It was a struggle for an offense to generate at the Great American Ballpark, but Cincinnati was able to string together two runs in the bottom of the seventh inning to get the victory over Philadelphia. First baseman Joey Votto connected on his first home run of the season to lead off the seventh inning for the Reds. Shortstop Zack Cozart brought in the second run to end starting pitcher Jerad Eickhoff's night. The Phillies' starter took the loss after giving up those runs and a total of five hits in 6.2 innings of work.
Phillies strike out often
Philadelphia was limited to just four hits in the game -- all of them singles made by four different players. By comparison, the batting order struck out 13 total times and left 11 players on base. The worst offender was first baseman Tommy Joseph, who recorded three in both categories in his four at-bats and didn't pick up one of the four hits.
After taking the loss, Eickhoff talked about the immediate homer he gave up to Votto in the seventh inning: "The homer to Votto came on a curve. ...I fooled him a little bit, but he kept his hands back. He's a strong guy and he was able to hit it out of the park." The Phillies' starter only threw 80 pitches on the night and also struck out six batters.
Reds were clutch when they needed to be
By comparison, Cincinnati didn't do much better on the offensive end. They had just one more hit on the night than their opponent, but both left fielder Adam Duvall and catcher Tucker Barnhart made things interesting with a few doubles. Second baseman Jose Peraza struggled a bit by going 0-for-4 on the night and leaving two runners in scoring position.
Reds starter Brandon Finnegan was amazing in his season debut. He lasted seven innings and gave up just one hit on 88 pitches. He was able to tally up nine strikeouts while the bullpen accumulated four more. Reliever Raisel Iglesias picked up the save, giving up just one hit and throwing past two on strikeouts.
The series concludes with a rubber match on Thursday afternoon. First pitch his scheduled for 12:35 PM Eastern time in Cincinnati.
