Aristides Aquino lastly begins and the Cincinnati Reds lastly win

The Reds desperately needed a win Tuesday night and they figured out a way to make it through to a hard-won win. The Reds fell back in the opening 1-0, but Jonathan India gave the Reds the lead with a home run.

The Reds took the lead in the third inning when Joey Votto and Aristides Aquino hit consecutive home runs.

Wade Miley danced around the hard contact all night trying to find a way through 6.1 innings with the lead. The Reds bullpen has done well tonight. Amir Garrett finished the Mets in 9th place.

The Reds lost a game tonight in both NL Central (now 6.5 back) and NL 2nd Wild Card Spot (now 5.0 back) with Brewers and Padres. The Reds 10 wins in July are currently the most in the MLB.

67 games to play.

Source: FanGraphs

Positive

Aristides Aquinas finally a start in Nick Castellano’s absence. Aquino hit the base three times, including a home run. He now has 1,008 OPS. Aquino should always be the starter if one of Winker, Naquin or Castellanos is off the line-up until he proves the opposite. Should Naquin really have trouble, he should challenge him for playing time. Aquino made a really great catch too.

Joey Votto homered to break the tie in the 3rd inning. Votto had a massive single in the 7th inning that resulted in an insurance run after the Mets brought in their top LH reliever, Aaron Loup. It was the second straight night that Votto had a big hit with an LH RP. That must feel really good for Votto, who has really fought LHP for the past few seasons.

Jonathan India met a leadoff homer and left too. He now has a 129 wRC +. This is the best of all Reds newbies since Josh Hamilton in 2007 (hat tip on Matt Wilkes). He also has an .831 OPS. For some context, Brandon Phillips best OPS season was 0.816 (and that came in 2007).

Wade Miley lowered his ERA to 2.72. He danced around hard contact all night (10 hard hit balls allowed) and got some help on the defensive side of the ball.

Eugenio Suarez had a night with two hits. He was kicked out in the 9th when he tried to turn a leadoff double into a triple. At first sight it looked like a really bad decision from Suarez, but the Mets CF just made an incredible throw. I know the old adage “never do the first on the third base” but if the next guy hits in 30% of his PA, I’m not sure if that’s a bad risk.

Brad Brach Made two really great pitches to get out of Miley’s Jam on 7th. Pete Alonso’s first pitch should have been an out, but Votto made a mistake. Jeff McNeil’s next pitch resulted in an inning-ending GIDP to take the Reds out of 7th place with the lead.

Heath Hembree allowed a run, but he was unlucky / poor defense from Winker. He brought the Reds with the guided tour of the heart of the Mets order in 8th grade.

Amir Garrett closed the game on the 9th. It looked tough after throwing 5 straight balls to start the inning, but he curled and hit 2 for the save. Garrett continues to do very well. About his last 16 appearances: 11.1 IP, 3 ER, 19 K, 5 BB, 2.43 ERA. Two of those well-deserved runs were on Saturday when he got really brutal luck. He gave up a .080 xBA single and scored one run with a ball that hit 2 feet in front of the plate. It’s great to see how he does so well.

Negatives

The Reds played good defense for most of the night, but Winker and Votto had some tough games in the late innings. Aquino also made a fool of himself on the footpaths.

Not so random thoughts ……………

The Reds had a chance to blow the game in the bottom sixth. The Reds had runners in 2nd and 3rd place with 2 outs and Wade Miley on top. Miley was only on 84 pitches, but he had already allowed 10 hard hits. In 2019 and 2020, David Bell would have brought in a PH (Tyler Stephenson would have been the guy tonight) so as not to waste that opportunity, especially since Miley has given up so much hard contact. This is one of the extra things an untrustworthy bullpen affects. The Reds still won the game, but Miley only got 1 out in the top of 7th and left 2 runners on base.

Next:

Mets at Reds
Wednesday, 12:35 p.m.
Television: Bally Sports Ohio; MLB network (only outside the market)
Jeff Hoffman (4.66 FIP) versus Marcus Stroman (3.61 FIP)