The Cincinnati Reds makes another road trips this afternoon as they take on the Oakland Athletics. Vladimir Gutierrez gets the start with with first pitch set for 4:05pm ET.
Reds (5-4-1) and Athletics (1-8) Lineups
| Reds | Athletics | |||
| 1 | Jonathan India | 2B | Tony Kemp | 2B |
| 2 | Jake Fraley | DH | Elvis Andrus | SS |
| 3 | Tommy Pham | LF | Jed Lowrie | 1B |
| 4 | Joey Votto | 1B | Sean Murphy | DH |
| 5 | Tyler Naquin | RF | Seth Brown | RF |
| 6 | Kyle Farmer | SS | Chad Pinder | 3B |
| 7 | Nick Senzel | CF | Christian Bethancourt | C |
| 8 | Max Schrock | 3B | Drew Jackson | LF |
| 9 | Andrew Knapp | C | Skye Bolt | CF |
| 10 | Vladimir Gutierrez | SP | Cole Irvin | 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 700 WLW in the greater Cincinnati area. The game will be available on MLB.tv.
Reds links and news
Hunter Greene makes the Opening Day roster
David Bell announced that Hunter Greene will be in the rotation to begin the season along with Tyler Mahle, Reiver Sanmartin, and Vladimir Gutierrez. For now he’s only named four starters. The 5th starter won’t be needed until the 6th game of the year.
Here’s Hunter Greene on making the opening day roster:
And here is Reiver Sanmartin on making the opening day roster:
More roster cuts
Prior to today’s game the team announced that TJ Friedl, Jake Bauers, and Albert Almora Jr. have been sent to minor league camp.
Donovan Solano expected to begin on the injured list
After injuring his hamstring on Tuesday while running the bases, infielder Donovan Solano is expected to begin the season on the injured list.
Game Recap: Athletics 5 – Reds 4
Tough day for Vladimir Gutierrez as the Reds comeback fell just short.
The Highlights
It was a tough first inning for Vladimir Gutierrez who didn’t complete the inning, but returned later for the second and part of the third because it’s spring training and rules don’t count. He allowed four runs in 2.1 innings on six hits and he had one strikeout.
The bullpen was strong after Gutierrez was finished. Justin Wilson, Luis Cessa, Dauri Moreta, and Daniel Duarte all threw a shutout inning each – with Moreta picking up three strikeouts in his inning of work.
Joey Votto, known for his speed, went 1-4 with a triple and 2 RBI. Max Schock went 2-4 with an RBI and watched his batting average drop on the spring to .588. Kyle Farmer went 1-3 with a run and an RBI. Jonathan India went 1-4 with a run scored. Tyler Naquin went 1-4 with a double. Nick Senzel went 1-3 with a walk.
You can see the box score for the game right here.
Thursday’s Game
Hunter Greene will get the start against the Chicago White Sox at 4:05pm ET.
Hope Vlad is getting the bad start out of his system.
He will get time to redeem himself. It certainly will be a welcome addition if he comes through!
Speculation on 5th starter:
Hoffman or Santillan?
Lodolo, but can’t announce yet because that would call for a corresponding 40-man move. Maybe they are working on a trade or sale of a player and a required move would put them in a less strong negotiating position.
Yes, need room on the 40. He’s been lights out in ST and someone mentioned that he hasn’t had the blister problems with the MLB baseball.
Good article on Tommy Pham at FG.
tl;dr
He’s been a but unlucky in flyballs resulting in a difference of xwOBA and wOBA of .042 and will hopefully have a bounce back year.
TJ is looking really good at First Base.
I hope Schrock makes this team.
Friedl sent down. Akiyama will make this team…why?
8 million reasons.
Thank you, you passed.
Pretty sure I could find 8 million reasons why he doesn’t belong on a MLB roster…. I feel bad for Friedl. He deserved that spot.
Coast man — Don’t feel bad for Friedl. Akiyama is on an express train out of town. It’s only a matter of time.
Friedl will have is opportunity son enough.
*Friedl will have his opportunity soon enough
do you really want Friedl just sitting on the bench?
yes I do. I want the best players on the team. Friedl is 26, if he was 22 it would be different
No, I really want Pham sitting the bench (and Fraley).
Pham is 34 and has spent the past 2 seasons proving he’s a 0.220 hitter. Why not give Friedl a chance to prove he can do better than that?
Love the conflicting messages being sent by Krall and Bell:
“If a player is ready, they’re ready,” Krall said…”I want to make sure we give our team every opportunity to win as opposed to keeping a guy down in the Minors.”
“He had a great camp,” Bell said of Friedl. “For him, he did everything he could, and the fit on our team didn’t make sense right now. There was nothing more he could do…”He’s a big league player right now that can help us. No doubt about that.”
If the goal is have players up when they’re ready, and to put the best team on the field, Friedl should be up over either Aquino or Akiyama.
+1000
Friedl deserves a shot. He’s certainly outperformed either Akiyama or Aquino during the spring and neither of them have hit their weight. (or much beyond it). Same with Shrock. Want both of these guys on the opening day roster and getting PT
If we didn’t get Fraley, I would want Friedl on the team. I just don’t see how Friedl makes the team with how it’s constructed.
(INF) JV, JI, KF, MM, CM, MS,*DS
(C) TS, AK,
(OF) TP, NS, TN, JF
*if Solano ends up on the IL, then you need to replace it with a RH bat. That leaves you with Aquino, Garcia (3rd C), Lopez, Cedrola.
Are we really going to parse Coachspeak and GMspeak?
It’s all fluff.
Not to mention, do you want him sitting on the bench or getting regular at bats at AAA?
Much ado about nothing.
I like Max Schrock.
If this was football, Shogo and AA would have been cut along time ago, but, this is baseball and their awful salary structure.
Guitterez will be replaced in the rotation by Castillo or Minor in a few weeks . Just seems as if his poor performance is a sequel to how he finished last year.
Let’s see how real baseball goes, before we decide who goes and who’s stays. A bad inning in ST is not a determining factor. Before that inning you might of thought he was inline for the Cy Young, as he was sporting a 0.00 ERA. Spring Training stats don’t count, it’s practice.
So with the rotation likely set, and Lodolo the most likely (only) candidate to take the 5th role, what’s the bullpen looking like? I read where Moreta has made the team.
I’d assume: Cessa, Wilson, Santillan, Strickland, Warren, and Hoffman are also locked in, giving the Reds 7. Hendrix and Godley are on the 40-man and still in camp meaning they likely crack the OD roster as well. I’m guessing Buck Farmer is the 10th, but I was unsure of whether a couple of guys were already re-assinged/optioned (Wingenter, Diaz, Duarte?). With so many in camp, it’s hard to keep track of all of them. But that’s my best guess at a snapshot in time.
Is this going to be a “slip sliding again year?” In 2018, the Reds had a pretty well balanced and capable hitting team but very subpar pitching. David Bell replaced the existing hitting coach and fired the next one to lead the team to a .212 average in 2020 before a pretty decent recovery the last 2 years. David Bell did bring in a new pitching coach also and this paid huge dividends (at least for the SP). The RP hit rock bottom at the ASG. Promising rookies and recent acquisitions should provide a good recovery. However, the lack of veteran pitchers (plus coaches and catchers too!) to shepherd the youngsters will undoubtedly hurt.
You gotta love India, Stephenson, Naquin, Shrock and pitchers who showed well last year but of course there is always the sophomore surprise that comes up in all fields of endeavor…especially when slow motion replay video is available.
So, I think a lot depends of the creativeness of the manager, dependable veterans stepping up and adding additional skills that have not been in high regard on this team the last 3 years (defense, baserunning, element of surprise, clutch play, etc.). This is where I worry most. This could be a volatile year (anywhere between 68 and 84 wins seems possible) but we shall see. Last year, I bet on 80 wins but this year I won’t even try. Enjoy the ride and see if the sustainability starts to be achieved, I think 78 would meet that objective.
Was looking to see if there are any free agent SS out there to come in to back up Farmer, only Mercer
Doug, We just played the White Sox
Rookie Jake Burger who the Sox’s have no room for now, took one deep against us.
That’s who we should trade for!!! Going to be a star hitter and low salary for a few years. “Very Good Move”