The Cincinnati Reds defeated the Detroit Tigers in the final exhibition game of the year on Wednesday night, 2-1. If you’d like to see the entire box score, feel free to check out the box score for the game right here.
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E |
| Tigers | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 1 |
| Reds | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 7 | 0 |
| W: Kuhnel | L: Castro | SV: Stephenson | ||||||||||||
Good Reds Observations
There weren’t any bad observations in this one. The Reds pitching staff was good throughout the game, and the offense got the job done.
Josh VanMeter was a late lineup addition, taking over for Joey Votto at first base (who is fine, for those wondering). It worked out well as he went 2-3 with a double and a run scored. He put the ball in play all three times on the day. The exit velocity of those three balls? 107.6 MPH, 105.9 MPH, and 104.1 MPH. The lefty got the fat part of the bat on the ball on Wednesday night.
Speaking of exit velocity – the reigning king of that stat for the Cincinnati Reds is Aristides Aquino, and on Wednesday he showed off how hard he can hit the ball once again. Facing Nick Ramirez in the 7th inning he clobbered a single at 114.4 MPH, the hardest hit ball of the game by anyone (Josh VanMeter had the next two, and the fourth).
Let’s stick with guys that hit the baseball hard and talk about Matt Davidson, who hit another home run for the Reds. He crushed a Tyler Alexander fastball 399 feet into the stands. Things have been going well for Davidson since baseball has resumed and he’s been showing off real pop at Great American Ballpark.
Moving to the mound let’s start with Jose De Leon, who tossed 2.0 shutout innings. He struck out three hitters with two walks and didn’t give up any hits. His first inning saw him walk two hitters, but in the second he got rolling and made quick work of the three hitters – needing just 11 pitches. On the day his fastball worked from 90.9-94.4 MPH.
Robert Stephenson picked up the save with a perfect 9th inning that included a strikeout. He had three swings and misses out of the 11 pitches that he threw in the inning.
Even though the Tigers are a weak team, I was impressed with today’s win with none of our starters.
Blandino getting optioned paves the way for Davidson to make the 30 man roster. Looks like it’ll be 15 pitchers, 15 position players. Gray, Castillo, Bauer, Miley, Disco, Mahle, Sims, Raley, Jones, Stephenson, Reed, Garrett, Strop, Lorenzen and Iglesias. Tucker, JV, Moose, Galvis, Suárez, Castellanos, Senzel, Akiyama, Casali, Davidson, Farmer, Winker, Ervin, Jankowski and VanMeter. There will be some tough choices 2 weeks and a month later when rosters must be reduced to 28, then 26. Go Reds!
Is it too early to start the #freejvm movement? He should be starting instead of galvis IMHO.
I’m probably the biggest Josh VanMeter stan around, but he shouldn’t be starting instead of Galvis because Josh VanMeter isn’t a shortstop.
The season hasn’t started and people are already griping about Galvis. This has been going on since he came here and it is getting tiresome. He is the starting shortstop, that’s not going to change anytime soon. I get the feeling a lot of people are rooting for him to fail so they have something to gripe about and say I told you so.
Griping is a part of the game. The season starts tomorrow. Wait till the Reds have their first loss.
I’m free to express my opinion as you are yours. I simply want the team to perform its best, and I’m not convinced a sub 2 war sub 90 wrc+ guy is going to help produce substantially. If that’s griping, then I’ll take cheese with my wine. If you’re happy with having a guy as galvis as a starter, that’s your opinion. I would characterize such a take as complacent. In the end though, it’s just a game.
What’s the news/deal with Thornburg? Is he rehabbing/alternate or what? Noticed he wasn’t on Steve’s list.
Galvis just might surprise us this year with genuine mediocrity. He’s an above average SS and his OPS+ last year was 92. He’s by no means a superstar but he is not a black hole in the lineup.
If he can be a touch better with the bat, I’ll take a league average hitter with a solid glove at SS.