Cincinnati Reds: Don’t overlook Sonny Gray’s performance in wacky win

Most Cincinnati Reds fans will remember Eugenio Suárez’s ninth inning home run, but don’t forget how well Sonny Gray pitched in last night’s wacky win.

In one of the most bizarre games you’ll see all season, the Cincinnati Reds squeaked out a win over the Milwaukee Brewers, in large part due to the ninth inning home run off the bat of Eugenio Suárez. But, don’t forget how well Sonny Gray pitched through six innings before giving way to the bullpen.

Gray has been a hard-luck loser on more than one occasion this season. While he wasn’t saddled with the loss last night, Gray did not get the win. A brilliant six inning performance by Gray that saw him surrender just one run on four hits was squandered by the bullpen.

The Reds saw Gray tip the 100-pitch mark and pulled the right-hander in favor of a pinch hitter to leadoff the seventh inning. A shaky outing by Michael Lorenzen in the bottom of the seventh put runners on first and second with two outs and Christian Yelich coming to bat.

David Bell turned to Amir Garrett who promptly walked last year’s NL MVP on four straight pitches. With the bases loaded, Garrett was able to induce a strikeout to Yasmani Grandal and the Reds left the seventh inning unscathed. That was not the case in the eighth.

Garrett, who didn’t have his best stuff, allowed a leadoff single to Mike Moustakas. David Bell then turned to his closer Raisel Iglesias with no outs in the eighth inning. Jesus Aguilar reached on a base hit and Iglesias promptly threw six consecutive pitches out of the zone, walking Keston Hiura and falling behind Orlando Arcia 2-0. If it weren’t for a check swing ruled a strike, Iggy would’ve walked in a run.

But that didn’t matter too much, as the very next batter took Iglesias deep for a grand slam and a 5-4 Brewers lead. Tyler Saladino, who’s average rose from .115 to .130 during the evening, took an Iglesias fastball over the center field wall to give the Brew Crew a one-run lead. Thank goodness for Suárez’s two-run homer in the top of the ninth.

As you can see, all the late-inning decisions, mistakes, heroics, and shortcomings make it easy to forget what Sonny Gray did on the mound. This was Gray’s fourth start in the month of July and the right-hander has never looked better. Gray has gone 27 innings and allowed just 4 runs while striking out 36 batters. That’s a 1.33 ERA in his last 4 starts. Wowzas!

Sonny Gray is in line to be the National League Pitcher of the Month, an honor that fellow starter Luis Castillo earned back in April. If Gray and Castillo can continue their dominance, the future looks bright for the Cincinnati Reds starting rotation.