After sweeping the Pittsburgh Pirates the Cincinnati Reds head to Cleveland to make up a game that was rained out back in May. They’ll take on the freshly minted Cleveland Guardians with first pitch set for 6:10pm tonight.
Starting Lineups
Cincinnati Reds
|
Cleveland Guardians
|
| Jonathan India – 2B | Myles Straw – CF |
| Jesse Winker – LF | Amed Rosario – SS |
| Nick Castellanos – RF | José Ramírez – 3B |
| Joey Votto – DH | Franmil Reyes – DH |
| Tyler Stephenson – 1B | Harold Ramirez – LF |
| Kyle Farmer – SS | Bradley Zimmer – RF |
| Eugenio Suárez – 3B | Wilson Ramos – C |
| Aristides Aquino – CF | Owen Miller – 1B |
| Tucker Barnhart – C | Andrés Giménez – 2B |
Starting Pitchers
Luis Castillo
Since the beginning of June you could argue that Luis Castillo is the best pitcher in baseball. He’s made 12 starts in that span with a 1.91 ERA in 75.1 innings. He’s held opposing batters to a .199/.287/.281 line in that span.
Castillo’s been a bit better against right-handed hitters this season than left-handed hitters. Righties have a .249/.300/.388 line against him, while lefties are hitting .258/.365/.375 against him. Castillo has pitched better at home than on the road. In 11 road starts he’s posted a 4.50 ERA (3.72 at home) and hitters have a 42 point advantage in OPS when away from Cincinnati against Castillo.
Pitch usage from 2021
| 4-Seam | 2-Seam | Change | Slider | |
| Velo | 97.0 | 97.2 | 88.0 | 86.1 |
| Usage | 29% | 24% | 29% | 19% |
Sam Hentges
It’s been a tough rookie year for Sam Hentges. He’s split time between the bullpen and rotation. He even sent back to the minors for two weeks in July before being recalled in the final week. His last two appearances have come out of the bullpen where he’s thrown just one inning in each game, and even when he was in Triple-A he was pitching out of the bullpen. He hasn’t thrown more than 33 pitches in a game since July 7th.
With an ERA of 7.86 on the season you’d expect both lefties and righties to have plenty of success against him, but that’s not the case. The left-handed pitcher has had a moderate amount of success against lefties as he’s held them to a .256/.347/.372 line in 50 plate appearances this season. Righties, though, have crushed him to the tune of .366/.437/.579 in 167 plate appearances. He’s pitched better at home than on the road, but even at home his ERA is 6.38 (18.1 innings).
Pitch usage from 2021
| 4-Seam | 2-Seam | Change | Slider | Curve | |
| Velo | 94.7 | 92.9 | 88.4 | 86.1 | 80.5 |
| Usage | 40% | 10% | 1% | 22% | 26% |
When and Where
- Game time: 6:10pm ET
- Where: Progressive Field
- Watch: Bally Sports Ohio, MLB.tv,
- Listen: 700 WLW AM (Cincinnati area)
- Forecast: 89°, partly cloudy, 10% chance of rain at first pitch, but increasing as the game goes on
News and Notes
The winner of the game tonight gets the Ohio Cup. The Reds are currently up 3-2 in the series this year, but a split of the season series means Cleveland keeps it.
NL Central Standings
Playoff odds via Fangraphs
| Team | W | L | GB | Playoff % |
| Brewers | 66 | 46 | 0 | 92.7% |
| Reds | 61 | 51 | 5.0 | 36.6% |
| Cardinals | 55 | 56 | 10.5 | 1.3% |
| Cubs | 52 | 61 | 14.5 | 0.0% |
| Pirates | 41 | 71 | 25.0 | 0.0% |
Good to see 36.6% chance of making the playoffs. Enjoy the ride, boys.
I would have preferred Votto lower in the order. He doesn’t hit LH’ers. And I’d take my chances with Mostakas vs. Suarez.
Winker much worse than Votto against LHP, but nobody ever talks about that. Bell is not one to optimize the lineup though. You bat where you bat, against all handedness. He’s not an analytical guy, despite the rest of the organization’s focus on such.
His lineups have cost games…..
His bullpen usage has cost games…..
If you are analytically minded, you know that lineups make little difference. the bullpen has certainly cost us games, but whether Bell’s use of it has is just a matter of opinion.
Lineups matter. It’s just another analytics fallacy.
Yes. Lineups DO matter. If there is nothing wrong with Moose then David Bell has me scratching my head again. There is something really weird about the Suarez situation. Bottom line is winning. If we keep doing that it’s all that matters.
Bell’s lineups have cost us games??? We are one of the better scoring teams in the league. His bullpen has lacked talent and had injuries. With all the issues and injuries he has the team 10 games over 500. If I went back and reviewed people’s predictions of our season I will guess we are overachieving according to many. Might be time to give credit where credit is due my friend
The reason Suarez is playing over Moose tonight is because RH’s absolutely crush this leftie.
Suarez does not hit well period. Hope he does tonight. I want to win.
@jim, Counsell does done more with less.
Jim T – Totally agree. The Reds are #2 in the NL in Runs scored and #1 in OPS. Yeah, Bell’s lineups are KILLING us ~ eye roll.
Seriously? Take out the Pittsburgh games and tell me about their offense on the season. As for Suarez, he’s batting .140 against LH’ers. Maybe he’ll have a good game. But regardless, at the end of the day, anyone that thinks Bell has done a good job really isn’t paying attention.
The Reds have been at the top of the batting categories most of the season.
So can we take out the games against San Fran while we’re cherry picking?
Any documentation for that opinion, LDS? If you are gifted with second sight, and can know what would have happened in a given game had the lineup been different, I apologize for doubting you and your gift.
Some of you guys are hilarious. It’s not cherry picking to notice that 82 of the Reds 563 in the 10 games against Pittsburgh.
Yeah, I’m a funny guy. Are the NL West teams subtracting out the runs they’ve scored vs Arizona? After all, Arizona has given up 642 (!!!) runs while Pittsburgh has “only” (lol) given up 580 runs.
Enjoy your pie.
RBI single by Votto…you never know
How do you feel about were Votto is hitting now.
I believe Castillo is the best pitcher on the Reds staff. A true closer. Someone posted his early season troubles might be due to the pitching coaches. I don’t know, but he is top notch now and has been for a while.
“closer” or do you mean “stopper”?
I meant “stopper” . Thanks for the correction. You have to watch a 72 year old closely.
as a former foster kid i find the team name Guardians quite offensive and depressing I must say
I’m at the game. It’s still Indians here.
They’re the Guardians here.
How did they not choose Rockers? Must have been a trademark issue somewhere along the line.
Surprised Moose is sitting again with Tucker in the lineup. Another lefty tomorrow so does Bell have the cahones to sit Moose 3 straight days?
Radar suggests the game will get started on time and finished tonight, but perhaps with an interruption.
Glad I have club seats.
Club seats and food ?
Eating now actually.
Gotta rough this guy up. The Injuns have been having a hard time scoring runs.
I thought the name change was not supposed to happen till the end of the year. Regardless of what they are called, we will be calling them losers by the end of the night.
At the game. It’s still Indians, go tribe, etc. lots of reds fans here.
I like your thinking Bet Red.
Votto at it again.
Against a lefty too. The nerve of him playing.
Good job Votto 🙂 1-0
JOE-EH. He’s getting to be automatic …
They aren’t called guardians til next year. They are in court battles for using the name that already exist for a team. Be interesting what will happen on that note. Votto has a single rbi go votto
Not a good start by LC! Settle down big guy!
Great throw by Aquino to stall the runner at third. But he shouldnt be starting against a lefty right?
Nothing against Aki but I think they try to score there if not AA playing.
Need a DP here!
That was India’s fault there. Had his foot on the wrong part of the bag.
Speed kills there. I doubt many guys beat out that infield single or break up the dp like Rosario just did.
Good job getting out of the inning with 1 run scoring! Plus didn’t have a 20+ pitch inning! Crooked number time!
Way to go AA
Geno should change his name to Otto! Rhymes with auto as in automatic out!
With a good performance tonight Luis C. era could be under 4. Those first 2 months weren’t great but man he has really turned it on.
Which Luis C? We have 2 now)))
first 2 months should explain it Indy, lol. The starting pitcher
At this rate, 3 runs already, just forget I mentioned it!
What a minute. India doesn’t hit into DPs. Doesn’t fit his swashbuckling image.
That MLB.com video breakdown (currently up on MLB) by Ripken of India was enjoyable.
Better get out butts in gear. No time to waste.
Jeez. They showed Ramos behind the plate in the 1st and I got a little scared. That dude rakes everytime I watch him.
Obviously you dont watch him enough.
Lifetime .754 ops. Pretty good for a catcher. 137 hrs now
Again, most, if not all, HRs allowed by Reds pitchers are preceded by a walk or HBP to double the damage! Time to get serious about this game!
Did Cleveland change to a right-handed pitcher? If so, time to put Moose in at 3rd!
Yeah bullpen game. These guys will last about 35 pitches.
I suspect that will come when his turn at bat comes up
+100
I have to think the bullpen game against us won’t help many of our guys. No “3rd time through” tonight. Already the switch from LHP to RHP. We’re going to need to bear down and put up a lot of crooked numbers. That HBP and HR didn’t help us at all.
no it didnt. While I know we are not going on a 49 game win streak, I really did not want tonight to be one of the losses.
Well we can hope for what everyone complains about with our pen. If they keep cycling thru guys then we’ll probably find one we can beat up! We have to keep them at 3 though
Yes we can hope for that. And we’re playing from behind, so that’s good for us … right?
They’ve only got one LHP Perez in the bullpen, with no MLB stats and 4oo minor league innings but impressive numbers. Looks like a mystery ringer and waiting until we swap out the lefty batters for the righties?
Thanks for that info. So maybe we do see Moose sooner as opposed to later.
Terrible call on TySteve there. But what else do we expect from professional, HP umpires these days?
Nice way for Luis to get the road trip off to a start. Thud, plop.
I think India needs a little rest. The speed of the Tribe doesn’t help, but he didn’t look that into his glove.
Castillo better get going. Nice try by AA. I bet the wall has a dent in it.
It just might. Probably caused a localized tremor and that’s why Casty ended up on his butt.
Lol nice!
haha! Good point.
I think a lot of guys, not mentioning any names, don’t come out of that play without an injury. Another reason why AA is so valuable.
Ha. I got that Melvin. Been thinking it all year.
Alrighty then. We really need to hold this guy at 3B. Luis getting some heaters high in the zone and out over the plate. He doesn’t come inside with his heater often enough. Of course he hit the one guy on a 0-2 heater and he scored too
Castillo picked a bad night to have a bad night!
Could’ve picked a night vs an NL contender …
Stink.Fish.Pot!!!
Now I’m thinking it’s time to root for the rain to cancel us.
Guy scores anyway though? He could’ve stepped on 1B and thrown home.
True … and Barnhart probably wouldn’t have slipped.
Not a good move by TySteve.
That’s why I don’t like Votto at the DH. He’s a pretty good first baseman.
He has been this year compared to the last few. I don’t get it either? He just had 2 days off and TS isn’t experienced at 1B.
Tinker Bell strikes … all because of a LHP BP pitcher who wouldn’t go more than a couple innings.
Inertia sort of caused that DP attempt to start at 1B But Stephenson needs to be more careful with those.
Reds need to go back in the locker room and come back out. They are off today.
A uniform change might be in order. Maybe a real quick shower first.
Not-so-good LC, rough rest of the team, steady rain … yeah, that’s the trifecta we didn’t need tonight.
This team is lost tonight. Castillo has had a few things go against him tonight and his team is not helping him out either. Time to take him out.
A walk to Ramos after an 0-2 count! Unacceptable by any pitcher!
India does need to get alot better defensively, but he’s a rookie
This is why Hoffman is on the roster.
Get him in there and pitch the next 4+ innings. If they lose 12-1, so be it…but cant drain the bullpen with 6 huge games coming up on the road.
It’s not Castillo’s night.
Also wonder how good Casali was for him.
Agreed, Castillo needs to hit the showers with Hoffman being a good choice to try to hold the fort.
And to make matters worse LC at 59 pitches thru only 3 innings!
Bad day for this kind of effort, not over yet, but they can’t take what happen tonight to Atlanta or this could be an awful week.
I dont like the fact they travelled this morning and then will travel again after this game. That’s twice in one day. They will be tired tomorrow for that game in Atlanta. Hope they can get going here and pull it out.
But no hotel stay last night. This is just a long layover with a ballgame in the middle. I can see why they made the choice.
I heard bell describing plan to stay home last night and avoid hotel and fly today twice
Players obviously mailed it In
Not enough juice for Kyle on that one. Rain and heavy air don’t help.
I have no idea why you would choose to travel twice in one day.
I mean they can sleep on the flight right?
Thats always comfortable.
In my experience flying it doesn’t work that way.
Clearly reds focus since end of game yesterday is minimize cleveland as much as possible and focus on atlanta
They were mentally on the flight to Atlanta at 10 am this morning .
4-3 or even 3-4 on this trip won’t kill them although SD & Milw play cupcakes this week, but they can’t do any worse then that
Ball just isn’t carrying tonight. Drier evening and both of those are probably out of there.
Guardians disagree
well Suarez did get a walk so there is that.
+5
Yeah. How stupid is it to walk Suarez by the way?
That’s two balls that probably would have gone out at the Great American Launching Pad. We rely too much on the HR. Have to improve our “small ball” skills.
Agreed on the small ball, but the rain and heavy air also played into both of those, or at the very least Tucker’s. That fence isn’t any further than our our CF to get it out.
The Reds haven’t legitimately been outplayed and beaten in 2 weeks atleast. This is strange. The only games they’ve lost were 9th inning meltdowns. I still think they can do this one, but their 8th-9th inning guys are good. You have 9 outs to do damage
Get him out of there!! He doesn’t have it and aren’t they still carrying 14 pitchers?
hahaha Don’t get me started. lol
Don’t look like it’s our night. India gets tripped turning a DP. Long fly hits of the heal of his glove after a long run. The missed DP by Tystev and LC falling all over the mound. Hope I’m wrong.
Castillo isn’t doing himself any favors either.
Ok….Bell doesn’t care then neither do I. I’m out
Exactly … didn’t take a rocket scientist to see that Castillo didn’t have it … should have taken him out before now
Concur with your assessment. Bell needed to have a quick hook tonight. No need to him pitch after being down 5 to 1.
Alright, so my under is more than likely busted. My under HRE probably not going to make it either. Now rooting for a hit every inning.
Man. We need to win this game. I wander if we can talk David Bell into throwing 1B a couple of times. Naw. Not going to happen. Never mind. 🙂
This game over Castillo looking like early of the season and this lineup doesn’t help the matter mostly when it a bullpen game day for Indians not the guardians as title here. Hope brewers can lose tho it against the cubs
CRAP! LC DOES NOT HAVE IT TONIGHT!
Not today boys. Maybe tomorrow. Nice night to sit on the porch.
My wife just asked if I wanted to watch the game on the big screen. I declined and then THAT happened. So now I may just Clete.
It’s been a good run. These fill-in sandwich games are a pain. Add to that Cleveland doing the BP thing and we should just head for Atlanta now.
Back at it tomorrow, folks. It hurts more because they’ve raised our expectations so much.
Painful game in person.
Man. Before today if I had to pick someone to start in a one game playoff it would have been LC. He’s trying to shake my confidence.
The Cleveland team has a pulse…unlike the Pittsburgh team
Pretty sure this game was mailed in (once it was evident that La Piedra was off) and looking on to the Cubs.
Thing is, there are no guarantees in life…or baseball
Perhaps it’s ok—we’d hate to have a ragged pen going into Chicago
I mean or on to ATL. Would help to know the schedule better
Reds announcers are embarrassing me. Oh yeah. “This Reds team can still come back because it’s early.” Huh? Really?? Wanna bet??? How pitiful!!!
Never loos the faith!!!
Seriously… for me it’s clear when a pitcher has nothing like LC tonight.
It was the perfect time to bring Hoffman …. but o e inning earlier…
Let’s see hopefully a comeback game
yes, the nature of baseball makes it hard to write off a game. Reds could conceivably come back in the top 9th with 2 outs.
I’m a big Castillo fan, but 4.50 era with his stuff is CHOKE city!!! I don’t care if he doesn’t like the cold, whatever. Nearly half the league is Dominican and they manage to play in April/May.
One of the biggest reasons the Reds are chasing now is the fact we went 1-10 in his first 11 lousy starts.
I think LC lines up vs Zack Wheeler game 2 @PHI … Wheeler pitched yesterday and they’re off today
You mean the Zack Wheeler that was rumored to be offered in trade by the Mets for Jay Bruce while Wheeler was still rehabbing from TJS?
Let’s get this one out of our system and move on to Atlanta! Need a 4-3 road trip or 3-4 at a minimum! I am a Cubs fan the rest of the night!
and marlin fans
Hit every inning alive through 5
now through 6.
through 7
through 8
and baring a comeback i got it.
Okay. That’s one back. Got to fight.
yay smallball
India stolen base, and casti sac fly, the comeback is underway. On a side note India’s run ends the chance for the under tonight.
Unless the Reds get lucky, odds are they lose a full game in both the division and the wild card. Really a bad week for a complete collapse.
Yes, it would be a really bad week for a complete collapse. That said, they are 8-2 in their last 10 and have won 5 straight. It’s a little early to hit the eject button.
Maybe but we’ve seen this a few times this year. Run off a good streak, 5 or 6 games and follow with a similar losing streak. BTW, how did you pick your handle? Do you go back that far?
How’d I pick my handle? I’m old, lmao. Johnny Bench was the reason I became a North Jersey Reds fan. Joe Morgan captured my heart. Ed Armbrister was an important footnote, may he RIP.
I was too young to appreciate the once in a lifetimeness of the BRM.
That makes sense. I get it. I was wandering.
I don’t think anyone could have totally appreciated the Big Red Machine at the time no matter what the age.
Well earmbrister, something we have in common, we’re both old. I remember Bench’s first all-star game, Brooks Robinson the human vacuum cleaner, Carlton Fisk hitting that home run (and the rich kid in the dorm room next door throwing his color TV out the window), and sweep of the Yankees. The Reds have had a few decent teams since then but none rise to the level of the BRM.
Hoffman needs to help team
Only need 3 more innings and rest of team gets the day off
Go hoffman and Doolittle can pitch the 9 th if needed
8th
Wont be a 9th
Get freeman in SS and shogo in LF and Naquin in RF
On to Atlanta
Freeman shipped out for Sims… Moose is the one extra infielder this game
Is Freeman on the roster?
Need to take Atlanta.
Dang
The one time we need freeman
We need SCHROCK!!!
LOL. What a game he had vs the Metropolitans!
Suarez with 2 more strikeouts so far tonight! GOOD CALL BELL!
Farmer is 0-3 with 3 LOB. Suarez at least got a BB. I’m guessing that THAT particular decision cost us the game …
Farmer has been batting 300+ for several weeks now! Geno stuck at 170+
And yet Farmer was 0-4. Farmer probably needed a day off, but the Reds currently have no legit SS backup. GOOD CALL BELL!
Seriously though, it’s time for the SS callup.
Barrero coming up sounds good but it brings us back to who does he replace?
I disagree Dennis
Bell gave moose some rest with 2 month foot injury but also gave suarez last chance to make a statement
He didnt
Moose is the every day 3b and Suarez is the once a week a guy on get away day or 1 game away series where the team flies to 2 cities in 12 hours
Hasn’t Suarez started the last two games? Is it just me or did it seem like the offense just “clicked” the two games Moose was in there? He adds some good things.
It remains to be seen whether the foot can hold up to more than 4 or 5 games a week. I doubt they push it. India and Farmer will also need the occasional game off
Well. It’s crunch time. If he thinks he can maybe aught to try. Every game, in a sense, is a playoff game.
Moose clicked right along with everyone else due to substandard Pirate pitching and that includes game 1 that Saurez homered in. 2 walks w/o a hit Moose’s 2nd game. 2 of 3 lefty starters in ATL now, the ol’ team Kryptonite
I guess we’ll see when the lineup is posted for tomorrow’s game with Atlanta!
Moose, at the very least, provides protection to the guys at the top. Suarez does not. With runners on they will not pitch to Votto or whoever is in front of him just to get to him instead. If I was a manager I sure wouldn’t pitch to just about anyone knowing Geno is coming up next.
So we put Shogo infront of Geno
Honestly, I would put the pitcher in front of Geno. Batting 9th would give him more fastballs being in front of the top which he definitely hits better (not that he hits anything real well). That would be his best spot. A starting pitcher only hits one or two times a game and is then hit for of course. That’s if I have to play him. I don’t think he should be.
and bookies around the world breathed a sigh of relief. A Run every inning bet is so rare that a 1$ bet gets a 1,000$ payout. 6th inning first inning with no run. Now the Reds need to unload a ton of runs and get this comeback
And I was so sure they would come back and win. 🙂
Good hit by AA. When you have your best all around defensive outfielder getting two hits I would think you need to play him.
Justin Wilson first run given up as a red.
Now that Votto hit would have been gone at GABP. At least it looked to high enough to me.
I would think so, but Red’s statistician says no. Only 4 parks
Alright, this actually is a great place to see if Lucas Sims has it.
Good job by Sims to pitch out of the mess he created! A little rusty but he battles!
Actually Moose replaced Freeman. Brach went on IL for Sims. Another pitcher may even be feeling lingering impingement as we speak …
Haha The “shoulder pincher”, whoever he is, may be out again soon. 🙂
Cubs and Brewers in a delay! Weather?
Can’t win ’em all! On to Atlanta to start a new winning streak!
Well I was hoping we could. 🙂 What’s done is done. On to the next one.
Plus the Cleveland Indians/Guardians get to keep the Ohio Cup another year!
Deleted this comment.
If you have to type “No offense to anyone intended” then you absolutely know better than to say it. This is gonna be the only warning.
Well that was just in case an outside chance. I really didn’t mean to offend. My apologies.
The Ohio Cup this year was a split.
Cubs/Brewers game postponed! I assume a DH in their future?