John Lamb did his best to keep the Reds in the game during his 2016 debut. Lamb was called up from Louisville in the last minute because Jon Moscot could not go. He was on a rehab assignment after starting the season on the DL.
Lamb had to pitch around trouble for the majority of the night, but only allowed one run in six innings. He left the game with the score tied at 1.
But then the Cincinnati Reds bullpen took over.
The Reds bullpen set a MLB record by allowing a run in their 21st consecutive game. Caleb Cotham did the honor by allowing a single to Kelby Tomlinson with two outs in the 8th inning.
The Reds offense was dominated tonight by Jeff Samardzija for 8.0 innings. The Reds had a total of 3 hits tonight.
The Reds have now lost 8 of 9.
| Final | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cincinnati Reds (10-17) | 1 | 3 | 0 |
| San Francisco Giants (15-13) | 3 | 10 | 0 |
| W: Samardzija (4-1) L: Cotham (0-1) S: Casilia (6) | |||
| FanGraphs Win Probability | Box Score | Game Thread | |||
Biggest Play of the Game
According to Fangraphs WPA statistic (winning percentage added), the most important play of the game was Caleb Cotham allowing an RBI single to Kelby Tomlinson with 2 outs in the 8th inning, giving the Giants a 2-1 lead. That play decreased the Reds chances of winning by 24.2% (from 49.9% to 25.7%)
Positives
John Lamb did a really nice job in his 2016 debut. For starters, he actually made it through six innings. Entering tonight, Reds starters had only completed six innings in 9 of the 26 games. Second, he kept the ball in the park. Lamb’s bread and butter was his change-up tonight. Lamb was projected by ZiPS to be the Reds third best starter in 2016 behind Iglesias and Bailey. Finnegan has been pretty good so far in 2016, but Lamb might actually be the Reds best starter in their current rotation. His final line: 6.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 3 BB, 4 K, 3.24 FIP.
Adam Duvall hit his 3rd home run of the season. I don’t think Duvall is a future everyday player for the Reds, but as I’ve said before I believe he could be a nice power bat off the bench with position flexibility (LF/RF/3B/1B). Those kind of guys can be somewhat difficult to find.
Tony Cingrani pitched a perfect 7th inning. Anytime a member of the Reds bullpen accomplishes this in 2016, it calls for some serious celebration. GO CRAZY FOLKS, GO CRAZY!
Joey Votto reached base twice (both walks). Votto has now reached base 11 times in the last 6 games.
Negatives
The Reds offense had a grand total of 3 hits. If only the Reds had got the offense last night……tonight.
Caleb Cotham was looking like a decent pitcher in the Reds pen, but he has now allowed 5 ER in his last 3.0 IP.
Billy Hamilton had to leave the game with a jammed thumb. It’s the same thumb injury he has been dealing with for the last two weeks.
The Reds are losing a lot of baseball games. That is not breaking news, but I thought it needed to be put in the “Negatives” section of this.
Not so random thoughts……….
18+ years of team control over Lamb, Finnegan, and Cody Reed for two-ish months of Johnny Cueto might still be talked about in 2040.
— Wick Terrell (@wickterrell) May 4, 2016
#Reds are on pace to lose 102 through 27 games. Long way to go…
— Jeremy Rauch (@FOX19Jeremy) May 4, 2016
If Tony Cingrani were only more consistent. Has dominant shutdown stuff when he has command. Would be a big bullpen weapon.
— Steve Mancuso (@spmancuso) May 4, 2016
3 runs is the fewest #Reds pitchers have allowed since 4/19 (13 games ago). Only 2nd time in last 21 games with fewer than 4 allowed.
— Joel Luckhaupt (@jluckhaupt) May 4, 2016
Samardzija breaks his bat over his knee after striking out. Never seen that move in real life before. #Reds #Giants pic.twitter.com/GVZYSU1vYO
— Sam Greene (@SGdoesit) May 4, 2016
Up Next:
Giants at Reds
Wednesday, 12:35 PM
TV: MLB Network (select areas only); Radio: 700 WLW
Dan Straily (3.38 ERA) vs Jake Peavy (8.61 ERA)
The biggest play of every game is the announcement of a Reds relief pitcher entering the game. The rest is irrelevant.
I scrolled down to say the exact same thing, and what do you know, it’s the very first comment.
Impressive beginning for Lamb. As I said on the game thread, he actually may have a ways to go before he is fully over his back surgery because he was essentially in the 87-89 range with his fastball versus be consistently in the low 90’s with it last season. I guess that makes what he got done tonight all the more encouraging.
Judging from what Gameday indicates he was a changing speed machine. Throwing 70 mph change ups, mid 60 curve balls, mixing with mid 80 cutters. The last 2 hitters after the walk he did not throw 3 consecutive pitches within 15 mph of each other
If you didn’t see it, the 6th inning looked like he was running on fumes compared to earlier in the game, let alone last year. His velocity seemed to come down about the same across the board on all his pitches.
Reds games are pretty good until the bullpen enters. I was angry until the last week or so, but now it’s my daily comedy. All you can do is laugh it off because you know what’s about to unfold.
I call it “Jocketty’s Folly!”
I’ve never seen anything like it…I keep telling myself it will get better, but it never does.
Your 2016 Cincinnati Schleprocks!
Does anyone have any input on Cingrani? some people were saying he was a trainwreck after Sunday’s performance, some said Reds should cut ties, some suggested moving him back to a starter, but I feel it is clear he has got the most talent of any one in the bullpen. Seems like he is getting his slider over more, but just cannot avoid the walks and gets rattled with men on base.
Terrible idea to use him as a loogy and seems like Price has him on such a short leash while others getting ample chances.
Can someone please explain something to me. I mean, maybe I’m missing something here, but, I can’t understand how on earth people can say that we got 18 yrs of club control over Finnegan, Lamb & Reed. Simple math and logic tell me that it’s still only 6 yrs of club control for the 3 of them, period, BCUZ, of the simple fact that all 3 of them ARE PLAYING AT THE SAME TIME! The only way I see this working out to 18 yrs of club control is if each player debuted for the Reds (one at a time) every 6 years!
Go at this way. It is (potentially) 3 starting rotation spots filled for 6 years per each spot, or 18 player years. To acquire these they spent 2 player months (1 rotation spot for 2 months) remaining control over Cueto.
Embrace the power of math!!!
wait… 6 x 3 = 18? but they said for 2 months…. so many 18 years equals 2 months?
6 total years for each. 6 years x 3 players = 18 years total for the 2 months rental that the Royals got for Cueto. Easily makes sense lol wow.
The Reds’ bullpen has the 3rd most innings pitched and the highest ERA. It’s all downhill from here, folks.
Except that the bullpen we’re seeing now is unlikely to be the bullpen we’re seeing later in the season. As the rotation changes with pitchers coming off rehab or up from the minors, guys will move to the pen. It’s dreadful now, but we all knew that something like this would happen when the Reds began the rebuild.
That’s the one thing I’ve been taking solace in. The pen should get populated with a few better pitchers as guys return. That said, with all the setbacks and a couple guys who I expected to be pretty good struggling, it’s frustrating as heck.
Early May and already the “dog” days of summer at GABP last night.
Lamb pitched really well. I will admit, the future starting staff does look promising. I’d let Jocketty go now and tell Williams to fix the bullpen immediately. Price looks like he’s about to drop 44 more f-bombs any second.
If he does so, he needs to do it in the clubhouse. It’s pretty rare that a tirade helps anything in baseball, but honestly, if any team deserved one, it’s this one.
Opposing pitchers are going to continue to pound Votto inside. There’s no question about that tactic and Votto needs to adjust. So here’s a thought. Choo made them pay for pitching inside by becoming adept at the HBP. Unlike Choo, Votto can dominate both LHP & RHP and like Choo, Votto can punish mistakes. If Votto were to commit to taking the HBP as long as pitchers continue to pound the ball inside, he would lead the league in OBP by .100 points. Would someone explain again why Votto is not hitting in the #2 hole? Geesh!
can’t bat @2 because votto plays 1B 🙂
Joey is stuck in the #3 hole now with the Reds offense so bad.
I’d like to see a lineup of:
Peraza>Votto>Cozart>Bruce>Suarez>Winker>Barnhart>BHam or BP depending on where Peraza plays that day.
The Reds have to go out and acquire a power bat this July or later in the winter for 2017. Two power bats if they trade Bruce or let him walk. It just makes better sense to keep Bruce on board post-2016.
I don’t like the Votto HBP approach. I honestly don’t want to expose him to such an injury risk. A few guys know how to get hit and very rarely get injured but most guys aren’t that adept at it. As Joey hasn’t added it to his arsenal already, I have to assume he isn’t great at taking HBP in such a way as not to have a decent chance of an injury.
Glad you said that…just what I was thinking.
Votto not hitting 2nd. frustrates me about as much as the current inept bullpen.
To be fair to Cotham, Tomlinsons hit was a very poorly hit ball that Cotham fooled him with. It was just so weak no infielder could get to it. Of course the two runners on base already was what got him.
even though we knew this was coming… it is hard to swallow every day. when disco and bailey come back… and june 1 comes…. we are going to have an abundance of starters.
disco, bailey, iglesias, finnegan, lamb, stephenson and reed. the talented pensacola guys to follow. garrett, davis, travieso. the most important job right now in the organization is the scouts who are hopefully living in minor league parks finding the next generation of reds hitters. when we flip a starter at the deadline to the giants or the red sox or the rangers… we have to be ready to find the right guys to take back.
this is jockettys strength. he has plenty of weaknesses but this is not one of them.
this years bullpen is a disaster. i would bring back jumbo diaz… who has pitched well at louiosville. is he the answer… who knows but i would be flipping guys quicker than a cook at the ihop. i would have daniel wright up here also along with somsen.
i’d dfa drew hayes.
WIZEMAN is truly wise when he says we need to find some hitters.Our pen would have been better if we didn’t have so many starters battling through injuries.Our focus for the rest of the year is to find out who in our organization is part of our future.Nothing else matters as we go forward.I hope our front office has a plan.
There’s apparently a plan. What worries me is it is contained in a technological wonder called a binder. Makes me wonder how much of a role technology plays in the plan.
There have been 2 relief pitchers that have been DFA’d in the last couple of days and one that opted out of his minor league deal with the Dodgers. Two are LH and one is RH. They all could probably be of some help to the Reds bullpen. But all 3 have their warts too, or they wouldn’t have found themselves DFA’d or on a minor league contract.
LHRP Sam Freeman, 28, was DFA’d by the Brewers. He has had an awful 2016 with the Brewers, but had a fairly decent 2015 with Texas. He is a former Cardinal and pitched well out of STL’s bullpen and their AAA bullpen from 2012-2014. He throws smoke, 94-97, but couldn’t find the plate or found too much of the plate with the Brewers.
LHRP Michael Kirkman, 29, was DFA’d by San Diego. BB’s were an issue with him. He came up in the Texas organization and went back and forth with their AAA team from 2010-2014. He pitched for AAA Brewers team in 2015 where the BB’s were an issue but had an otherwise good year.
RHRP Dale Thayer, 35, opted out of his minor league contract with the Dodgers. He pitched very well out of SD’s bullpen in 2012-2014 and fairly well in 2015.
They all have some very positive attributes to go along with some warts.
The question is, can either of these guys pitch a 1-2-3 8th inning on a consistent basis without walking a leadoff hitter?
My guess is no since they were DFA’ed from their former teams. We have plenty of guys in our current bullpen who have BB’s issues already. Why add a few more? The clear option to fix the bullpen is to get all of our pitchers healthy. That is the only way to a successful bullpen here.
We will have 8 good starters when completely healthy (Disco, Bailey, Iglesias, Finnegan, Lamb, Stephenson, Reed, & Lorenzen) with 3 more in AA (Garrett, Davis, & Travieso), and I am sure I am missing 1 or 2 names here. That is 11 solid pitchers for 5 starting spots, 3-4 bullpen spots, and then flip a few for bats or keep in the minors for injuries that arise. With Winker and Peraza almost ready in AAA, and a solid core of Votto, Bruce, Suarez, and Cozart, this team does not look to far away from competing to me.