Graham Ashcraft crushed it with his performance last night as the Reds won a pitcher’s duel 2-1 to take the series win. Tonight the Reds (42-61) go for the series sweep against the Miami Marlins (47-57). The Reds are on a roll right now, having won four in a row and 14 of their last 21 games. Since that dreaded 3-22 start, the Reds come into tonight’s game with an even 39-39 record.
Details:
- Time: 6:40 p.m. ET
- Place: loanDepot Park, Miami, FL
- TV: Bally Sports Ohio; MLB.tv (out-of-market)
- Radio: 700 WLW
Lineups
Cincinnati Reds
|
Miami Marlins |
| 2B Jonathan India | SS Miguel Rojas |
| LF Jake Fraley | 1B Garrett Cooper |
| 1B Mike Moustakas | DH Jesús Aguilar |
| DH Joey Votto | RF Bryan De La Cruz |
| 3B Donovan Solano | LF JJ Bleday |
| RF Aristides Aquino | 3B Charles Leblanc |
| CF Albert Almora Jr. | C Jacob Stallings |
| SS Jose Barrero | 2B Luke Williams |
| C Mike Papierski | CF Billy Hamilton |
Mike Moustakas and Aristides Aquino both have homered off Marlins starting pitcher Sandy Alcantara.
Starting Pitchers
| Name | IP | ERA | xERA | FIP | xFIP | WHIP | K% | BB% |
| Mike Minor | 51.1 | 6.31 | 4.93 | 6.74 | 5.34 | 1.58 | 18.9% | 9.2% |
| Sandy Alcantara | 149.1 | 1.99 | 2.76 | 2.87 | 3.31 | 0.94 | 24.0% | 6.8% |
REDS
Any way you slice it, Mike Minor is not having a good season. He’s 1-7 with a 6.31 ERA/6.74 FIP. His expected FIP isn’t much better at 5.34. In only 51.1 innings, Minor has given up 36 runs, 15 of which have been home runs, and has walked 22 batters. His strikeout rate is one of the lowest of his career at 18.9%, and his walk rate is the worst of his career at 9.2%.
One reason for his struggles, aside from the fact that he’s just getting older, may be that his velocity is down. His fastball velocity is down to 90.3 mph, which is about two miles per hour slower than even just three years ago when he pitched for the Texas Rangers. His velocity on both his change up and slider are also down, but his curve ball velocity has seen the biggest decrease, going from 80.6 mph last year to just 78.6 mph this year. This velocity shift has probably also led to his fly ball percentage being up to 50.3%, an almost nine percent increase from a year ago.
If you’re looking for a little bit of a silver lining, Minor did pitch 5.1 innings against Baltimore on Friday and gave up only two runs on four hits. He struck out four batters, but did walk three.
MARLINS
In contrast to Minor, right-hander Sandy Alcantara is having himself an excellent season. This is his sixth season in the majors, and it’s by far, the best of his career. In 149.1 innings, Alcantara has a 1.99 ERA/2.87 FIP and 138 strikeouts. He’s given up only eight home runs all season.
Alcantara’s velocity seems to be about the same as previous seasons–high 90s for his fastball, high 80s for his slider, and mid-80s for his curve ball. He is using his change-up noticeably more in 2022. His usage is up to 27.4% this season, compared to 23.3% last year. His command has also been better in the last two years. His walk rate has decreased from 9.7% in 2019, his second year with the Marlins, to 6.8% in 2022.
Highlight Video of the Day
The new Reds #1 prospect Noelvi Marte is already making his presence known with this defensive gem last night in Dayton.
Marte has moves! #FeeltheFire pic.twitter.com/5SXupS8pSl
— Dayton Dragons (@DragonsBaseball) August 3, 2022
News and Notes
The Reds called up Jose Barrero today, and he is in the lineup tonight.
Three prospects the Reds traded for yesterday were assigned to minor league teams today.
Update: Hajjar has been moved up to Dayton. So much for the MiLB dot com assignment being right.
– Owen Holt & Carson Rudd to the IL in Daytona
– J.V. Martinez & Manuel Cachutt to the IL in Dayton
– Stevie Branche to the ACL
– Junior Tamares released (was in the ACL)— Doug Gray (@dougdirt24) August 3, 2022
Finally, if you missed the news, Vin Scully passed away last night at the age of 94. He was a legend in the broadcasting world and one of the best to ever call a game.
There will never be another Vin Scully. You will be forever missed. ?? pic.twitter.com/WyTmXsati5
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) August 3, 2022
RIP Vin Scully.
I would make a point in later years to listen to Scully’s Dodger broadcasts when I was driving late at night. He worked for/with the Dodgers for 67 years, spanning from Jackie Robinson’s prime to Clayton Kershaw’s.
And a true gentleman.
+1,000
Mr Scully was the greatest! Listening to him was uplifting and educational. My favorite quote by him was “Statistics are used much like drunk uses a lamp post: for support not illumination.” Maybe some play by play announcers could learn from the greatest RIP
Vin was the greatest. The timing was perfect for him. He got his start in the hey day of radio sitting alongside Red Barber. My top all time top three are Vin, Red Barber, and Ernie Harwell. All great story tellers. No egos, just a love of the game and the great ability to connect with the fans. I lived in LA for 50 years and was a die hard Reds but I was always in awe of the great voice of the dodgers.
Time to Filet some Minnows
Kicking Pigs is also acceptable
Thanks for sharing the Marte video. Kid has some serious skills.
Yeah. I liked that.
While Stationed in AZ and Calif. in the 70’s and 80’s I would listen to the Dodgers broadcast to catch the reds score. Vin Scully was a pleasure to listen to. Was 100% professional and a joy to listen to. RIP Mr. Scully!!!
3M hitting third and with a glove on. Bell has to be messing with us at this point. No one would ever hit him third in a lineup right now.
Haha I knew that would get many responses on here.
I was surprised I was the first honestly.
I doubt you’ll be the last. lol
Look at our #6 through #9 hitters. Who cares where he hits?
Assuming Farmer and Senzel are hurt or getting a night off, who else would you rather play? If you say Reynolds, I’ll start laughing.
I’m ready to move on from Moose too, but I’d do it this offseason. It just doesn’t matter right now. He’s blocking no one.
Solano. And I will pay attention to the others. But 3M in the three hole is a joke. Regardless of the team situation. Why hit 3 lefties in a row even?
Also, does the WKU stand for western Kentucky univeristy?
It does, yes. My first email address ever was as a student at WKU. The first part of my school email was wkuchad@…, so it just kinda stuck.
Barrero is going to play SS regularly and Farmer will play a lot of 3b per David bell.
@old school I figured that would happen. I always laugh when I read on here how he never plays young guys. TS, Senzel, India, AA now Berrero. The Rotation is 3/5’s Rookies and the pen is full of young pitchers. Most of this comes from him not playing Barrero over Farmer last year when reds were competing for a playoff spot. Bell is far from the idiot a few try to paint him on this site. This has been a terrible year but the 2 previous seasons we competed with little help from ownership. His players play hard and always give effort.
I’m more optimistic than Ive been in awhile. It does seem everyone is now onboard on developing for 2024+. That doesn’t mean great leaders and team guys and veterans dont have roles in 2022 and 2023. They do. Farmer and Solano and Votto are all important veterans to help lead a now very young team into its next frontier the next 2 months.
Will need some vets in 2023 too as well
Might need a more credible vet SP( not Minor) and Bullpen vet for 2023 to help navigate too.
Pitching side is taking 2 steps forward as well with Greene, Lodolo, Ashcraft, and Diaz.
India played last year because Moose got hurt.TS was the back up catcher that caught two games a week as most do and more when he started to hit.Both got opportunities but if Moose doesn’t get hurt and Tucker hits a little neither see the field.Senzel had missed so much time in the last 2 years and lets not forget his rookie year.The Reds planned to have the 2 rookies in the rotation from the start when they let Gray and Miley go and when Minor goes down that made it 3.The pen had vets but all got hurt so it is full of young players.None of this had anything to with Bell.He had no choice cause he had nobody else.Bell when given a choice as you said last year regarding Barrero he will play the vet.If Bell said Barrero will play short regularly then it was because Krall told him to do it.
Roger: No matter the team, rookies often get their first chance to play because the regular was hurt. Wally Pipp’s injury led to Lou Gehrig getting his chance. It’s not a mystery–winning games usually takes precedence over player development, which largely occurs in the minors, anyway.
If we are moving Farmer to third, then Farmer will be off a couple of days while he gets to practice at the Hot Corner defensivly
Quite likely the case. As long as 3M isn’t inserted there, all is good.
Anybody else thinking Alcantara will throw darts and Minor will throw batting practice tonight?
I mean, I’m willing to be surprised 😮
OK, who is wearing #9 tonight and just patiently took a BB?
Walked Moose. Thank you very much.
And 3M took it … 😮
And a little bit of luck and good hustle by Employee #19
Let’s convert this for at least one run.
Speedster Joey Votto Beats one out at first, after the Moose walk…. its a twilight zone game
LMAO
And some bad luck there.
Nope. All we did was push his pitch count a little.
Too bad that little 2-hop skipper Alcantara rolled to Stallings didn’t go awry.
Welsh is informing us that Alcantara’s change-up is faster than Minor’s fastball … by almost 2 mph. 😀
Drury DH tonight for Padres
I’m with Thrall … a “tidy” inning
TBH, watching Marlin’s play, I feel pretty good about the Reds :). Let’s have some fried fish for dinner.
Wow. Mike Minor.
Minor pitching like he wants to keep his job so far.
Castillo pitched well. Not easy to beat Yankees 2 starts in a row. Old friends Suarez and Winker have plenty run support. Talking about twilight zone
Seattle “Reds” taking the series vs Ny…
All the teams running for the wildcard spots got more weapons
I’ll be rooting for the M’s and Twins this fall. It is weird watching Castillo, Winker and Suarez in a different uniform.
I don’t care what anyone says, I liked those guys and I miss them. Almost makes me want to detach from India and Stephenson knowing they will likely be gone in a couple of years.
Moose doing what Moose does.
Some quotes from David Bell.
Paraphrasing,Jose Barrero is the starting SS and he said there’s a point the only further development that can come is at the MLB level and while there’s no guarantees, Jose needs to finish his development and the only way to do that is at the MLB level.
Farmer is the new 3b.
As Doug and others have pointed out, he is coming back from hamate surgery. We shall see what transpires. We have plenty of others in the pipeline, so it could be a “next man up” philosophy.
Do you suppose Krall and D.Bell had the mano y mano about who was the ultimate boss between the 2 of them?
Could be, or it could be that this was the plan all along: When Barrero is recovered from injury, he gets a chance to play. Last year they were in contention; this year they’re building for next year and beyond, despite playing decent ball since the 3-22 start.
Misread that Joey did…. still 2 for 2….
Terrible throw and it still got him by a mile. Welsh saying he may think his body can do it, but we’ve seen it can’t.
In retrospect, it would have been a GIDP on that one.
Sounds Ike Votto trying to make something happen? Or bad judgment?
Maybe a little of both. He had the opportunity to turn back and would have been safe at 1st. But the Solano ground out would have resulted in a GIDP anyway.
Votto was trucking it on a good hit…. I would not have turned but it was in a grey area, got thrown out but Mark is right, next batter would have been a GBDP anyway
You can’t really assume a DP for the next batter. Different circumstances. Pitcher in the stretch. Butterfly affect.
I thought the same thing, but if Votto had stayed on first, it can’t be assumed that everything else would have transpired as it did: Solano might not–probably would not–have gotten exactly the same pitch.
A cookie for Jesus and the result is as expected. 403 feet.
Worth noting that with the departure of Mahle and Castillo, Minor earns more than the entire rest of the Reds’ pitching staff combined.
Alcantara is unhittable. Cy young in the NL
And some strikes called balls by the umpire…. reds need a miracle to win today
You cannot walk Billy Hamilton. He is no threat at the plate
Romine is an upgrade at catcher right now
Wonder what the Reds plans are for 2024, year after next year, with 1st Base and 3rd Base. Votto and Moustakous contracts are done then. I am sure no one wants to take on Moustakous and his big contract in a trade.
I’m sure the Reds brass would love to have Steer at 3B and McGarry at 1B
Let’s not forget the Reds just paid top 10 slot money for Cam Collier who projects as a 3B or 1B. That kind of money talks.
We’ve been talking for years about “sorting out” at the MLB level. Think that pales compared to the job ahead figuring out all of these “shortstops” at AA and below and where they might fit.
First base has to be one of the easiest positions to fill. Could easily be where they choose to spend money in free agency.
I went for my evening walk and took the game with me. I got to hear the second steal of 3rd and the BB to BHam. And then I heard THAT happen as well.
We’re in a pretty deep hole and Alcantara is only getting better tonight. Not impossible, but trending toward needing a miracle.
Billy bunting and hitting from the right side only? Perhaps Mattingly had something to do with some of that (Thrall/Welsh planted that seed).
But still bunting badly.
Welsh being the apologist for Minor … I’m not buying it, personally. It’s not hard luck. He’s just not effective.
First ground ball to Jose!
Defense is indeed there… lets see if those two plays buoys his confidence for his at bat
But at least he’s making contact against arguably the best pitcher out there right now.
Marte homes in his second game with the Dragons. Good looking ballplayer.
Homers…
They had Winker in a Reds uniform for the Field of Dreams promo
when is that
And that’s that. Mustered 6 hits but couldn’t convert. Blast by Jesus would have been enough. Alcantara didn’t even have his A-level strike-out game going.
Off to beat up on the Bernies. Catch you all Friday.
Get ready for a lot of these kinds of games where the offense can’t score enough runs.
Side note Minor looked almost good through 4 innings and actually had a quality start. Too bad we couldn’t score anything. The lineup tonight was so odd. I really think Bell puts 2 names down and then draws the rest out of a hat.
Minor’s starting days seem to be coming to an end. He could be headed to a ML bullpen.
If I had any other starting pitcher I could put in right now, even at AA, I would DFA Minor right now. The dude is simply pitiful.
He was actually very good for the first few innings, and wasn’t his last start similar? His control slipped after, what, the 4th inning last night? Sounds like a middle relief guy.