Rus Livingood
June 23, 2013 – Reds @ Diamondbacks – 4:10pm – Fox Sports Ohio
Reds Record (44 – 32)
Away Record (18 – 18)
Diamondbacks Record (41 – 33)
Home Record (21– 15)
Starters: Latos (6 – 1) vs. Delgado (0 – 0)
The Setting: I am watching at my house. My 21-month-old daughter and I have our voodoo dolls out to make sure the Reds don’t drop four games in a row.
The Game and Analysis:
•Things were looking great early on! Then the Reds hit a plateau. Then they went downhill! And then they won. Whew! Though things got scary there for a minute, the Reds pulled through on a great performance by Mat Latos and held on for the 4 – 2 victory over the Diamondbacks.
•Latos was dealing early, carrying over from the final four innings of his last game when he went on a strikeout rampage. Though he allowed a hit here and there, Latos was pretty dominant and held the Diamondbacks scoreless until his last inning of work. Starting with the third inning, Latos struck out 12 batters over 13 outs, and totaled 13 strikeouts overall. He was sitting at 87 pitches through seven innings, but then got into a little trouble in the eighth and was taken out with two outs in the inning and one run in. Overall, Latos threw 110 pitches.
•The Reds had built a lead for Latos to work with right out of the gate. Shin-Soo Choo led off the game with a home run, and Brandon Phillips hit a two run homer three batters later after Zack Cozart doubled. Thirteen pitches into the game, the Reds were up 3 – 0.
•In the second inning, the Reds built their lead to 4 – 0, but nearly had much more. Xavier Paul hit a double to start the inning, and then Devin Mesoraco reached base on an error by the third baseman. After Latos sacrificed the runners into scoring position with a bunt, Choo walked to load the bases with one out. Cozart then hit a long drive to the gap in left-centerfield, which was ultimately caught by the converging outfielders right at the wall. Even without the ball going over the wall, the Reds missed out on scoring several runs on the play by a matter of inches. If the ball would have hit the wall, or the fielders had collided, the bases could have been cleared easily. The Reds would settle for one run on a long sacrifice fly to make the score 4 – 0 Reds.
•That would remain the score until the aforementioned eighth inning, when the Diamondbacks were able to push across a run on Latos. Gerardo Parra doubled with one out and went to third on a groundout. Paul Goldschmidt walked on eight pitches to put runners on first and third, and then Miguel Montero singled to make the score 4 – 1 and bring the tying run to the plate. Latos was relieved by Manny Parra, who got Jason Kubel to ground out to end the inning.
•In the ninth, the Reds called on Aroldis Chapman to close out the game one day after Chapman did not retire a batter in a blown save attempt. The Diamondbacks would not go quietly. The commentators had already mentioned that the Diamondbacks had not been shut out this year, and then they scored the run in the eighth to keep that streak intact. Against Chapman, the first two batters grounded out on a combined four pitches, and I was relieved. However, Chaoman gave up a single to Cliff Pennington, who then went to second during the next at bat on defensive indifference. Will Nieves singled to score Pennington to make the score 4 – 2, and bring the tying run to the plate again. Chapman threw a wild pitch to allow Nieves to go to second base, and then Chapman hit Parra with a pitch. Needless to say, yesterday’s game had me not feeling all that positive with how things were going for Chapman. He has shown in the past to get in a funk for a couple of games if he has a bad outing. During this time of reflection in the Livingood house, Parra was dealing with a golf ball-sized lump on his forearm from being hit by the pitch. It looks nasty. Hopefully he is not hurt and won’t miss any time. Chapman walked toward home plate when Parra was hit, and seemed to be sincerely checking on him to make sure he was okay. After play resumed, Chapman got the last out of the game to give the Reds the win.
•Jay Bruce picked up two doubles in the game, but failed to hit a homer in a fifth straight game. The two hits were the first of the non-homer variety in several games for Bruce. The doubles gave him 24 on the year, one off the National League lead.
•Cozart was back to batting second in the order for this game, and went 2 – 3 with a double, a run scored, and an RBI. He is still hovering around that .250 mark, which is admittedly much better than the .200 he was batting early in the year.
What Worked: Latos was striking out batters left and right and was making them look foolish in the process. The Reds jumped out to the big lead thanks to the top of the order. Chapman was able to regain his composure and finish out the game.
What Didn’t Work: The last couple of innings were scary after last night’s developments.
Where They Stand: The Reds are 45 – 32 and trail the Cardinals by 2.5 games in the NL Central. They trail the Pirates by 1.5 games.
Overall Thoughts: I am so glad the Reds won this game. Had the blown the lead and lost back to back games, that would have been four games in a row and another game back in the standings. The club isn’t playing well as a whole right now, and they will hopefully snap out of it soon. It seems that one facet of the team will click one game, but other parts can’t hold up their end. But hey, it’s another victory today!
Up Next: The Reds get a much needed day of rest after 17 straight games. They will then travel to Oakland for a two game set starting Tuesday.
