After an offensive breakthrough and an impressive show put on by Jesse Winker last night, the Reds (20-23) look to continue the climb back to .500 in the second game of the weekend series against the division rival Milwaukee Brewers (21-23) at Great American Ball Park. First pitch will be thrown at 4:10 EDT.
You can watch the game on Bally Sports Ohio or listen on 700 WLW. If you’re going to the game, there’s no rain forecasted, but it’s going to be hot, so be prepared and drink water accordingly.
Starting Pitchers
| Name | IP | ERA | xERA | FIP | xFIP | WHIP | K% | BB% |
| Brett Anderson | 24 | 4.5 | 8.01 | 5.26 | 4.6 | 1.5 | 13.10% | 7.50% |
| Sonny Gray | 30.1 | 3.86 | 4.19 | 4.19 | 3.35 | 1.45 | 28.70% | 10.30% |
BREWERS
This is the graphic on Brett Anderson’s Baseball Savant page for his season currently. Something tells me the Reds are either going to score a bunch of runs or get shut out today, with no in between. I think it’s safe to say that the 33-year-old left-hander isn’t having the best season, which of course means the Reds bats might go cold again today. Let’s hope last night was the beginning of an offensive tear.
Anderson has only pitched 24.1 innings so far this season, despite starting every game. Sonny Gray, who started the season on the injured list, has already pitched more innings. Aside from one start against the Pirates in which he went 7.0 innings, he hasn’t pitched more than five innings. After the Pirates start, in each of his last three starts, Anderson has pitched a total of seven innings. In his most recent start against the Braves, he gave up four runs on eight hits with three strikeouts and three walks in just 3.2 innings.
Anderson throws six pitches, with his sinker ball being the one he goes to the most (49.6% of the time). His pitch that had the best whiff% rate a year ago was his slider at 38.8%. This year, his whiff rate on the slider is just 18.5%.
REDS
Right-hander Sonny Gray makes his seventh start of the season, and although his record of 0-3 won’t attest to it, he’s pitching decently since returning from injury (This is why you disregard pitcher wins). Of the 13 earned runs he’s allowed, five were to the Cardinals in his April 23rd start.
Gray has walked 14 batters in 30.1 innings, which might be a little concerning, but is still tracking below his 11.3% walk rate in 2020. He’s also not allowing a lot of hard hit balls. Gray’s hard hit percentage is at 28.0%, good for top 6% in the league.
Lineups
Milwaukee Brewers
|
Cincinnati Reds |
| CF Lorenzo Cain | LF Jesse Winker |
| C Omar Narváez | RF Nick Castellanos |
| RF Avisaíl García | C Tyler Stephenson |
| 1B Daniel Vogelbach | 3B Eugenio Suárez |
| 3B Travis Shaw | SS Kyle Farmer |
| SS Wily Adames | 1B Alex Blandino |
| LF Jackie Bradley Jr | CF Scott Heineman |
| 2B Luis Arías | 2B Jonathan India |
| P Brett Anderson | P Sonny Gray |
-Jesse Winker looks to keep building his MVP case, as he’s back in the lead off spot.
Looking for some Jesse Winker fun facts? Here you go:
? 1st in NL average (.356)
? 1st in MLB slugging (.664)
? 1st in NL OPS (1.081) pic.twitter.com/ogICiFfMQC— Cincinnati Reds (@Reds) May 22, 2021
-Scott Heineman makes his Reds debut this afternoon, playing center field.
News and Notes
If Votto’s wearing a glove on the hand with the fractured thumb, it’s a good sign for both him and the Reds.
Joey Votto's on the field taking fungoes with a glove on. I wasn't here yesterday, but this is the first I've seen that.
— C. Trent Rosecrans (@ctrent) May 22, 2021
Here are a few notes from Jesse Winker’s career game and other observations.
Quite the interesting story from the newest Reds reliever, Brad Brach. He bypasses the Olympic qualifier because he wants to be back in the big leagues. And he looked pretty good last night with his 95-mph fastball.
Hm- No Shogo or Naquin today?
Naquin/Shogo are sitting because of a LH on the mound
I see Kirby posted that the Reds are admitting defeat. I’m assuming that’s his inference. Personally, I’m not sure what they expect from Heineman. In the majors, he has 128 AB and is hitting .188. In the minors this year, only .238. He’s had some good minors years in the past but so has Shogo. I saw Mancuso’s article today and apparently Bell walks on water so clearly we’re all clueless.
“ I saw Mancuso’s article today and apparently Bell walks on water so clearly we’re all clueless”
We aren’t analytical enough. Too emotional.
The root word for fan is fanatic so indeed a lot of us are emotional
Personally, I think “analytics” have ruined the game. Descriptive statistics aren’t predictive. And I looked on several science sites for peer reviewed papers that demonstrated that all these “metrics” are supportable. Never found any.
Steve Mancuso, on RLN, was a big supporter of David Bell as manager and apparently still is.
Fanatico en Espanol.
Curious too that JBJ and Adames were both considered options for Cincinnati over the last few years… looking at these lineups, I’d have to imagine they’re each better than Farmer/Heineman.
JBJ no thanks, we have way better OFers already. Id love Adames though.
2020ball & I agree? I was never a JBJ fan either. Adames may have been good. Apparently, it’s Farmer/Suarez the rest of this year and Garcia next. At least, that’s Reuter’s take on BR.
I feel like Bell is taking the L R thing too far, Naquin or Shogo should be starting.
Someone was talking about this from a Simpson’s episode where Mr Burns pinch hits Homer for Darryl Strawberry because it was a left handed pitcher
Maybe Naquin and/or Shogo have food poisoning. We should give the benefit of the doubt
Doesn’t surprise me. Lets give everybody some playing time as if it’s knothole baseball.
Naquin and Shogo have been awful versus lefties if you look at their splits
Heineman?? Really?? I think I’d be POed if I was Shogo. Cmon.
C’mon Heineman go 3 for 3 with 4 RBI and make me look like (more of) a dunce
Exactly. Either him or Naquin, please.
Don’t quit your day job
“ Something tells me the Reds are either going to score a bunch of runs or get shut out today, with no in between.”
This indeed is the Reds’ history agains soft tossing lefties
Geno still not batting 7th or 8th … yeah, that’s a solid plan.
OK, everybody hits today. Everybody scores.
Load ’em up, Redlegs!
Oh, and I really don’t care if DB walks on water to some people. His over-managing and attempts to out-think himself and the game aren’t “Moneyball”. Their misguided attempts to prove relevance. And the record shows the results aren’t good at all.
Stick to flipping burgers kid
Meaning?
A .160 hitter in the cleanup spot as we await that eventual homerun.
+500
Exactly. And paid handsomely to collect his Golden Sombreros.
Meaning you have no clue what you’re talking about
We could do without personal attacks. This ain’t the Old Red Guard message board. Head over there if that’s your style
Then don’t read it
Very mature attitude. You fit right in over on that other site
Wow … thanks for the ad hominem attack. I really appreciate you thinking so much of my opinion (which is what it is) that you just had to comment 3x. A masterful job of wit and wisdom. I bow to your advanced approach, sir.
People like you need to open your eyes and see reality
People that know what ad hominem means
Really hoping we see “good Sonny” today. He should have seen enough game time now to overcome his late start to the season.
Winker and Castellanos stats are “video game numbers” … made me laugh.
Jim Rome called Junior “Nintendo” in the 90’s for the same reason—he made it look easy
That hit reminds me … I’m going to miss this version of Nick Castellanos next year (or maybe this year). Wish him all the best and hope that money goes into extending Winker.
It’ll help solve the crowded outfield problem.
Annnnnnd the game plan today? You guessed it: hack away.
2 first pitch swings. Easy inning for Anderson.
Yeah … maybe a little impatient. But at least Nick C. got on.
Sonny is looking sharp early on. That’s a good thing.
Larkin certainly is Geno’s best cheerleader. I’m not convinced, but he’s seen a LOT more baseball than I’ll ever seen and has been closer to the game by a long shot.
Geno just keeps trying to pull everything. With this approach, he will never get ground ball or low line drive singles.
Use the whole field and make solid contact. It really seems like he won’t make any adjustment that will sacrifice homeruns. Way too obsessed with getting 50.
Right. Winker does that. Castellanos does it (to a lesser extent). Senzel was doing that. Joey does that. Tucker canned the switch hitting as a change.
It just seems like Geno won’t adapt. I have to wonder if he’s afraid to or just stubborn.
Watch him, it’s the same long loopy swing. Flyball, pop up or strike out and occasionally a home run. No line drives. He needs to do something with his swing, starting with a smaller bat, that thing looks like a phone pole.
One solo HR vs. a bunch of walks … I’m OK with that in the 3rd. But now we really have to start hitting.
Sadak says the guy has a lower average than Geno … that’s bad.
He walked the pitcher??? Can’t give them away like that.
Here we go again! No run support for SG! He’s Jacob deGrom 2.0! I know it’s early but getting some runs and a lead would be helpful for the ace of the staff!
Yep. Bottom 3 coming up once Sonny gets out of this mess.
Hey Larkin: DROP THE BONE.
He can’t … likely because he’s distinctly “old school” 🙂
Come on Sonny! Not you too! Stop with the walks!
And he escapes with a nice DP!
Okay, Sonny. You helped yourself out with that field and fire, now do what you can when it’s your AB. And until then hope and pray they get on in front of you.
Lucky, lucky, lucky! Now let’s go get some runs and the lead please!
lucky? lol
nvm, thought you meant the HR
Thank you, Scott.
And it means we turn over the line-up and Da Wink gets a chance.
Hey he listened to my plea above! Now just two more hits and 3 RBI to fill my order
Sonny gray still has very good stuff and is very valuable.
The Brewers arent very good. They are an 85 loss team .
Reds need to win and get over .500 and challenge the Cubs and Cards
Agreed and +1000
But I think it’s going to require some very hard decisions to get there in addition to our guys starting to hit consistently.
Who the hell is Heineman?
Today’s starting CF’er who “feasts on LH pitching” …
And Da Wink won’t be outdone either.
IDK? Lark and his partner act like he has a track record vs lefties, but I couldn’t find it? Luckily the ump didn’t give the pitcher the 0-2 pitch or Bell’s an idiot for playing a scrub just because he’s a righty hitter. Atleast half of these umps K him on 3 pitches there.
I might suggest Lorenzen as a possible RH threat vs lefties too. Plus he would greatly improve our outfield defense on the road. Winker can hit anyone, but Naquin, Moose, Joey, and Shogo? Not so sure
Haha, its the umps fault Bells not an idiot? y’all are hilarious
Jesse winker cant hit lefties though
That’s so 2019
L O L
Right. We’re lucky DB didn’t sit him. Were Senzel healthy, he just might have done that. SMH!
Well in Bell’s defense he doesn’t have Jose Peraza to platoon him with anymore.
+500 to RojoBenjy for the Jose Peraza reference!
Who was the guy that defended Peraza like he was his agent? Lollllllll. They ditched Peraza so he promptly ditched RLN))))))))))))
@ indy i ve got that guy but thats not productive so Id rather have your Pick ‘em for tonight
I hit Zimmerman vs Zimmerman Over in the O’s/Nats game. I always bet the 5 inn Under when that young lefty Rogers pitches for Miami. It hasn’t lost yet. He might be going tomorrow or Monday?
Da MVP
Larkin’s comment about Sonny Gray walking to the plate… “I don’t know if he’s pimpn’ or limpn’ to the plate” ?
Lol!
Wow … the Greg Vaugn stat from 1999 as the comp for the HR? My youngest wasn’t even born until after that season.
Greg vaughn was a bad A.$&
Nick Castellanos basically same
Loved vaughn and love Nick C
Reds need to free up payroll to resign Castellanos or just quit and trrase him for for a top 50 prospect
Winker wants to play Of and Castellanos is on record saying he signed with cincinnati to not be a DH
Find a young CF . Corner OF is elite
Haven’t been on in awhile….any “Winker is no more than a PLT OFer” or “can’t hit LHP” critics left these days?
Not this year. Da Wink is very dialed in and seems to have made some major adjustments.
His ops was .609 vs lhp coming in with 0 hrs, but only 29 at-bats. Obviously he’s no platoon guy
The way he’s swinging it I don’t care if the pitch throws left right or with his feet, get Wink every AB he can physically take
Absolutely DHud! It’s as if he’s seeing a slow-pitch ball coming in at this point.
Vogelbach’s arms are borrowed from Popeye
Love TySteve legging out the double! From what I’ve seen, the kid has some plate discipline.
Of course, we all know I’m an idiot who couldn’t find my butt with both hands and a map …
Trying to think who he reminds me of? Nice short/simple swing for a big & tall guy and takes it the other way naturally. Jeff Conine maybe?
Possibly. Definitely a tall, lean guy who can move a little bit. Fun to watch and really looking forward to him as a core piece of the younger team going forward.
He has shown himself athletic enough to pick up some 1B work as well. Count me as a doubter on that front before we saw him play there.
If that’s the kind of run TySteve has in him, we could be very happy with it.
Conine – 17 years, .285 lifetime, 214 HR’s, and 1071 RBI’s. (thanks Wikipedia).
Hard to think of Conine as almost as old as I am now (he’s 54)
I’m 54 too. It ain’t easy going old))
And the sadly expected outcome from Geno …
Stephenson might be reds 4th best hitter . He needsto get 500 at bats
+500 (see what I did there?)
Completely agree. Just seems like he’s got some baseball “smarts” about him. I think India will get there as well. We’re seeing Winker do just that.
I get Castellanos and Winker. Who is #3?
man… tough play but needed that one. Sonny with a very athletic play to make that close at home.
oops
Sonny’s doing his part! Let’s get him some more runs!
Feels like another 3 should do it … let’s get it started now!
Larkin’s right as I see it. Keep running India out there so he can learn. If you aren’t going to get him 500 AB’s, send him over to L’ville to learn there.
I think they have to. Suarez cannot play SS. India gets to play everday at Lville and move Moose back to 2B. Personally I’d try to give Moose away. Even with a prospect just for someone to take the bad contract so they can pay Castellanos, but I doubt that happens.
Christian Pache braves is a young elite CF . I wonder what the Braves orice would be
Winker pache Castellanos would be best OF in baseball for awhile
School that trade should have been made after Suarez hit his 50 HR.
Larkin just a little obsessed with Sonny’s jersey? It’s more amusing than his old/new school schtick.
Vogelbach’s profile reminds me of Prince Fielder.
Really need Sonny to battle back and get this third out. Don’t know how this delay will affect him. Either way it looks like the bull pen will have to give the reds 3 innings today as he sits at 90 pitches now.
I can’t watch but I see that the HP ump got tagged. Is he ok?
walked off under his own power, cross-up FB that got him right on the chin
Hes ok but Stephenson not and gray delayed. Just a rough moment
Brutal inning
Gray competed his tail off
I would have pulled gray for Garret after 90 pitches and 15 min delay but thats admittedly monday morning QB
Those situations with long delays seem to go bad for the pitcher more often then not. Tough break for Sonny there. Now our hitters have the shadows and Hader awaits(((
man… tough play but needed that one. Sonny with a very athletic play to make that close at home.
I sense that the Redlegs can rally and win
The Brewers just now depleted their bullpen somewhat with that trade
As much as I love Sonny, same advice to him as to the other Reds pitchers. Limit the walks as they are bad and more often than not come back to haunt in the form of cheap runs!
Just checked in and see we have Cy Anderson today and we have only 4 hits and 2 left the yard.Its time right now in the 6th to get going and score some runs for good ness sake.Sonny it appears battled like crazy so lets pick him up.
Somebody other than Winker needs to step up today!
Nick Castellanos and the young gun Stephenson tie this up
Love watching winker and Castellanos and Stephenson hit
Stephenson = Atonement for his rookie mistake.
Really impressive.
Right after scoring, Castellanos went directly up to Suarez and Farmer (next 2 hitters up) to tell them something.
Well it didn’t help Geno
He needs to figure out how to hit line drives again, he’s hitting them essentially half as often as his previous years.
Looking at his splits is depressing. He’s not even hitting LH (.107), and vs LH starters he’s hitting .048 this year
I’d rather have Moose hit then India, but if Joey & Shogo never played another inning for the Reds then that would be fine with me. Joey has his gabp left-center swing going pretty well, but Tyler’s time is now and he’s not a good defensive catcher. In fact catching only takes at-bats away.
His defense has been fine, especially for a rookie. No way would I ever take him off C, thats crazy talk. Adding versatility is fine in my book of course.
TySteve is a long way from being a good major league catcher but he will get better.Guy can already hit and has some plate discipline to go with it.Singles are good things with men on base.
He’s the right man in the #3 spot right now.
Ouch. This team((
Bullpen no
Geno no (ceiling is about .185)
SS no (Farmer 4 for last 24)
Call up Garcia or Rodriguez at SS. Showcase Moose is a desperate bid to give him away. We need that $$ desperately. Nobody will want Shogo
Are you including today for Farmer? I’m assuming you mean since his 3-5 game a week ago, since people like to cut off stats right when they were still good.
Anyway he isnt walking and has no power so even his .270 AVG this last week isnt very good obviously. So I belay the point.
I assume that everyone who posts on this site and knows the Brew Crew that if they have a one run lead going into the 9th it’s “Hader time”! Let’s go Reds! Just need two (2) runs to win this thing!
When you have 6 hits and 5 are from the first 3 guys in the line up there is a big time problem.The line up last night is our best lineup period and Tucker and Naquin set today.What gives? Come on.Blandino and Heineman are not better on offense or defense.Why not Shogo at lead off and yes I know Heineman homered?
Why Doolittle? It’s still a game that can be won
Is there an unwritten rule somewhere in the Reds bylaws that mandates the relief pitcher must walk the first batter?
Suarez,Farmer and Blandino at 4,5 and 6 are 0-9 with 4 punch outs.If we get anybody on in the 8th or 9th does anybody have any confidence in these guys?We are down 3 starters from opening day and TySteve is now I assume playing every day to help the offense and we set 2 guys that were on base 4 times last night?
confused, Naquin had a HR and a BB, whos the other guy? Naquin is in the game now btw
Tucker got on 2 or 3 times last night so it may be 4 instead of 5.
ah, Tucker had 2 BBs, missed that. I could see him catching today and TS at 1B instead of blandino, but its kinda small fish to me. Blandino didnt do much today with the handedness advantage, he’s looking like the next guy out at this point.
DB continues to be obsessed with the idea of righty lefty/lefty righty thing. In doing so he pours cold water on other hitters who are doing well. More important than what hand the pitcher is throwing with is how the hitter is seeing the ball. How he can leave Naquin out of the lineup right now with 30 RBIs I don’t understand at all.
Not sure theres a manager in the game today that doesn’t do this. I’m not opposed to sitting Blandino somehow, but if your goal is to uplift Naquin and not “throw cold water” on him, batting him vs LHP doesnt sound like the way to do it if you look at his numbers.
With the injuries we have and lack of depth he needs to be in there. Period.
Dude must have a great changeup to go with a 95mph heater cause he just struck out the side.I would give him the 9th also.Just awesome stuff.
He’s got a change up that’s unlike any change up in baseball. It’s truly a different kind of pitch than anything offered by anyone else in the game.
It may not matter but why another inning for Doolittle?I mean Garrett last night threw 6 pitches.
Back from a store run. My wife texted me the current score. I responded with the single word “poop”.
We’ll have to get to Hader for at least 1 now. Not a good spot to be in.”And we still have to get out of the T9.
All I really saw is that he laid off the first one that may have been the most hittable of the lot.
What do all the advanced stats and analytics management from DB tell us again? Remember I’m uneducated about all of this and basically clueless.
Good night all.
Suarez,Farmer and Blandino 0-12 and 6 punchouts.No way you put a lineup out there with these guys hitting back to back to back at 4 5 and 6.I don’t care the starter was a lefty these guys can’t hit period.Good grief man please do away with this match up stuff.Two of them are bench players and we won’t even talk about Suarez.
Not picking on Sonny (4 walks today) but I am curious as to the total number of walks allowed by Reds pitchers this season and how many of those walks turned into runs