Record: 46-61 On Pace: 70-92 Change on '13: -9
Trevor Cahill wasted no time in struggling today. He started the bottom of the first off by giving up a lead-off double to Billy Hamilton, which was only saved from being a triple by a good play courtesy of Mark Trumbo. Ramon Santiago flew out to Ender Inciarte, but a Frazier single easily brought home Hamilton to give the Reds a first inning, one-run lead. To end the inning, Cahill got Devin Mesoraco to ground into an around-the-horn double play, and didn't give up anymore damage in the first.
However, the second inning didn't go much better for Cahill. He did get Brayan Pena to ground out to Paul Goldschmidt to start the inning with an out, but then gave up a single to Lutz. After that, Skip Schumaker struck out, Cahill's first of the night, for the second out. He then threw a wild pitch which allowed Lutz to go to second. At first, he then got Zack Cozart to ground out to shortstop, but the play was reviewed, and the call on the field was overturned. Cozart was awarded first base, and Lutz moved to third, extending the inning for Reds' starter, Mike Leake, who went to ASU. Leake made the overturned call hurt by hitting a single, scoring Lutz from third. Thankfully, Billy Hamilton is fast, but not very good at hitting, and struck out to end the inning.
Meanwhile, the Diamondbacks offense was also being quite futile. They went down in order in the first and second, inspiring no fear in anyone in the Reds organization, and in the third inning, Cahill and Inciarte worked together to strand a one out Didi Gregorius triple. They threatened even more in the fourth inning, getting runners on second and third with only one out, thanks to errors on Leake and Frazier, but a Trumbo strike out and a Prado popup ended that threat as well.
After the second, Cahill settled down nicely. He got the final out of the second, and then sat down the side in order in the third, fourth, and fifth innings, also getting the first out of the sixth. The streak was broken by a Frazier single, however, and it seemed to throw Cahill off. Frazier ended up scoring thanks to a combination of a stolen base, ground out, and then finally a single off the bat Pena, making the score 3-0 in favor of the Reds. That was also the end of the road for Cahill, as David Peralta hit for him in the seventh.
Continuing their futility, the Dbacks offense didn't really manage anything while Cahill was pitching so well. They also went down in order in the fourth. Hill got hit by a pitch in the fifth, but was stranded. They got two runners on with two outs in the seventh, but pinch-hitting Peralta lined out to Billy Hamilton in center to avoid scoring any runs. In the bottom half of the inning, Bo Schultz came on to pitch a 1-2-3 frame, including a strike out of Leake.
The eighth inning also featured some noise from the Diamondbacks. Ender Inciarte got a lead off single, and while, Aaron Hill and Paul Goldschmidt did follow that up with strike outs, Miguel Montero got hit by a pitch, putting runners on first and second with two outs. This was the end of Mike Leake's day, stepping aside so Jonathan "Big Boy" Broxton could face Mark Trumbo. Trumbo then hit the ball to deep center field, but it ended up being caught by Hamilton, finishing the inning.
Bo Schultz went out again for the bottom of the eighth, and he pitched another perfect inning. Aroldis Chapman came in and got a perfect save, including, as normally happens, a strike out. Reds win, 3-0.
<iframe src="http://www.fangraphs.com/graphframe.aspx?config=0&static=0&type=livewins&num=0&h=350&w=350&date=2014-07-29&team=Reds&dh=0" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" height="350" width = "350" style="border:1px solid black;"></iframe><br /><span style="font-size:9pt;">Source: <a href="http://www.fangraphs.com/livewins.aspx?date=2014-07-29&team=Reds&dh=0&season=2014">FanGraphs</a></span>
Wasn't Terrible: Miguel Montero, 7.5% Didi Gregorius, 7.1%
Was Closer: Mark Trumbo, -16.5%
A deathly quiet Gameday Thread, with only 218 comments at time of post. I lead the way in the comment count, with JoeCB1991 and GuruB following in second and third respectively. All fifteen people present were:
4 Corners Fan, AzRattler, Clefo, Fangdango, GuruB, Jim McLennan, JoeCB1991, Makakilo, MrMrrbi, freeland1787, globaldistrust, hotclaws, imstillhungry95, onedotfive, preston.salisbury
Comment of the Day goes to onedotfive for her reaction to one of Trumbo's three strike outs on the night, which really could sum up the entire game:
Join... someone here tomorrow for the game. Probably won't be me, since the start time is 9:35 am here in Arizona, and that's a bit early for me and baseball, IMO. Someone will be here though, and maybe you will be too.
Bah Trumbug
Not one shred of evidence exists in favor of the idea that life is serious.