If Reds pitchers are going to give up a bunch of runs, can it please be the young ones gaining valuable experience? In the first six innings tonight, Bryan Price used Tim Adleman (29) and Blake Wood (31).
Up tomorrow: 40-year-old Bronson Arroyo.
Yay, sorting.
Cincinnati Reds 5 • St. Louis Cardinals 7 || MLB || FG || Statcast
Tim Adleman went 5.1 innings, walked one and struck out three. He gave up 8 hits and 5 earned runs. Before tonight, Adleman had career ERA estimators of 5.31 (FIP) and 4.99 (xFIP).
Here’s a line from a recap I wrote last year. Only needed to change one character: “Adleman is a nice story. But he’s 28 29 a career minor league/independent league pitcher. Time to stop using up scarce starting opportunities on guys who aren’t possibly in the Reds future.”
It was great to see Devin Mesoraco back on the field. He caught the entire game. Mesoraco singled in his fourth AB, worked a (fateful) walk and threw a runner out attempting to steal 2B. His batting timing won’t be back to form for a while, but there are plenty of ways he can help the club.
Joey Votto hit a 2-run homer and also singled. Votto’s walk and strikeout rate are about the same. His isolated power is an astronomical .345. He’s on pace to hit 56 homers and 127 RBI.
Scott Schebler hit his 8th homer of the year, singled and walked. His walk rate is an excellent 9.3% and isolated power is .351. To put that number in perspective, only one hitter in baseball (David Ortiz) had an ISO above 278 last year.
Scooter Gennett, playing 2B in place of Jose Peraza, doubled in two runs in the 8th inning. He also had a single and made a great defensive play on a ground ball over the middle. Gennett is now hitting .286/.300/.551 (122 wRC+). Peraza (.227/.261/.261; 40 wRC+) is lucky this isn’t a competition based on merit.
Zack Cozart made a few good plays at SS, showing off his range. Batting second, he also had a single to start the 4-run rally in the 8th.
Billy Hamilton was 1-5, lowering his batting average to .211 and on-base percentage to .258. Hamilton struck out twice and, as the go-ahead run at the plate in the 8th inning, weakly popped up on the first pitch he saw.
With the score 4-1 in the top of the 6th, Devin Mesoraco worked a 9-pitch walk to load the bases. Eugenio Suarez, who had been on second base, ran to third, took a step beyond third base and was thrown out by Yadi Molina. 3B coach Billy Hatcher had his back turned and couldn’t help.
The home plate umpire called strikes on Zack Cozart and Joey Votto in the ninth that hadn’t been strikes the entire game, particularly the one on Votto.
Lol what a terrible call. pic.twitter.com/s14j13MvtC
— ɴɪᴄᴋ ᴋɪʀʙy (@Nicholaspkirby) April 29, 2017