Reds win in extras behind Joey Votto walk-off double

by — August 11, 2020 in Game Recap

Let’s keep the new extra inning rule forever.

Okay, maybe not — but it worked in the Reds’ favor on Tuesday night, resulting in a 6-5 win over the Royals with a walk-off double by Joey Votto in the bottom of the 10th.

Extra innings couldn’t have been drawn up much better for the Reds. Nick Senzel — the team’s fastest player — made the final out of the ninth inning, so he started the 10th inning on second base. Nick Castellanos walked to lead off the inning before Votto roped a double to center field that nearly left the ball park.

Before the exciting ending, it was another up-and-down game for the Reds that saw the bullpen blow another lead.

The Reds jumped out to an early 5-1 advantage as the platoon against left-handed pitchers continued to pay off. Facing rookie Kris Bubic, Cincinnati scored five runs in the first three innings. Kyle Farmer got the scoring started when he came through with a two-out, two-run double to get the Reds on the board in the second inning.

Farmer is a career .275/.326/.425 hitter against lefties.

In the third, Nick Castellanos led off with a single and scored on a two-run, opposite-field home run by Matt Davidson, a .272/.351/.485 career hitter against lefties.

Next batter Jesse Winker followed with a solo home run to the opposite field.

Notably, that was only Winker’s third career home run against a southpaw. He’s notched four hits in the last two games against lefties. It’s a small sample, to be sure, but it could be a path to more playing time over Phillip Ervin.

Winker reached in all three plate appearances tonight. He also had a single against Bubic in the second inning and walked in the sixth. Just like that, Winker’s slash line is up to .310/.442/.500 on the season.

Luis Castillo wasn’t overpowering but turned in a strong start, allowing three runs (one earned) on seven hits in six innings. He struck out five and walked two.

Defense was a clear weakness for the Reds coming into the season, and it hurt Castillo throughout his start.

In the third inning, Eugenio Suarez and Joey Votto made back-to-back errors with one out, opening up the door for an unearned run to score on a single by Ryan O’Hearn. Some quality defense — from arguably the team’s two worst defenders — saved the inning from going off the rails. Winker, playing left field, gathered O’Hearn’s single off the wall and quickly turned to make a strong, accurate throw that prevented another run from scoring. With two outs, right-fielder Castellanos made a catch while crashing into the right-field wall to prevent what could’ve been a bases-clearing double.

But shoddy defense returned in the two subsequent innings. In the fourth, Nick Senzel tried to barehand the ball on a Whit Merrifield single to center field, allowing a runner to score from second without a throw — the Reds’ third error of the day. In the fifth, Adalberto Mondesi hit a grounder to second baseman Christian Colon, who made an off-balance throw that Votto couldn’t handle at first, which allowed a run to score from third. Mondesi is one of the fastest players in the game and may have been safe anyway, but it was a throw Votto should’ve handled.

Castillo left the game with a 5-3 lead that the bullpen — stop me if you’ve heard this before — could not hold on to. Nate Jones loaded the bases with one out and escaped only with a brilliant double play started by Farmer — one of several strong defensive plays made by the shortstop on the night. Credit to the Reds’ defensive positioning as well, as this ball (102.8 mph, 70% hit probability) was a sure hit without it.

But it fell apart for Amir Garrett in the eighth. He allowed a one-out single followed by a no-doubt home run by Ryan McBroom to tie the game, 5-5. While it’s easy to jump on Garrett for giving up the game-tying homer, it wasn’t a bad pitch. Garrett located the slider where he wanted — down and in to a righty — but McBroom made a good swing.

Raisel Iglesias cleaned up the mess by getting the last out of the eighth and throwing a perfect ninth inning. Iglesias went with a slider-heavy approach (61% of his pitches), getting three whiffs, a weak flyout, and a weak ground ball. The right-hander now has a 12:0 strikeout-to-walk ratio on the season and, in case you forgot, is clearly the team’s best reliever.

Lucas Sims worked around a walk in the 10th inning with a pair of strikeouts and a groundout.

Most Valuable Players

  • Nick Castellanos: .208 WPA (Win Probability Added)
  • Joey Votto: .200 WPA
  • Kyle Farmer: .196 WPA

Play of the Game

  • Kyle Farmer: .183 WPA | Two-run double in 2nd inning

Hardest-Hit Balls

  • Jesse Winker: 106.6 mph | Home run in 3rd inning
  • Jesse Winker: 104.6 mph | Single in 2nd inning
  • Matt Davidson: 104.2 mph | Home run in 3rd inning
  • Kyle Farmer: 103.3 mph | Single in 9th inning
  • Nick Senzel: 102.8 mph | Single in 7th inning

Highest Velocities By Pitcher

  • Luis Castillo: 98.6 mph
  • Raisel Iglesias: 97.7 mph
  • Amir Garrett: 96.9 mph
  • Nate Jones: 96.6 mph
  • Lucas Sims: 95.5 mph

Luckiest Hit of the Day

  • Curt Casali: 18% hit probability | Single in 2nd inning

Unluckiest Out of the Day

  • Nick Castellanos: 57% hit probability | Groundout in 1st inning

What’s Next?

The brief two-game series between the Reds and Royals will conclude on Wednesday. First pitch is set for 6:40 p.m. EST as Wade Miley makes his return from the injured list.

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Matt Wilkes

Matt Wilkes got hooked on Reds baseball after attending his first game in Cinergy Field at 6 years old, and he hasn’t looked back. As a kid, he was often found imitating his favorite players — Ken Griffey Jr., Adam Dunn, Sean Casey, and Austin Kearns — in the backyard. When he finally went inside, he was leading the Reds to 162-0 seasons in MVP Baseball 2005 or keeping stats for whatever game was on TV. He started writing about baseball in 2014 and has become fascinated by analytics and all the new data in the game. Matt is also a graduate of The Ohio State University and currently lives in Chicago. Follow him on Twitter at @_MattWilkes.

4 Responses

  1. kmartin says:
    August 12, 2020 at 4:58 AM

    I guess the game today illustrates the problem of evaluating pitchers on their won-loss record. Although not brilliant, Castillio was, as Matt points out, strong. However three errors and a blown save lead to nothing. Castillo, Bauer, Gray and DeSclafani have combined for only six wins yet they are an outstanding quartet. One of the most amazing stats to me is Steve Carlton winning 27 games in 1972 for a team with a .378 winning percentage.

    It seems like everyday Winker’s name appears in the list of hardest hit balls.

    After Friday night’s game we will be one third of the way through the regular season. Ugh!

  2. Thomas Green says:
    August 12, 2020 at 2:04 PM

    I thought the broadcast crew notes that Votto’s walk off was 104 mph exit velocity.

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