Tonight the Cincinnati Reds (10-12) head to St. Louis to take on the Cardinals (6-7) in a match up of the National League Central teams that wear red. Both teams will be running out outstanding starting pitching as we’ll get the treat of Sonny Gray and Adam Wainwright facing off.
Starting Lineups
Cincinnati Reds | St. Louis Cardinals |
| Joey Votto – 1B | Kolten Wong – 2B |
| Nick Castellanos – RF | Tommy Edman – SS |
| Jesse Winker – LF | Paul Goldschmidt – 1B |
| Eugenio Suárez – 3B | Matt Carpenter – DH |
| Mike Moustakas – 2B | Brad Miller – 3B |
| Shogo Akiyama – CF | Tyler O’Neill – LF |
| Josh VanMeter – DH | Dexter Fowler – RF |
| Freddy Galvis – SS | Yadier Molina – C |
| Tucker Barnhart – C | Dylan Carlson – CF |
| Sonny Gray – SP | Adam Wainwright – SP |
Left-handed hitters have historically had much more success against Adam Wainwright than right-handed hitters have, and the Reds have stacked the lineup with seven left-handed hitters to begin the game.
Starting Pitchers
| Pitcher | IP | ERA | WHIP | BB% | K% |
| Sonny Gray | 30.2 | 2.05 | 0.91 | 4.2% | 37.2% |
| Adam Wainwright | 11.0 | 1.64 | 0.82 | 9.5% | 19.1% |
| Links: Sonny Gray’s Stats | Adam Wainwright’s Stats | |||||
Sonny Gray
In 2020, the fact that Sonny Gray hasn’t been the best starter on the Reds staff is more about how insanely good Trevor Bauer has been than anything about how Gray hasn’t been something else. Gray has a 2.05 ERA with one of the best strikeout rates in the league, while the team has gone 4-1 in his five starts.
2020 Splits
| Split | PA | H | 2B | 3B | HR | BB% | K% | AVG | OBP | SLG |
| RHH | 52 | 9 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3.8% | 46.2% | .184 | .231 | .265 |
| LHH | 69 | 10 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 10.1% | 30.4% | .164 | .261 | .328 |
This season has seen Sonny Gray outclass both lefties and righties, but he’s on a different level against right-handed hitters this year so far. He’s got a 12-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio against them and he’s striking out an absurd 46.2% of them. Against left-handed hitters the strikeout rate is still impressive at 30.4%, but the walk rate is pretty high at 10.1%. They aren’t doing much damage when they do get the bat on the ball, but lefties have found more success than righties thus far.
Pitch Usage in 2020
| 4-Seam | 2-Seam | Slider | Curve | Change | |
| Velo | 93.7 | 93.2 | 83.4 | 81.2 | 89.0 |
| Usage | 29% | 26% | 20% | 24% | 1% |
Two fastballs. Two breaking balls. Two change ups per game. That’s what you’re going to get from Sonny Gray on a typical day.
Adam Wainwright
The St. Louis Cardinals have only played 13 games this season, and Adam Wainwright has made just two starts. The first one came on July 25th, and then the last one came five days ago. He’s thrown a total of 150 pitches on the year – but the results in both starts have been strong as he’s given up just one run in each.
2019 Splits
With just two starts this season, current splits don’t mean much of anything. Here’s how his splits break down for last season:
| Split | PA | H | 2B | 3B | HR | BB% | K% | AVG | OBP | SLG |
| vsRHH | 402 | 97 | 21 | 1 | 8 | 4.7% | 22.6% | .262 | .310 | .389 |
| vsLHH | 343 | 84 | 17 | 2 | 14 | 13.1% | 18.1% | .288 | .380 | .503 |
Left-handed hitters saw the ball much better against Wainwright, showing nearly three times the walk rate, a lower strikeout rate, and significantly more power than right-handed hitters showed against him in 2019.
Pitch Usage in 2020
| 4-Seam | 2-Seam | Cutter | Curve | Change | |
| Velo | 89.8 | 89.9 | 86.2 | 74.2 | 83.0 |
| Usage | 11% | 33% | 27% | 27% | 3% |
The pitch usage in 2020 isn’t much different than it has been in past seasons for Adam Wainwright, which is why we went ahead and used the 2020 data. You’re not going to see much change up, or much velocity from the Cardinals right-handed pitcher.
When and Where
- Game time: 8:15pm ET
- Where: St. Louis’ Busch Stadium
- Watch: Fox Sports Ohio, MLB.tv
- Listen: 700 WLW AM (Cincinnati area)
- Forecast: 79°, sunny, 0% chance of rain.
NL Central Standings
| Team | Wins | Losses | GB |
| Cubs | 16 | 8 | – |
| Brewers | 11 | 11 | 4.0 |
| Cardinals | 6 | 7 | 4.5 |
| Reds | 10 | 12 | 5.0 |
| Pirates | 4 | 16 | 10.0 |
News and Notes
Joey Votto has had some success against Adam Wainwright in their careers, as shown by Joel Luckhaupt.
Joey Votto has faced 3 pitchers 55 or more times in his career:
Wandy Rodriguez (61 PA) – .357/.410/.607
Adam Wainwright (59 PA) – .333/.424/.627
Jaime Garcia (55 PA) – .370/.473/.609From the pitchers' perspective, familiarity breeds contempt.
— Joel Luckhaupt (@jluckhaupt) August 20, 2020
Trevor Bauer’s good
We’ll let our tweet from earlier today speak for itself:
Trevor Bauer is 3-0 with a 0.68 ERA, 2 complete games, a 0.57 WHIP, and has 41 strikeouts in 26.1 innings.
He's leading the league in ERA, ERA+, FIP, WHIP, Hits per 9-innings pitched, and Strikeout Percentage.
— Redleg Nation (@redlegnation) August 20, 2020
Multiple Reds players speak out
Anthony DeSclafani on Thom Brennaman just now:
"We don't need that and it might be a better thing that he's gone to be honest with you." #Reds @fox19
— Jeremy Rauch (@FOX19Jeremy) August 20, 2020
To the LGBTQ community just know I am with you, and whoever is against you, is against me. I’m sorry for what was said today.
— CountOnAG (@Amir_Garrett) August 20, 2020
LGBTQ+ community, as a member of the Reds organization, I am so sorry for the way you were marginalized tonight. There will always be a place for you in the baseball community and we are so happy to have you here.
— Matt Bowman (@bowmandernchief) August 20, 2020