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Nationals 6 Reds 3
The Nationals homered on the first two pitches of the game and went on to hand the Reds a series sweep and a sixth consecutive defeat, 6-3 Sunday at GABP.
23-year old rookie pitcher Lyon Richardson had his ‘Welcome to the Big Leagues’ moment on the very first pitch of his career Sunday afternoon at GABP. Then, he had another on his second pitch. CJ Abrams creamed the first pitch for a homer. Lane Thomas belted the second pitch for a homer. He’d allowed just 2 homers over 58.2 innings in the minors this season.
Trailing 4-0 before they batted, the Reds got to within 4-3 in the 3rd. But the Nationals answered with a run vs the Reds bullpen in the 4th and 8th. The Reds brought the tying run to the plate in the 9th after one out singles by Tyler Stephenson and Nick Senzel. But Spencer Steer struck out and Stuart Fairchild lined out to left.
Richardson: 3 IN, 4 H, 4 R, 3 BB, 2 K, 66 pitches/38 strikes.
The first four Nationals reached as he threw 24 pitches in a 4 H, 1 BB, 4 R 1st inning. He did not allow a run over his final two innings of work.
His season high for pitches was 76 on June 16 at Chattanooga. He had not pitched more than 4.0 in any of his previous 19 starts as they have been careful with him coming off Tommy John surgery.
Frame job: Stephenson has clearly started a more pronounced attempt at framing pitches lately. But he also bounced a throw into centerfield for another error that allowed a runner to advance to 3rd. Earlier this week he had two throwing errors in a game vs the Cubs.
Clank: The Reds have committed 11 errors since Tuesday, including two 4 errors games. 3 Stephenson, 3 Senzel, 2 Elly, 1 Friedl, 1 Maile, 1 Votto.
Very little O, again: 3 runs, 5 hits, 3 BB, 13 K.
3 K McLain, CES, 2 K Elly.
-Elly K w/ 2 outs in 2nd, bases loaded and Irvin appearing to be on the ropes.
-McLain/CES each K in 5th w/ runners on 2nd and 3rd, trailing 5-3.
The Reds struck out 74 times in 7 games this week: 10-7-12-14-8-10-13.
Oppo bomb: Joey Votto smacked an opposite field HR, his 11th. He also walked. With 354 home runs, Joey Votto is tied with Luis Gonzalez & Lee May for 92nd on the all-time list. Greg Vaughn is 91st with 355 HR.
Back to back: TJ Friedl had a two hit day and homered for the second consecutive game. That raises his career high total to 10. Per Joel Luckhaupt: Friedl is the first player with 10+ bunt hits and 10+ HR since Kolten Wong had 11 of both in 2019.
Bullpen: Farmer 0.2 IN, R, 3 BB….. Moll 1.1 IN, 0 R. He got the final out of Farmer’s bases loaded jam in 4th……Cruz 1.2 IN, he struck out a career high 5…Young 0.1 IN, R. He exited with back spasms in the 8th…..Lucas Sims 1.0 IN…Gibaut 1.0 IN.
How the Reds scored:
2nd: Votto HR (11), 4-1 Nats
2nd: Fairchild RBI 1B, 4-2 Nats
3rd: Friedl HR, 4-3 Nats