Cincinnati has won three straight games, including the first two games of this series against Pittsburgh. The Reds will look to pick up a win tonight over the Pirates and guarantee a series win behind Luis Castillo. Pittsburgh will send Zach Thompson to the mound at 6:35pm ET for the first pitch.
Starting Lineups
Here are the lineups for this evening’s NL Central contest:
Cincinnati Reds
|
Pittsburgh Pirates
|
| TJ Friedl – RF | Josh VanMeter – 2B |
| Brandon Drury – 2B | Ke’Bryan Hayes – 3B |
| Tommy Pham – LF | Ben Gamel – LF |
| Mike Moustakas – 3B | Daniel Vogelbach – DH |
| Tyler Stephenson – C | Yoshi Tsutsugo – 1B |
| Colin Moran – 1B | Jack Suwinski – CF |
| Tyler Naquin – DH | Rodolfo Castro – SS |
| Albert Almora Jr. – CF | Diego Castillo – RF |
| Matt Reynolds – SS | Andrew Knapp – C |
| Luis Castillo – SP | Zach Thompson – SP |
Starting Pitchers
| Pitcher | IP | ERA | WHIP | BB | K |
| Luis Castillo | 4.2 | 5.79 | 1.29 | 3 | 5 |
| Zach Thompson | 20.1 | 7.08 | 1.77 | 10 | 19 |
| Links: Luis Castillo’s Stats | Zach Thompson’s Stats |
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Luis Castillo
After missing the first month of the year, Luis Castillo returned earlier this week and had a solid start. He’ll look to take that next step forward against the Pirates tonight with a little bit of a longer leash on his pitch count than he had in his first start of the season.
Splits (2021)
| Split | PA | H | 2B | 3B | HR | BB | K | AVG | OBP | SLG |
| RHH | 395 | 96 | 16 | 3 | 12 | 21 | 96 | .264 | .312 | .423 |
| LHH | 408 | 85 | 18 | 4 | 7 | 54 | 96 | .245 | .349 | .380 |
Pitch Usage (2021)
| 4-Seam | 2-Seam | Slider | Change | |
| Velo | 97.3 | 97.4 | 88.5 | 86.5 |
| Usage | 28.4% | 23.9% | 17.4% | 30.4% |
Zach Thompson
The splits are quite extreme for Zach Thompson this season. The sample size is pretty small, but right-handed hitters are crushing him, posting a .953 OPS against him so far this year. Lefties are not having a ton of success, hitting just .227 with an OPS of .700 against him. Last season the roles were revered as righties had .557 OPS against him, but lefties had an .807 OPS against him.
Splits
| Split | PA | H | 2B | 3B | HR | BB | K | AVG | OBP | SLG |
| RHH | 50 | 16 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 11 | .356 | .420 | .533 |
| LHH | 51 | 10 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 8 | .227 | .314 | .386 |
Pitch Usage
| 4-Seam | 2-Seam | Cutter | Change | Curve | |
| Velo | 92.5 | 92.3 | 86.5 | 86.2 | 77.9 |
| Usage | 19.7% | 20.5% | 32.3% | 16.9% | 10.5% |
When and Where
- Game time: 6:35pm ET
- Where: PNC Park
- Watch: Bally Sports Ohio, MLB.tv
- Listen: 700 WLW AM (Cincinnati area)
- Forecast: 77°, partly cloudy, 15% chance of rain
News and Notes
Joey Votto begins a rehab assignment in Louisville
Cincinnati sent Joey Votto to Triple-A today to begin a rehab assignment. He last played on May 1st and has missed nearly two weeks while on the COVID injury list. Votto is leading off for the Bats tonight and is their designated hitter.
Ross Detwiler called up, Robert Dugger DFA’d
Cincinnati also made some roster moves at the big league level. They called up left-handed reliever Ross Detwiler from Triple-A and to make room for him on the 28-man and 40-man roster the team designated Robert Dugger for assignment (for the second time in less than a week).
Updates on Nick Senzel and Nick Lodolo
David Bell says Kyle Farmer is dealing with soreness and will benefit from being out of the lineup today.
Nick Senzel is a few days behind Joey Votto but was working out at GABP.
Nick Lodolo has played catch but hasn’t thrown a bullpen and a rehab start is possible.
— Charlie Goldsmith (@CharlieG__) May 14, 2022
Almora will get squeezed out by Votto/Senzel, but I’d like to see him hang around. He’s easily their best defensive OFer and I like his baseball IQ. He came up last night with Farmer on 2nd/nobody out and obviously was trying to shoot the ball the other way to advance Farmer and he did. Our normal at-bat there is someone trying to drive the ball and rolling over 5-3.
Loving these Over 1.5 thru 5 inning bets vs these lousy pitchers. Reds already got Brubaker & Keller. Thompson isn’t much better. No bet is a lock, but if a lousy pitcher could regularly hold teams to 0-1 runs thru 5 then he wouldn’t be a lousy pitcher.
Not thrilled to see The Moose with a glove, but if he hits, it won’t matter that much.
Good to see Farmer get a day off. I’m thinking that was overdue.
Let’s go for the series win tonight and then not worry about needing a win tomorrow (though I’d love a sweep).
Good news on injuries. Votto, Senzel, and lodolo..
So I read Farmer is spread likely out two games for rest. My question, why not bring up a position player? If Famer doesn’t play next two games, you only have a 2 man bench.
We have a long history of playing short-handed, don’t we?
Indeed and it is baffling to me.
Reds just march to their own beat of the drum.Its a given for them to play shorthanded.
Who goes down when you bring a guy up?
Must be killing poor David Bell. 🙂
Let Cy Thompson off the hook with just 7 pitches … a rather auspicious start for our boys tonight.
Let’s see if La Piedra can match him.
10 bullpen pitchers is laughable
OK, that worked out pretty well for us.
Time to hit. Patience would be a virtue right about now.
Oh, and I have Mud Hens at Bats cued up so I can see Joey V.
We will need AB play by play for JV
I’ll do what I can. May even have to pause the Reds feed for a bit when he’s at bat.
Got better that inning,took 10 pitches to retire us.Maybe we see 12 in the 3rd at bat.
Can’t pitch around Tommy Boy … he’s just not that good when you go after him. But it appears he is patient and has a fairly good eye for the zone.
Could have forced Suwinski and then thrown to tag out Tommy Dough Boy … in hind sight.
Well THAT wasn’t good
3 replays…and i still don’t see the balk
It’s a complete judgement call … and it can’t be challenged or reversed because the rules surrounding it are intentionally vague.
Moved his knee back knee slightly
Well looks like i made the bets on the wrong day
Its obvious the Bucs will have the better of this tonight.Just not ready to pitch or hit or play and after two nights of just the opposite.
I guess I needed a reminder of who we really are as a team.Hope we can bounce back.
This team has a “Come Back” Mentality
However, we should not be losing this game at this point
Nope. The balk. The nibbling at Tommy Boy. Just not a good showing. Add our impatience at the plate early on and … here we are.
Bats are a delayed start tonight.
Disappointing so far. Then again, the reason it is disappointing is because of what we’ve seen of late.
Well POOP!!! That’s not something we wanted to see.
They have got to get Stephenson to another position ASAP.
What kind of injury are we talking about?
Looked to me like he just took a hard one off the mask and it may have injured a tooth or something. I don’t think it’s a concussion thing, but who knows?
This is where I’d be more of a fan of the hockey goalie mask then the standard one. I think they absorb more shock by design.
Thanks Deb. Didn’t he miss time with a concussion? Are am I confusing him with another player?
Nope. He did miss some time under concussion protocol.
Agreed. Concussions ended Luke Kuechly’s career to soon. I don’t want to see that happen to Ty Steve
*too soon*
Had to look it up to see who the devil that is.
CF for the Carolina Mudcats
Or LB for the Carolina Panthers … 🙂
And a local boy from St. X. Fortunately had the smarts to quit while his brain still was working. Also an all around nice guy
Well, that puts me one step closer to the “move Tyler Stephenson camp”. Not there yet….but closer.
Nibble around and then hang one to Tommy Boy. Yep, that’s a formula for success.
I’m almost ready to Clete at this point tonight. Seems their hearts aren’t in it. Not sure if the Bats will play or not.
Frustrating …
What happened with Stephenson?
Took a hard foul-tip off the mask. Looked like he may have injured his jaw or teeth.
That was some hustle by Castillo
Ive seen enough
Stephenson is the future
Without him… there is none
Move him to first base for 10 years
Sorry Joey
At least that breaks up the no-no
Wasted no time getting Detwiler some work
I see Ross followed Castillo’s book on how to pitch to Tommy Boy … 😮
I have said they need to move Stephenson to DH and first base for awhile. He is concussion prone and that is a problem for a catcher.
I wouldn’t call it a problem. He had 1 in high school, and 1 in A ball… That’s about 1 every 5 years. Probably less than average for a catcher
I’d agree. “Concussion prone” probably doesn’t describe it. He is playing the one position in baseball that has a higher propensity for concussions than any other by quite a margin. But if what we saw was his 3rd total, that’s not a huge number.
Still, the more we learn about them, the uglier they appear to be. I think the opportunity is there to move him out of “harm’s way” and keep him in the line-up. I’m sure his young bride (married in December) would be happy with that arrangement.
I think I’ve read that you are more susceptible to concussions after you’ve had one, at least for a while.
Nice hit and heads-up running by Almora. Gives us at least a chance to tie it up.
Bats are now warming up. Joey at DH. Ashcroft is pitching.
Looks like they will play, but so far the warm-up seems a little sluggish.
Strickland keeps it a 2 run game
Pleasantly surprised.
Scary McGarry hit his 11th bomb tonight for Dayton. His OPS is now 1.193
3 for 3 and is now hitting .333
Nice DP to give us a chance
Joey coming to bat, friends.
Upright stance. Fairly wide. Took a BB on a full count.
Nice outing by Andrew Abbott making his first start at AA. 5 1/3 shout out innings allowing only 3 hits. 12 strike outs 0 walks. Yes, you read that right.
😮
Good job tonight by the bullpen of keeping the Reds in the game and giving them a chance to come back. The offense sure looks different without TySteve in it!
+100
Turn my attention to the Bats and an episode of Law & Order
Opposite field RBI half-swing flair for Joey on his second plate appearance.
Good result….not happy to hear about check swinging
I’m always perplexed how a team (Reds) which averaged 6 runs per game over their last 10 games struggles to score but a single run against a team like the Pirates. Need to win the final game tomorrow!
Yep. It’s baffling.
No Farmer no squidgy.
Chased the Mud Hens starting pitcher in the 2nd. Bats up 2-0.
Joey scored from 2nd on a base hit. Bats now up 3-0.