According to Bryan Price, Joey Votto says the knee has been bothering him for a couple of weeks, but yesterday was the first time he thought it had inhibited his play. Prior to that, Votto had said he thought “he could play through it” (Sheldon). As reported earlier, Votto is not with the team in Philadelphia and had an MRI earlier today. As of 3:45 p.m., Price was saying he hadn’t heard the MRI results.
Update: The MRI shows it isn’t a knee injury but a quad strain (Sheldon). No DL move right now. This is excellent news.
Devin Mesoraco is activated and in the lineup tonight, batting fifth. First time he’s hit ahead of Ryan Ludwick, I believe. That’s progress.
Tony Cingrani has been announced as Sunday’s starter, as I suspected. Rotation for Washington: Leake, Cueto and Simon (assuming no further weather-based postponements).
Brayan Peña, who has played a handful of innings in the major leagues at first base, is making the first start of his major league career at that position for the Reds tonight and batting seventh.
The Reds had to make two roster moves relative to their game last night. They had to send the 26th player back down and also had to make room for Mesoraco. They’ve DFA’d Jeff Francis, who was out of options. And they’ve send Nick Christiani to AAA.
When asked, Price said the Reds were not going to be playing short-handed tonight. Since even Joey Votto can’t contribute from 600 miles away, that means he’s going to be placed on the DL and another roster move will be announced by the Reds.
For what it’s worth, the radio broadcast team was saying last night that they had been hearing speculation from the team that Jay Bruce may be back as early as the *Washington* series, which would be this Monday. Please, yes.
There is no rain in the forecast for the Philadelphia area from now through the end of the game tonight.