The Cincinnati Reds (11-13) will be looking to pick up their second consecutive win against the St. Louis Cardinals (7-8). Wade Miley and Kwang-Hyun Kim will face off in a match up of left-handed starting pitchers on the night. It will only be the third game of the season for each pitcher.
Starting Lineups
Cincinnati Reds
|
St. Louis Cardinals
|
| Joey Votto – 1B | Kolten Wong – 2B |
| Nick Castallanos – RF | Tommy Edman – SS |
| Matt Davidson – DH | Paul Goldschmidt – 1B |
| Eugenio Suárez – 3B | Tyler O’Neill – LF |
| Phillip Ervin – CF | Matt Carpenter – 3B |
| Jesse Winker – LF | Yadier Molina – C |
| Curt Casali – C | Dexter Fowler – DH |
| Freddy Galvis – SS | Dylan Carlson – RF |
| Kyle Farmer – 2B | Harrison Bader – CF |
| Wade Miley – SP | Kwang-Hyun Kim – SP |
With a left-handed pitcher on the mound, the Reds put in plenty of right-handed hitters to begin the day. Matt Davidson not only gets the start after his grand slam last night, he is hitting third. Phillip Ervin and Kyle Farmer also join the starting lineup on the day with the lefty for the Cardinals on the mound.
Starting Pitchers
| Pitcher | IP | ERA | WHIP | BB% | K% |
| Wade Miley | 3.1 | 16.20 | 3.00 | 17.4% | 21.7% |
| Kwang-Hyun Kim | 4.2 | 3.86 | 1.71 | 14.3% | 4.8% |
| Links: Wade Miley’s Stats | Kwang-Hyun Kim’s Stats |
|||||
Wade Miley
To say it’s been a rough start to the 2020 season for Wade Miley it would be an understatement. He’s made two starts and hasn’t gotten out of the 2nd inning in either of them. In his season debut he allowed five earned runs and was charged with another unearned run while struggling to throw strikes. He then went to the injured list with a groin injury before returning on August 12th against Kansas City. He allowed just one earned run in 1.2 innings, but only half of his pitches were strikes on the day and he needed 44 of them to record five outs.
2019 Splits
| Split | PA | H | 2B | 3B | HR | BB% | K% | AVG | OBP | SLG |
| RHH | 557 | 134 | 22 | 2 | 16 | 8.4% | 19.2% | .267 | .332 | .415 |
| LHH | 163 | 30 | 3 | 0 | 7 | 8.6% | 20.2% | .207 | .284 | .372 |
With just 3.1 innings pitched this season, using his splits for 2020 would be rather useless. Looking at the splits from last season the one thing that really stands out is that teams didn’t let too many lefties face off against Miley. The ones that did get out there didn’t find much success – showing solid pop when the ball went as a hit, but they didn’t go as a hit much.
Pitch Usage in 2019
| 4-Seam | 2-Seam | Slider | Change | Curve | Cutter | |
| Velo | 91.1 | 89.7 | 81.8 | 89.7 | 75.8 | 87.5 |
| Usage | 16% | 6% | 1% | 20% | 9% | 43% |
While there are six pitches listed for Miley, it’s likely that you might only see five in a given game since he only throws the slider about once per 100 pitches. Over the last two seasons, the lefty has become rather cutter heavy in his approach, going from barely throwing it before 2017, to throwing it every 10 pitches in 2017, to using it 40+% of the time beginning in 2018. For the most part the cutter usage took over for a lot of his fastballs.
Kwang-Hyun Kim
There’s not a whole lot of track record in the Major Leagues for Kwang Hyun Kim. He’s pitched in two big league games in his career. He picked up a save on Opening Day for the Cardinals and then he made a start on August 17th, throwing 3.2 innings against Chicago. He’s thrown a total of 76 pitches and allowed an earned run in each of his two appearances.
The lefty was born in South Korea, and from 2007-2019 he pitched for the SK Wyverns in the KBO. He missed all of the 2017 season. He made 276 starts and 22 relief appearances in the KBO, posting a 3.27 ERA in 1673.2 innings with 646 walks and 1456 strikeouts. You can dive into his KBO stats here if you’d like to.
Splits
Left-handed hitters have an OPS against him of 3.000. Of course they’ve also only had three plate appearances against him, going 1-1 with a double and two walks. Right-handed hitters have gone 4-17 with a walk, double, homer, and a strikeout. He has one strikeout total on the season while having faced 21 hitters.
Pitch Usage in 2020
| 4-Seam | Curve | Slider | Change | |
| Velo | 91.0 | 70.0 | 83.2 | 81.2 |
| Usage | 45% | 10% | 36% | 10% |
The sample size is small, so the pitch usage may not be too reliable. That said, he’s going to bring four pitches to the plate, and none of them are fast. There is a fastball, of course, but that pitch isn’t fast by the standards of the game today.
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: 83°, sunny, 0% chance of rain.
NL Central Standings
| Team | Wins | Losses | GB |
| Cubs | 16 | 9 | – |
| Cardinals | 7 | 8 | 4.0 |
| Reds | 11 | 13 | 4.5 |
| Brewers | 11 | 13 | 4.5 |
| Pirates | 5 | 17 | 9.5 |
News and Notes
Josh VanMeter has been optioned to the alternate site at Prasco Park. The team called up Mark Payton to take his place on the 28-man roster. They also made some changes to the taxi squad for the rest of the current road trip, adding right-handed pitcher José De León and sending Robel García back to Prasco Park.
Updating the Reds playoff odds
The Reds are in a tie for third place right now in the NL Central. But Fangraphs gives them the second best playoff odds in the division at 59.9%, projecting them to finish 31-29 this season.