All right, let’s see a show of hands, Redleg Nation readers … how many of you thought that on Cinco de Mayo, the Reds would be sitting at .500 and only two games behind the Cubs?
I see a few hands, but your game preview author certainly doesn’t have his hand up. Despite a wave of pitching injuries for the second consecutive season, this team has hung in there thanks to an offense seventh in the bigs in homers (38), sixth in OPS (.763), fourth in slugging (.447) and doubles (56), and second in stolen bases (31) and triples (8).
Or, as Joey Votto says:
MAKE REDS BASEBALL GREAT AGAIN pic.twitter.com/WLweL2Wl14
 RT Ohio (@RT_Ohio) April 30, 2017
Starting Pitchers
| Name | IP | ERA | xFIP | K% | BB% |
| Matt Cain | 27.1 | 2.30 | 4.37 | 19.5% | 8.0% |
| Bronson Arroyo | 25 | 7.20 | 4.95 | 16.4% | 8.2% |
Both of today’s starters have had multiple surgeries on their pitching arms in the recent past. Bronson Arroyo’s pattern in five 2017 starts has been making it through the opposing batting order once or twice before the other team starts to square him up and the boom gets lowered. Matt Cain has had a surprising start to this season after a 6-12 record in 28 starts the previous two years. Other than ERA, the 2017 statistics for the two are comparable, so anything is possible tonight.
Bullpen
With Arroyo likely to max out at five innings, the bullpen will, of course, be called upon. If the Reds are ahead, look for a combination of Drew Storen and Wandy Peralta to pitch the key spots. Michael Lorenzen pitched two innings Thursday and is not likely to be used. Raisel Iglesias pitched an inning in each of the previous two games, and it’s not clear if Manager Bryan Price will use Iglesias three days consecutively. Austin Brice is the latest minor-league call-up who is the long reliever du jour.
Starting Lineups
| Giants | Reds |
| 2B Joe Panik (111 wRC+) | CF Billy Hamilton (43 wRC+) |
| LF Brandon Belt (136 wRC+) | SS Zack Cozart (152 wRC+) |
| RF Hunter Pence (88 wRC+) | 1B Joey Votto (148 wRC+) |
| C Buster Posey (138 wRC+) | LF Adam Duvall (127 wRC+) |
| 1B Michael Morse (72 wRC+) | 3B Eugenio Suarez (158 wRC+) |
| 3B Christian Arroyo (71 wRC+) | RF Scott Schebler (110 wRC+) |
| SS Eduardo Nunez (62 wRC+) | 2B Jose Peraza (48 wRC+) |
| CF Gorkys Hernandez (36 wRC+) | C Devin Mesoraco (127 wRC+) |
| P Matt Cain (4.37 xFIP) | P Bronson Arroyo (4.95 xFIP) |
Tonight’s Reds lineup doesn’t have any surprises or players getting a night off.
News and Notes
For Reds followers who think Tim Adleman may be more than just an innings-eater:
One more thing on #Reds Adleman, he’s only given up more than 3 runs in 3 of his 16 MLB starts. #GoReds
 BleedingCincyRed (@BleedinCincyRed) May 5, 2017
And … Happy Cinco de Mayo! The Reds are observing the holiday tonight:
Tonight’s #CincodeMayo Reds threads. pic.twitter.com/gLFPRJsb6W
 Cincinnati Reds (@Reds) May 5, 2017
Final Thoughts
Matt Cain is 2-0 with a 1.17 ERA in his last four outings. He’s on a hot streak, so Los Rojos can’t fall too far behind and have a legit chance to reign victorious.
And speaking of rain … if you’re in town you know it’s been a rainy day with the forecast calling for it to continue through the evening. Hopefully we’ll get this game in tonight.
I still have no idea why Iggy was used yesterday.
Lorenzen was mowing them down with 22 pitches through the 7-8th. He should have pitched the 9th as well to have Iggy for today
He should have at least got to bat
Price does some very curious double switches, while we are nitpicking, it seemed dumb to leave Adleman in for the final batter in the 6th just to take him out for the 7th . It worked but as far as setting yourself up for today’s game- he is a bit limited, but at least we know Iglesias can pitch on back to back days (not sure why he pitched Wed)
This is going to be a tough one! Belt, Pence, and Posey are 2-3-4 and they’ve beat up Arroyo pretty well in the past! We’ll need atleast 5-6 runs tonite!
Found it interesting that Price brought in Iggy yesterday.He burned our two best guys and could have had Iggy for today.Guess he does have the closer rules after all.Or he may have just forgot.
During the summer a cool night seemed to always bring out the best in Bronson Arroyo.
I fear what a cold, rainy night will do to him. Hope I am wrong.
Price rolled the dice by leaving Adleman in with the tieing run at the plate in the 6th.I was cringing at that time but to his credit he got the guy.Very risky move just for one more out however.I expect both pitchers to go 4 or 5 innings and give up the same number of runs tonight then it becomes a long man game for awhile and hopefully our guy is better then their guy.
Really dislike the Giants. I always forget how much until we have to play them again. Ir Los Rojos!
The Giants don’t bother me. They’ve produced a lot of great ballplayers. For dislike, I’ll go with the Cardinals.
What a nice start….now lets see if Bronson can go 6 innings and keep the lead!
Some Arroyo on Arroyo violence:(
He won’t make it .He just threw 12 pitches to Morse.Cain gave up 3 runs on 4 hits and a walk and only threw 24 pitches.Pitch counts are everything these days.
I love Bronson but he doesn’t have anything to get guys out with.He slows them to death the first time or two through the lineup and then it happens and fast.
You have to be a special kind of stupid to walk Hamilton twice.
Cain has walked Billy twice already.
I know one thing….Billy is a good player but he’s a total monster and underrated in fantasy baseball! Not too many guys can win a category by themselves!
Suarez with a big two out two run single.
Need all we can get tonite! Reds 6 for 10 with 4 walks
If Hamilton and Peraza keep getting better , this is a dangerous team. Love the way Schebler has turned it around.
Hamilton – fast. Votto – not so much.
Great night by Peraza but Votto is just a terrible baserunner. From the sound off the bat from Suarez there was no way Pence was catching that ball. Votto could’ve just watched Pence and scored from halfway between 2nd-3rd? Great night though!!
Brice looks promising. He’s one of those guys that throws so hard it appears like the ball goes up in the zone as it nears the plate.
It looks like 93-94 and Reed was up to 97 the other day but some guys just have that release where the ball seems to get on them quicker for some reason? Reed on the other hand just serves up batting practice. I think alot of it is that Reed is always down 3-1 or 2-0 to the hitter.
Small sample size, but it seems splitting up the speedsters is helping both of them out a bit.
I was at the Cubs game the very same evening. You have no idea what “cold and windy” means. I can’t wait to get back home and watch a ballgame in the tropics of GABP.