Tyler Mahle | 95.7 mph
- Sean Doolittle | 92.3 mph
- Heath Hembree | 95.4 mph
- Amir Garrett | 96.9 mph
- Ryan Hendrix | 95.8 mph
Highest Pitch Spins
- Lucas Sims | 3323 rpm | Curve
- Tejay Antone | 3120 rpm | Curve
Most Pitch Movement
- Tejay Antone | 58 inches vertical drop | Curve
- Tejay Antone | 20 inches horizontal | Curve
Team Expected Batting Averages
- Reds | .303
- Cubs | .318
What’s Next?
The Reds are off tomorrow. They begin an interleague two-game series against Tony LaRussa’s Chicago White Sox on Tuesday with a 6:40 pm start. Jeff Hoffman will pitch for the Reds. RHP Dylan Cease will start for the White Sox.
Photo: Frank Jansky (Icon Sportswire)
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Aside from this lineup showing what a monster it can be, the most redeeming aspect of this win was how well the teams’ biggest weakness – the bullpen other than Antone and Sims – came through. Since joining the Reds, Hembree has pitched like a HOFer. I’ve seen all of his innings, he’s had no problem with throwing quality strikes and hasn’t given up a hard hit ball. Garrett’s slider is back, and along with it his dominance of LHed hitters.
Arietta is no joke as a hitter, Hendrix showed a lot of poise in that situation.
As for Doolittle, he should be praised for his day of work. In this game, giving up a double to let an inherited runner score but otherwise getting 3 outs was a better than average performance and very much needed. His FIP is 3.19, thanks to a lot of Ks and only 1 HR allowed.
Best Garrett has looked. Command of both pitches. I’ve been impressed with Hendrix, too. Wonder if he’s the next in the line of Sims-Antone bullpen breakthroughs. Pitchers like Hembree and Doolittle are what they are. They’ll have good games and even a few in a row, maybe even several months. You never know with relievers.
Two thoughts on today’s game. Sadly I slept late and missed a great game. First, when looking at the box score I see that Senzel was caught stealing for the fourth time this year. For his career he has 18 stolen bases and has been caught 10 times. Is he running on his own? With balls flying out of the park today why would he be attempting a steal? Like I said, I did not see the game so maybe it made sense at the time.
Second, Sean Doolittle was never on my radar screen as an elite relief pitcher. Prior to coming to the Reds, if you asked me to list the elite relievers for the last 10 years he would not even come to mind. I just looked at Fan Graphs stats on relief pitchers for the last 10 years and saw that he was fifth behind 1) Chapman, 2) Jansen, 3) Kimbrel, and 4) Betances in WAR. He was ahead of 6) Melancon and 7) Miller. I would never have guessed to see him listed with these guys. Pinson343 mentions FIP, in term of FIP Doolittle is 17) for the last 10 years and not surprisingly 1) Chapman, 3) Betances, 4) Kimbrel and 5) Jansen are among the leaders.
I’m sure this was called by the bench. It was on a 3-2 count with Barnhart batting. I guess the idea was to stay out of a double play to make sure Mahle didn’t lead off the next inning. But Barnhart struck out and with Senzel out at second, it turned into a double play. Took a great tag by Baez to get him.