The Cincinnati Reds (23-40) will return home for a 6-game homestand, and a stretch of 9 games against the three teams that won the most games in the National League a season ago. The Reds will start this difficult stretch against the Milwaukee Brewers (35-30) tonight at 6:40 PM. The Brewers come in struggling as they are just 3-11 so far in the month of June. The Brewers have not won a series since May 23-25 against the Padres.
Starting Pitchers
Greene has made two career starts against the Brewers, and they just happened to be back-to-back starts. The first one was a disaster, but the second one showed the remarkable growth that Green has displayed during his rookie season:
May 5 (at MIL): 2.2 IP, 9 H, 8 ER, 1 BB, 7 K, 5 HR
May 10 (vs MIL): 5.1 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 4 BB, 6 K, 1 HR
The biggest notable difference between those two starts was that Greene threw his slider 38% of the time in the first start, but 48% in the second start (Greene threw his fastball 47% of the time in the second start).
Eric Lauer has a career 4.25 ERA in 7 starts against the Reds. This will be his first start against the Reds in 2022. Lauer was having an incredible 2022 season until his last start when he got crushed by the Nationals: 5.0 IP, 7 H, 8 ER, 4 BB, 2 K.
Starting Lineups
Update: Joey Votto is out of the lineup. Here’s the new lineup
- Jonathan India – 2B
- Brandon Drury – 3B
- Tommy Pham – LF
- Kyle Farmer – DH
- Matt Reynolds – SS
- Nick Senzel – CF
- Mike Moustakas – 1B
- Albert Almora Jr. – RF
- Aramis Garcia – C
Max Schrock is Back!
Cincinnati made three big league roster moves today. Max Schrock was activated from the injured list, Tony Santillan was placed on the injured list, and Lucas Sims was moved to the 60-day injured list. For more details on all of that, we covered it here at Redleg Nation earlier today.
Conclusion
These next 9 games are going to be a real challenge for the Reds, and even after that it doesn’t get much easier up until in the All-Star break. Hopefully the Reds can continue to play well. The Reds are 20-18 since May 7th, and they did catch the Cubs at least in the NL Central. It would be nice to see them play well against some good competition. Go Reds!
Great that you show all those stats, but really what matters (to me anyway) is BA, OBP and RBIs. Please include those in your next lineup cards . Thanks
In his defense those are easily found on most any site with stats on them. I personally liked the statcast numbers myself, those are a bit harder to find. All the normal game previews have the stats you prefer.
That is an outstanding game preview Nick. Kudos.
That graphic ranking the Reds in MLB should be pinned somewhere. We cant hit for average. We cant get on base. We cant slug. Our Defense isnt good and our bullpen cant get guys out but can strike some out. Ouch.
Lorenzo Cain basically admitted he cant play baseball at the level needed to compete anymore. That was a bad contract.
Christian Yellich is taunting Bobby Bonilla over how bad his contract is in comparison. Brewers might be in trouble as they cant afford the big 3 SP very soon and hader is gone next year.
Go Reds.
I agree. Outstanding game preview article by Nick.
What is wrong with Bell?
Votto a late scratch and he moves Moose from DH to 1b and puts Farmer at DH from SS? How bout Farmer at 1b and Reynolds SS if Farmer is a bit dinged up? Giving Moose a glove is never the right move, unless Bell is more concerned about making sure Moose always still gets a glove in the hierarchy of veteran-ness and farmer never plays a position other than SS for fear the optics of that might encourage that more often.
SMH Extra Hard … 😮
Moose (aka Manatee) is like crack to DTBell and the organization. They just can’t kick the habit no matter what.
I’m not sure Farmer is that much better than moose at one of the least important positions on the field. Let Bell give Farmer a bit of rest, what’s so wrong with that?
To put your best defensive team on the field to win tonight’s game? Farmer was starting at SS at 5 pm. Votto is the one who got scratched- not Farmer. Farmer is your best rotational piece- except apparently bell doesnt want to go down that road.
It’s just so nit-picky and really not that big of a plus to the defense. Certainly not enough for me to wanna stress over. It looks like there’s something more to the story than we’re being told, I thought I read somewhere on here farmer was dealing with fatigue.
Moose with a glove against a lefty should never happen
Most would argue it shouldnt happen against a righty
Moose and Rowdy tellez sprint speeds . Id get bet on Red and Indy to Handicap that 100 Yard dash.
Fastest 2 minutes in sports
cannot handicap something that will never end lol
Well he’s on the team whether you like it or not. You can be upset every time he plays if you wish I suppose. Plus I dont see a right-hander on the bench that should replace him.
If Farmer doesn’t play Ss or DH then it’s reasonable to expect Barrero to get a chance. That is not going to happen. As Bell said, Farmer is the Reds’ SS
Sitting Votto against a lefty is probably not a bad idea.
It’s not a bad idea. The question is why.
Votto sat himself it seems
Greene round 2 against the Brewers. Let’s see if it’s different this go round.
round 3
I stand corrected. I checked the game logs and Greene has faced the Brewers twice previously. That first outing up in Milwaukee stood out in my mind more than did game 2.
Votto “ Rest day. Be back tomorrow”
Moose ain’t the answer though
who is?
I honestly have no idea what reasoning went into tonight’s lineup…sure hope it’s explained to me
The Reds have won 2 of the last 3 with Moose in the lineup. He is Bells lucky charm.
Every RH that can hit is in the lineup, what do you suggest was different?
Anthony Rendon 7/245 done for the year again.
Reds doing the right thing not signing players for stupid contracts after 30. Getting rid of Saurez contract was the right move.
Stay on course and let the Moose contract expire and Votto expire and build for 2024. There’s some awful contracts out there- Nats/Phillies/Angels
The Reds will be in a very good position with those final 2 contracts falling off the books. Please no FA deals over 3 years or over 15% of max payroll budget. Which if we are at our max payroll now that’d be a max contract of approximately 3Y 50M.
Is it bad my favorite games are Greene and Ashcraft? Castillo is great, but I know what to expect, and Mahle he is the wildcard you can get his last outing or ruin your dinner
I’m the same. I would rather watch the young kids play.
It’s not even close, I’m so much more excited to watch HG and GA.
Do I have to choose?
This is a very enjoyable set of four starting pitchers to watch.
And Minor?
Well, he’s “interesting”.
Moose at least not dropping the ball so far… figuratively and literally
Nice catch Moose
Have to shut them out to win
Regarding John Sadak’s point about Greene’s ERA being around 8.00 in the second time through the batting order: It’s been my belief that with only two pitches essentially (fastball and slider), the hitters have seen all they need to see their first time up in the game. Kind of relates to relief pitchers — they can get by with two pitches because they usually face hitters only once per game.
GASP is a challenging place to learn to pitch in.
The short fences were supposed to provide a lot of thrills from Junior and Dunn.
Time to move them back for Greene, Lodolo, Overton, Ashcraft, etc.
This game over
Yep, this game looks unsurmountable right now
lol, doom and gloom. Classic RLN
Reds are 23-40 and in last place in their division and worst team in the NL. TheFy started off with 3-22 and the worst record in history. Fair assessment for a team that hasn’t won a playoff game in a decade. If that’s not doom and gloom , what is????? please share with us your view of sunshine unicorns and rainbows when it comes to the reds in 2022?
I’m not sunshine by any means, but I dont give up on a game as soon as someone scores. its the 5th inning y’all. eh, i dunno, I guess I try and enjoy stuff anyway regardless of circumstance. Its one of my favorite teams, I root for them. If thats too sunny for people I dont really know what to say.
Almora didnt think it was insurmountable.
@2020
Were all good. I hear you. Ill probably go to a game this weekend. You are correct. Focus on the positive. Fathers Day weekend and I’m going to enjoy.
And back to back jacks!
For sure friend, I hope you enjoy the game! Dont mind me in general – I’m a gadfly of sorts around here, but I try to have a reason behind it.
Greene might get 2 more innings. Unfortunately the offense hasn’t shown up from Arizona.
Typical Sadak, he starts the inning talking about how good Greene was in his last 2 starts, and then right on cue we see 2 bloops and a blast. Thanks for the jinx, Sadak.
Lol, I like to blame Sadak to. It’s too fun not to.
2 pitches that stayed In the middle of the plate. Both went for home runs.
As predicted, nothing turns a team’s fortunes around faster than playing the Reds. And sadly, the Cubs have already won.
hm, tie game….
Hey, I’m as pleased and surprised as the rest of you
Almora gives some life!
Man I thought that was 2nd deck.
and moose got up that hill…. i mean a hit
Almora quickly playing himself ahead of Senzel on the depth chart
Totally agree.
I’m down on Senzel but name 2 better outfielders now who are healthy. Look at Nick’ Kirby’s speed and defense chart. I’m as frustrated as anyone with Senzel but if you want this team to focus on speed and defense…..Senzel is the fastest and playing CF…the most valuable and cheapest. Almora has a role for sure. It’s both…not either.
I agree and I wish it did come down to Senzel vs Almora cause that would mean we are set at the corner outfield positions and we aren’t.Both need to play and stay healthy the rest of the way.I have always felt and still do that Senzel is part of the future especially after his rookie year.Hope he does play the rest of the way and then we will see.
both is right for now, when everyone is healthy though….
The Irony of the Play by play guy indicating that noone wants to hear his voice
First-batter walk from Hoffman …
We all like the Red’s SP crew and there is a lot of potential and some possible big gains from some well executed trades. However, does anyone else notice that with 40% of the season completed no one on the pitching staff has more than 3 wins? Sure, the game has changed but I would guess that this stat if not improved by especially some of the SP, may be a down factor on some of the potential trade returns as well as the perceived effectiveness of the staff and coaching overall. Anyone else bite on this?
Nope, pitcher wins are meaningless. No defenders stat should be dictated by the offense.
Mahle should have 6 wins by now. Horrific Bullpen and bad offense.
Starting pitcher wins actually do matter. But as long as the “analytics” crowd is calling the shots, the prevailing mindset will be that they don’t.
How do they matter? Why’s one stat better than the other, just cause its older and easier to understand? The teams bad, so the pitchers often wont get wins even if they pitch well. That sounds to me like a useless stat. I dont need to go with the crowd, I just use my own brain.
Analytics have their place but they shouldnt be an end all be all IMO, many people in the “crowd” youre referring to ignore that. But that doesnt mean they should just be thrown out. Thats just lazy thinking.
Competition, keeping the game close in real life circumstances, pitching to a few extra batters, etc. So, all the 300 game winners, complete games, and IP statistics from the old school guys meant nothing? Wins are the be all for this game yet a pitcher win as defined by you leave with your team winning means nothing? Agree to disagree but David Bell is probably on your side for what that is worth.
Analytics would probably like all those pitchers too. The players themselves mean something, not the numbers you’re choosing, IMO anyway.
And yeah, wins are the be all. They are a team stat, why we are arbitrarily applying something the team does to one guy is ridiculous. A guy can throw a no hitter and still lose and another guy can give up ten runs and still get a win. Does that sound like a good stat to you?
Oh lol, and I dont give a ‘what’ if Bell agrees with me or not. Is that supposed to make me feel like Im wrong because Bell agrees? Thats just silly, I have no shame if thats the case.
Competition, keeping the game close in real life circumstances, pitching to a few extra batters, etc. So, all the 300 game winners, complete games, and IP statistics from the old school guys meant nothing? Wins are the be all for this game yet a pitcher win as defined by you leave with your team winning means nothing? Agree to disagree but David Bell is probably on your side for what that is worth.
Odds are if Bell is on your side, you’ve placed the wrong bet. Let’s see if the Reds can come back yet again.
If the best argument y’all can come up with against analytics is Bell would agree with me then I guess that just proves my point even more.
The best argument against “analytics “ is that they are descriptive statistics not inferential. And yet they are used otherwise.
And pitcher wins do that better?
Stats are what guys have done, I recognize that duh. You can use them as a tool to evaluate guys, but I personally prefer watching a guy before I form an opinion on him. It just seems lazy to me to ignore them completely because you dont like the manager.
Nice throw Garcia
Great throw from Garcia!
Drury now makes us down by one
PHAM BAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!TIE GAME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Pity to those who may have checked out too early.
Why not and we are back in it.Homers in GABP account for all the runs for both teams and who would have guessed that.
The Reds tied the game? I would have bet money the Reds would rollover. Now if they can just win. Hopefully, Bell skips the one and done relief strategy.
Now does Bell go inning per reliever untill we win it or find the guy tonight that doesn’t have it to lose it.Seems like it comes down to that most of the time.Counsell has a 7th inning guy and his set up guy and death in Hader.Doesn’t seem like a fair fight.
Dont a lot of teams go one inning per reliever? That includes a lot of good teams actually. Probably most if not all in fact.
Sure they do but we don’t have a good team and a worse pen.So its always a coin flip if you follow the same strategy.He just pulled Hoffman and brought in a lefty to face a lefty and boom.
Sounds more like the pen is bad then. So I guess we should just wear out all our decent ones til they can’t pitch back-to-back days? I dunno, I guess if y’all wanna dream that every pitcher that does well versus the same handedness hitters is going to do it versus the opposite handedness hitters because they just did well with the platoon advantage then I guess go ahead.
Well Hader isn’t there for the series.
Of course he does. It’s rare for a Reds pitcher who had a good in inning to get a second.
Senzel is really struggling at the plate, once Naquin returns from IL he maybe loosing his starting spot.
You are correct…except Pham’s days are measured in days and Naquin is weeks away still and a FA in 4 months so not sure what depth chart for 2023 your looking at. Senzel is cheapish, fast, and good defensively and a CF and controlled in 2023/24. He frustrates me for sure but what is your OF CF depth chart Opening Day 2023?
What worries me the most about Senzel is he isnt hitting lefties at all. He can only struggle for so long before you have to bench him. He should play of course, but Almora is making it harder to justify running him out there everyday once the teams healthier. Nick has more upside than Almora who is hitting around his career averages, its just a .700 OPS so its beatable, but he needs to show it for me to keep giving him ABs.
And there it is.
All 3 HRs for the Brewers have been center cut on a tee. Right down the middle thigh high, and they haven’t missed. 3 bad pitches.
Moose at first base is a joke.
he couldn’t turn a 3-6-3 double play a 14 yo could and while India throw was off on a ball on the SS side…Moose never came off the bag and gave it an OLE. What was he thinking? you have to come off the bag and catch the ball . India has to be disgusted with that effort. but hey…its nit-picking Moose at first base.
Well I played a lot of first base, and there is no way I’m jumping in front of a runner to get a throw I can’t make an out with anyway. Thats a great way to get injured, Moose did nothing wrong there. I didnt see the double play, I have two games goin.
I played 1B also. Moose’s “domino” range came in here (explaining the OLE). You can hear the baserunner coming and when you know you are doubtful to catch the ball on the bag and have little chance to get the runner even if you do, you move toward 2B to keep the ball in front of you and save the advancement to 2B. Moose did neither although many a 12 year old would have. Some guys just don’t care and are not worse for ware on this team with David Bell.
lol no way, he cant get in front of that ball. I dont think Farmer could either. A bad throw’s a bad throw, y’all are grasping for straws.
Of course you right.Moose should only DH and against righties only.Farmer could have played first but for some unknown reason he isn’t.Maybe he is hurt but he did get 2 days off so who knows.Hard to imagine Moose with a glove is even an option cause nobody would give him one except us.Now I realize the Reds hope and pray he catches fire with the bat just saying.
What guy on the bench do you play over Moose versus a lefty? Its really easy to say dont do something and not suggest anything better. The whole bench is LH except for the back-up catcher. If you’d rather take your chances with another LH, fine I suppose. If there were another RH on the bench I’d probably feel differently.
I still think Farmer is DH because Bell wanted to rest him for some reason.
We might see both Votto and Schrock in the ninth inning as pinch-hitters.
OK Farmer. Good start.
Is there anything left in the tank?
I thought boxberger would pitch the 8th and Williams 9th. Interesting but I’m not a coach.
Gotta win it…. no SS anymore
I’m glad Moustakas is hitting and not Votto. Moustakas has been hotter than Votto.
but……….bu
And another loss.
Close game, in it til the end, and they almost completed the comeback. Gave me some decent baseball to watch.
I’m just happy they came back from 4 down.
Sigh. About five or six feet short.
Votto extremely close to getting the But walkoff treatment. Instead, I will walk off…. sm. Greene still needs that third pitch and still needs to stop living in overpower land. Lot of potential
You only needed a single to tie the game. Votto is hitting under .200. Almora, who had already homered is hitting .300 against RH’ers. Why pinch hit? Oh that’s right, L/R handedness matters more than how well the individual is actually hitting. So much for Bell and analytics.
hahaha, alright alright, cherry-pick one AB if you like I guess. easy win for ya.
RLN, where fans clamor to see Albert Almora more, classic.
I’ll ignore that you’re using statistics in a predictive fashion. pot meet kettle.
As you said above, stats are what a guy has done. Votto is under .200 vs RH’ers this year. Almora .300. Votto likely a better chance at a HR. Almora a hit. What’s your play? Votto seems to be adopting the Suarez strategy and it’s a detriment to both himself and the team.
Well Votto has been hitting very well the last month, far better than Almora. But yeah, if youre just going to blindly disagree with every little thing Bell does, I guess one AB where a bench player might have gotten a hit is all the justification you need. You do you.
So Almora is a bench player now?
One could make a case that though descriptive, some stats, likely have predictive value. Others, such as LA and EV, likely do not. No matter how hard he swings, Senzel isn’t going to hit the ball as hard as Judge or Stanton. Oh well, another day, and the Teds have reclaimed last place. Good disagreeing with you. Better luck tomorrow.
Yes indeed, good disagreeing with you as well. I wasn’t looking at LA and EV, I looked at traditional splits. LA and EV aren’t describing how hard someone swings, it describes the results of their swings. Senzel is capable of high EVs in the Stanton and Judge ranges if he puts the proper swing on the ball. To me it sounds as if you aren’t hearing what those numbers are trying to tell you, or are willfully ignoring it. But to each his own.
No, what the numbers tell you is again descriptive. Changing a good hitter’s swing to adjust LA/EV etc., is extremely shortsighted and the results often not achieved. I think Senzel is a perfect example of that. He complained about it a couple of years ago and said that he was going back to his old method. Don’t know if he did but the results aren’t good regardless. HR or strikeout is a very poor approach to the game, though widely used. Guarantee a team of folks who could hit would win more games than that.
I dont disagree with you on changing guys swings, I think Senzel is one of the actual examples of something the coaching staff has made a big miss on. Not the lineup, using guys more than an inning, or L/R substitutions, and other meaningless things I usually hear people complain about, things like fundamentals are something I see this coaching staff lack. Analytics are fine, those types of things should be available to the players should they choose to use them, but like you said if we are changing a guy whos having success to align with the current paradigm, I dont like that kind of thing either.
It wasn’t him missing a 3rd pitch this time. His control cost him tonight. Couldn’t hit his spots and threw way too many pitches. Too many 3 ball counts and 2 big mistake pitches, both bad location right down the middle thigh high.
Exciting finish but another loss. The second half of the season is going to be long.
I was surprised they even pitched to him with Garcia on deck but they did and it almost cost them the game.Both of the old guys could have halted the battle cry but they didn’t so I have to say it play the young guys and lets look forward to 2024.Go Reds