Cardinals vs Reds 4/8 Recap: Lance Lynn fights through rough start, hitters finally come though

This game was, altogether, not all that different from Lynn's first start against the Reds.  He gives up 3 runs in the first, the Cardinals' offense fights back (which it always seems to do in Lynn starts), and he cruises for awhile, and then the game is ultimately decided in the 7th inning.

Let's talk about Lance Lynn. These past two starts have been pretty much everything Cardinals fans dislike about him: he gives up crooked innings, his command is iffy (though he didn't walk any tonight), which leads long games.  Ultimately, however, he allowed 8 hits, while getting 6 groundouts and 3 flyouts.  That's a .470 BABIP on the night, with 4 strikeouts and 0 walks.  The casual fan is going to groan about him, but by peripherals, he wasn't all that bad.  He definitely wasn't as bad as Joe Kelly was the other day.

It was refreshing to see some of the struggling hitters come through.  While Holliday, Craig, and Peralta are still mostly cold, Kolten Wong and Peter Bourjos got 2 and 3 hits respectively, and in important situations.  With 2 outs in the bottom of the 2nd, with the Cardinals having fought back to 2-4, Kolten Wong hit a triple into right field to tie the game, which raised the team's win expectancy from 31.7% to 53.9%.  In the bottom of the 6th down 4-5, Peter Bourjos led off the inning with the double, which raised win expectancy from 37.6% to 48.9%, and he would eventually come around to score on Matt Holliday's double. Carlos Martinez would come in and look absolutely devastating, and then Trevor Rosenthal would come in and close the game after a leadoff blooper.

The Three Stars of the Game (by WPA):

3) Kolten Wong (.168)

2) Peter Boujos (.187)

1) Matt Holliday (.279)

The Three ...not Stars of the Game (by WPA):

3) Jhonny Peralta (-.097)

2) Allen Craig (-.217)

1) Lance Lynn (-.241)