Cincinnati Reds lose fifth straight after the bullpen blows one other recreation

The Reds came to the losers of the evening in four games in a row. In the second inning they quickly fell 3-0 behind.

The Reds did what they did all year: fight back. Eugenio Suarez brought the Reds back into play with a 430-foot bomb. The next blow, Aristides Aquino hit a home run to tie the game.

The Reds offensive had many opportunities in regulation, but simply couldn’t get another attempt. The Reds’ bullpen, however, was spectacular. Tyler Mahle ran four innings and threw 93 pitches to keep the Reds in play. The Reds Bullpen threw five shutout innings to put the game in the extras. Amir Garrett and Lucas Sims got the Reds out of big traffic jams in the 8th and 9th innings. In both situations the Twins had the starting shot / victory run on third base with less than two outs.

Once the game got into extra innings, it seemed far from a foregone conclusion that the Reds would emerge victorious. The Reds entered the game 8-2 in extra inning games. Nick Castellanos started with the green light. Tyler Stephenson relegated Castellanos to third place.

Eugenio Suarez ended his resurgent night with a massive insurance run sack fly to improve the Reds 5-3.

That would be the end of the fun for the Reds. Sean Doolittle had two runs in 10th goal to tie the game. Ryan Hendrix got the Reds out of that jam in the 10th and got the Reds through the 11th, but ultimately the Twins were victorious in the 12th on a Miguel Sano walkoff home run in front of exhausted Heath Hembree. This was the longest season baseball game in the MLB that season, and it certainly felt that way for Reds fans.

The Reds have now lost five games in a row and are back below .500. This comes after winning 6 games in a row and a 13-3 stretch. The Cubs and Brewers both lost tonight, luckily the Reds remain 4.0 games back in the division.

Biggest game in the game

According to Fangraphs WPA statistics (Winning percentage added), was the most important move of the game Sean Doolittle allowed Luis Arraez an RBI double with 0 outs in the 10th inning and reduced the Reds’ lead to 5-4. This game reduced the Reds’ chance of winning by 24.6% (from 79.4% to 54.8%).

Positive

Eugenio Suarez reached the base three times. He had a big 2 run home run to get the Reds back into the game as they were 3-0 behind at the time. He also had a sack in the 10th inning to give the Reds what they thought was a huge insurance run.

Aristides Aquinas hit another home run. He now has 4 home runs in just 25 at-bats this season. I would really love it if Aquino got a real chance to play every day. The current squad obviously won’t allow that, but they have so much potential. The good news for the Reds is that they control Aquino until the 2025 season. There’s so much time left for Aquino and if he can prove himself worthy of staying in the squad he’ll get a real chance at some point. I think he will.

Jonathan India continued his incredible month of June by hitting the base four times. India entered the game on Monday with NL 2B in OPS in June with 0.959.

Tyler Mahle The game started strong with a 1-2-3 first inning, but the second inning was a fight. He allowed Nelson Cruz a lead-off homer, and the Twins hit 9 batters that inning. It was just one of those nights when nothing came easy to Mahle, but Tyler kept fighting. He managed to get through four innings, which was tremendous to keep the Reds in play. He threw 93 pitches in four innings and had 8 strikeouts. I think Mahle needed every throw he threw tonight to keep the Reds in play. The Twins seemed to read Mahle well, but he was able to scout the Twins lineup to survive.

Josh Osich made his Reds debut and tonight was huge. He hit 2.1 scoreless innings that relieved Mahle, and most importantly, he didn’t run.

Brad Brach struck another goalless inning. Brach now has a 2.70 ERA / 3.32 FIP for the season.

Amir Garrett got the Reds out of a big traffic jam in the 8th inning. He came in 2nd and 3rd place with runners with only 1 out. He deleted Arraez, the lead-off hitter of the Twins. David Bell wisely requested Josh Donaldson take a deliberate walk. Garrett then got Trevor Larnach out with a ball that hit his shoe.

Ryan Hendrix recovered well from his brutal performance against the Padres last Thursday. Hendrix took the Reds out of Doolittle’s Jam in the bottom 10 and then hit a goalless 11th place, where the runner naturally started on second base.

Negatives

Jonathan India did two outs on the base paths tonight. It’s hard to get an ounce of negative energy your way, but that was a killer tonight.

Sean Doolittle coughed the game for the Reds after taking a 5-3 lead in the top of the 10th.

If we count ghost runners as inherited runners, Sean Doolittle allowed 12 out of 14 inherited runners this year (85.7%).

– Matt Wilkes (@_MattWilkes) June 22, 2021

Not so random thoughts …………… ..

The twins paid a wonderful tribute David Bell‘s brother, former Red Mike Bell.

Take seven minutes to see a really beautiful tribute to Mike Bell. ??? pic.twitter.com/IbHgjcf3Ak

– Bally Sports North (@BallySportsNOR) June 22, 2021

Obviously a lot has been done there Lucas Sims not out again in the 10th inning. I like everyone else who wants to see Sims at 10th place if he could. Sims threw 20 pitches in game 9. Its season high is 32 pitches. I have no idea what Sims is too much. You have no idea what Sims is too much. The only thing I know is that under no circumstances can the Reds afford to lose Sims. I’ll trust Derek Johnson on this call, painful as it may be in one night. Hopefully we’ll get an insight into the post game. The real problem for the Reds is that they have no one better than Doolittle, not if Sims could have pushed for two innings.

Bell also opted for Winker to start the 10th. The move initially paid off, as pinch runner Freeman easily met on a Castellanos single. However, Winker’s place in the line-up came again. It was the second time in 11 extra inning games that season for the Reds that the game didn’t end in the 10th. The chances of Winkers Platz reappearing are slim, but it kind of burned the Reds tonight. Freeman moved the runner to third place to lead 12th place, but the Reds failed to bring him in.

Next:

Red in twins
Tuesday, 1:10 p.m.
TV: Bally Sports Ohio / MLB Network (out of market only)
Wade Miley (2.88 ERA) vs Bailey Ober (3.71 ERA)