The Reds had one of those nights that can feel over before everyone’s even settled in. According to Redleg Nation, Arizona scored first in the bottom of the 1st and never gave Cincinnati a way back into it, rolling to a 9-0 win at Chase Field.
Arizona set the tone early
Doug Gray’s game recap at Redleg Nation says the Diamondbacks opened the scoring when Corbin Carroll walked, stole second, and came home on a single. That was only the start of a tough stretch for Cincinnati, because Arizona kept stacking up runs and pressure from there.
The biggest swing came in the bottom of the 2nd, when Jordan Lawlar’s two-run homer helped push the lead to 4-0. Redleg Nation notes that Arizona added another run in the 3rd, then kept extending the margin in the 4th and again later in the game. By the time the final out arrived, the Reds were still looking for a breakthrough that never came.
Cincinnati never found the answer
The headline from Redleg Nation is hard to miss: Arizona’s Eduardo Rodriguez and the bullpen shut Cincinnati down on just four hits. The Reds did put a couple of runners on in the 4th and again in the 5th, but they couldn’t cash in either time. That kind of missed chance tends to loom larger when the other side keeps adding runs.
Nick Lodolo took the loss for Cincinnati, and the Redleg Nation recap says he allowed 10 hits in 3.1 innings. The Reds’ pitching staff also finished with more walks than strikeouts, another sign that the night kept slipping away in more than one phase of the game.
A lopsided opener, with more series still ahead
This was game one of the 3-game series, so there’s still time for Cincinnati to reset. But as Redleg Nation laid it out, Arizona controlled the game from the bottom of the 1st through the final out, and that’s the kind of loss a team has to flush quickly.
For the Reds, the challenge now is simple: turn the page and find a cleaner night at the plate and on the mound. After a shutout like this, that next game can start to feel a lot bigger than just one more date on the schedule.
