After a thrilling game last night in which the Cincinnati Reds (57-48) held on for the 6-5 win, they’re back tonight to try to beat the Los Angeles Dodgers (58-44) for a second straight day. First pitch is an hour earlier tonight, at 9:10 EDT.
Lineups
Cincinnati Reds
|
Los Angeles Dodgers |
| SS Elly De La Cruz | LF David Peralta |
| CF TJ Friedl | 1B Freddie Freeman |
| 2B Matt McLain | C Will Smith |
| RF Jake Fraley | 3B Max Muncy |
| 3B Spencer Steer | DH J.D Martinez |
| 1B Joey Votto | RF Jason Heyward |
| DH Christian Encarnacion-Strand | CF James Outman |
| LF Nick Senzel | 2B Chris Taylor |
| C Luke Maile | SS Miguel Rojas |
Jonathan India was in the original lineup, but got scratched last minute due to left heel pain.
Starting Pitchers
| Pitcher | IP | ERA | WHIP | BB | K |
| Luke Weaver | 80.0 | 7.20 | 1.68 | 26 | 65 |
| Emmet Sheehan | 29.1 | 6.75 | 1.47 | 16 | 22 |
| Links: Luke Weaver’s Stats | Emmet Sheehan’s Stats |
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Luke Weaver
Weaver’s got the magic. How else do you explain the Reds’ win-loss record when he’s on the mound? He currently has a 7.20 ERA and a FIP of 5.99, but the Reds score an average of 6.14 runs when he’s pitching and as a result, they have won 11 out of the 17 games he’s started. With an OPS of 1.030, right-handed hitters have teed off on Weaver. He fares a little better against lefties, but he also walks more left-handed hitters. He does pitch a little better away from Great American Ball Park, but even that ERA is very high at 6.34 in 203 plate appearances.
J.D. Martinez has two home runs and six RBI in only three at-bats against tonight’s starter, Luke Weaver.
Splits
| Split | PA | H | 2B | 3B | HR | BB% | K% | AVG | OBP | SLG |
| RHH | 193 | 62 | 15 | 1 | 13 | 5% | 20% | .343 | .378 | .652 |
| LHH | 177 | 46 | 10 | 2 | 7 | 10% | 15% | .291 | .362 | .513 |
Pitch Usage
| 4-Seam | 2-Seam | Cutter | Curve | Slider | Change | |
| Velo | 93.99 | 93.59 | 86.78 | 81.66 | 83.74 | 85.98 |
| Usage | 45.0% | 0.3% | 17.3% | 14.0% | 0.63% | 22.8% |
Emmet Sheehan
Emmet Sheehan rocketed up the amateur rankings after revamping his pitching style during the Covid shutdown in 2020, and was drafted by the Dodgers in the sixth round of the 2021 MLB Draft. When the Dodgers needed pitching help, they decided to call up Sheehan, the 13th-ranked prospect (per Baseball America) from Double-A. While it hasn’t been all sunshine and roses for the 23-year-old right-hander, he had a few good starts, notably his debut on June 16 when he pitched six innings of shut out baseball. Lately, he’s gotten rocked, as he’s given up 17 runs in his last three starts, including eight runs in 3.2 innings to the Rangers on July 23.
Sheehan is a three-pitch pitcher who relies heavily on the four-seam fastball while mixing in a slider and occasionally a change up. Even though he only used the slider about 20 percent of the time, it is very effective in generating ground balls. Even with this, his GB% is still 34.3% and his FB% is at 50%. If the Reds can find a way to hit the fastball tonight, it could be another high-scoring game.
Splits
| Split | PA | H | 2B | 3B | HR | BB% | K% | AVG | OBP | SLG |
| RHH | 61 | 15 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 5% | 15% | .268 | .295 | .411 |
| LHH | 68 | 12 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 19% | 19% | .218 | .368 | .455 |
Pitch Usage
| 4-Seam | Slider | Change | |
| Velo | 95.45 | 86.57 | 82.45 |
| Usage | 64.4% | 20.1% | 15.5% |
Details:
- Time: 9:10 EDT
- Place: Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles, CA
- Weather: 85 degrees, sunny, zero percent chance of rain
- TV: Bally Sports Ohio
- Radio: 700 WLW
News and Notes
David Bell Gets His Contract Extension
In case you missed it last night, the Reds extended David Bell’s contract through 2026.
Minor League Review
Lyon Richardson made his Triple-A debut, and it was fantastic.
Stat of the Day
If the Reds win tonight or tomorrow, it'll be the 3rd time since GABP opened in 2003 that the Reds have series wins against the Dodgers at GABP and Dodger Stadium in the same season.
It'll also be only the 6th time the Reds won the season series against the Dodgers in that span.
— Joel Luckhaupt (@jluckhaupt) July 29, 2023
braves already up 6-0 on brewers.
Nice!
Need to keep an eye on the Cubs. They have won 7 straight and are coming…
Alright. We got our “ace in the whole” pitching tonight. Should be a lot of runs. 🙂
My observations about last night’s game! I went to bed with the Reds up 3-1. Glad they won another nail-biter but, again, too many WALKS by both the SP and relievers (especially Sims). If Williamson does not have four (4) walks he probably pitches into the 7th and maybe even the 8th inning depriving Bell his use of 4 RPs.
And, with a 6-2 lead, Sims issues 2 WALKS after giving up a ground-rule double to the leadoff hitter? Inexcusable! Both batters that Sims walked scored, of course thanks to Gibaut’s ineffective outing! Just thankful that Diaz was able to secure the win!
Now, let’s win Game 2 and secure a series win! With Dream Weaver on the mound we will need to score as many runs as last night, maybe more!
I would argue Williamson could still pitch in 7th considering he had o my thrown 77 pitches when bell pulled him. Two of the walks were to Betts and Freeman, which he should have pitches carefully.
Only thrown* pitched *
Agree.
Need to boost your RBI total? Today is the day for both sides. I think Reds need to put up 7-8 runs to have a chance. Let’s win this.
Dodger’s SP has an ERA of 6.75 so 7 or 8 runs is entirely possible as well as necessary!
If Weaver can throw the cutter for strike today, he will be able to limit the damage.
I would really love it if Weaver could last 6 innings to limit the use of the Reds bullpen!
Kinda doubt if Diaz is available tonight!
Braves now up 8-1 over the Bernies after 4 innings!
I posted the other day that the Braves would sweep the Braves. They are a bad matchup for the Brewers and I think the Brewers emptied the emotional tank against the Reds and were due to let down. You let down against the Braves and it will be a bad day.
I picked 7 runs to win it last night.
I p
Choose 9 tonight with our ace-less guy on the bump. The bigger question is will his blow up inning be in 1st inning or spread out the 1st 3 inning. That’s a tough lineup to contend with.
I hope that we out era their high era/whip rookie. Lol
Let’s whip up on the Dodgers dudes again Redlegs!
Work the counts guys.
Mets trade Scherzer to Rangers. So both the White Sox and the Mets are already waving the white flag for this year
Scherzer is getting “Long-in-the Tooth”! Don’t know how much help he’ll be to the Rangers.
Votto in the lineup tonight ahead of Benson, That is Wrong!!!
Votto in playing lineup and CES the DH. That is Wrong!
Doesn’t the Manager want to play his best lineup?
Fine with Votto to DH against the weaker right handed pitchers and get a few more home runs for his record, but “ Play your Best Team” Bell!!
Agree with Votto as the DH but CES should be higher in the lineup IMO
I have been a Dodger-hater since the days of Walter Alston and Tommy Lasorda when the Reds were in the NL West and there were only 2 divisions in the NL.
Nothing would please me more than another win tonight and then a series sweep tomorrow!
No India or Benson tonight?
India hurt
If you guys haven’t seen it, you should check out the play Machado made last night against Texas. Never seen anything like it.
Lets go get em tonight take if rom them. Steal their lunch money and give them a wedgie.
Go Redlegs
*from them tonight
Still no power so radio only. I’ll be at least three or four pitches behind the rest of you. Lol
Offense vs offense
First to 8 tonight?
Joey Votto should not be playing in the field anymore. He is slow of foot and his reaction times are like, well, a 40 year old man. He has a half a step each way, maximum. His bat speed is down too. He can’t hit the high fastball anymore.
For years we waited for him to hit his way into form and he usually did producing second half numbers that were stunning. We waited for him because we didn’t have a better alternative. Now we do. Time to really dial him back on the playing time, like they have Newman and Caseli. Right handed pitcher DH 2-3 times a week.
It’s incredible that the Reds having Weaver in their rotation with 17 starts they can sport a 9 games over .500 winning record.
TJ please level out your swing. I’ve been beating that drum for 2 weeks. Where’s the veteran leaders to drill that in to him. That’s what they are supposed to do behind the scenes. Those things are on the veterans & hitting coaches.
So if Senzel and Steer are in the field together, why not Nick at 3rd and Steer in left?
That’s to logical.
India is bound to have some nagging issue. He had appeared in every game up until around 8-9 games back & now 3 games in a short span. Things that make you go humm… that injury humm..
He always runs as if his feet are hurting….weather they do or not.
That’s a good observation. I’ve noticed something weird looking and I figured
that he was flat footed or possibly falling arches. I have neuropathy pretty bad & mostly in my rt foot, so I & tend to notice running styles, weight distribution and such.
Error and extra out really cost us. This lineup is too good to give them extra outs.
Weaver is the WORST staring pitcher in baseball yet the Reds keep running him out there. Killing out BP to boot. Pure stupidity…
Hey now, every year we have to have our lucky “Minor” pitcher on the team to waste starts on. Gotta get every penny out of that contract.
He’d make a lot of money as. HR Derby pitcher. New career after he gets DFA’d
Weaver. You could feel that Muncy was going homer. The guy is a mistake killer and nothing more. Weaver feeds it to him.
So true. Very Adam Dunn like. I think about 90% of Dunn’s Hrs were on mistakes. He almost never did damage against a quality pitch.
And they both walk alot.
Generally Weaver surrenders multi-run homers after 2 outs
Looking back at older photos of Muncy he has certainly gotten a lot bigger in recent years. Must have a good trainer.
I don’t know if Fraley tries to go oppo…but he should just stop trying. Very weak contact every time.
That 9-10 total errors for Steer now I do believe. 1st base & LF are preferable from my perspective. And I’m a big fan of his.
I think he played a great 1B, before the trouble he had a week ago.
He’s been solid in LF too.
brings senzel in as late defensive replacement at third yesterday why does he not start him at third tonite
I wonder what the % of swings on first pitch Senzel has in his career. It seems like it has to be around 70% he swings at first pitch.
Dodgers pitcher is pretty much throwing 96 mph 4- seamer and challenges Reds hitters. I am sure we will get him.
Only if we swing. We take way too many first pitch strikes
At this point, it’s simply negligent to have allowed Weaver to make yet another start. For the past month, not one major league team has been willing to make one reasonable deal for one *average* starting pitcher? I just don’t buy it. I swear, if there were no trade deadline, the Reds would probably wait until the last week of the season to pull the trigger on any sort of meaningful deal.
I don’t ever remember another Reds starter where you say to yourself “Only 2 runs given up in the first… not bad. I like our chances.” Why they don’t try him with an opener is hard to understand.
Elly’s plate discipline is just garbage and when he swings he is always swinging at full speed.
Really really really does NOT want to walk.
Someone needs to work with Friedl on hitting the ball on the ground. He flies out a lot for a speedy guy that can bunt.
Needs to go down to 9th. Better hitter there.
Friedl is reverting to his mean of a fringe average MLB starter.
Agree. I think this is just who he is. Reds need to find another full-time OF that can play everyday against righties and lefties during the offseason.
Lead off double and he is still there. Maybe Mac can show them how to bring him in.
Bad AB by EDLC. Chased ball 4 and didn’t get the runner over.
Cubs beating up the WLBs again tonight. At least the brewers lost.
lol at the cubs schedule the second half of August versus ours. Does not portend well for the Reds if the Cubs stay hot.
Worn out with Freidl. Low baseball IQ as a hitter
Maybe EDLC wasn’t ready yet as a hitter for the majors? Have the Reds rushed him too quickly? Probably not a popular opinion.
He’s 21 and it’s the big leagues. If he doesn’t adjust then he’ll be back at Louisville
No…mainly because there was nothing left to prove at AAA.
He was definitely ready and AAA wasn’t going to help him improve. Why they have insisted on hitting him in the cleanup and leadoff spots is a mystery, though. Well, not really with Bell, but regardless they should move him down. Maybe work on his two-strike approach to shorten his swing and put it in play more often.
Dodger feed did show TJ visibly upset in the dugout. He knows he’s in a funk. Hopefully he can work his way out of it.
Wouldn’t surprised to see him try to bunt next AB.
Very encouraging the way Weaver is pitching. Able to get the curveball and cutter over the plate for strikes. I think he needs to balance out his 4 seamer and cutter usage the next couple innings.
Hey at least the team won’t lose any ground to the Brewers tonight. This is a pretty pathetic showing against a young pitcher who magically figures it out against the Reds. Seems to happen a lot.
Votto doesn’t hit line drives anymore. Seems like he changed his approach to get more home runs but that has led to him either hitting lazy fly balls or grounders most of the time.
Great play Matt!
Worrisome thing is MLB hits Peralta but we don’t. MLB kills this kid tonight, but we can’t. Nobody will take a walk and then in Milw they stretched the plate on us every other hitter
That was the move of a pitcher who got hit with a batter ball recently he didnt want any part of that one. Having seen the knot, I get it.
When I saw the opposing pitcher’s big problem has been giving up walks, I had a feeling the Reds would be in some trouble. They do NOT like to walk.
One pitch in the strike zone to CES and he didn’t even swing at that one.
Swinging at alot of Ball 4’s tonight.
CES trying to do too much. K on 3-2 with 1 total strike bring thrown
Yep you could see he was starting to press in the series at Milwaukee. Before then he was not swinging a bad balls, but in Milwaukee he started swinging out a lot of bad balls and it’s continued here in LA. He’s got to get back to swinging at pitches in the zone and he’ll be okay.
Any opposing pitcher who somehow goes 3-0 on any Reds’ hitter should just throw three straight breaking balls low and outside, because the Reds will guess fastball down the middle every time, and swing almost every time.
We are losing plate discipline with our hitting lately. Way do many swings at balls outside the strike zone.
Weaver is not counting on the typical run support so far tonight…. The Reds offense is down against a pitcher sporting a 6.75 ERA before this game…
I almost urged a buddy of mine to bet the over since with Weaver on the mound it should be easy money. Glad I chickened out.
Figures Weaver would finally have a strong game and now we can’t score. Still time though
Maybe it’s just an amazing coincidence that nobody on this team other than Benson ever seems interested in trying to walk, but I feel like it’s more likely a reflection of a “do whatever you want” style of leadership. And somehow I’m supposed to be excited about the fact that all the players seem to enjoy this style of leadership.
When I watch Benson hit I always think it’s because he just has a really good eye. He takes a lot of pitches that are balls but are pretty close and hardly ever swings at balls that are outside the strike zone. I just think he has the best batters eye on the team and he values walks maybe a little more than most. He’s definitely had some really huge walks this season in some really big spots that were 8-9-10-11 pitch walks against really tough pitchers.
I can’t stand no accountabilty.
No wonder the players like him
Weaver better start giving up some runs if he expects his team to win today. He’s throwing everyone off.
I convinced myself weeks ago that Casali was retained for one reason, and that being to catch Greene when he rehabs and gets activated around 8/20. Curt will go on a rehab stint to coincidence with Hunter’s rehab stint. And when Hunter’s returns to the Reds Curt will too. Just an uneducated guess.
Good move by Bell to bat Newman Jake
My boy Steer.
Say what you will about Newman, but the guy will generally give you a professional at-bat. And so will Steer.
Hats off to Newman. He did what others couldn’t or won’t.
Great move by Bell, pinch hitting Newman there.
Seemed like a pretty obvious move, but I’m glad he made it.
Yep. Obvious move.
Just because it’s obvious, doesn’t mean it happens cough votto vs lefties cough
Benson’s chance to shine
He likes to watch strike three.
Nope. He’s clearly spent too much time with the Reds, and now doesn’t know he’s supposed to swing at anything close with two strikes. Sigh….
You can not take a pitch there
Didn’t shine
Will does show patience, but he’s taken a bunch of called 3rd strikes lately.
Leaving Weaver in the game at this point is just getting greedy.
This is Bell’s fault.
Muncy bad ball hitter. 3-0 count right down the middle.
Guy is at the Mendoza line lives off of mistakes over the plate. You know he is greenlighted 3-0. Still a great outing especially by weaver standards.
Missed opportunity hurts worse now.
I swear to goodness. Holy cow. Total wasted loaded bases with no swing on ball down middle. Them freaking Muncy again. Good gravy almighty.
Weaver needs to meet Muncy in the parking lot after the game
Weaver being Weaver. Up 4-1 blew it next inning. We finally rally 2-2 and you just knew he wasn’t holding it
Ahh only given up two hits. Blame this on Reds hitters suck.
That’s fair.
Dumb though. Good pitchers can win 3-2
Yeah, sometimes you have to actually pitch really well for your team to win your starts. You can’t always count on the offense getting 8 runs to bail you out. But that’s why you’re making $80,000 per start.
He has JDs number but couldn’t just let Max the turtle take first
Look, Weaver got through 6 innings giving up 3 runs, 1 unearned. We should be happy right? That’s a QS, right? We tie it up or take the lead for him.
I know it’s crazy, but I think both of those first inning runs are unearned.just as dumb as unearned runs when it’s the pitcher who made the error. Either way, we are down one on the line score now.
“Leaving Weaver in the game at this point is just getting greedy.”
But what do I know?
This is also true beginning with the first batter, and every one that follows.
But, he had given up 1 hit and was under 75 pitches. The Reds aren’t going to win games that Weaver starts that they don’t score at least 5 runs.
In this count of 3-0 everybody less Weaver knows Muncy was going to swing… Fastball in the power zone… Weaver Just gave up 2 hits both homers by Muncy…
Crazy that a guy with a sub 200 average hits 2 home runs while everyone else has been quiet.
Freidl air = out
Ground = single & run
He had 25 HRs before the night
Well he does have 26 of them this year. He is a HR or walk guy. It’s the only thing keeping him in the game. Counting this year he has hit below .200 in three of the last four years
I agree with previous comments that Friedl needs a break or a move in the lineup.
It’s about 2 weeks behind that he should’ve been moved down.
I hope Benson gets another chance hitting with men on to redeem himself. I am pretty sure he’s mad at himself for taking that 3rd strike. He’s better than that.
He doubled down on taking strike 3
I saw that. Votto must have been in his ears about taking walks. I don’t have another explanation 🙂
The Dodgers has two hits on the night and are leading 3-2. Sounds about right
*have
Reds aren’t into winning this. Opportunities galore keep going by.
Never seen a player make a great career off a certain hit and then suddenly never hit it that way for 4-5+ years. Votto used to live for shooting it to left-center. Never does it now. Maybe 2-3 times a month
It’s weird, because you’d think going the other way would be something you’d really want to focus on as you start to slow down a bit. But he seems to have decided to start swinging a little earlier and become a true power hitter. It didn’t seem like such a terrible idea until he stopped hitting home runs.
Teams don’t even worry about pitching a righty against Votto anymore. They don’t fear him at all.
I like what we’ve got coming up in the 9th with. CES, and BENSON are a nice 1, 2 punch to get things going. Then if 1 gets on we get to get to EDLC, should be fun.
agreed
Leadoff double for Maile and 1-2-3 couldn’t get him in. That was a killer
Bell looks like a genius there
8 Left On Base won’t get it done. We should have won this game by three or four. Let’s get them tomorrow.
Muncy 3 Reds 2
Best game Weaver pitched in a long time, probably best game of the year but offense didn’t back him. Ironic. Offensively I expect more from CES given all the hype I saw when posters petitioned for FO to bring him up. Hope he shows some offense power soon.
Triple A ain’t the Bigs 🙂
He’s had 35 plate appearances in his major league career. In Milwaukee, he had two fly balls caught right at the wall, and missed another home run foul by a few feet. He’s within a few feet of having three home runs in his first 35 PA’s. How much power were you expecting?
I want to see actual HRs, not fly balls.
So do I, but I also understand how baseball works. When a guy has had a grand total of 35 plate appearance, and in those 35 chances he’s already hit a deep three-run go-ahead home run in one game, had a key RBI single in another game, and come very close to hitting at least two more home runs against pitchers that nobody on the team seemed to be able to hit at all, I’m not going to be complaining about his lack of offensive production. (Oh, and was one of two guys who reached base twice tonight.)
There were a lot of excellent examples in this game of guys who don’t understand basic strategies of hitting, e.g., try to draw walks when you’re facing a pitcher with control problems, don’t look at anything close when you’ve got two strikes, try to hit to the right side of the field when you’ve got a leadoff runner on second, etc. Plenty of talent on this team, but they can’t get by on talent alone. This was such a winnable game if they just did the fundamental stuff correctly.