Unless you are one of the seven or so folks who managed to stay awake into the wee hours of the morning in the eastern time zone last night, you were forced wait until this morning to find that the mighty Cincinnati Reds managed to get four hits off of Major League Baseball caliber pitching last night!
They did! They really did – four whole times!
As it turns out, though, the Arizona Diamondbacks – who are actually mighty despite still playing without both Corbin Burnes and Ketel Marte – managed to
get 15 hits off the Reds. And they scored 9 runs, which was 9 more than the Reds could muster on the day.
Cincinnati stinks right now. They stink bad. Their starting pitching is falling apart, their league-worst offense continues to get skunked in ways no other team does, and manager Terry Francona is consistently forced to roll out lineup after lineup devoid of any sort of threat. Hell, even Michael Toglia is now on the sidelines for at least a few days after dislocating his shoulder diving for a ball in a position he never should’ve had to be in last night – even though his numbers are awful, at least he’s a big galoot who looks moderately imposing in the batter’s box despite his foibles.
Now, the Reds are rolling out their short lineup, a moniker that’s both a) in direct reference to their physical size and b) indicative of what it’s lacking that it once had.
Anyway, Rhett Lowder gets the start for the Reds tonight against the Snakes down in the Sonoran, while veteran righty Mike Soroka goes for Arizona.
First pitch is set for a late-night 10:10 PM ET.
Here’s how both clubs will line up to start:
