Reds Beat Jays

Reds 3 Blue Jays 2

It would be nice to score more than 2 runs someday.

But then it is hard to score more than 2 runs when you only get 4 hits on the day. And no hits after the fourth inning.

The Jays got a run in the:

• Second inning: Santiago Espinal led off with a double (our only extra-base hit of the day), and Matt Chapman singled him home. After that, it was three strikeouts from Danny Jansen, Zack Collins and Raimel Tapia.
• Third inning: George Springer was hit by pitch, went to second on a wild pitch, and to third on a Vladimir Guerrero fly out to center. He scored on a Bo Bichette groundout.

Jansen singled, with one out, in the fourth, and we were done with hitting for the day.

We did load the bases in the fifth. Springer reached on error, Vlad walked, and, an out later, Teoscar reached on the second error of the inning by Reds third baseman Taylor Motter (he had a tough series, filling in for anti-vaxer Brandon Drury. But with bases loaded and one out, Espinal hit a soft fly out to center, and Chapman struck out.

Zack Collins took a one-out walk in the sixth, and that was our last baserunner of the game.

Yusei Kikuchi, coming off 3 excellent starts in a row, was less excellent today. Not terrible. He only gave up 2 hits and 3 walks (with 7 strikeouts) in 4.1 innings. But he threw many pitches and couldn’t finish the fifth inning.

Most of his trouble came in the first inning. He walked three of the first four batters, and Aristides Aquino doubled (scoring two). He hit the next batter but got a strikeout to end the inning.

Yimi Garcia gave up the game-winning run in the eighth, a Joey Votto home run.

We’d use 6 relievers over the last 4.2 innings. Garcia gave up 3 of the 4 hits the group allowed.

Jays of the Day: Springer (.120 WPA) and David Phelps (.108).

Suckage: Garcia (-.183), Tapia (-.151, 0 for 4), Jansen (-.129, 1 for 4), Espinal (-.101) and Bichette (-.094).

It seems like we are watching the same game, day in and day out.

I guess it is worth mentioning that the strike zone wasn’t exactly as defined by the rulebook for today’s game. It was more of an abstract concept.

Tomorrow we start a road trip with the first of two against the St. Louis Cardinals. Jose Berrios (3-2, 4.83) vs. Miles Mikolas (3-2, 1.68).