The Joe Nuxhall Memorial Honorary Star of the Game

Derek Dietrich is a strong dude who stands almost on top of the plate. In fact, he’s been rivaled only by Anthony Rizzo over the course of his career for standing statuesque on inside pitches and being plunked, with some 104 pitches that have hit him over the last 7 seasons entering play tonight.

That included 2 last night, for the record, but did not included the trio of plunkings he dealt with tonight.

You can absolutely make the case that he’s not getting out of the way of pitches like a player who is legitimately worried about getting hit, but considering the dude spends an incredible amount of his non-playing time in the gym lifting weights and sports an attitude that certainly doesn’t suggest he’s scared of getting hit, it’s pretty obvious he’s willing to let it happen. Factor in that umpires haven’t yet told him he’s at all out of line, he uses that as a tool to get on base, and that worked to his advantage again tonight.

Dietrich was hit 3 times, walked, and scored 4 runs on the night, and while the final plunking got him square - and got both benches warned - the net of the damage seems to suggest he and the Reds will walk away from tonight with heads held high.

Honorable Mentions are due to: Yasiel Puig, who walked, crushed another dinger, and drove in 3; Nick Senzel, who singled and homered (more on him later); Jose Iglesias, who went 4 for 5 with 2 ribbies and a pair of runs scored; and David Hernandez, who fired another solid 1.2 innings of scoreless ball.

Key Plays

The Reds did that thing where they scored 3 runs in the Top of the 1st again, which was quite nice. It began when Votto worked a walk after being down 1-2 in the count, and Brewers starter Chase Anderson later hit both Eugenio Suarez and Dietrich to load the bases, and Votto then trotted home when Yasiel Puig worked a 9 pitch walk. Then, Iglesias dumped a 2-run single into CF, and the Reds led, 3-0.

Peraza plated 2 more runs in the Top of the 3rd with a triple into the RF corner, scoring both Dietrich - who had again been hit by a pitch - and Iglesias - who had singled. Reds led, 5-0.

The wheels of Lorenzo Cain helped the Brewers get a run on the board in the Bottom of the 3rd, as he singled, stole 2B, and then scored on a single into CF by Eric Thames. Reds led, 5-1.

Senzel turned around an Anderson meatball in the Top of the 5th, a solo blast well over the wall in left-center that gave the Reds what, at the time, seemed like a daunting 6-1 lead. Unfortunately...

...Christian Yelich still is, and when you walk a runner in front of him, that means a 2-run dinger, this time in the Bottom of the 5th. Later, Mike Moustakas smoked the 102nd pitch of Sonny Gray’s night for a solo blast, too, and the Reds lead had shrunk to 6-4.

The Reds put another trio of runs on the board in the Top of the 7th, and did so with a tad bit of drama at the start. Dietrich was hit by his 3rd pitch of the game - and 5th in a 2 game span - and wasn’t super happy with Junior Guerra after the fact. Both benches were warned, Dietrich took 1B, and fortunately eventually took 2B, 3B, and home, too, after Iglesias singled behind him, Jesse Winker chipped in with a pinch-hit walk, and Curt Casali later coaxed yet another bases loaded walk to plate a run. Then, Kyle Farmer - who came on in a double-switch when Gray exited - dumped a 2-run single into RF, and the Reds held a 9-4 lead.

Dietrich walked in the Top of the 8th, which put him in scoring position for Puig’s mammoth 453 foot dinger, one that put the Reds ahead, 11-4.

While this game was on the cusp of the 4 hour mark, Orlando Arcia took Matt Bowman deep for a solo dinger in the Bottom of the 8th to make it 11-5, and Yelich later dumped an RBI double into left-center to score another run and cut the Reds lead to 11-6. This recap is getting incredibly long, but just know that this inning eventually featured Michael Lorenzen walking in another run and Votto making a sprawled-out catch on his belly at 1B to record the final out, and the Reds somehow still led, 11-7. Fortunately, that’s how things ended, and the Reds won their 6th straight game.

Tony Graphanino

Other Notes