Tonight the Reds began the process of atoning for last night’s, um, development.
Mouthwatering: The Reds have five more games against the Giants in the next eight days.
Reds 9 – Giants 2
Box Score | Win Probability | Exit Velocity | Pitch Velocity
Run Prevention
Tanner Roark threw 113 pitches over 6.2 innings. Roark walked two and struck out seven. Some combination of the Reds building an early lead and the Giants not-so-potent lineup convinced Roark to nibble less. Roark has been throwing his change just 7.7% of his pitches, tonight he more than doubled that. 20 of Roark’s 113 pitches were changeups, 6 of which went for swinging strikes and another two for called strikes.
Look good, pitch good. ?#BornToBaseball pic.twitter.com/Ou8VuM8AVp
— Cincinnati Reds (@Reds) May 5, 2019
Cody Reed gave the Reds the kind of relief pitching they needed last night. Called up from Louisville earlier in the day, Reed entered the game in the 7th and struck out Stephen Vogt to end a Giants mini-rally against Roark. Reed continued in the 8th with a clean inning, including two more Ks. Reed finished the game with another clean inning in the 9th, striking out Kevin Pillar for a pizza-providing K. That’s four Ks and 0 BBs for Reed.
The above is a beautiful Statcast graphic for Reed. Lots of strikes, nothing in the middle of the zone.
In my book, Cody Reed has already jumped Wandy Peralta and Zach Duke as bullpen lefties.
If Reed sticks, and of course he should, he adds to an interesting power-arm core of the Reds bullpen: Robert Stephenson, Michael Lorenzen, Amir Garrett and Reed.
Run Production
The Reds offense is getting healthy/waking up against lousy San Francisco Giants pitching.
The Reds got on the board in the 1st with a Jesse Winker double high off the left field wall followed by a Yasiel Puig line drive single to left. The Reds offense did serious damage in the 2nd thanks to a series of three improbable events: (1) a Jose Peraza walk, (2) a Tanner Roark single, and (3) Tucker Barnhart legging out a fielder’s choice. Joey Votto walked. Then Giants starter Dereck Rodriguez grooved (“That’s not a real good pitch.” — Jeff Brantley) a fastball that Eugenio Suarez hit to deep right center. Suarez didn’t miss, he hit it 104.2 mph and 402 feet. The score was 5-1.
The offense continued to take batting practice off Rodriguez. Tucker Barnhart, Derek Dietrich and Nick Senzel hit solo homers over the next few innings. Senzel’s maiden homer went 379 feet to the opposite field. Yasiel Puig got one of his own in the 7th (404 feet).
You love to see it! Nick Senzel goes yard for the first time in his big league career! #BornToBaseball pic.twitter.com/9JIzhnHiYU
— Cincinnati Reds (@Reds) May 5, 2019
Yasiel Puig was locked in tonight. The exit velocity of his hits was: 103.1, 107, 101.6 and 103.2 mph.
Now Yasi it, now you don't. #BornToBaseball pic.twitter.com/BbyEEzEehg
— Cincinnati Reds (@Reds) May 5, 2019
Nick Senzel hit a ball 398 feet that Giants OF climbed up on the centerfield wall to catch.
Senzel added another walk, making three in his first two big league games. Yes, please. Senzel has as many walks as Jose Peraza.
What’s Next
Happy Luis Castillo Day! The Reds (14-19) and Giants (14-19) play the third of the 4-game series tomorrow afternoon at 4:10 PM ET. The starting pitching matchup features Castillo and Jeff Samardzija (34, RHP).
This is the lineup minus Scooter that most of us thought it would be with the power we thought it could be.One game and a small snapshot of what it may become.Great bounce back by the Reds after back to back brutal losses.Roark nibbled less probably because of the run support and Reed was lethal.We will need him against all those lefty hitters in our division and I agree Steve he moves ahead of at least Peralta and Duke.In games like this I always wonder if a guy can finish it and Reed did.Often those last 3 outs regardless of the score can be very hard for some guys.Confidence builder for him and for Bell as we go forward.
Heyman tweeted that they are calling him up.
Does Heyman make those decisions? Or is it more official when the Reds do the tweeting?
I haven’t seen an official transaction yet. Senzel and Reed to Cincinnati. Bowman and Schebler to Louisville. Kemp released outright. Rumors out on VanMeter.
Miguel Cairo never hit more than 8 Home Runs in a season in his whole career including minors. VanMeter had 8 Home Runs last week.
What site? When did they say it?
Both of those things are insanely important to you putting that information out there.
You keep saying he still isn’t listed as a top 30 prospect. Has anyone even updated their rankings since the season started? That might be an important detail.
This is an issue of using a scouting report, from the latest, August of 2017 (the last time VanMeter played before that January 2018 write up came out), to talk about a guy in May of 2019. That would be like writing about Justin Turner in 2012 and saying his absolute ceiling was that of a versatile bench guy.
And no, he’s still not a top 30 prospect anywhere because no one is going to update their rankings until after the draft. He’s probably pushed his way into the top 15 for me. But, since the rankings aren’t updated daily…. he’s “unranked”.
Small bricks make buildings. Reed? Van? Our pitching is formidable. Is there enough offense?
How can you say Senzel’s center field shot was 398 feet when it was caught OVER the 404 marker?
Trackman estimated it at 398 feet. Of course, the problem is that’s an estimation in perfect conditions with perfect humidity, no wind, no rain, at sea level….
Senzel needs to lead off with votto 2nd. I’m tired of Votto leading off and I think he is as well.
I believe either Peralta is sent down (not sure if still has options) or Duke is released. Does not make much sense to carry a nine-man bullpen. Need Peraza as bench piece along with Farmer and Vanmeter.
Wasn’t able to watch but am glad to see back-to-back solid offensive games. If vanmeter is called up I’d like to see Duke or Peralta DFA/optioned and keep reed up. but with CR pitching 2.1 innings I can see how he’d be optioned back too since he would be available for a day or two anyway.
What a difference a game makes. The offense is waking up and the Red’s good pitching, so far, is a real positive.
If Reed gets sent back down, doesn’t that make him ineligible to return for 10 days, barring injury? If so, DB will manage them into the same bullpen morass that caused the nine man relief core to start with. Mold the team for the future; keep Reed up and unload Duke.
Reed just saved DB’s bullpen with a dominant performance. Keeping Duke, who hasn’t saved anything for anybody all year, would be a huge slap in the face to Reed. None of the other RP get sent down after a dominant multi-inning performance, why should Reed?
I hope the two ‘H’s (Hernandez and Hughes) stay around and combined with Garrett, Reed and Stevenson along with Iggy, the Reds could have the makings of a top flight bullpen.
Votto should be and should always have been second in the batting order. In todays lineup, Winker should be leading off and Puig, unless not able, should be the regular in right field.
Very possible. Normally they would have made the official announcement by now.
Reminds me of the old joke about the only coach who could hold Michael Jordan under 20 points a game was Dean Smith.
I get he will probably be back before too long, but man I’m with you, the optics look terrible after the way he pitched last night.
Pure arrogance/vanity on the part of Reds management. They are unwilling to admit they made a mistake with Duke and Bell in this instance perhaps unwilling to admit he made poor decisions running Duke out as often and early as he has. Hope Duke manages to not get shelled the rest of the season so Reds mgmt and mgr can save face. Reed should have been with the team from the beginning of the season.
DB normally plans and shares his lineups with the team 1-2 days in advance so that players can plan and prepare as well as possible (e.g. getting an extra workout in when not starting the next game). This also lets players know that no matter how well they hit today, their role for tomorrow is already set, so there’s no use pressing to get extra hits to stay in the lineup.
It’s behavior that they will not be able to repeat in 2020 apparently either. It’s my understanding that MLB and the MLBPA have agreed to expand rosters next year to 26 players, with the caveat that a team can’t carry more than 13 pitchers.