| Final | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cincinnati Reds (6-1) |
6 | 11 | 0 |
| Arizona Diamondbacks (2-6) |
5 | 6 | 1 |
| W: Perez (1-0) L: Young (0-2) SV: Garrett (2) |
|||
| Statcast | Box Score | Game Thread | |||
Tucker Barnhart’s third hit of the game knocked in Eugenio Suarez from third base in the top of the 10th inning to give the Cincinnati Reds a 6-5 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks Friday evening in Arizona’s home opener.
Cincinnati was able to escape with the win, their sixth straight, after squandering a 5-0 lead after six and a half innings. Barnhart’s hit off losing pitcher Alex Young was his second of the game against a lefthander. In the past, Barnhart has struggled mightily against lefthanded pitching.
Amir Garrett retired the home team in the bottom of the 10th inning to earn his first save. After a cross-up pitch between Garrett and Barnhart resulted in runners moving to second and third on a passed ball with two outs, Carson Kelly was intentionally walked to load the bases. Garrett then retired Pavin Smith on a groundout to second baseman Kyle Farmer to seal the victory.
The Offense
Barnhart was one of two Reds with three hits, and another of the early-season Red-hot hitters continued his eye-popping performance.
Question: Who currently leads the league in home runs?
Answer: Tyler Naquin pic.twitter.com/bMX1htC8RV
— Cincinnati Reds (@Reds) April 10, 2021
After his fourth-inning home run, Naquin led the majors in homers (5), RBIs (14), slugging (1.048) and OPS (1.488). By the end of the evening, Naquin’s slugging stood at 1.000 and his OPS at 1.444, third overall behind Nick Castellanos and Yermin Mercedes.
Jesse Winker had hits in his first three plate appearances but was lifted from the game after scoring on a Eugenio Suarez sacrifice fly in the fifth. Winker appeared to hop unusually a couple of times during his trip from third to home, and then again while headed to the dugout. Later in the game it was reported that Winker had calf muscle tightness.
The Pitching
Starter Tyler Mahle pitched four no-hit innings but needed 92 pitches to get that done. This early in the season, that’s probably the upper threshold of pitches any Reds pitcher is going to be permitted to throw.
So then we had the treat of watching Tejay Antone. Television announcer John Sadak reported one Antone pitch in the fifth inning at 100 mph. Baseballsavant.com had it at 99.5.
This is not the first time you’ll hear this, nor the last time: Antone MUST be moved to the rotation. He may have the best stuff on the team, and having him in what currently is a middle- and long-relief role is a misuse of his talent. Baseballsavant.com says his curveball’s AVERAGE vertical break is 53 inches. That’s four feet, five inches. Try hitting a pitch that breaks that much. And try doing it knowing the pitch more often than not is going to be a strike.
Cam Bedrosian was tagged with three Arizona runs in the seventh inning. He’s been the least effective member of the bullpen and would appear to be on a very short rope. The bullpen as a whole was a letdown, with the non-Antone relievers walking four in four innings.
Notes Worth Noting
Everything is working for Cincinnati at the moment.
Reds starting pitchers have thrown 21consecutive scoreless innings (De León 4ip, Miley 6ip, Castillo 7ip, Mahle 4ip).
— Reds Media Relations (@RedsPR) April 10, 2021
Up Next for the Cincinnati Reds
Cincinnati Reds vs Arizona Diamondbacks
Saturday, April 10, 8:10 pm ET
Jeff Hoffman (1.80 ERA, 1-0) vs Riley Smith (3.60 ERA, 0-0)
I would have taken no chance at all! I would have left Tejay Antone in to finish the game, no other relievers are needed.
If he was 100% then he’d be starting. They’re building up his pitch counts.
I would have given Mahle another inning. I know analytic say The Wins statistic is worthless it still is important to the starters personally. a quick inning would get him in just over 100 pitches. Would also take Antone later into the game.
There are still some pitchers who need to work out the kinks… but I’ll take the W. What a fantastic game for Barnhart.
Yes. Barnhart’s hit was CLUTCH!!! Great to see that. Loved all three of his hits. He pulled a victory from the jaws of defeat with that hit.
Great win or great escape from a horrible loss.
2 major holes from what I can see though. Senzel usually hurt and Winker/Naquin often hurt. Thats a problem. Maybe Naquin will just have a career year? Secondly, the middle relief is just patched together. Bedrosian and Doolittle? Idk? Antone is nasty and Mahle now has 15 Ks in 9 ip. Bell will have to get more then 4-5 innings out of Mahle & Antone though to get thru the meat of the season. I don’t like any of those guys except Perez. Maybe they go with Miley or Hoffman as the 5th starter and move Lorenzen back to the pen. I doubt he would blow a 5-1 lead like tonite.
Good thing I’m in my 20s because watching David Bell’s coaching will take some years off of your life! Someone needs to check and make sure the rule book he uses isn’t the little league one that says everyone has to bat once and get three defensive outs
Amen… the business side of baseball can be that way. They can’t find managers that know and love the game, and know how to make winning moves at key moments in the game. Bell is asleep. This offensive outburst is not his doing.
I think “the book” gives managers cover. If a decision, made by the book, fails, then the manager has support for his decision, “it just didn’t work this time.” Bell seems to be one of those guys.
I didn’t see any decisions that seemed too weird. Mahle was at 92 pitches in the 4th, meaning that he probably wasn’t going to finish the 5th. So you get a pinch hitter (who ended up scoring) and start Antone on a clean inning. Winker came out because of muscle tightness. I guess you could have left Antone in for a third inning, but the rest were pretty typical double switches, because it’s the NL.
Mahle was working hard those four innings. In the first he had two B2B 8-9 pitch AB’s where he couldn’t put the hitter away and eventually gave up the walk.
Still a good job to put up zeros as long as he could on a night were maybe the stuff was just a bit flat.
Unbelievable start. This team has some real chemistry. I know tonight wasn’t pretty, but we still pulled out the W. We need Votto and Eugenio to get their bats going, especially Eugenio. Excited for tomorrow – this team is fun to watch.
It is absolutely demoralizing to be getting your butt kicked the majority of the game, make a great come back only to lose it in extras. I can remember some of those over the years where that happened to us. I think it carries over and we win the series!!!! Go reds!
Guess Bedrosian is the first man down once Gray is back. As for Lorenzen, it should be any of Fulmer or Romano. Once rotation is full in motion, it should be Gray, Castillo, Mahle, Miley & Antone.
If season continues for Reds as today, it’s very unlikely that Votto and his .360 OPS will be a regular for long, and another position switch will happen, either Winker or Castellanos may take over 1st base.
It should be unlikely, but will the skipper have the guts to reduce Votto’s PT and/or move him down in the order?
I hope so you can see its necessary
Votto got benched last year, remember?
They are not putting $25 million on the bench. He might get more frequent rests but he will start the majority if he keeps average at .240.
But he should be batting 7th, should he not?
I simply do not understand why Bell double switched in the 7th. India is off to a great start. Doolittle is not. They were in a comeback situation with a game that had potential to be more than 9 innings. With all those arms in the bullpen, no way I make that move.
Bell took out Doolittle to start the bottom of the 8th anyway. He basically gave India up for nothing in that situation. Absolutely terrible.
It’s a dumb move to double switch India out so Doolittle could bat 7th and Farmer could bat 9th to begin with. But in doing so and then not sending Doolittle the next inning to pitch anyway is managerial malpractice.
Ya, that move made it fairly clear that bell doesn’t have a full grasp on the rule book- which is a bit scary, to say the least
That’s business as usual for the manager that some say has forgotten more baseball than I’ve ever known.
He’s forgotten the important parts, apparently.
Well I think Bell was hoping Doolittle would get Calhoun out and keep the 5-1 lead, but instead he gave up a 2 run double. Calhoun was 4-12 off Doolittle with 2 doubles and a HR prior to last night. Why not try Perez there and give Calhoun a different lefty that he hasn’t seen. I get the double switch atleast because Bedrosian didn’t have it.
Yep. It is what it is. Bell is a nice guy, but he’s gonna continue to make some bonehead moves.
And if you read old reviews of Bell as a minor league manager, more than one has mentioned how he loves him some double switches—some said it’s as if just for the sake of making one.
I thought India might have tweaked something on that defensive play. Hopefully it was just a normal double switch.
Just in 7 games, Reds have scored 25% of the total they did last season. In fact , at game #15 of 2020, they had produced 64 runs. One thing is true, If we review the spring training hitting numbers could see they were not bad so the performance showed in 2021 until now could not be temporary
6-1 and on a 5 game win streak. Getting contributions from a lot of guys. 1-0 on a west coast road trip. Best start to the season in quite some time.
6-1 Yeap, can’t believe there is so much gut wrenching complaining.
I still cannot see why Votto is batting third or even in line-up. Who cares about the money if he can’t perform. Let him bat ninth.
I’d like to hear from our RLN friends that have been calling for Sims as closer
That walk and HR were the only walk & hit Sims has allowed in 3.1, but they both unfortunately scored. He also allowed a .146 average last year. He’s pretty good!
Yes he is, and so is Garrett. That’s the point I wanted to make. Ups and downs, both pitchers will rally from mistakes and failures.
Neither is R. Iglesias and neither has that guy’s makeup. It seems a lot of us regress to thinking that our best relievers are that guy when they have some hiccups. Thankfully it’s not the case.
I’m really glad both are Cincinnati Reds
Some truly terrible umpiring starting with the lead off at bat and continuing with the balls and strike calling. A great win considering!
And yes Antone should be in the starting rotation which makes the decision not to bring him out for a third inning of work all the more confusing.
Yes… not to be lost in all of this, but Winker was robbed of a dinger and AZ has no business having those chairs on the fence line. That was nuts.
Yep. That was a home run!!! Terrible call. And then Chris Welsh says, “Sometimes it’s better to have a double first inning than a home run”, or something along those lines. I LOVE all the new announcers,… but I could do without Chris.
I followed the score from time to time and I suspected that the umps were squeezing Mahle—that gets him off his game. Some umps would do that to Leake also and you knew it would be a long day when they did
I watched the game on Diamondbacks TV broadcast and if any pitcher was getting squeezed it was Widener. Mahle just didn’t have control last night and many of his pitches were not even close. The one really bad call he got was made up for by a really bad call in his favor on the next pitch.
Even the D’backs TV crew were incredulous that Winker’s shot was not ruled a HR on review. You could see the back of the chair twitch when hit by the ball. They were still saying it was a HR when they replayed it about the 4th inning. However, 2nd base and no outs and failed to score was the real problem in the first inning.
When I went to bed I knew I would wake up to a stream of criticism about Bell. All I can say is: he is the manager of the team that had a great last month run in 2020 to make the playoffs, and the manager of the team that currently has the BEST RECORD IN ALL OF MLB. There is nothing he can do right in the eyes of those with no skin in the game.
@Doc
Good info for me on the umps since I didn’t watch.
Really bizarre about the replay not catching the Winker HR. Would Mahle have pitched a little better with a bit of a lead? I doubt it he’s pretty level-headed.
Great player performances sure make a manager look better, but for honest consistency in our arguments, we gotta stay on him win or lose 🙂
@Rojo RE: the Winker replay:
That I saw there was no view looking along the fence line. All the ones I saw on Bally were high views from behind 1st-3rd base or down the opposite (LF) foul line.
I was streaming on a 10″ tablet; and, it was not at all clear to me even in slow motion that the ball his the chair at any point on that size screen/ resolution. Then a few minutes later someone tweeted a frozen frame of the ball hitting the chairback.
One would think the war room in NY would have that frozen frame capability and also some sort of look along the fence line.
Turned off the lights at 5 to 0. Gappy to see the W rhis morning. Rhus is hiw a goid team should battle.
HP ump was atrocious. Very tired of rhe flex-o-zone.
I’m gappy too. You almost cost us the game by bailing. Lesson learned? 😉
*this is how
Welsh’s comment about a double being better sometimes puzzled me, under what circumstances is a double better than a homer?
He didn’t say it wa better…. he said it sometimes leads to bigger innings. It’s simple, after a home run, especially a solo hit, mentally the pitcher regroups.
Bigger picture: I’m not clear why anyone thinks a pitch count is a good idea in the first place. If a runner is returning from an injury and trying to build stamina to run marathons as soon as possible, they aren’t likely to say “I’ll run X miles today and then stop no matter how I’m feeling.” If they feel fine after X miles, they’re likely to push themself until they start to feel tired, and then decide to call it a day. They’ll let their bodies tell them when they’re going beyond what they can handle. But for pitchers, apparently their arms will be ruined if they go past a certain number of pitches no matter how they feel at that point? It’s not consistent with anything I’ve ever heard about how athletes build stamina. They’re always talking about “pushing themselves” as a way to get themselves in competitive shape, not “I reached an arbitrarily predetermined number of X so I stopped doing X even though I felt like I could have done twice as many.”
Sorry, that wasn’t intended to be a reply to you…
Welsh is always good for a few of those each and every game. He’s the only Reds announcer I could do without. Love all the others. Jmo.
I think the thought is some players are more focused on their AB when they have a player in scoring position. I’d still take the HR, bird in the hand so to speak.
Sometimes they will call a home run a rally killer because it clears the bases
Good move by Bell to pinch hit for Mahle even though he had a no-hitter going. Blandino started that rally that plated two runs. Proved to be needed insurance.
Mahle had pitched 92 pitches, so I had no problem with that move. Course I would not have had any problem letting him pitch one more inning either
Bell continues to make moves just to make moves and this year without the DH he will make more of them.Just trying to prove that he belongs I guess.Whats more concerning to me is that everybody knows it especially the other manager.He doesn’t have to out manage Bell cause Bell will out manage himself.I tend to blame all of this on Mahle and Antone and more specifically on the dreaded pitch count which forced Bell to do all he did.I mean we all know it took 4 pitchers to get the last 12 outs along with Wink,Naquin and India being removed from the game.The first two guys having scored 3 runs and knocking in 3 runs.Yeah Bell is clueless and we all know that but a win is a win and like I always said about Dusty we win despite him.Same goes for Bell on this night.Tune in cause its a long season.
So Bell should have left Winker in the game despite his having leg cramps and hobbling home from third base? That would have been a sound managerial decision, to leave a guy who is already defensively challenged and slow afoot to play LF while suffering with leg cramps.
Wasn’t sure about Wink and his injury.Just included him in with the rest.
Totally agree, Roger. Pitch count indeed! Even Sam LeCure said in the postgame that he was hoping Bell would “stretch” Antone’s pitch count for another inning or so. Bell is bound and determined to make dumb moves. Pure stubbornness. We’ll have to win in spite of them,..just like with Dusty “Bunt” Baker. At least Bell does not routinely give away outs by bunting/sacrificing every time a man reaches first base. There’s a lot to be said for that.
The Diamondbacks sent in Bumgarner to pinch hit. You all would have gone nuts if our manager did that.
Dude can hit.Bell does that with Lorenzen.
My mistake it took 5 pitchers to get the last 12 outs.Mahle/Antone should have to run laps for causing that mess last night.
Yes. Barnhart’s hit was CLUTCH!!! Great to see that. Loved all three of his hits. He pulled a victory from the jaws of defeat with that hit.
Barnhart is not a consistent hitter, which has been evident over the years, but he often comes through in the clutch.
Hate blew the lead.
Get feeling lose this game in prior Years.
Need to Win these type of Games.
Brings the team even Closer.
I tend to agree the teams of the last few years would have rolled over and taken a loss. Seeing the battling back is nice.
Yup sure was Nice.
Sure we will Blow Some Games.
But This Squad will Grind and Battle it out.
@Tom, I think that’s Garretts 2nd save, not his 1st.
You are correct! Error fixed. Thanks for alerting me.
I don’t recall seeing an extra inning game last year with the man on 2B to start the 10th; so, this was a new experience for me.
Almost immediately I thought it had the feel of a college football overtime. It seemed imperative that the Reds (visitors) score at least 1 run because if not the home team was going to play to push their runner across in the bottom of the inning (the equivalent of running 3 dive plays then kicking a ~35 yard FG).
Good job by the Reds of getting the job done on their offensive end then holding on defense.
I’ve been an advocate of Lorenzen starting for years. His injury this spring, and subsequent setback may have sealed his fate as a Red, to remain a reliever. I’m looking forward to see if Hoffman and De Leon step up again. There’s a real battle going for the 5th spot, and that wasn’t even bringing Antone into it, who is very deserving as well.
Who goes 1st Bedrosian or Romano?
If a decision had to be made today, I would guess Bedrosian.
I sure hope not. I love Big Sal but Bedrosian had a very good spring and a better track record
I am holding comments until after the Dodger Series. The glass will be a little cleaner then. The young players look great so far, a breath of fresh air! Could The Big Red Machine II be coming?
All the fun might be over by then, Carpe diem
I am on board with the Antone needs to start bandwagon. His stuff is downright nasty.
I didn’t realize Hoffman was a 1st rounder too. I think I like the Reds strategy of collecting scrap heap 1st rounders)) Naquin, Hoffman, and Fulmer that I know of? Why not? They atleast flashed serious talent at some point. Naquin alone is worth the price of admission! If they stay competitive though, they’re going to have to pick up some real relievers somewhere along the way. Bedrosian, Doolittle, etc are castoffs for a reason. Maybe you pull off something like Aquino for setup man Lou Trivino on Oakland. He was one of the best setup guys in the game a few years ago
Tom, I’m going to take the contrary position. Antone needs to stay in the bullpen to anchor the middle relief. The drop off in talent between Antone and the current starting pitching (much less the rotation after Gray returns) is much less than the drop off in talent between Antone and the rest of the bullpen. Not convinced the bullpen is solid and can throw strikes when they need them.
What’s the use of a dominant 5 – 6 innings if the bullpen is just going to give the game away? Last night was a good example – imagine if Antone wasn’t in the BP.
Here’s another idea for Antone — how about closer? If they are not going to use him as a starter, then high-leverage, late-inning relief might be the next best bet.
Or…how about the Opener?
I’d more agree with this, but he’s always been a starter in the minors and think he’s said he wants to continue that. If it turns out we need a closer–or simple more ‘pen help–then we can trade for one
Wouldn’t whoever Antone replaced just take over the role Antone had, though? You’d get more value out of Antone as a starter, and still have someone there for that middle relief with whoever he replaced in the rotation.
For arguments sake, say they move De Leon to the bullpen when Gray comes back and Hoffman becomes your fifth starter. If Antone replaces Hoffman, can Hoffman give you a quality performance in a high leverage situation in the middle innings? I’m more comfortable with Hoffman as a 5th starter. De Leon isn’t going to be available every day. Bringing Antone in for a tough situation in the 5th, 6th, or 7th is a nice option to have. We saw yesterday how quickly 5-0 became 5-5 and extra innings.
Maybe Lorenzen is part of the answer when he gets healthy, but who do you trust in the BP besides Antone?
I think the plan is to have Antone replace Miley, either at the trade deadline or next year. $0.5MM vs $10MM.
In your scenario you are giving Hoffman more innings and Antone fewer innings. Perhaps the Antone innings are more valuable in and inning-by-inning basis because you can in theory pick them, but if his role is just “cover 2-3 innings” then you aren’t really picking them based on leverage.
But let’s also play this out, too: You might not even NEED those quality performance in high leverage situations from Hoffman if Antone is the starter now because he’s the starter now and won’t get run from as many games as early (in theory, of course).
At the end of the day I’m always going to let the best starter, start. They throw more innings and unless it’s in an insanely rare and perfect storm where you can truly just let that multi-inning guy pitch in a high leverage situation every 3 days and only every 3 days, but they are also all high leverage situations each time, the guy starting and throwing 150+ innings is going to be more valuable than the guy throwing 80 as a multi-inning reliever.
I get that by keeping Antone you are giving more innings to Hoffman than Antone. However, as you acknowledge, those middle innings may in fact be more valuable than the starter innings. Starters aren’t going as deep into games as they did in the past.
Hoffman is more likely to get through the lineup unscathed the first time, as opposed to the second or third time. Having a couple of effective inning eaters in the bullpen can insulate the team from blown games. Saturday’s game was an unfortunate example of this. Hoffman didn’t get out of the 5th inning, and the reliever allowed two inherited runners to score. The bullpen gave up another 5 runs, for a hand in a total of 7 runs allowed.
Taking Antone out of the bullpen will greatly weaken an already weak part of the team. If everyone stays healthy, Gray’s return will push De Leon to the pen, giving the Reds two guys who can be effective inning eaters when our starters get in trouble. If Miley continues to pitch well, he can be traded at the deadline with Antone taking his spot in the rotation. Meanwhile, hopefully Lorenzen can get healthy and take a significant role in the BP.
I don’t know about your theory here? Bedrosian and Doolittle seem more to the washed up side, but they’ve accomplished 100x more then Hoffman and DeLeon. Miley is most likely approaching washed up status too. Don’t let the Pirates fool you.
I feel like you are letting 14 injured innings last year fool you on Wade Miley a lot more than Wade Miley is fooling others because he pitched well against the Pirates. The guy’s been pretty good for a while now outside of 14 injury plagued innings in 2020.
Miley will be 35 this year and never had good stuff to begin with. 32 starts for the O’s in 2017 with a 5.61 era. I will admit he was pretty good in 2018-19 with Milw and Houston. We’ll see? It is nice to have atleast 1 lefty in the rotation. I just look at things like a scout and like Chris Welsh says Miley wouldn’t be a guy I’d ever sign to begin with.
You aren’t looking at things like a scout, though, or you’d recognize the big difference that took place in his career in 2018 after he left Baltimore and went to work with Derek Johnson, picked up a cutter and his entire career changed from that point forward. What he did before he picked up a career altering pitch that he now throws like 50% of the time, and threw about 1% of the time in his career before 2018 doesn’t really matter much. It’s like citing Tejay Antone’s minor league stats as a reason today why he shouldn’t be good while ignoring he’s throwing 7 MPH harder now.
I don’t want this to sound harsh, and realize it may come off that way – but it just feels like you are ignoring a very significant piece of information in your evaluation of what Wade Miley is.
Everything Bell has said publicly indicates that he intends to leave Antone in the bullpen. I think they’ll let him go 3-4 innings if game is close. When Gray returns, they will likely send DeLeon down to stay stretched out as a 6th starter. Provided Lorenzen comes back healthy, he’ll go into the rotation. He looked good in his starts last year, and Bell loves the idea of having him as a bench guy on non-pitching days. After that they’ll have to decide whom to DFA or put on IL. Miley will be fine as long as he stays healthy.
Today’s lineup has been posted. Is it some new lineup construction strategy that says the player with the most ABs and lowest OPS starts every game and bats third?
They’ve played seven whole games. They aren’t changing the lineup over it.
Hopefully Antone can build up his innings.
The Stuff to go with Castillo in the starting rotation.