The Cincinnati Reds hit the road this afternoon to take on the Texas Rangers. Reiver Sanmartin gets the start for the Reds at 4:05pm ET.
Reds (5-4-1) and Rangers (6-3-1) Lineups
| Reds | Rangers | |||
| 1 | Brandon Drury | 2B | Brad Miller | 3B |
| 2 | Donovan Solano | SS | Mitch Garver | C |
| 3 | Tyler Stephenson | C | Nathaniel Lowe | 1B |
| 4 | Joey Votto | 1B | Kole Calhoun | RF |
| 5 | Nick Senzel | CF | Nick Solak | 2B |
| 6 | Colin Moran | 3B | Willie Calhoun | DH |
| 7 | Jake Bauers | DH | Eli White | CF |
| 8 | TJ Friedl | LF | Jake Marisnick | LF |
| 9 | Albert Almora Jr. | RF | Yonny Hernandez | SS |
| 10 | Reiver Sanmartin | SP | Spencer Howard | 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 1360 WSAI in the greater Cincinnati area. You can also watch the game on Bally Sports Ohio and MLB.tv.
Reds links and news
Four more pitchers sent to minor league camp
Prior to the game today the Reds sent pitchers Graham Ashcraft, Ben Lively, Kyle Zimmer, and Phillip Diehl back to minor league camp. None of them were on the 40-man roster.
Lucas Sims to begin the season on the injured list, too
Yesterday we heard from manager David Bell that Luis Castillo and Mike Minor would begin the year on the injured list. Today he confirmed that the same would be true for reliever Lucas Sims, who dealt with a lower back strain that set him back earlier this spring.
On a timeline for Luis Castillo, Mike Minor and Lucas Sims, David Bell says “as early as mid April.”
— Charlie Goldsmith (@CharlieG__) March 29, 2022
Get out of the way or sell the team, Bob
Richard Skinner of Local 12 in Cincinnati wrote about Bob Csatellini this morning and how he needs to stop getting in the way of the front office or he needs to sell the team to someone who will.
What needs to happen is to get out of the way of his baseball operations people and give them time to put a real plan in place. He needs to be more transparent about taking money that was saved during that rebuild and using it to re-sign key players or invest in free agents when the pieces are in place to win big.
If not, then he needs give someone else a chance to bring championship baseball back to Cincinnati.
There’s a lot of stuff worth reading within the piece, so be sure to click the link above and check it all out.
Joey Votto has a new bat and a new goal
Reds first baseman Joey Votto has used the same model bat for his entire career…. until now. He’s got a new bat design and a goal for the 2022 season. C. Trent Rosecrans spoke to Votto about both of those for a piece over at The Athletic this morning.
Game Recap: Reds 7 – Rangers 1
The pitching was outstanding for the Reds all day, the offense picked up 11 hits and eight walks, but Donovan Solano left the game with a hamstring injury.
The Highlights
Reiver Sanmartin and Nick Lodolo both threw 3.0 innings. Sanmartin got the start and he was charged with an unearned run while giving up just one hit. Lodolo wasn’t charged with any runs in his outing and picked up three strikeouts along the way. Hunter Strickland tossed a perfect inning with a strikeout. Buck Farmer threw a shutout 8th inning. Ryan Hendrix took over in the 9th and sealed the win with a shutout frame.
Tyler Stephenson went 3-4 with a walk. Jake Bauers also reached base three times, going 0-1 with three walks and he also scored three runs on the day. TJ Friedl picked up his second homer of the spring, going 1-4 with two RBI. Brandon Drury went 1-4 with a walk and two RBI. Michael Siani went 2-2 with a walk, stolen base, and a run scored.
You can see the entire box score for the game here.
Wednesday’s Game
Vladimir Gutierrez makes the start at 4:05pm ET against the Oakland Athletics.
Skinner’s article is pretty good. A few more roster cuts today but I’m not really seeing any surprises there. I thought we were expected to see Pham in today’s game?
Like most of the new guys the Reds acquired. Moran not one of them. He’s going to be baggage on the roster I’m afraid.
In a vacuum where contracts don’t influence roster decisions, Almora would be on the roster as the 5th OF over Akiyama and Aquino.
Why?
Hopefully they were just being cautious with Solano. Seeing him walk off on his own was a little encouraging.
He’s definitely hurt. Maybe nothing too major, but I’m sure he’ll be out a while.
It would explain why we haven’t seen much of Solano in spring – that he’s been dealing with a nagging injury. I hope they keep him out for a month to get it right. This pretty much guarantees Shrock breaks camp and because he is left handed vs. Solano might mean that Aquino’s right handed bat on the bench just became more valuable to hang onto. ‘
That is unless they decide to keep a defense-only shortstop (waiver claim) on the active squad until Solano returns. This could mean creating another opening on the 40 man roster which could hurt.
Nice outing for Sanmartin, and who knew Torres had wheels? Makes Torres even more tantalizing. Truth be told I hope he gets High A, and De La Cruz low A. Torres is older with college experience. Also it’s a bit selfish of me, I plan on going to Daytona games this year.
Did anyone see Friedl line drive HR?
How do the Reds go thru this off-season purge yet keep Akiyama over Freidl or Shrock?
If BC is going to give an interview about drafting and developing and sustainability and the future….there’s no way Akiyama makes this team. NONE!
TJ Hopkins got an AB today, and is a name that might eventually see some time in MLB (probably not 2022). Right handed hitting corner outfielder, who’s played some CF. Probably needs more power to stay in the corner, but could still be interesting. 800+ OPS vs lefties in AA last year, too.