De La Cruz, Burns Give Reds 4-0 Opening Win Over Astros

Elly De La Cruz generated the only run of the first six innings when he walked, stole,.and then adcanced on two grounders including beating a throw home by Jeremy Pena. He then broke the game open with a 2-out rbi single to start a rally that gave the Reds a 4-0 win over the Astros to open Statis-Pro pool play.

You can play your own games by printing teams from the PITCHERS google sheet and BATTERS google sheet and if you don't have a Statis-Pro game then click here for everything you need to play.

Chase Brown won the battle of aces with six scoreless innings with 6 baserunners and 9 strikeouts. The normally shaky bullpen made it hold up, though Jake Meyers 2nd hit of the game and Yordan Alvarez hit by pitch out the tying run on deck with no outs before Jose Altuve's popout and Yainer Diaz double play grounder ended the game.

Ke'Bryan Hayes had 3 if the Reds 9 hits though Astros Hunter Brown was the hard luck loser as he trailed only 1-0 with 2 outs in the 7th before De La Cruz's RBI single chased him.

The Reds now play the pool favored Tampa Bay Rays with their other strong pitcher Hunter Greene to face Rays ace Shane McClanahan - a lefty who will face Dave Myers instead of Friedl.

Pregame

We plan to finally play only our 4th Statis-Pro game of the season tonight. 

Dominant Reds pitcher Chase Burns (top left) projected as a good pb 2-7 card but no where near as dominant as the pb 2-9 he would be if we made his card based on this season. But he only allows hits on 11-21 (range goes to 88).

The Astros Yordan Alvarez is thinking MVP and triple crown in the real season, and is an almost as good 28-35 home run range. In Cincy, his deep drives on 36-38 will go out if the park on a subsequent 11-53.

Astros ace Hunter Brown, actually just recovering from an injury,  is slightly better at pb 2-8 but gives up more hits as 11-23. 

Elly De La Cruz isnt near Alvarez in OPS (0.807 to 0.954) but his elite A-AA speed and top defensive rating for a shortstop (E2, CD5) may make him as valuable as the slow DH Alvarez (E-D).

Game results if we get it in tonight.