The Cincinnati Reds will look to even up the series this afternoon against the Milwaukee Brewers after last nights 5-4 loss. The two teams will be sending rookie starting pitchers to the mound, with Cincinnati handing the ball to Graham Ashcraft and Milwaukee sending Jason Alexander out to toe the rubber. First pitch is set for 4:10pm.
Starting Lineups
Here are the lineups for this afternoon’s contest:
Milwaukee Brewers
|
Cincinnati Reds
|
| Christian Yelich – DH | Jonathan India – 2B |
| Willy Adames – SS | Brandon Drury – 3B |
| Rowdy Tellez – 1B | Tommy Pham – LF |
| Hunter Renfroe – RF | Joey Votto – DH |
| Luis Urias – 2B | Kyle Farmer – SS |
| Omar Narvaez – C | Nick Senzel – CF |
| Tyrone Taylor – LF | Mike Moustakas – 1B |
| Jace Peterson – 3B | Albert Almora Jr. – RF |
| Jonathan Davis – CF | Aramis Garcia – C |
| Jason Alexander – SP | Graham Ashcraft – SP |
Starting Pitchers
| Pitcher | IP | ERA | WHIP | BB | K |
| Graham Ashcraft | 28.1 | 2.22 | 1.02 | 5 | 15 |
| Jason Alexander | 16.2 | 2.16 | 1.74 | 8 | 6 |
| Links: Graham Ashcraft’s Stats | Jason Alexander’s Stats |
|||||
Graham Ashcraft
Last time out was the first start for Graham Ashcraft where he struggled, allowing four earned runs in 4.2 innings. In his previous four starts he had allowed three earned runs combined.
A big time ground ball pitcher, Ashcraft doesn’t miss a ton of bats – or at least hasn’t yet in the big leagues – but he’s been able to limit damage for the most part by keeping the ball on the ground and in the ballpark. He’s dominated left-handed hitters, holding them to a .484 OPS against him this season. Right-handed hitters are having far more success with a .669 OPS against him, but they aren’t exactly being successful, either.
Splits
| 12Split | PA | H | 2B | 3B | HR | BB | K | AVG | OBP | SLG |
| RHH | 53 | 12 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 6 | .245 | .302 | .367 |
| LHH | 63 | 12 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 9 | .197 | .222 | .262 |
Pitch Usage
| 2-Seam | Cutter | Slider | Change | |
| Velo | 97.1 | 97.5 | 85.5 | 89.8 |
| Usage | 19.8% | 46.4% | 32.2% | 1.6% |
Jason Alexander
Not to be confused with the former New York Yankees Assistant to the Traveling Secretary, this Jason Alexander is a rookie starter for the Brewers who will be making his 4th big league appearance this afternoon. He’s walked more batters than he’s struck out, and he hasn’t struck out hardly anyone in his first three games. The 29-year-old hasn’t given up a home run yet this season, but he has allowed 21 hits in his 16.2 innings to go along with his 8 walks, making for a strange scenario where he has a 1.74 WHIP but a 2.16 ERA.
His splits in the big leagues don’t have a ton of value given the sample size, but both lefties and righties have hit over .300 against him so far. Righties, though, have yet to pick up an extra-base hit against him. Like Ashcraft, he’s been a big time ground ball pitcher this season (both have a 59% GB Rate this year).
Splits
| Split | PA | H | 2B | 3B | HR | BB | K | AVG | OBP | SLG |
| RHH | 36 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 | .303 | .361 | .303 |
| LHH | 38 | 11 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 3 | .355 | .421 | .484 |
Pitch Usage
| 4-Seam | 2-Seam | Slider | Change | |
| Velo | 93.6 | 93.0 | 80.5 | 82.5 |
| Usage | 7.0% | 55.0% | 21.7% | 16.3% |
When and Where
- Game time: 4:10pm ET
- Where: Great American Ball Park
- Watch: Bally Sports Ohio, MLB.tv
- Listen: 700 WLW AM (Cincinnati area)
- Forecast: 75°, sunny, 0% chance of rain
News and Notes
Nick Lodolo makes another rehab start tonight
Left-handed start Nick Lodolo is set to make his second rehab start tonight. After his first outing earlier this week out in Arizona with the ACL Reds he’s moving up to join the Triple-A Louisville Bats tonight to continue his comeback from a lower back strain. He’s expected to pitch three innings or about 50 pitches.
+1,000 for the Seinfeld reference in full context to his job with the Yankees.
Still baffling why 3M (the last “m” is for his latest acquired moniker on this site) is wearing a glove. He was “adequate” from what little I was able to watch last night (due to the power outage and low-bandwidth phone data). It’s a better alternative than across the diamond, but still …
Almost time to Kick this Pig!
Menu tonight (for those who are interested) is our homemade pizza (dough, sauce, all fresh ingredients) cooked on pizza stones over a ripping hot grill (700F). I’ll have the Bats at Bulls game on the laptop as well to see Lodolo climb his way back into the groove.
sounds great! What time should I be there? I’m in L A, but I am visiting North Caralina
in mid-September, If you bring the pizza, I will bring the beer.
.
I would always host a fellow Redleg fan 🙂
Do you take Doordash?
Lorenzo Cain DFA’d. Mutual Decision.
Maybe Moose and the Reds follow suit after they year is over to move on.
Sadly, I do not. There will be a limited amount of dough made for the three crusts. Aside from that, we’ve got some assembly of various ingredients to taste and I’m waiting to smell my wife cooking the sauce.
Saw that about Cain. What a class act to bow out like that. I have to Don’t know his contract situation beyond this year, but the limited quotes I saw seemed to indicate this was it for him anyway.
Sure glad they activated Schrock. Maybe the Reds will sign Cain. Seems like a perfect match.
Yep. Not like Schrock’s glove at 1B would be better or anything (or at least equivalent). Go figure …
Why is schrock not in the lineup today?
Because of 3M rules
I would have sat senzel and moved Almora to center. Let schrock play one of the corner spots.
I thought Schrock was playing RF on his rehab for just that reason. Very curious.
Great quick field, lousy throw and catch. Yellich ends up on 2nd anyway.
Thrall reminding us we’re at a 10-game streak for errors. SMH Extra Hard 😮
So we just spotting the other team runs now are we
Kind of looks that way. Let’s see if Ashcraft can Houdini his way out of this mess.
Nope …
well he did on any earned run
Our goal for the series was to get the Bernie’s going, right?
Asking for a friend …
OK, limited damage. Let’s see if we’re in the mood to show their rookie what’s up.
I wonder if the reds pick up Cain from assignment since brewers place him on assignment
I hope not. Cain is in a pretty steep decline and he knows it. Bernie’s did him a solid by waiting until he got his full 10 years in before a mutual DFA. From what I’m reading, Cain may well take his money and fade into the sunset.
OK, if you didn’t smile after that play, you just aren’t a baseball fan. 🙂
Is Garcia, or Okey better at catching a hard throwing, slightly wild pitchers?
Great question. That seems to describe Ashcraft today.
Votto hasn’t played the field since Tuesday and late scratch last night. There’s something there.
May be the case
C. Trent is in the WLW booth talking about the upcoming logjam of players coming back from the IL.
And he said the golden “6-man rotation” idea.
I hope we stick to a 5 man. Minor could be moved to the pen when Lodolo is back. I’m not super worried about Greene running out of innings before the Reds run out of games on the schedule.
MBS – trouble is they see his value as a starter, not a reliever. C. Trent noted they are trying to build up his trade value (which is likely a lost cause). I’d hate to see them option Lodolo back to Louisville, but if they can trade Minor (the Jays lost a LHSP) then maybe it works out anyway.
Solano Naquin Lodolo?
Yep. Plus Schrock still riding pine with nowhere to play.
This team cant hit and bullpen stinks.
Of the Reds 26 man active roster in today’s game, I would make the argument only Jon India, Graham Ashcraft, Hunter Greene and Alexis Diaz will be on the Reds 2024 Opening Day roster.
4 players.
Wat about Tyler Stephenson
Stephenson is injured and not on today’s 26 man active roster.
The point is unless Senzel gets going and Shrock gets some at bats, this is an aging old team with guys over 30 and not part of the future or AAAA guys who cant put it together.
Good to see we’re helping Yellich to “get going” today. I know he’s been slumping.
I am beginning to think that the shine has worn off for Ashcraft. Trending more towards average
I said it after Greene yesterday. We’ll see days like this from young pitchers. It’s just really hard to see them two freaking days in a row. And again with us not hitting (so far).
Cowboy talking about Counsel being a good manager. I’d tend to agree.
Garcia sucks n this seems almost like Deja vu
ashcraft getting shelled
Little bit, yeah
Not sure how much of this I can take today. Wife, DD#1 and I are headed out tomorrow afternoon, so I won’t be watching that game. Given our pattern of NOT consistently hitting of late, my hope is wearing pretty thin.
Yes, it’s early. But it’s another 4-run hole we’ve dug. And Ashcraft isn’t fooling much of anyone today. He’s headed for an early exit unless he suddenly gets a whole lot more efficient.
Garcia evidently getting crossed up with GA. I really wish we got to see more of Okey
Wonder if it wouldn’t be better to go with Okey when Ashcraft and Greene are pitching since he has almost certainly had more experience catching those guys.
Maybe. But that’s some pretty wild stuff from Ashcraft today (throw the next one at the Bull).
Maybe?
Nope – Peterson really recovered from that.
Looks like the Cubs are going to win again. And the Reds? Well, probably not.
We’re not even going to win this challenge.
RLN, where fans root against their own team
Not rooting against. Simply recognizing reality instead of being fanboys
If simply rooting for your team makes you a fanboy, sign me up
Drury should have kept on running
30,000 foot view watching the Reds/Brewers
Reds line up today by age:
India 25 ROY
Drury 30(in 2months ) career journeyman and soon to be FA havingcareer year
Pham 34 (1 ) year trying to revive career
Votto 39( in 2+ months)
Farmer 32( in 2months) aging gamer with range questions.
Senzel 27(in 2 weeks) fading first rounder
Moose 34( in 3 months) falling off the cliff
Almora 28 good defender and back up for a minute.
Garcia 29 marginal backup catcher who cant hit.
This is not the lineup that inspires confidence for 2023 considering the lack of positional talent in AAA/AA other than Barrero and McClain. This argues Castillo and Mahle need to be traded for high ceiling top positional prospects age 21-24 and more pitching depth.
Dreaming are you? Unless the culture changes, it won’t matter.
Starting at the top and working down. Organization 101.
And this is a “rebuild”??
Nah, just aligning payroll with resources.
Votto still out here getting knocks
Garcia almost didn’t but once again failed us all
Well at least we got one
That should be scored a hit for India. That ball was hit hard. Not a routine play.
Well, the grill/pizza oven is now heating up to the required temperature of 700F. I did get to see RoY smack that one to plate a run. Now seeing Ashcraft out here in the 6th with the count climbing and DJ visiting.
I won’t completely Clete, but my attention is definitely turning toward getting things ready to cook.
Hoping for a minor miracle, but I’m afraid we’ve all seen this movie before. Just tough to see two rough days by the rookie starters in a row.
These are the two guys we all seem to be the most excited about watching, but they’re gonna struggle at times. I’ve had my other team on, so i didnt see any of the game. I usually do chores or cook to a game though, so prepping some pizza pie is completely understandable.
Completely agree about Greene and Ashcraft. I’m hoping we see enough of Lodolo to whet our appetites for the same. That’s quite the 3-man staff, knowing we’ll need others.
Another middling effort from GA, He has the stuff that is for sure, but this is not the sub-1 guy that originally came up, slotting him at a Number three. Not an ace but should be a servable rotation piece for years to come if he can keep making improvements
Agreed. He can be a strong 3 if he keeps things up. Bad days happen.
Given his stuff and how few MLB starts he’s had, I’m far from consigning him to the mid-rotation. he and Greene are learning on the job.
Hitting line drives against rookie pitcher.
Moose huge at bat.
Moose nearly left us one down, did at least get a run in
Max Schrock sighting!
max shrock can hit
The guy has to be in the lineup everyday verse right handers at the very minimum.
agreed.
Shrock isnt really a defensive guy but against righties, they have a DH. This is where you have to sit moose and play Drury 3b and Shrock DH and Naquin RF when he comes back.
@Old school. For now he needs to be in there. When Naquin comes back, Kroll needs to deal a few guys and the Reds need to start to playing young guys this second half of the season. I’d rather actually be one of the worst teams and draft top 5 instead of being a middle of the road team that don’t make the playoffs which is what Bell and company are trying to do this year.
What’s up with Cessa and all the home runs lately?
They kept Schrock in the game… hey look Cessa gave up another one
I wonder if Cessa pitches batting practice?
Cessa really trying to get out of here the DFA route
I believe I’m at the point that no matter what the over is for a Reds game at home, I will bet the over.
I Cleted, folks. Pizza was done and we’re watching Jeopardy from last night. Those 4-run holes always look pretty deep to me.
Probably won’t catch you tomorrow, so Tuesday it is when the Trolley Dodgers come to town.
India hits a hard shot to short and they give him an error instead of a hit. Moose hits a tapper to the mound and pitcher throws it away and had Moose by 10 feet. They give Moose a single. Rediculous
Official scorer padding 3M’s stats to make him more “valuable”?
That’s what I figure.
@Doug Gray with the shout out from Sadak!
i missed it when?
and doug, put it in the write up lol
Another loss but at least everybody got a free bucket hat. Got to love the free trinkets to keep the people coming.