Tonight will have the Cincinnati Reds playing against the team that they share the complex in Goodyear with, Cleveland, with Cincinnati serving as the home team on the night. First pitch is scheduled for 9:05pm ET.
Reds (4-11-1) and Cleveland (7-9) Lineups
| Reds | Cleveland |
|||
| 1 | Jesse Winker | LF | Cesar Hernandez | 2B |
| 2 | Nick Castellanos | RF | Eddie Rosario | LF |
| 3 | Mike Moustakas | 3B | José Ramírez | 3B |
| 4 | Eugenio Suárez | SS | Franmil Reyes | DH |
| 5 | Tucker Barnhart | C | Josh Naylor | RF |
| 6 | Scott Heineman | DH | Jake Bauers | 1B |
| 7 | Mike Freeman | 2B | Roberto Pérez | C |
| 8 | Tyler Naquin | CF | Andrés Giménez | SS |
| 9 | Cheslor Cuthbert | 1B | Oscar Mercado | CF |
| 10 | Luis Castillo | SP | Triston McKenzie | SP |
Reserve players on today’s Reds roster:
Where to watch/listen/follow the game
The game will be live on the Reds on Radio Network. The broadcast will be on 700 WLW AM. You can watch the game live on MLBtv if you have that service. The game will also be on MLB Network, but it will not be live. But if you would like to set your DVR the game is set to air at 3am ET.
Reds links and news
Sonny Gray, Tejay Antone, Amir Garrett, and Lucas Sims updates
The shutdown for Sonny Gray wasn’t expected to be long, and it wasn’t. Bobby Nightengale of the Cincinnati Enquirer reported this evening that Gray threw today.
Sonny Gray played catch today, so it was just a brief shutdown from throwing. He was chatting a bit with new teammate Carson Fulmer, another Vanderbilt product. #Reds
— Bobby Nightengale (@nightengalejr) March 17, 2021
Nightengale also noted that both Lucas Sims and Amir Garrett would be pitching live batting practice sessions today and could pitch in games this weekend.
Good to see you back on the bump, @Amir_Garrett!#RedsST ?? pic.twitter.com/uOydR0UgAk
— Cincinnati Reds (@Reds) March 17, 2021
Tejay Antone left his last start while warming up between the 3rd and 4th innings. He said after the game he didn’t expect to miss much time. He was also out in Goodyear throwing this evening. Charlie Goldsmith of the Cincinnati Enquirer reported he was a weighted ball, and then later just playing catch.
Antone is now playing a plain old game of catch, which is also a good update for him.
— Charlie Goldsmith (@CharlieG__) March 17, 2021
Fox Sports Ohio, soon to be Bally Sports announces 2021 TV schedule
Not that it’s much of a surprise to anyone, but all of the Cincinnati Reds games that won’t be a part of a national broadcast this year will be on what is currently Fox Sports Ohio, though they will be known as Bally Sports Ohio as of March 31st. They’ll be carrying 159 games, with the other three being nationally televised games.
Final: Cincinnati 12 – Cleveland 7
The Reds offense went off for 17 hits and 12 runs on the night, while the Reds pitching and defense was iffy at times, but also had a lot of wiggle room to work with.
The Highlights
Jesse Winker went 1-3 with a walk, run, and an RBI. Mike Moustakas went 1-4 with an RBI and a run scored. Eugenio Suárez went 1-3 with a walk, run, and an RBI. Cheslor Cuthbert went 1-2 with a walk and a run scored. Mike Freeman went 2-4 with a solo home run, two runs scored, and two runs batted in.
Nick Castellanos hit a baseball the the moon. He also singled in his second at-bat before being replaced by Mark Payton. Payton kept going where Castellanos left off, picking up two hits of his own, going 2-3 with a run and an RBI of his own. Rocky Gale came off of the bench to go 1-2 with a double and a run scored. Errol Robinson went 1-1 with a run scored. Nicky Delmonico went 2-2 with a double and three runs driven in after taking over at first base.
No luck of the Irish needed. #RedsST ?? pic.twitter.com/BSRItvKa7I
— Cincinnati Reds (@Reds) March 18, 2021
Luis Castillo threw 3.0 shutout innings with two walks and two strikeouts on the night. Cionel Pérez followed him with a shutout 4th and got two outs in the 5th inning before he was replaced by Graham Ashcraft who entered with the bases loaded and walked the first batter he saw on a pitch that sure looked like a strike to everyone but the umpire. The next batter was hit by a pitch to bring in another run, but both would be unearned runs charged to Pérez as an error by Eugenio Suárez extended the inning. A ground out would end the inning. The following inning saw Sal Romano toss a shutout inning. But the 7th inning was a tough one as the defense made two errors and saw Cleveland score four runs against Josh Osich – only one of which was earned – as he struck out three batters working around the two errors, three hits, and a walk. Art Warren came out for the 8th inning and allowed a run on a hit and a walk. Jesse Biddle was ready to go home after a nearly four hour game as he made quick work of Cleveland in the 9th with a perfect inning that included a strikeout to seal the 12-7 win.
You can see the entire box score for the game right here.
Tomorrow’s Game
Jeff Hoffman gets the start against the Texas Rangers at 9:05pm ET. Radio broadcast only.
A little food for thought: Sean Doolittle held opponents scoreless during Spring Training in 2018 over 9 innings. That’s the only year he’s had good ST results since 2014. His next best ERA was 5.87 in 2019. His career ERA for March and April is 2.88. In 2019 his Mar/Apr ERA was 1.35.
Castillo is looking nasty tonight. A little trouble in the first inning but now the Indians are either popping up or weak ground balls.
He is one of the players that gives me hope for the 2021 season to not be painful.
Castillo has great stuff but he needs to take the next step.He can strike people out for sure but if he can get outs on the ground early in the count the sky is the limit.He just appears to me to waste more pitches then he needs to at times.
Castillo’s one of the highest groundball rate pitches in baseball. Feels like you might be asking a bit much of him.
Dude is filthy! There isn’t much more. The K to end the 1st was horribly filthy. Batter stood no chance.
Castillo is playing with his food tonight. Its pretty glorious
He’s dealing. Love it! He’s ready to leap forward.
Castellanos really has a good approach to hitting. His final numbers weren’t attractive, but it seemed like he often hit the ball into some hard luck. He just needs to tighten up the strike zone on those low and away sliders.
I agree.His weakness is just as you said.If he can lay off some of those then his walks go up as well.Guy can hit pitches in the zone and to all fields.
Payton has really had a great spring.Guy I think is 28 or 29 but right now with Shogo down for awhile could he make the opening day roster?
I’d certainly prefer him over any but our starting 4 outfielders. All he does is hit. I don’t care if it gives us too many left-handers or not.
And he might be better than Shogo. Offensively at least.
I like it when we can score without hitting home runs.Walks and singles getting it done.
Throw in a sac fly and we actually look like a major league team tonight.Man if we ever can do more of the little things to win games it would be awesome.
Perez is tough. So glad we have him. Hope Doolittle is taking notes.