Justin Dunn picked up his first win of the 2022 season by holding the Pirates to a run over his 5.0 innings. The offense did their part and more with Jake Fraley hitting a ball into the river and a 9th inning that saw seven consecutive singles pad the lead to what would eventually be the final score of 10-1.
| Final | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cincinnati Reds (47-71) |
10 | 14 | 0 |
| Pittsburgh Pirates (47-73) |
1 | 4 | 2 |
| W: Dunn (1-1) L: Beede (1-3) |
|||
| Statcast | Box Score | Game Thread | |||
The Offense
Cincinnati got some help in the 3rd inning from the Pirates defense. Jake Fraley walked and moved up to second on a ground out. With two outs Kyle Farmer grounded a ball up to shortstop and Oneil Cruz fielded the ball then made a poor throw to first base that got by Bligh Madris and brought Fraley in to give the Reds a 1-0 lead.
The lead would be extended in the 4th. After singles from Donovan Solano and TJ Friedl, Austin Romine came through with a 2-run double. Jake Fraley followed up with a 437-foot home run that landed in the river and floated away to give Cincinnati a 5-0 lead.
The offense would play add on in the 9th when Jonathan India, Kyle Farmer, Mike Moustakas, Donovan Solano, Nick Senzel, and Aristides Aquino strung together six straight singles to put four more runs on the board and make it a 9-1 ballgame. That led to a pitching change for the Pirates. That mattered none as Jose Barrero made it seven straight singles and a 10-a game. That was the last hit the Reds would get on the night, but it was more than enough.
The Pitching
Justin Dunn’s start didn’t begin as he would have hoped as he gave up a leadoff double. But a baserunning blunder by Tucupita Marcano led to him being picked off and Dunn got through the inning. A single and two walks loaded the bases with two outs in the 2nd inning but Dunn was able to get a ground out to strand all three runners.
After the Reds grabbed a 5-0 lead the Pirates got one back on one of the strangest home runs you’ll ever see. Rodolfo Castro hit one to deep center and the ball ricocheted off of the taller part of the wall and then landed in the stands above the shorter part of the wall. That was the last hit that Dunn would allow, though he did have to work around a walk in the 4th and 5th – and he did just that – before finishing the day with just that one run in 5.0 innings.
Ian Gibaut came out for the 6th inning and had to work around a leadoff single and a 1-out walk, but he held onto a 5-1 lead. Buck Farmer followed him for the 7th and he worked a perfect inning in his return. Hunter Strickland walked a batter in the 8th, but pitched a hitless frame with two strikeouts. Art Warren walked two batters in the 9th, but he kept Pittsburgh off of the board as he sealed up a 10-1 win and evened up the series at one win for each team.
Up Next for the Cincinnati Reds
Cincinnati Reds vs Pittsburgh Pirates
Sunday August 21st, 1:35pm ET
Mike Minor (1-10, 6.31 ERA) vs. Zach Thompson (3-9, 5.51 ERA)
Great win for Dunn. Great win for the Reds.
Still believe Dunn will end up in the bull pen next season. Rotation will be Overton, Greene, Lodolo, Ashcraft, and Williamson
If he’s in the pen then that will probably help. Not that it needs it. 🙂
Idk? I think righty relievers need to throw harder then starters and he doesn’t have it. Hopefully he’s still getting it back
Kind of hard to throw harder than starters when they’re throwing around 100 but I know what you mean.
The numbers on Fangraphs say Dunn has never thrown significantly harder in MLB than he is now (~92) except in 2021 prior to his injury (93.7). His current velocities across the board of pitch types seem to be in the same range as prior to his injury also. If these numbers are accurate his success hinges on him regaining command and control while maybe tweaking the 4 seamer up an MPH or so.
Boy I hope you’re right Doc. That would mean tremendous health for our starting pitching staff – which is very rare in Major League Baseball.
I’m hoping they sign at least one staring pitching free agent to help the young guys be around someone that’s got some experience getting thru a 162 game season. Although it’s very difficult to attract pitchers to great American smallpark. Wish bob would spend some month to raise the fence in right field by 20 feet. Too many cheap homers.
I hope you’re right doc – that would mean tremendous starting pitching health – which is rare.
I’m hoping they bring in one free agent starting pitcher to help provide experience to show the youngsters how to get thru a 162 game season. Although it’s difficult to attract free agent pitchers to great American small park.
Wish Bob would spend some of this saved $ to raise the fence/move them back in right field – too many cheap homers there. If orioles can do it then why can’t we?
+500 on doing something about the right field porch!
Seems to me at the least there would be ways to remove the first 2-3 rows of seats and install some sort of low tech plywood sloping incline (covered with advertising logos to recoup the loss of seat revenue) down to the permanent wall.
This would not create more outs but it would turn a number of HR into doubles or even just long singles. And it should be much more exciting to watch.
Orioles have dramatically changed the dimensions of their park and how it plays.
Their have been engineering limitations raised in the past, but even eliminating 2-3 rows of Seats in RF and raising the height of the wall 3-5 feet would help with the cheapy GABP home runs.
Jim there shouldn’t be anything stopping them from raising the wall. The stadium rarely sells out so the lost ticket revenue shouldn’t be a real concern
I’m not sure what exactly is under the first few rows. I know a little further back is a tunnel system. I can’t recall exactly how far back that starts, it was probably 2009 the last time I walked through there. I’m sure there is electric, plumbing, and structural pieces in that space My guess is there isn’t much room to push the wall back without spending some serious money to move everything else between the outfield wall and the tunnel.
Nope. No free agent starting pitching. They had 4 starting pitchers they got rid of. No need to bring anymore in. Let the young guys pitch. Yes they got prospects, however seems counter product to bring in a free agent starting pitcher when you had 4 you trade away
@OS> I’d put a short (1-2′) vertical chain link railing at the back of the incline fence extension I proposed above. That would catch even more balls than just the incline.
I went this way versus adding several feet of chain link to the top of the existing wall for a couple of reasons. First raising the existing wall by putting a fence on top of it does away with leaping catches to make outs that would be over the existing fence. I recall the excitement created at Riverfront by these plays when the original, 12′ wall was lowered to 10′ and ultimately to 8′ as best I recollect. I don’t want to see them lost at GABP.
Secondly, I see the incline as adding a defining feature akin to the Green Monster to GABP. Would a ball striking the incline bounce high into the air before coming back into play? Would it ricochet sharply; or, might it go dead on contact and just roll down? Base runners and fielders alike would have to take these possibilities into account.
And since I haven’t said it elsewhere, any ball striking the incline but ultimately bounding into the stands would be a ground rule double. A ball that touched the chain link fence atop the incline on the fly and went into the stands without touching any other surface would be a HR, just as with a ball striking the top of the fence above the yellow line is today.
@Bill> Thanks for the info, when the RF expansion comes up, I always wonder what is under there and also if the major load bearing structural supports for the entire RF area are involved.
I am/ was not a civil engineer but I was in a lot of infrastructure underbelly spaces figuring out where and how to run communications cables and locate equipment that collected all the network drops from everybody’s desks and the like then sent the signals on up stream.
My personal favorite situation (done before I was on that beat) was what looked like an oversized medicine cabinet in a men’s room that was actually a fiber optic cable relay point in a building that had been around since probably before fiber optic cable was even invented. Where there is a will/ need (and the money) there is always a way,
A good win. Dunn will eventually end up in the bullpen but he still got quality as a spot starter.
I had a good feeling about the Reds offense for this game when I saw the lineup. Given the current roster, that was their “offensive” lineup.
Other than Fraley, smallball with singles gets it done.
Loved the small ball and base running. Much more entertaining. Good game by many. I’m really starting to like fraley. I thought Dunn was going to lose it in the 2nd inning – good job getting out of a jam, and good start by him. Needs that for his confidence.
Romaine is a good catcher. We need to keep him.
Great win by the reds.
Fraley’s HR hit a tree then bounced into the river. A prodigious blast for sure but Sadak kept saying it made it on the fly. Even statcast showed it hit a tree first. ?
If the ball had not hit the tree, wouldn’t it have gone even further?
CIN will likely go with 21 pitchers as part of their 40MR this Winter. I believe 8 of the 21 will serve as SP’s, leaving 13 RP’s.
Right now, I see 7 SP’s locked in as SP’s:
Ashcraft
Dunn
Greene
Lodolo
Overton (I assume CIN still controls him)
Williamson
Stoudt
That leaves 1 SP. I maintain that Cueto is the perfect fit and can help the young talent turn the corner.
The RP’s likely have 4 definites:
Antone
Diaz
Sanmartin
Santillan
Sims (assuming he comes back)
That’s 5 of 13 – leaving 8. Many of those pitchers will need options. They are from the current list:
Cessa
Detwiler
Duarte
Dugger
Farmer
Gibault
Gutierrez
Hendrix
Hoffman
Kuhnel
Moreta
Solomon
Warren
The 2021 Reds team carried over 7 RP’s into 2022 and 10 left CIN either during the year or in the offseason. Thus from the above list, I think around 5-6 guys will return (or appear on the 40MR until Opening Day and then go to the DL60).
That means acquiring 2-3 RP’s during the offseason. As previously mentioned, I would get guys that CIN could deal at the Deadline. I would get a bonafide closer. A closer can secure wins (and thus confidence) for our young SP corp. A solid LHRP would help too.
I would focus on guys that have the ability to throw first pitch strikes (F-Strike%).
Thoughts?
Winning is always much funner to watch than losing. I love seeing the small ball stuff, though the river blast was a treat.
Random related thought … the LLWS game I watched earlier today ended on a pickle play. Oddly enough, the kids did very well with it 😀
And the radar map prediction looks like this one might sneak in before some of the bigger stuff hits around 5 PM. Then again, who knows?
Dunn did the right thing Saturday on the rundown too. Ran right at the man and then they quickly got him headed back to 2nd with Dunn going to cover 3B.
The whole mess Friday was largely on Farmer Despite his saving tag at the end. Moose was at home in position and Farmer should have gotten the ball to him
There were 2 problems on that 1.
Papierski was the first big one. He caught the ball at home and didnt run the runner back to his original base-3rd. He threw the ball almost immediately when the runner was still halfway to home and then Farmer had to make the decision in 45 feet if he could catch him or not. Reds very fortunate on that one.
ALWAYS run the runner back to the lesser base. You are correct. Any good Little League team does that.