Deja Crew: Brewers lose in 9th to Reds, 2-1

W: Jonathan Broxton (4-3)
L: John Axford (5-8)

HR: Carlos Gomez (17); Todd Frazier (19)

MVP: Wily Peralta (.344 WPA)
LVP: John Axford (-.793)

Win Expectancy Graph

Axford blew another save, his 9th blown save of 2012, on home runs and long fly balls. Fly balls were important all day, as is expected over at Great American Ball Park. It's not the Smallpark for nothin' after all. But enough about that, let's get to the goodish stuff.

Wily Peralta was having one of his best performances of the year up until the second batter of the 6th inning when he was pulled (due to the expert noticing powers of Martin Maldonado and Aramis Ramirez) with an unspecified injury. Up into that point he was cruising along, throwing 75 pitches, 45 of them strikes. The lowest velocity on any of his fastballs was a 91mph one that was the first pitch of the game. His fastball was clocked between 91 and 98 today, with most pitches being in the 94-96 range.

Peralta's velocity highlights of the first 5 innings:

1st: 3 pitches at 96
2nd: 1 at 97
3rd: 2 at 97. One of them hit by Drew Stubbs for the first Reds hit of the game.
4th: 2 at 97
5th: 1 at 98, 3 at 97

Peralta only gave up two hits and the Brewers lucked into the best double play ever after the 2nd hit, a single by Xavier Paul in the 5th inning. Paul went all the way to third base on what he believed was a hit but turned out to be a fly ball out; he couldn't make it back to first in time and was doubled up.

Mat Latos was also having a great game for the Reds. He gave up only one more hit than Peralta did, but it was a very important sort of hit: a shallow fly ball home run to Carlos Gomez in the 3rd inning. Gomez contributed much of the offense today and a great deal of the defense; 2 of the 3 Brewers hits off Latos were by Gomez and he made some great plays, including another at-the-wall catch in the 2nd.