Reds Recap: Jay Bruce Homers Past Padres
The Cincinnati Reds.. er… I mean, Jay Bruce and Johnny Cueto, were able to pull away from the San Diego Padres 4-0 Sunday to avoid the three game sweep. Yes fans. You all read that right. The boys of summer were able to blank the Padres.
Nada! Nothing! Zilch! Zero! The Big Goose Egg!
Game Summary:
This is probably one of the easier game summaries that we are going to ever get to write here at Riverfront Ball. There were only two pitches the entire game for which a run scored and both pitches were thrown by the same player, and both scoring plays were driven in by the same player.
With nothing going for either team in the first inning the second inning was were the action began. After a first pitch, 65mph eephus pitch (look it up kiddos, it’s a thing) from Odrisamer Despaigne, Jay Bruce lined an 0-1 fastball roughly 440 feet into the stands in Right Field. It was the epitome of a “no-doubter”.
It was a glorious moment.
After four more inning of scoreless Johnny Cueto baseball, it was the bottom of the sixth inning and time for the Reds.. er, I mean, Jay Bruce to do damage again. Joey Votto led off the inning with a single, and Todd Frazier would double (15) to Right Field to set things up for our streaky hero. On another 0-1 pitch Bruce took Despaigne deep for the second time to take the score up to 4-0.
Those would be the last runs scored of the day, but not the last bit of entertainment. When Aroldis Chapman came into the game in the 9th inning he popped Matt Kemp up on the first pitch. It was drifting over towards the right side of the infield when Brandon Phillips frantically waved off Joey Votto to record the out.
But the best part of all for foodies like myself and I’m sure, many of you are too out in Reds Country, was the sight of Aroldis Chapman running out of the bullpen in a non-save situation. We are going to assume that Bryan Price was not thinking about getting the fans pizza, but when J.J. Hoover was a dominant as he was in the eighth, what other reason was there to bring in Chapman… I’ll tell you what it was… it was the pizza.
And on a 3-2 pitch in the ninth inning, Aroldis Chapman brought a tear to my eye. No only because we won the game, but because everyone who had a ticket for that day now may enjoy LaRosa’s pizza.
There is something beautiful about baseball isn’t there?
Reds Win!