Offense comes alive as Reds sweep doubleheader over Brewers

by — August 27, 2020 in Game Recap

The Reds completed a sweep of the Brewers in their Thursday doubleheader with a 6-0 win in game two. They’re 13-17 at the halfway point of the season, with a big series against the NL Central-leading Cubs coming up this weekend.

The pitching staff allowed only one hit, and the beat continued on for the Reds offense from the first game. Cincinnati pounded out nine hits, four walks, and a hit batter in seven innings.

Jesse Winker, Mike Moustakas, and Kyle Farmer all had multiple hits in the game. Tucker Barnhart also reached base twice.

The second inning was kind to the Reds on Thursday. They tallied a run in second inning of the first game and bettered that with two runs in the second frame of game two. Moustakas hit a single and Freddy Galvis was hit by a pitch to put runners on first and second. With two outs, Farmer hit a double to left field to put the Reds on the board. Barnhart drove home a second run with a single up the middle.

Just like the first game of the doubleheader, Nick Castellanos and Winker teamed up to do damage in the fifth inning. Shogo Akiyama reached on a walk and scored from first on beautiful slide into home plate after a double by Castellanos. Winker joined the fun with a double of his own to score Castellanos and make it a 4-0 game.

Winker added another single in the seventh inning to finish with another multi-hit game. He and Castellanos finished the doubleheader a combined 9-for-14 with three doubles, three home runs, and seven runs batted in. That’ll work from your No. 2 and 3 hitters.

Farmer added another double in the sixth inning to bump him up to a 97 wRC+ on the season. Barnhart added on to a strong day at the plate with a walk. He now has five walks in his last four games to raise his walk rate from 2.3% to 11.1% and his on-base percentage from .209 to .278.

To cap things off, Eugenio Suarez gave the Reds a pair of insurance runs with a two-run home run in the seventh inning. Suarez now has home runs in three of his last five games and has an .868 OPS since August 19. Hopefully, Suarez is starting to come alive at the plate.

Moustakas followed with another single to reach base for the third time in the game and bring his run production back over league average for the year (101 wRC+).

Although he lasted only four innings, Wade Miley turned in his best start as a Red. The Brewers didn’t plate a run against Miley, who allowed only one hit — an 82.8 mph infield single with a 7% hit probability — and a walk. He struck out three.

As we mentioned in a piece about Miley’s struggles earlier today, cutter command is crucial for him against right-handed hitters, and he had it tonight. Although he missed his spot a few times, Miley largely kept the cutter inside against righties while changing eye levels with it.

Brewers hitters put the cutter into play eight times and only had one ball hit harder than 95 mph off the bat, averaging a meager 73.3 mph off the bat for the game.

With a 4-0 lead, David Bell went for the final blow by turning to his best relievers in the fifth inning. Lucas Sims was the first man out of the ‘pen and worked around a two-out walk to throw a scoreless frame. He returned to throw a clean sixth inning, working around another walk and erratic fastball control to keep the shutout intact.

Raisel Iglesias was filthy in a non-save situation, needing only 14 pitches to retire the Brewers in order to end the contest. The right-hander got whiffs on every four-seam fastball and slider that were swung at. He now has a 15-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio on the season and a 2.01 xFIP.

Most Valuable Reds

  • Wade Miley: .267 WPA (Win Probability Added)
  • Kyle Farmer: .125 WPA
  • Tucker Barnhart: .081 WPA

Play of the Game

  • Kyle Farmer: .137 WPA | RBI single in 2nd inning

Hardest-Hit Balls

  • Jesse Winker: 105.8 mph | Single in 7th inning
  • Nick Castellanos: 104.8 mph | Double in 5th inning
  • Eugenio Suarez: 103.4 mph | Home run in 7th inning
  • Shogo Akiyama: 99.7 mph | Groundout in 2nd inning
  • Mike Moustakas: 98.2 mph | Single in 2nd inning

Highest Velocities By Pitcher

  • Raisel Iglesias: 97.4 mph
  • Lucas Sims: 94.7 mph
  • Wade Miley: 92.5 mph

Luckiest Hit of the Day

  • Kyle Farmer: 34% hit probability | Double in 6th inning

Unluckiest Out of the Day

  • Shogo Akiyama: 54% hit probability | Groundout in 2nd inning

What’s Next?

The Reds will head back home for the first time since August 14 to face the division-leading Cubs in a four-game series (Saturday is a doubleheader). The series will kick off on Friday at 7:10 p.m. EST.

[Photo Credit: https://twitter.com/Reds/status/1154459459864842241]

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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.

2 Responses

  1. Thomas Green says:
    August 27, 2020 at 11:54 PM

    Thanks, Matt. Great recap. I nominate you to recap again tomorrow. ‘Never F with a winning streak.’

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