Pitching struggles and lack of offense lead to 8-2 loss

by — June 19, 2021 in Game Recap

The Reds came into the series as one of baseball’s hottest teams, while the Padres had lost nine of their last eleven games with their offense sputtering. However, the Padres hit the ball hard all night, including three home runs as Tony Santillan gave way early to the bullpen, who did not fare much better. On the opposite side, Chris Paddack and the Padres bullpen stifled the Reds’ offense as they could only scrape across a run in two innings.

Offense

After only producing one baserunner in the first two innings, the Reds got something going in the third. Kyle Farmer opened the inning with a line-drive single to right field. After a sac bunt and strikeout gave the Reds two outs, Jess Winker pulled a sinking line drive to right-center that Wil Myers could only trap, allowing Farmer to score, cutting the Padres lead to one run at 2-1.

The Reds came back again for more in the fourth. With one out, Joey Votto drew a walk. Eugenio Suarez’s groundball then went off Chris Paddack’s glove dying in front of second base for an infield hit. With the shift on against Tucker Barnhart, Votto took advantage and stole third base without a throw from Paddack. Farmer followed with a line drive over Tatis Jr. to score Votto, cutting the lead again to one run at 3-2.

The Reds could muster only three baserunners the rest of the game, only one a hit, as the Padres bullpen shut the Reds out in the final four innings.

Pitching

Tony Santillan’s second career start lasted three innings before he gave way to the bullpen. Santillan only threw 53 pitches but gave up three runs, two of which were solo home runs. While he seemed to have a better handle on his control compared to his first appearance, only walking one tonight, the Padres produced solid contact in all three innings as Santillan left with a 50% hard-hit percentage (batted balls with exit velocities over 95 mph divided by total batted balls).

Tommy Pham put the Padres on the board with the second pitch of the game, sending a home run 386 feet (105.5 mph) into the right-field seats. Santillan followed with back-to-back strikeouts of Fernando Tatis Jr. and Trent Grisham. After a double to center by Machado, Santillan retired Eric Hosmer on a 107.5 mph lineout to deep center.

The second inning began the same as the first as Wil Myers lined a solo home run down the left-field line to extend the lead to 2-0. After another hard-hit groundout by Jake Cronenworth, Victor Caratini walked before Paddack sacrificed him to second base. Santillan only took three pitches to strike out Pham for his third and final strikeout of the outing.

Tatis Jr. began the third with a double to left and was moved to third base on a fielder’s choice. Manny Machado drove a ball to deep center, easily scoring Tatis Jr. from third, making it 3-1 Padres. Eric Hosmer popped out to end the inning, and a pinch-hit opportunity in the top of the fourth ended Santillan’s night.

Ashton Goudeau entered in relief and did not fare any better than Santillan. The Padres continued to put up impressive exit velocities, with six of the ten balls put in play over Goudeau’s two innings registering higher than 95 mph. Wil Myer’s welcomed Goudeau with a 420 foot home run to dead center (106.8 mph). A double, followed by a walk, sac-but, and another walk loaded the bases with one out. Tatis Jr.’s groundball dribbled its way through the left side, scoring Cronenworth from third. Goudeau worked out of the jam with a strikeout and sharply hit ground out to Suarez at third.

The fifth almost started with another solo home run against Goudeau, but Jesse Winker had other ideas as he went up and robbed Eric Hosmer’s would-be longball. After the scoreless fifth, Art Warren threw an impressive scoreless sixth inning that included a strikeout of Tatis Jr. on three pitches. This was Warren’s second appearance in as many nights in which he dominated the top of the Padres’ lineup.

The Padres added an insurance run on Sean Doolittle with a single and double in the seventh. Again in the eighth, with Ryan Hendrix on the mound, a Pham single followed by a walk put men on first and second with one out. With the infield in, Grisham doubled past a diving Joey Votto down the first baseline scoring both runners taking us to the final score of 8-2.

Stats

Hardest-Hit Balls

  • Tyler Naquin: 102.8 mph | Flyout in 8th inning
  • Eugenio Suarez: 102.3 mph | Single in 4th inning
  • Kyle Farmer: 98.6 mph | Single in 4th inning

Unluckiest Out of the Day

  • Mike Freeman: .420 xBA | Groundout in 7th inning

Highest Velocities By Pitcher

  • Tony Santillan: 95.9 mph
  • Ashton Goudeau: 93.7 mph
  • Art Warren: 96.3 mph
  • Sean Doolittle: 94.4 mph
  • Ryan Hendrix: 96.3 mph

Highest Pitch Spins

  • Art Warren: 2,616 rpm | Slider

Most Pitch Movement

  • Ashton Goudeau: 64 inches vertical movement | Curveball
  • Tony Santillan: 17 inches horizontal movement | Fastball

Team Expected Batting Averages (xBA)

  • Reds: .173
  • Padres: .366
What’s Next?

The Reds look to bounce back against the Padres in game three of the four-game set in San Diego. First pitch is set for 7:15 p.m. EST as Vladimir Gutierrez faces off against a pitcher-to-be announced.

Featured Image by Jeff Speer/Icon Sportswire

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Chris Duzyk

Chris began his Reds fandom with family trips from central Kentucky to Riverfront Stadium. At a young age, he had to learn to swing a wiffle ball bat left handed to properly imitate Ken Griffey Jr. and Sean Casey in backyard games against his brother. A graduate from Centre College, he was able to combine his love of baseball statistics and analytics often into his statistics and econometrics courses. He currently is living in Northern Kentucky where all it takes is a simple walk across the bridge to enjoy the games. Find him on Twitter @cduzyk.

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