Grand Slam Dooms Cincinnati Reds in 4-1 Loss to Cardinals

Jul 27, 2015; St. Louis, MO, USA; Cincinnati Reds starting pitcher Raisel Iglesias (26) reacts after allowing a grand slam home run hit by St. Louis Cardinals second baseman Kolten Wong (16) in the fourth inning at Busch Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports

W:Lynn (8-5, 2.71)

L:Iglesias, R (1-3, 5.53)

SV:Rosenthal (31)

With tonight’s loss to the St. Louis Cardinals, the Cincinnati Reds fall to 43-54, 20 games behind the Cardinals, have only won 3 in their last 10 games, and are only one game above the last place Milwaukee Brewers. It hasn’t exactly been a great year for the Reds.

Offense: The Reds’ offense barely came alive tonight as they only managed one run off of five hits, and never collected more than one hit in an inning. None of the Reds managed to get a multi-hit game, and the number 3, 4, 5 and 6 hitters failed to collect a hit. Joey Votto had the only extra-base hit for the Reds, a ground-rule double in the first inning, that didn’t lead to a run. The lone run of the evening came on a sacrifice fly by Jay Bruce with the bases loaded. After scoring their only run in the third inning, the Reds only had another two hits all night.

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Starting Pitching:  Raisel Iglesias got off to a shaky start tonight, when he hit Kolten Wong, the first batter he faced. Afterwards, Iglesias did settle down, and only gave up two hits in his first time through the lineup, but got into trouble when he had to face the Cardinals a second time through. Iglesias started the fourth inning by giving up a double to Yadier Molina, a single to Stephen Piscotty, then hitting Peter Bourjos. With the bases loaded, Iglesias gave up a grand slam to Wong, giving the Cardinals a 4-1 lead, in what ended up being the only time the Cardinals scored in the game. Iglesias would finish strong though, and not allow another hit all game, though he did hit Bourjos for a second time. Iglesias would leave after six innings, giving up four runs off six hits, striking out seven but hitting three batters.

Relief Pitching: The relief pitching for the Reds was very good tonight and saw one inning appearances by Burke Badenhop and Jumbo Diaz. Badenhop would only allow one hit, while Diaz allowed none and struck out two Cardinals.

Other Notes:
• Tonight’s game saw 5 hit by pitches, with Votto, Bruce, Wong and Bourjos (twice) all being hit. Both benches were warned after the last Bourjos hit, but none looked intentional.
• Tonight was the second-longest outing by Iglesias this season.
• Going into the game, Votto and Brandon Phillips have started more than 900 games together.

Up Next: The Reds will play game two of this three-game series tomorrow against the Cardinals when they send Mike Leake to the mound against Jaime Garcia. First pitch is at 8:15 p,m. EST.

Next: Analyzing the Johnny Cueto trade