Cincinnati Reds Win on 9/11

Running off their third consecutive win in the series, the Cincinnati Reds took the last encounter against the St. Louis Cardinals at Great American Ball Park this season by a final of 1-0.

In what can be aptly described as an old school pitcher’s duel, the men on the mound dominated the game. Both Johnny Cueto and Lance Lynn would go through stretches were they would retire 15 batters in a row. Unfortunately, one had to be the winner, and the other the loser.

The Bats:

Chances are, had it not been Johnny Cueto making the start on Thursday afternoon, a large portion of the fan base would be up in arms about how the offense once again scuffled through a performance. But give credit where credit is due—Lance Lynn pitched like an ace in the series finale.

Despite how well Lynn pitched, he is still getting a big ole “L” in the W-L column after a mini-rally in the eighth inning pushed across the game’s only run.

Having retired 15 straight batters since Ramon Santiago’s bunt single back in the third inning, Lynn was cruising. He would strikeout the side of Jason Bourgeois, Todd Frazier and Devin Mesoraco, to end the seventh inning and keep trudging on. To lead off the eighth, he would walk Brandon Phillips, and then allow a base hit to Jay Bruce to put men at the corners with nobody out.

As thoughts of squeeze bunts danced in Reds fans heads like sugarplums, Santiago laced a low, sinking liner directly at Jon Jay in centerfield. The ball seemed to catch Jay in limbo of whether or not he would be able to make the catch and fire home in one motion. It would ultimately ricochet off his glove and allow Phillips to come in.

Only Billy Hamilton, Santiago and Bruce would collect hits on the afternoon, but it would be all that was necessary.

The Arms:

Picking the worst possible season to have one of the best years in the history of the Cincinnati Reds has been Johnny Cueto. During nearly any other season, or even if he were in the American League, the Cy Young Award would not even be a contest. That may in fact show just how dominant Clayton Kershaw has been.

Cueto initially put himself in some hot water by walking leadoff batter Matt Carpenter, and then plunking Jon Jay to start the game. No trouble there though, as Cueto got strikeouts from Matt Holliday and Matt Adams before getting Jhonny Peralta to ground out to end the threat.

Initially, Brayan Pena was slated to catch Cueto as usual. Due to an illness, Devin Mesoraco was thrust into duty. While the two would differ on specific pitches to throw throughout the afternoon, there is no denying the results the duo produced.

After Matt Adams’ single in the fourth inning, the Cardinals were finished as far as base hits were concerned. Cueto went into the mode where he recognized that his offense was not going to be much use to him, so he refused to so much as let a Redbird reach first base from there on out. In fact, had his spot in the order not come up in the bottom of the eighth, he may have just finished the ball game.

Leading heading into the ninth inning usually means one thing in Cincinnati: Aroldis Chapman. While he would make things interesting with a walk to Matt Holliday, the Cuban Missile would blow away Mark Ellis to finish the game off and earn his 33^rd save of the season. (Side note: Cardinals manager Mike Matheny pinch-hit for his cleanup hitter Matt Adams with the sub-.200 hitting Mark Ellis. For a comparison, let’s imagine manager Bryan Price pinch-hitting for Jay Bruce with Tucker Barnhart or Zack Cozart in that situation—fans would have gone into full-blown pandemonium.)

* * *

After dropping the opener of the series on Monday, the Redlegs came storming back to take the final three games of the series and give the club the series win.

These two teams will meet once more, next weekend in St. Louis. Johnny Cueto is not slated to pitch, so if Cincinnati is to get a series win at Busch Stadium (which happens about as often as a Lunar Eclipse, it feels like), they’ll have to do it without their ace.

Next on the schedule are the Milwaukee Brewers. A weekend series in Wisconsin gets underway on Friday night at 8:10 p.m. as Mat Latos takes on former Red Kyle Lohse.