Boxscore

After dropping the first game of the series, the Reds bounced back yesterday with a 0-4 win.

Johnny Cueto started for the Reds after being pushed back a couple days with a blister problem. It must have been mostly cleared up, though, because he worked 6.0 innings of shutout baseball. He gave up 4 hits and 4 walks and found himself pitching out of jams later in the appearance, which is how he ended up with a pitch count of 105 despite the short (for him) appearance.

Jose Arredondo and Sam LeCure pitched the seventh and eighth innings, respectively. Each gave up one hit and zero runs. Sean Marshall came in for the ninth, but just when you thought he might finish a game out, Baker swapped him out for Aroldis Chapman for the last out of the game. There were two guys on, making it a save opportunity for Chapman, but it seems like kind of a dick move to yank Marshall. I wish Dusty Baker were as hard on actually bad players as he’s been on Marshall.

The offense was a one-man story. Ryan Ludwick owns all three of the Reds’ RBI for the night (the first run having come on a wild pitch and therefore didn’t have a corresponding RBI). He hit a long ball over the left field wall while Zack Cozart and Brandon Phillips were on to provide plenty of padding for the rest of the game.

There were a lot of walks to be had last night; in fact, the Reds got on base more from walks (6) than from hits (5). The much maligned Drew Stubbs got aboard twice: once on a hit and once on a walk. That’s just the same as Cozart and Ludwick (and once less than Scott Rolen, who walked twice) but it feels like more of an accomplishment in Stubbs’ case.

The win brings the Reds’ record to 51-39. Tonight the series continues with Arizona at 7:10 p.m. Mat Latos (7-2, 4.10 ERA) defends against Ian Kennedy (6-8, 4.55 ERA).