The first place Cincinnati Reds will go for their third straight series win this afternoon as they face off against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Cincinnati is sending José De León to the mound to counter Arizona’s Luke Weaver.
Starting Lineups
Cincinnati Reds
|
Arizona DBacks
|
| Tyler Naquin – LF | Tim Locastro – CF |
| Nick Castellanos – RF | Josh VanMeter – 2B |
| Joey Votto – 1B | Christian Walker – 1B |
| Eugenio Suárez – SS | David Peralta – LF |
| Mike Moustakas – 3B | Eduardo Escobar – 3B |
| Nick Senzel – CF | Pavin Smith – RF |
| Kyle Farmer – 2B | Nick Ahmed – SS |
| Tyler Stephenson – C | Carson Kelly – C |
| José De León – SP | Luke Weaver – SP |
Starting Pitchers
José De León
In his only start of the season, De León struck out nine batters in 5.0 innings while allowing two earned runs on three hits and two walks. Both runs came on solo home runs.
Pitch usage from 2021
| Sinker | Change | Slider | |
| Velo | 94.0 | 84.4 | 80.2 |
| Usage | 72.8% | 14.8% | 12.3% |
Luke Weaver
In his first start of the season Luke Weaver allowed three solo home runs in 5.2 innings while striking out three batters and walking no one.
Pitch Usage in 2021
| 4-Seam | Cutter | Change | |
| Velo | 92.8 | 86.7 | 83.7 |
| Usage | 61.0% | 8.5% | 30.5% |
When and Where
- Game time: 4:10pm ET
- Where: Chase Field, Phoenix, Arizona
- Watch: Bally Sports Ohio (formerly Fox Sports Ohio), MLB.tv
- Listen: 700 WLW AM (Cincinnati area)
- Forecast: Doesn’t matter since Arizona has a retractable roof
News and Notes
Lineup News
Jesse Winker is out of the lineup again today. Manager David Bell said he would be available off of the bench today. Just an off day for Jonathan India.
Reds Prospect Austin Hendrick hit a ball to the moon
Minor League spring training began a week ago today. 2020 1st round pick Austin Hendrick has already busted a window in the parking lot, and that car was parked 460 feet from home plate.
NL Central Standings
Playoff odds via Fangraphs
| Team | W | L | GB | Playoff % |
| Reds | 6 | 2 | 0.0 | 38.9% |
| Cardinals | 5 | 3 | 1.0 | 24.5% |
| Brewers | 4 | 4 | 2.0 | 41.4% |
| Cubs | 4 | 4 | 2.0 | 15.5% |
| Pirates | 2 | 6 | 4.0 | 0.1% |
Sorry for the late game thread today. We had a scheduling conflict pop up.
Might want to check that link to the busted window story.
Good looking out!
Fixed and fixed.
Using Tejay Antone in the manner that we have so far this season is breathtakingly stupid. He might have the best stuff on the staff. Two plus-plus offspeed offerings – and his weakest pitch – a fastball that sits 96-99 with regularity. Having him pitch the 5th inning once a week is like benching Nick Castellanos so you can use him as a pinch hitter. Cionel Perez, Sal Romano, and Carson Fuller have all thrown more innings than Antone so far. Is there something that David Bell knows that we don’t here? Is Antone’s arm made of uncooked spaghetti and scotch tape? Is he openly fearful of high-leverage situations? I’m truly at a loss here. Maybe they’re limiting his innings so he can be a part of the rotation in the 2nd half? That seems like an awfully aggressive strategy for this bunch… idk. Thoughts?
He’s in the bullpen because he wasn’t ready to start the year in the rotation because the injury set him back in terms of his pitch count/build up.
I’m with you that he absolutely should be in the rotation as soon as humanly possible.
Agreed… I’m just wondering how the way they’re currently using him is helping build up his endurance. Seems like they could have let him throw 3-4 innings on Friday – or just send him to the alternate site to work there. If we’re just going to use him as a reliever – I’d like that to be later, higher-leverage innings. There’s an argument to be made there – the rotation is a lot deeper than the pen right now. But the long-man, bridge guy is just not a valuable enough role in which to deploy this guy.
How do they stretch him out and still use him in relief?
By letting him pitch a little bit more in each outing, but it also has to be a planned effort. You’ve got to know that, hey, he’s only pitching on this and that day, and he’s throwing us X number of pitches.
Just an off day for India?He was off on Thursday as was all of the team.I don’t want to make any big deal of this but India needs to play.He is a young guy and we have played 8 games.Give one of the older players the day off,maybe they need it more.
Everyone gets a day off every so often so someone else can play. Today’s that day for India.
Of course.
Roger u absolutely right,if he wanted to get farmer in a game he should have him at 1st base,India needs to play most every game,but this is actually one of the better sunday lineups of bell
8 out of 9 games is 144 games a year. That’s a lot of games rookie or vet.
I get why everyone wants to nit-pick Bells moves, but can we chose something a little less ticky-tacky? Farmer should get a start every now and then.
Pirates looking over the Cubs again!
And Brew Crew over Cards.
Which means a 2 game lead if the Reds could win. Alas.
I would’ve never thought DeLeon walked the park in his past. He’s been pounding the strike zone so far this year! Maybe he could help in the pen? Had enough of Sal 3 years ago.
Ok never mind. Now he’s pounding the zone on 0-2. That’s not it. We better stay close because Weaver looks strong.
Thought the same thing Indy but he can help in the pen for sure.We need our offense to come alive and I believe we will.
Next week when Gray is back, it’ll be interesting to see who, between De Leon, or Hoffman joins the pen. Hoffman definitely seems like he belongs in the rotation, lets see if De Leon continues to make his case today
The honeymoon appears to be over for Hoffman and DeLeon. Hurry back Sonny!
We will be fine once Sonny,Mikey and Antone get ready to go.I like Sonny,Luis,Antone,Mahle and Miley going forward.If we hit we have a chance to win a bunch and Mikey helps the back end of the pen.It will be all about the hitting for this year’s team.Go Reds.
The problem after 2.5 innings isn’t the starting pitching, it’s guys trying to crush pitches a foot out of the strike zone, which has a very “2020” feel to it.
Its all about if we hit or not and so far after 8 games we have done just that.Weaver is just saying hit it and we will the next time through the order.We need this game today and we will get it.
NOW the problem is starting pitching. And I don’t think this team is coming up with 5 runs today.
Why not? This offense can easily score 5 runs in 1 inning.
They can, in theory, yes, but I’m seeing too many guys swinging at bad pitches and nobody reaching base.
Well, off to work. Not the Reds day it seems, but you never know.
hm, meant as a reply to the main thread. refreshing firefox apparently isnt the move.
De Leon’s command has been very questionable today
It is not just today.
Need a Nice comeback today.
Baseball Is a crazy but funny Game.
Still early need to wake up though.
Too reliant on the fastball and too many center cut. I hate when reality rears its ugly head. They had 1 hit thru 6 innings in the opener then we turned them into the 27 Yankees
The old Reds would fold up tent once they got down 4-0. Let’s see if the boys can mount up a comeback. #change the culture
How about 7-0?
I’d still like to see them rally. That would tell us something.
I predict Josh VM is also going to be far superior offensively to Farmer and Blandino. Hated to give him away because he’s got a nice swing
At least ST.L. is losing in the 8th. inning. Comeback time for the Reds.
This hasn’t been a fun series. My heart has been turned from a Killer Tomato into Crushed Tomatoes. Maybe things get better in San Francisco.
Hopefully, it doesn’t deteriorate to rotten tomato
I would hope you are correct.
Votto is hitting a lot of balls hard, but his problems aren’t entirely bad luck. A lot of his hard hit balls are directly into the shift. If he can’t stop hitting the ball to the area where all the fielders are standing, he’s not going to get a lot of hits.
It would be a tweak, but he just needs a little more of an upper cut. Easier said than done though.
One would think that a great hitting artist like Votto could wait for his pitch and slap it opposite field to defeat the shift.
Watch India–no need to hit it hard, just away from the shift. Easy singles. Are these veterans too proud to do it?
Jeezy Pete! How many infield singles have the Dbacks had in this series?
Walks lead to runs! No defense foe a walk! Reds pitchers and their manager need to read Tom Seaver’s book “The Art of Pitching”
“for” not “foe”
Cubbies and Dirty Birds have both lost today! Now for a comeback!
5th inning of a game in which the outcome isn’t really in much doubt? Tejay Antone Time!
I agree! Gotta watch those pitch counts!
Perfecto alert
Again, questionable “managing” by Bell. Left De Leon in to pitch the 5th inning and voila Dbacks now up 6-0!
And double switch time, pull Moose for Blandino. Yet another Bell-ism. It feels like the resurrection of 2020.
The Reds don’t have a hit through 6 innings. Not making a pitching change in the 4th inning down 4-0 isn’t the problem here.
At least we’ll always hav3 the first 7 games.
It was a fun ride. I expect a few more similar ones this season. This team is actually good.
Ah, Doug…that would be nice!
You got that right. Shades of the old Reds,..the weakstick Reds. Now I’m wondering if the first 8 games were an anomaly. In fact, I’m thinking it probably was. Same Votto, Suarez, et. al. as we’ve seen for many years now. They say a leopard doesn’t change it’s spots. In my crystal ball I see another 200 strike outs for Suarez. Just wait until we face good teams with great pitching.
Of course it was an anomaly, no team is THAT GOOD. They scored more runs in the first 8 games of the season than like 5 teams ever. They were on pace to win 122 games.
There’s going to be win streaks. There’s going to be some losing streaks, too. They play 162 games for a reason: It takes a whole lot of them to separate the good and bad teams.
When I said “anomaly”, I meant actually “scoring runs”,..not setting all-time batting records. I didn’t expect them to continue scoring 9 runs per game. But I do like for them to score runs. You know,..scoring runs,..unlike what they did in the pay-offs last year. You know,…being an average hitting team. Not the worst in baseball, like last year. I have high hopes that with Naquin, a healthy Winker, and maybe even a few others, they can compete this year. All I’m saying is these last two games are reminding me of the team I saw last year. Course, two games do not a season make. Time will tell.
Guess this guy is better then I thought. I just wonder if they let him stay in.Pitch count?
Bell “specialty”! The old double switch! Clueless! Worst in-game manager in the majors!
Bell’s contract up for possible renewal this year.
At least he won’t have to remove Bedrosian for a pinch hitter right away, which is great news because it’s important to keep him in the game as long as possible. Bell is always thinking one step ahead.
The No Hitter is broken up.
Let the Gun Totin’ and the Rootin’ Tootin’ … and whatever else trash talk was going on prior to this series … let it all commence.
Humbling isn’t it.Guys throwing aren’t guys that we will see much of.Our hitters haven’t put up much of a fight and is disappointing so far
Yes, the back end pitchers aren’t who the Reds wanted to break camp with, so I can see that.
The lack of hitting all of the sudden is sad, but it’s really only one game. Too early for a trend.
This is a downer, but its on to SF. Its time to take the training wheels off of Antone and get some innings out of him. The starters have to get into the 7th and minimize this middle relief or the Reds won’t sniff .500. The back half of the Reds pitching staff is horrific. Maybe Bedrosian improves or maybe Miley can be decent, but this group isn’t going to cut it.
I’d like to know why they didn’t just skip some of these scrubs anyway? They’ve had several days off and could’ve skipped 3 thru 5 twice I think.
Castillo could’ve had the normal 4 days rest and started today if they stayed on schedule. You can go with your ace to win the series or some guy with 11 runs in 6 ip last year. Alrighty then
Castillo pitched wednesday, so no.
Too far outside the box is very scary for many folks
Take advantage of the days off? You stick with your proven commodities then you have old vets like Miley to get out a few lefties or whatever. This isn’t little league where Mr. DeLeon paid the fee so little Jose gets to play.
100% agree, no reason to use 5 guys when 2 of the 5 are off the discount rack
The No Hitter is broken up.
Let the Gun Totin’ and the Rootin’ Tootin’ … and whatever else trash talk was going on prior to this series … let it all commence.
I think Cincy has enough gun totin already. I turn on WLW and the daily casualty report bums me out before the first pitch.
Just one game and I expect some more but we have a good staff once all return.Offense did not show up and we knew we had to score a bunch today.
Long Season will have a few of these.
Went vs a team with Hitters due.
Hopefully this type of series.
Helps this squad moving forward.
yes but to AZ? my cat won’t even look at me right now
Not about Bell today because he never took a swing.This is about the offense not showing up.Bell still has plenty of chances down the road to remind us he is still in the dugout.
The next 4 games should be started by Miley, Castillo, Mahle, and Gray. Winker should be back in the lineup tomorrow night. Castellanos probably won’t go hitless again.
I think at this point, Hoffman stays in the rotation over de Leon. I’m indifferent if the Reds were to either option de Leon or Perez, or cut Bedrosian to make a roster spot for Sonny.
The Reds offense needs Suarez get in the groove.