Reds Win 5-4 as Angels Pitch to Votto

The bats got going tonight. Well, for one inning anyway. Aside from that one inning…crickets.

The Reds didn’t even get a hit off Angels starter C.J. Wilson until the bottom of the 4th inning. After a pair of walks to Chris Heisey and Joey Votto, Brandon Phillips greeted Wilson with a home run to stake the Reds to a 3-0 lead. Later in the inning, Jay Bruce doubled, went to third on an error and came home on a Todd Frazier single.

That’s when the Angels began chipping away at that four run deficit.

Apr 3, 2013; Cincinnati, OH, USA; Latos (55) pitches during the first inning against the Los Angeles Angels at Great American Ball Park. (Photo: Frank Victores-USA TODAY Sports)

In the top of the 5th, Howie Kendrick hit a solo shot off Reds starter Mat Latos. Alberto Callaspo would crank a two-run shot off Latos in the 7th to end Latos’ evening. Letter-high fastballs tend to travel a fair distance. Reds 4, Angels 3 after Callaspo crossed the plate.

And let the questioning of Dusty Baker begin again. The Reds manager replaced Latos with…J.J. Hoover. With the bases empty and two outs, he proceeded to walk Chris Ianetta and allow a pinch-it single to J.B. Shuck. That brought Mike Trout to the plate.

Pitch sequence…
SpeedPitchResult
1914-Seam FastballCalled Strike
279SliderBall
3914-Seam FastballCalled Strike
4924-Seam FastballCalled Strike

That last pitch…looking.

The Reds had a chance to get at least one of those back in the bottom of the 7th, too. Shin-Soo Choo walked. Chris Heisey struck out. Joey Votto walked. Brandon Phillips struck out. Next batter, Jay Bruce. Two guesses: walk or strike outs. If you picked “struck out”, you’re right.

With Jonathan Broxton on in the 8th, Erick Aybar got on base with an infield single. Albert Pujols followed with a rocket that Todd Frazier was unable to handle. First and second with no outs and Josh Hamilton to the plate.

Apparently, BP thought the ground ball hit Pujols. He threw out Hamilton at first which advanced the runners to second and third. He then proceeded to have a discussion with second base umpire Todd Tischnor. To no avail. Even on replay I couldn’t make out the ball hitting Albert.

Mark Trumbo would ground out to Zack Cozart, the Reds would conceded the run as Aybar would cross the plate to tie the game a 4. As Tyler noted as he was at the helm of BRM’s Twitter for the game…

Only one ball left the infield in that inning. One. And it was the inning’s final out as Kendrick would fly out.

And the Reds bats stayed silent. We saw this last season. One big inning and hang on for the win.

For all the back-and-forth among Reds fans regarding the “status” of one Aroldis Chapman, he hasn’t appeared in a save situation in the first two games. Sure, he’ll get his chances, but if the bats are still mostly in Goodyear…

But what better time for #19 to get his first hit of the season. Choo led off and was hit by a Scott Downs pitch. Heisey would sacrifice Choo to second. I thought for sure that Joey Votto would get the free pass despite the fact Downs is a lefty. I thought for sure we would have a re-enactment from Opening Day by the Dusty naysayers (including myself)

I…was…wrong. The Angels elected to pitch to Votto. Yes, you read that right. The Angels elected to pitch to Joey Votto.

On the first pitch…

Votto hit a grounder to the right of Pujols. The two-time Gold Glove winner was unable to come up with the ball. Even worse (well, for the Angels and their fans), the ball trickled into short right field, allowing Choo to round third base and cross the plate with the winning run.

Day game tomorrow with a 12:35 PM ET start time. Game thread will be posted at noon.

Angels: a-Singled for Wilson, C in the 7th. b-Walked for Richards in the 9th.
Reds: a-Struck out for Broxton in the 8th.