Cincinnati Reds

Cleveland Indians reliever Vinnie Pestano has a recurring dream. A batter hits a line drive right back up the middle and it’s screaming toward his head. View full post on Yahoo! Sports – MLB – Cincinnati Reds News

Jesse Winker won the Midwest League Home Run Derby on Tuesday afternoon.

Games Played on 06/18/13 Minor League Player of the Day: Louisville 3B Neftali Soto: He went 3 for 4 with a HR. AAA Louisville 5 – Durham 2 Neftali Soto went 3 for 4 with a HR. Emmanuel Burriss went 3 for 5. Nevin Ashley went 2 for 3 with a 2B and a BB. Denis Phipps went 2 for 4 with a 2B. Yohan Pino got the win as he went 6.2 IP and allowed 2 R on 7 H and 2 BB with 4 K. Zach Duke notched his 2nd save with 2.1 IP of scoreless relief. AA Pensacola – No game scheduled. High A Bakersfield – No game scheduled. Carolina League All Stars 12 – California League All Stars 2 No Blaze players saw action in the All Star game. Pitchers Carlos Contreras and El’Hajj Muhammed were the only players on the All Star roster. Low A Dayton – No game scheduled. Midwest League East All Stars 6 – Midwest League West All Stars 5 The following Dragon’s saw action in the All Star game. SS Zach Vincej went 1 for 2 with an RBI. LF Jesse Winker went 0 for 4. Sal Ramono (1 IP), Ben Klimesh (0.1 IP), Alejandro Chacin (0.1 IP), and Sean Lucas (0.1 IP) each added scoreless relief outings.

Reds starter Mat Latos struck out nine batters in five innings Tuesday night, but a three-run Pittsburgh first inning doomed him and the Reds in a 4-0 loss:

Games Played on 06/17/13 Minor League Player of the Day: Louisville 3B Henry Rodriguez: He went went 2 for 4 with a 2B. AAA Durham 16 – Louisville 3 Henry Rodriguez went 2 for 4 with a 2B. Kris Negron went 2 for 3. Chris Heisey went 2 for 4. Corky Miller walked twice. Pedro Villarreal got the loss as he went 1.2 IP and allowed 8 R on 8 H and 1 BB with 1 K. Jose Arredondo added 2 IP of scoreless relief. AA Mobile 11 – Pensacola 1 Travis Mattair’s solo HR in the 2nd inning was the Blue Wahoo’s lone hit in the game. Josh Smith got the loss as he went 6 IP and allowed 4 R on 7 H and 3 BB with 5 K. Loek Van Mil added 1.2 IP of scoreless relief. High A Bakersfield – No game scheduled. Low A Dayton – No game scheduled.

There will be much more in the final version of my game story for MLB.com, (click here) but Mat Latos let it be known after a 4-0 loss that he wasn’t pleased with the exchange of hit-by-pitches the Pirates and Reds have had this season. In that battle, the Pirates lead by a 10-6 margin. Shin-Soo Choo has been hit six of those times, including with starter Charlie Morton’s first pitch of the game. Latos says that’s enough. “I got into trouble for hitting Neil Walker and protecting my teammates. I think it’s time that somebody steps up and starts disciplining the team that’s drilled the most guys in the league,” Latos said. “They’ve hit a lot of guys, whether it’s intentional or it’s by accident. Something has got to be done about it. They’re team that’s hit the most guys in the league and that’s not right.” The hitting of Walker Latos referred to came on June 2 at Pittsburgh, in likely retaliation for Brandon Phillips getting plunked twice on June 1. It was not previously known that Latos was fined for that pitch. Pirates manager Clint Hurdle and Morton denied any purpose pitches were made on their side tonight. “You throw out a term beanball, I don’t go there. It’s competitive baseball,” Hurdle said. “You’ve got to do certain things to win, and when two teams are focused on winning and neither one wants to blink and they want to play hard and you want to compete, you push the envelope a lot of different places. Not just at the plate trying to get balls in on people, but breaking up double plays and doing everything. We’ve got to beat these guys, and we’ve got to beat the Cardinals to get where we want to go. These are good baseball teams. You’ve got to do some things you’ve never done before to beat good baseball teams.” Morton: “You saw the ball I threw down and away to [Choo] and he hit a really sharp line drive up the middle [in the sixth inning]. So yeah, got to go in.” Incidentally, Latos’ 21-game unbeaten streak came to a halt. He last took a loss on Aug. 24, 2012 vs. STL. He was 10-0 during that stretch. “I’m just glad it’s over with and I don’t have to hear you guys talk about it anymore,” Latos said. “It’s done and it’s over with. It sucks that we lost because I don’t want to lose, ever. But now I have to hear you guys talk about it so I can start up a new one.”

Both Clint Hurdle and Charlie Morton said, with straight faces, that Morton didn’t hit Shin-Soo Choo with his first pitch of Tuesday’s game against the Reds as retaliation for Aroldis Chapman’s pitch up and in on Neil Walker on Monday. They were so straight-faced it was almost convincing. Almost (well, not really). “We talked about ...

Let’s recap tonight’s titanic struggle…. FINAL Pittsburgh 4 Cincinnati 0 W: C. Morton (1-1) L: M. Latos (6-1) BOX SCORE POSITIVES –The Reds had four hits; Joey Votto had two of them, including a double (Cincinnati’s only extra-base hit). –Manny Parra struck out two of the three batters he faced in a perfect inning. JJ Hoover did him one better, striking out the side in the ninth. –After the first inning, Mat Latos was pretty good… NEGATIVES –…unfortunately, Latos’ first inning was bad. Mat gave up three runs in the first, which were the only three he permitted all day. Latos went five innings, giving up three hits and three walks, while striking out nine. –The Reds had only four hits. –Curtis Partch gave up a run on a hit and three walks in two innings. NOT-SO-RANDOM THOUGHTS –What can I say? Not much of a game. –That was the first loss for Mat Latos since last August. Latos had won 21 consecutive starts before this one. –Pirates starter Charlie Morton hit Shin-Soo Choo with a pitch in the first, satisfying the Pittsburgh fan base/dugout’s blood lust. Can we get back to baseball now? Source: FanGraphs

The Joe Nuxhall Memorial Honorary Star of the Game Umm... Well... Shin-Soo Choo was 1 for 3 with a single and a HBP, and Joey Votto was 2 for 4 with a double... Reds pitchers struck out 17 Pirates batters... Yep. It was simply one of those games. Manny Parra was OK, I guess. Dang. Key Plays The Pirates got off the the start they wanted in the Top of the 1st, as Starling Marte led off with a triple (narrowly making it into 3B after a nice relay throw by Brandon Phillips). Russell Martin then reached on an infield single that scored Marte, and Martin then stole 2B despite replay suggesting that Zack Cozart had his glove on Martin's hand as it came off the bag. Those two close plays would haunt Mat Latos, as a jam-shot by Pedro Alvarez after consecutive walks would score two more. Reds trailed, 3-0. The Reds...yeah, that's about that. In the Top of the 7th, Marte singled to center that scored Johnny Mercer, who had walked and moved to 2B on a sacrifice. The Reds...yeah, they didn't do anything. Reds lose, 4-0. Remarkably Uneventful Disappointing FanGraph Section Source: FanGraphs Other Notes I feel bad for the fans that showed up to this one. I don't feel bad for them because the Reds lost; I feel bad for them because this was, quite possibly, the least eventful game in recent memory. Shin-Soo Choo and Xavier Paul both were hit by pitches from Pirates' pitchers, and nobody cared. Mat Latos was saddled with a loss for the first time in 22 starts, and for just the 2nd time in his last 38 starts. Pitcher wins and losses blah blah blah blah, but that's still pretty dang impressive. Between birthdays and anniversarys, half of RR is celebrating tonight. Pat yourselves on the back, because it's probably your special day! Tunes? Tunes! Want more tunes? Click here and listen to this entire album if you've got the time. If you don't at least check out track 10. Well, I know Howie will like 'em, at least.

A night after the Reds relied solely on home runs for their offense, the bats were kept quite quiet by Charlie Morton and the Pirates bullpen.  And, unfortunately, this meant that Mat Latos earned his first loss of the 2013 season, having given up 3 first-inning runs as Pittsburgh answered their defeat in last night’s […]