Graham Ashcraft allowed one run in 7.0 innings while Joey Votto, Matt Reynolds, and Kyle Farmer all homered as the Cincinnati Reds rode two big innings to a win against the Washington Nationals to open up their 8-game homestand on Thursday night.
| Final | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|
| Washington Nationals (18-35) | 1 | 5 | 1 |
| Cincinnati Reds (18-32) | 8 | 10 | 0 |
| W: Ashcraft (2-0) L: Adon (1-9) | |||
| Statcast | Box Score | Game Thread | |||
The Offense
After Brandon Drury singled and Tommy Pham walked in the 1st inning, Joey Votto hit a ball halfway up the stands in the sundeck in left field to make it 3-0 for the Reds. That’s where the score remained until the 7th inning. After the Nationals got their first run in the top half of the inning, Cincinnati put things away.
Matt Reynolds led the 7th off with a solo home run to get the run back and make it 4-1. Nick Senzel and Brandon Drury followed with singles, and Senzel came around to score on a sacrifice fly by Tommy Pham. After a pitching change, Joey Votto walked and then Kyle Farmer clobbered a 3-run home run to make it an 8-1 ballgame.
The Pitching
Things were smooth sailing for Graham Ashcraft through the first four innings, having allowed just one single along the way. But in the 5th inning the Nationals got a 1-out walk and a single to follow to put two men on. Ashcraft clamped down and got a ground out and followed up with a strikeout to end the threat and hold onto a 3-0 lead.
After a 1-2-3 6th inning, Ashcraft returned for the 7th and gave up his first home run of the year to Josh Bell as Washington made it a 3-1 game. He’d give up another single in the inning, but get out without any more damage and complete his outing with a career high five strikeouts while throwing just 92 pitches.
Art Warren came out and pitched a perfect 8th inning with two strikeouts. Joel Kuhnel took over in the 9th and had to work around an infield single, but he got the job done without allowing a run as Cincinnati picked up the victory.
Key Moment of the Game
If there was any doubt that the Nationals had a comeback in them that left the building along with Kyle Farmer’s 3-run home run in the bottom of the 7th inning.
Notes Worth Noting
The home run given up by Graham Ashcraft in the 7th inning was the first of the year he’d given up this season. He threw 32.2 innings without one in Triple-A and then another 17.0 in the big leagues before Bell connected on Thursday night.
Up Next for the Cincinnati Reds
Washington Nationals vs Cincinnati Reds
Friday June 3rd, 6:40pm ET
Josiah Gray (5-4, 5.08 ERA) vs Mike Minor (Season Debut)
Ashcraft may be the best of the bunch.
His stuff is very impressive.
Fast, heavy fastball. Hard to square up on. Hard to get up in the air.
Big strong guy. Kind of reminds me a little of Don Drysdale, although Drysdale was kind of a side-armer. He was hard to square up on, too.
From the rotation appearance, Minor is starting tomorrow, and appears to be replacing Guittierez in the rotation. Josiah Gray, former Reds’ minor leaguer (remember him) will be pitching for the Nationals.
Tomorrow could be a high scoring game, and a battle of the bullpens.
Ashcraft is the best of the bunch right now. However, I still expect Greene and Lodolo to be better. Ashcraft may make a good #3 starter. Look at his minor league stats. You are seeing his better performance right now.
Yeah, I’m noticing a shift back to the early 2000s when sinkerball pitchers were all the rage. Hitters were used to straight heat and couldn’t convince their minds to adjust to sinkerballs. The hitter finally started to make adjustments and could hit sinkers so the whole spin rate thing took over. Pitchers started wanting fastballs that dropped less. This tricks the hitters minds because they instinctively expect the ball to drop. Ashcraft seems to be one of the ones leading the way back toward throwing a fastball that sinks, which now that hitters are used to high spin, non-sinking fastballs, they simply hit his sinker with weak grounders. History tells us it takes years for hitters as a whole to adjust to shifts in pitching philosophy like that, and with Ashcraft being an early adopter (I think more sinkerballers will show up before long), he has potentially years ahead of him to dominate. Should be fun to watch.
*disclaimer: this is just the theory of a crazy old man, so take it as a fun thing I was thinking about.
I’m in on that theory.
The Reds (because of their park) should have developed their pitchers to throw sinkers. Instead, they’ve gone with the spinny spinnerson approach.
Sounds reasonable to me, Luke. It’s hard to avoid being excited about Ashcraft: He seems to know what he’s doing and, in some ways, his approach reminds me of crafty location-first pitchers (Miley, Arroyo). But he’s got terrific stuff. Pitch-efficient, pitch to contact. He’s a lot of fun to watch.
Very much agree. He is a bulldog on the mound. Just hope he stays healthy.
Reds have passed the Royals and the Nats in the standings. Next up, the Athletics.
In-game WHIP of .71 for Ashcraft. I’d call that pretty successful, especially since only one of those hits scored a run.
Pitcher A
IP 48 (in 10 starts), K/BB 64/24, ERA 6.19, WHIP 1.53, HR 15
Pitcher B
IP 17.2 (in 3 starts), K/BB 9/5, ERA 1.53, WHIP 0.96, HR 1 (and that includes 0 HR in 33 IP at AAA)
Which of these two pitchers most likely developed his pitching skill in the minor leagues, dominating at every level, before ascending to the major leagues?
What could pitcher A, the one everybody swoons over, learn in AAA? He could learn how to pitch! He did not dominate at any minor league level for a full season. He did not earn his rotation position, it was given to him, and he should only keep it if he performs.
At 18, Hunter Greene was hitting 100 mph on his fastball. Yeah, everybody swoons over that kind of talent, but…you can’t teach it.
Greene is a very smart young man. I think a lot of his “problems” come from “pitching stamina” and controlling the strike zone.
I would call “pitching stamina” part physical and part psychological, in terms of not physically giving in to a batter in a key situation. Maddox and Glavine used to constantly say, “giving in is giving up”, when pitching.
I take Doc’s point, but respectfully disagree about sending Greene down. Adding a good third pitch would help, as would refining his ability to throw the fastball to different spots. Major League hitters will let him know if he’s succeeding, and this is a fine year for him to learn on the job.
Pitcher A knows how to pitch otherwise he wouldn’t be in the Majors!! What were you doing at 22? Surely not pitching to mlb hitters. Geesh
Graduating with a degree in chemical engineering from Purdue and learning to analyze data.
If pitching in the major leagues by 22 id a prerequisite to comment, which MLB team were you pitching for at age 22?
I graduated from Purdue in 1974 with BSE IDE (Interdisciplonary) at age 23.
I saw Dave Winfield and Paul Molitor play baseball for Minnesota at Purdue.
If Greene doesn’t blow his arm out again, then he’s likely going to be a big deal. But, let’s be honest, the main reason he was called up was to generate fan interest in what was otherwise going to be a lousy season. In other words, to distract the fans from the mismanagement of the Reds at all levels. I guess it’s working. And besides, it lays the basis for trading Castillo and Mahle.
He needs to master a third pitch. He throws his changeup literally about 1 percent of the time.
And it doesn’t necessarily have to be a true “change up”. It could be as simple as learning to take 2-3 mph off his fastball in spots with different movement and location by slightly modifying his grip and finger locations.
Taking nothing away from Pitcher B, at age 24, we are probably seeing him at or near his ceiling. His skill set was such that he had to learn to pitch to make it to where he is at. Kudos to him for that.
Given health moving forward, Pitcher A at age 22 has hardly scratched the surface of where he will likely end up.
Were you preaching this during the 3 game stretch that Greene was dominant and throwing a no hit outing? If Ashcraft comes out and gets rocked one or two games in a row are you going to sing the same tune and demand he be sent down to hone his craft? We are dealing with very small sample sizes for both pitchers right now (even moreso with Ashcraft), but both Greene and Ashcraft have shown they are capable of dominant outings in the majors. Greene has absolutely shown he belongs in the majors. To deny that is to ignore 1/2 of his outings where he’s been nearly unhittable. He just needs to do it more consistently, which he can only learn in the majors, against the quality of hitter who can force him to make those in-game adjustments.
Couldn’t agree more LukeJ.
I know it’s a small sample size but it appears that Mr. Ashcraft is the real deal. Let’s get everyone healthy and keep Votto being Votto!
True small sample size. Not ready to give him the Cy young. Nice to see though, all three have something different in their ability to get guys out. Lodolo has promise as well as Greene. I do hope Greene starts to throw his change up more.
If the pitch is truly a show pitch, then I’m not sure its going to be effective enough for me to want him to use it more. Plain and simple he needs a third pitch, I’m open to that being anything at this point as long as its effective. Hopefully he finds one in the next few years.
I believe the Reds have played .600 ball over their last 25 games. That pace for the rest of the year projects to 70 wins, quite a jump from the projections of 25 wins that were appearing in comments on this site in the early throws of the poor start.
a lot of fans were actually rooting for it, though I get that after the brain-dead comments from the teams FO. It was obvious they were better than their record at the time.
Doc, I think that you miscalculated a bit. 162 games – 50 games played = 112 left in the season. 112 x 0.600 = 67.2 MORE wins. 67.2 +18 (wins in the books) = 85.2 for the season and that will at least get them in the conversation for the playoffs. After the ridiculous start to the season, that should get David Bell Manager of the Year, IMO.
That is true. Something tells me this is not a 85 win team, though. Rookie pitchers and bad hitting is not a winning combination. Plus, if and when the Reds trade Castillo and/or Mahle, it will just put more pressure on those rookie pitchers. The pitchers show great promise. Of course, I am old enough to remember so many times when players showed great promise and then flamed out. Frank Pastore was 13-7 in 1980, but did very little afterwards. He is just one example.
I’ve been on the trade Farmer bandwagon for a while now, but thats assuming Barrero can hack it and the Reds could field a superior hitter at 3B as well. Idk? Farmer will be 32 in August but he should 2-3 decent years ahead of him hopefully.
I think he’s proven he could be a good platoon/utility guy at a minimum. Slide into 3B or 1B and give Joey some time off vs lefties next year. I’m also not sure he could bring back enough in a trade to really help the Reds. I vote to keep him and hopefully Castillo too.
If this young pitching starts to blossom then they could compete next year. Have to get Moose far away from Cincinnati somehow and convince Joey that the season starts in April. He’s still our only feared hitter vs righties, but he does as much to bury this team early as anyone.
It will be veerrrrry interesting to see what happens with Barrero when his rehab is complete. We know that Bell loves Farmer’s intangibles, and probably more. I wouldn’t be surprised to see one end up at short, and one at third. Not sure which one at which position.
In addition there’s Santana at AAA playing 3B and hitting something like .357. I bet Farmer can play OF too. Also, didn’t Barrero play some CF for the Reds late last year? Interesting decisions coming soon.
If Barrero ends up at 3B and Farmer as SS it will be utterly ridiculous. Other way around is okay. I wander what would have happened if Concepcion and Larkin were treated like Barrero. He clearly is the better defender and has hit well at every level. As some have said he’s just going through his Spring Training at the moment. He’s also starting at an older age already then they did if I’m not mistaken. His years are being wasted.
Barrero has “hit at every level”, except at the major league level. As is also the case with Greene, Barrero has piles of talent but he needs to earn the position, not have it handed to him.
How’s he going to earn it if he doesn’t get the opportunity consistently? As has been stated by others on here Concepcion and Larkin took their lumps when starting out at the major league level before they took off and became great players. They earned that opportunity by showing off what they could do in the minors.
Barrero has more range so he seems like a better fit a shortstop. Farmer is sure-handed, plenty of arm strength and accuracy. I think he’s a player who is greater than the sum of his parts.
Santana has been playing 1B the last week or two. Maybe since Schrock is on rehab? Or, maybe for other reasons?
@Jim that sounded ominous “for other reasons” lol. If Santana makes the roster it will be as a role player. I just can’t see him taking over a position.
If I remember correctly, I maybe I’m not, I think Pete Rose use to start slow and be going full blast in August and Sept. Of course, slow for Pete was never sub-.200.
Great job ashcraft
Nats stink
Its now on Derek Johnson to fix Hunter Greene
Is he the pitching whisperer or just the guy who was handed 5 of the 10 best college pitchers every year
Derek johnson needs to prove himself
Hes not done that in mlb
Hunter Greene DJ!!!!!!
Thats your job ! You aint doing it!!!
Do your job
Greene is a two-pitch pitcher at present. Once major league hitters see him once or twice through the order, they’ve seen the two pitches and they know what to look for. 50-50 chance of being right (instead of 33 percent for a three-pitch pitcher).
Where is the best place to learn and perfect a third pitch? To me it is the minor leagues. Greene did not dominate AAA, where his stats were worse than they were in AA. It makes sense that MLB hitters would hit him better than did AAA players.
I’d like to see Greene become a 4-pitch pitcher.
2-seam, 4-seam, slider, change. Classic power pitcher repertoire.
Site would not let me respond to Jim’s comment, but I agree the third pitch does not necessarily have to be a change up. Mario Soto used to say he had 4 different fastballs, and even any variation on the FB/slider mix would make those two plus pitches much harder to deal with.
Really torn on if he should be sent down. He had almost no AAA time with COVID. The jump is from AAA to MLB is obviously enormous, and if he has a couple more rough starts the pshycological damage of sending him down might be less than the damage of getting hit hard every 5 days.
GA is the real deal Ace of this staff right now. Of the Three highly touted minor leaguers Lodolo is good but injured often. Greene is not fully developed. Ashcraft however dominating with athority
Great games by Votto (he is back) and Renyolds ( who saw this comming) as well as Farmer. Even Pham was productive
This is the way I wanted Greene and Lodolo to enter the MLB. 1 to 2 months into the season, and pitching so well at AAA that they push someone out of the rotation. They both got put into the deep end, but I think they are doing fine. Ashcraft will take his lumps to, but it’s nice to start off hot like this.
In addition there’s Santana at AAA playing 3B and hitting something like .327. I bet Farmer can play OF too. Also, didn’t Barrero play some CF for the Reds late last year? Interesting decisions coming soon.
Barrero 1-4 hr tonight. Has a .879 ops
Barrero’s rehab OBP is .326 as part of that .878 OPS. but bet $$ against donuts as he comes up what we will hear is his BA is .237 and his K rate is 37.2%.
The make-up IF (Reynolds, Farmer and Drury) all hitting above .750 OPS with outstanding defense, not bad.
I liked the Drury pick up.Has pop can field and does not up clog the bases.Turns 30 this year and has a lifetime average of 249 in 1800 at bats.He has quietly went about his job and done well.I expect him to continue to do so.Let him play.
I question how outstanding the IF defense is because they struggle to complete a GIDP almost every time they have a chance at one. Due to their shifts, either a fielder can’t get to many of the potential GIDP balls or if a fielder gets to them, nobody is in position to cover 2B.
Meanwhile, opponents have seemingly few issues in turning GIDPs versus the Reds.
Seems to me either there are flaws in the Reds underlying shift philosophy/ positioning, the players don’t understand their coverage responsibilities, or the players are physically unable to complete their responsibilities. Or, maybe the problem is a combination of these factors.
On the Pregame Show, Almora & Reynolds were interviewed talking about how nice it is to be home where the offense has been much better. Think about that! Almora & Reynolds. Highly improbably both would be interviewed a month or two ago. Now both are starters and contributing.
Right now, Ashcroft is up there as one of our best starters. Nobody could have predicted that a month ago. Great to see. Out of chaos comes order!
Farmer always doing the necessary to keep Bell falling in love. Last night , he failed in a clutch situation with 1-out bases loaded grounded into a doubleplay to kill the rally but he erased that with the 3-run homer when Reds had a 5-1 lead…
Ashcraft has been underrated by the scouts because they always say he has a reliever profile but since AA he has shown very good performance as starter…
Yep but he shared the headlines with Ashcroft and maybe he should have cause I like him also.However he is just a good player with below career average numbers on a bad team and a utility player at best on a good team.I hope he is still here as a utility player when the Reds are a good team.
Hold the play off tickets.Reds just beat a team that is worse then they are right now and play in a division that has both the Cubs and Bucs in rebuild mode.Reds still have to unload some older non productive players and then we can really get excited as these younger more athletic hungrier and much better players take the field.India,Barrero and Shrock must play with the first two guys starting for the next several years.Right now we are in a fight for last place until we aren’t.Lots to get excited about with the young pitching and the young guy tonight was just nasty
“You Gotta Believe” ! I’ll hold you a seat my brother on the bandwagon. Playoff bound!
I personally would like to see Hunter go back to AAA until at least August (presumably when the reds decide to trade Castillo OR Mahle) to work on his precision. He has such nasty stuff but it seems like he makes one to many mistakes. Leaving 100MPH fastballs right over the plate. I don’t think he has learned that in the big leagues if you throw a pitch right down the middle no matter how fast it is they are going to hit it. He got away with this his whole life. Once Hunter gets a little bit better at controlling his pitches he is going to be extremely tough to hit. I would just hate to see the kids confidence go down as he continually gets hit. It’s so frustrating because his stuff is so good and anyone can see it but he just makes a few too many mistakes (that I think can be easily fixed). I just don’t think you can make those mistakes at the MLB level. Let him make them at AAA. For now I think they should go with Castillo, Mahle, Minor, Aschcraft and I guess Gutierrez. When Lodolo comes back I may send Gutierrez to bullpen.
We’ll see this evening if Minor will be someone of any dependability. I’m typically a fan of left junk-ball pitchers (loved Miley’s gig) but I’m not holding my breath with Minor.
I’d be interested to see if Gutierrez has had a wake up call and returns to some of the form he showed last summer.
Lodolo sounds like he’s still some ways off, so we might need to limp along with Minor and Vlad.
Greene is really going to have to crash and burn to be sent to AAA. I certainly don’t wish for that to happen, but learning to expand his pitch repetoire on the fly in MLB is a tall order, as well.
I tend to disagree on Greene and AAA. I realize he didn’t have much time there and has been thrown into the fire on a team that dug a huge hole. But I’m in the camp that says this is the place for him to learn the nuances of the MLB game and to add in that somewhat elusive 3rd (or maybe 4th) pitch. His innings are limited either way. If he goes back to L’Ville, he’ll still tap out at the same point. And he won’t face MLB (and admittedly AAAA) hitters.
When Lodolo gets healthy enough, let him take over more innings as Greene’s load gets lighter. Ashcraft has a similar limit, so something will need to be done there regardless of how he performs (and so far it’s been great).
Talented young pitchers in the quantity we seem to have them is a rare thing no matter which organization. Focus needs to remain on 2024 and 2025. The rest of this year is a wash (and it pains me to say that). Let’s see our young talent remerge and get healthy. That’s what matters.
What’s the latest on India? Hamstring, right? That injury can be stubborn to heal, but it has been a long time.
He went to Boston with the team, so I’m assuming he’s still on whatever rehab regimen they have him doing. He will go on a rehab at some point, but I have to think it won’t be and extended one.
Some solid info would be helpful, though.
I think someone had a video of him taking batting practice in Boston the other day, so he’s probably pretty close. Last step is probably running at game speed. But, as has been said, a team that’s 14 games under 500 doesn’t exactly need to rush back and unnecessarily worsen their young star’s injury.
There was also a clip posted on Twitter of India doing a running drill weaving between road cones in the outfield at Boston.
I think about 10 days ago they said he was still 2 weeks away from starting a rehab stint and he was doing baseball activities but not cleared for games.
I think at some point Greene might get optioned to help preserve his inning numbers and stuff. Maybe when Lodolo is ready roll with Castillo, Mahle, Minor, Ashcraft, Lodolo until any (or all) of the first three are traded. I also think Vlad should work out of Louisville’s rotation to stay stretch out when there’s inevitably a need for another starter at some point.
India,Barrett and Shrock will get here but the issue right now is Farmer,Drury and Reynolds have held their own so what do you do.What needs to happen won”t happen in that Pham and Moose be let go.Reynolds will be sent down for sure which clears one spot and Naquin on the injured list clears another but the bigger issue is Pham and Moose get at bats that are need by younger players.Tune in and watch what happens.
If Pham isn’t getting AB’s who is? We don’t exactly have a lot of OF prospects ready to take over.
Cedrola, Dawson, and Amburgey are not even AAAA players, much less major league starters. Fraley, and Friedl have not performed, they are AAAA players. Naquin and Almora will be FA in 23.
Like it or not Pham isn’t taking away time from anyone, and he’s also the best OF the Reds currently have.
He is definitely NOT the best outfielder the Reds have. I agree he’s good when not out of control, but we really dont need him on this team anymore.
Aquino needs every at bat possible.Pham is on a one year deal and he will not be back.
I have to think that some or all of Drury, Farmer, Reynolds gorup gets moved at the deadline for whatever even minimal prospecct return they bring.
Girardi out as Phillies manager.Roster full of holes.Sluggers that do little else making big bucks.Payroll of 224 mil and we thought we were in a bad place.Man I wonder if they would take Moose since it appears money isn’t an issue
Saw that. Made me chuckle. Unlimited (or seemingly so) pockets can’t always work out the way you planned.
Trade him for Castellanos. Straight up.
We’d want more than that wouldn’t we? I mean how many teams have a player with the name Moose? 🙂
Oh, we’d want more. Couldn’t hurt to ask.
oops sorry, our same thought crossed in the ether.
Throw in Pham too.
@oldschool +100 on Pham. Phils could cut them both immediately and still come out even to slightly ahead on money this year and have $80m in future costs cleared.
Here is a thought. Would the Philles flip the almost $100m left on Castellanos deal for the one third of that amount (give or take) left on Moose’s deal?
That’s an interesting thought Jim. I guess it depends how they see themselves. Looking to rebuild in a different way maybe? Maybe speed and defense instead of power? Either way I don’t see Castellanos being their major problem but then again I don’t watch enough of the Phillies.
@JB Agree with you from the Phillies side. Are they tearing down/ retooling or just declaring Giraldi a bust and looking to try and salvage things.
The fly in the ointment for Reds might be the $8m sunken on Pham for this season.
Castellanos in 2023 would be salary neutral to slightly cheaper than Moose for the Reds since they will owe Moose $18 in annual salary then $4m as a buyout of his 2024 option at $20M on him.
With Votto off the books starting in ’24, the last 3 years of the Castellanos contract shouldn’t be an issue for the Reds.
Reds aren’t going to take on that kind of money, unfortunately.
Whoa Tom, we can dream!
While I hate to give up Castillo he would bring the biggest return.
Friedl sent down as Minor returns. Gutierrez to the pen a permanent move? Sending him to Louisville in the rotation seems like a better option. Unless short term move until Barrero or Schrock is ready.
You may be right. Gutierrez, IMO, is around for now as a contingency plan for Minor getting knocked out early tonight or getting hurt again. (Hopefully not, but it’s happened a few times this year already on this roster.)
Lineup is out. Seems like a strange time to sit Farmer, but maybe he’s a little beat up?
Not a big lineup complainer, but see no reason why Drury would bat 2nd and Stephenson would bat 5th? Stephenson is the better hitter and has much better on-base skills as well as the ability to shoot it the other way which is really nice for the 2 hole hitter. Drury has been hitting well and shooting the ball to right quite often himself, but it would be better to give Joey more rbi chances.
Its been reported Farmer’s turnaround started after he got those 3 days off and a steroid injection. Perhaps they are just doing the NBA “load management” with a 4 pm start tomorrow and day game Sunday or the steroid boost is waning.
If Moose has a glove that’s even more stranger
I agree. As I’ve been saying, a lot, lol, Stephenson batting 5th on this team is crazy. If he has to hit behind Votto to protect him then move them both up. Move Pham down.
Green reminds me of Chapman. He has closer written all over him. Everybody wants their big arms to be starters but sometimes the back end of the bullpen is more sustainable for high velocity/two-pitch pitchers. Especially one that has already had Tommy John surgery.
SR
1. Ashcraft
2. Lodolo
3. Overton
4. Williamson
5. Antone?
Set up = Diaz/ Sims
Closer = Greene
The future is bright!