The Cincinnati Reds offense couldn’t capitalize on multiple opportunities and came up a run short as the Kansas City Royals picked up a 3-2 win on Wednesday night to avoid being swept in the 3-game series.
| Final | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cincinnati Reds (28-29) | 2 | 9 | 0 |
| Kansas City Royals (30-27) | 3 | 8 | 0 |
| W: Cameron (2-1) L: Greene (4-3) SV: Estevez (15) | |||
| Statcast | Box Score | Game Thread | |||
The Royals didn’t make it easy on Hunter Greene in the bottom of the 1st inning. Jonathan India led off with a single and Vinnie Pasquantino walked to put two men on with just one out. Greene would clamp down an d get a fly out and a line out to end the inning, but he threw 25 pitches in the frame.
Cincinnati would put together back-to-back 2-out singles in the top of the 4th inning against Noah Cameron, but the lefty got Connor Joe to ground into a force out to squash the threat. In the bottom of the inning the Royals also had back-to-back singles, but their second single resulted in a run scoring from first as Maikel Garcia was running on the play and he never stopped as the ball hit Matt McLain’s glove and rolled slowly into the outfield before Joe could field it and come up throwing. The right fielder’s throw was off target and up the third base line as Kansas City scored the game’s first run.
An inning later the Royals would add on to their lead when John Rave led off with his first big league hit – a double. Two outs later he came in to score when Bobby Witt Jr. lined a double the other way to make it 2-0.
The Reds tried to put together a 2-out rally in the top of the 6th inning, starting with an 8-pitch walk by Austin Hays. Tyler Stephenson then came through with a single to move Hays up to second. That left Spencer Steer with an opportunity to do some damage and he came through with an RBI single to cut the lead in half.
After throwing 88 pitches through five innings the Reds called on the bullpen to reliever Hunter Greene to begin the 6th. Scott Barlow allowed a walk and a single, but he picked up two strikeouts to get out of the inning without any damage.
Cincinnati tried to get another rally going in the 7th with a 1-out walk and then a single by TJ Friedl. But in what felt like a theme for much of the night when the team had two runners on, a ground ball ended things as Santiago Espinal grounded into an inning-ending double play.
Luis Mey took over on the mound for the Reds in the 7th and he got himself into trouble by walking the first two batters he faced. Facing Bobby Witt Jr. he would fire a wild pitch to move both runners up and then Witt Jr. came through with a sacrifice fly to pad the Royals lead to 3-1. Mey would get two ground outs to follow without allowing any further runs.
Elly De La Cruz started off the 8th inning with a double to the wall in right field and then he moved up to third on a ground out by pinch-hitter Gavin Lux. Spencer Steer was able to drive in his second run of the day when he lined a 2-out single into left and cut Cincinnati’s deficit to a single run. Will Benson came on to pinch hit against new reliever Carlos Estevez of the Royals and he popped up on the first pitch he saw to end the inning.
Matt McLain struck out to start the top of the 9th inning. The called third strike resulted in Nick Martinez barking from the Reds dugout and getting ejected. Manager Terry Francona then came out to ask about it all and ten seconds later he was also ejected from the game. Garrett Hampson was robbed of a hit on a grounder up the middle by Jonathan India for the second out of the inning. A strikeout by TJ Friedl ended the game as the Royals held on for a 3-2 win to avoid being swept.
Key Moment of the Game
The wild pitch by Luis Mey in the 7th inning that set up a sacrifice fly that ultimately produced the winning run.
Notes Worth Noting
Tyler Stephenson and Spencer Steer each had three hits on the night. Cincinnati’s lineup combined for three hits between everyone else.
The Reds stranded two runners on base in the 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th innings. Only the 6th inning saw them score a run in all of that.
The two teams combined to strike out just 10 times – five for each squad.
Royals starter Noah Cameron became the 2nd pitcher since 1893 to throw at least 6.1 innings and allow one run or less in his first four MLB starts.
Up Next for the Cincinnati Reds
Cincinnati Reds vs Chicago Cubs
Friday, May 30th, 2:20pm ET
Andrew Abbott (4-0, 1.77 ERA) vs TBA
Does anyone really expect anything other than this when your bottom 3 is joe,mclain and hampson,team was handicapped from the get go
Joe and Hampson have been hitting. Don’t know what to make of McLain.
Right now Mclain is hurting this team so bad that Sal Stewart may be better soon.
Per Doug, Stewart is an average defender. Give Matt M. one thing he is a good defender
Not per Doug. He’s a below-average defender that is just good enough to play at second or third as long as he hits well.
He needs time sent down, not just sat down.
Is Matt Mclain going to start hitting anytime this year…
He looked to be emerging with 5 hits in 4 games. Hitting the ball the other way.
I was squinting really hard though.
They treat him like he has an extensive track record, he doesn’t. He had 2023. If I remember right, he hit about .200 in AA in 2022. He needs to go down and earn his way back up. Why are they treating him like he has 3 or 4 solid years in the bigs? He’s getting special treatment. Plenty hate on Espy but he’s a better fielder and MM has even hit worse. Espy is a passable 8th place hitter because of his D, MM currently isn’t.
Who are you going to replace him with?
They may, instead, be treating him like a player they view as important to the near future of the ream. A player who is coming back from injury, showing some signs of waking, and with little to learn at AAA.
With 9 hits the Reds could have put more on the board, but the hitting did come together as well as it could have. Greene didn’t have a stellar outing either, giving up 2 runs in 5 innings pitched. Our right handed lineup vs. a Lefty starter proved to be a weakness, once again. I’m looking forward to the series in Chicago this weekend, where I expect the Reds will have their “A” game going and their best guys in the line up.
Why don’t they have best guys in lineup every night? Unless your on dl or unavailable for other reasons you should be playing,nobody forcing manager to sit better hitters for Joe and hampson
One reason is that, injured or not, guys can’t play every day. Another reason is that a team needs its bench guys playing enough so that they aren’t totally lost when a starter gets hurt and they–the bench guy–has to play.
Agree Andrew!
Among the 9 hits, only 4 players got them. 3 each by Steer and Stephenson. 2 by Friedl. 1 by EDLC. Harder to score when only four guys in lineup got hits.
I was hoping they’d pull this one out. Instead, they lost ground to every other team in the division. They are now closer to the Pirates at the bottom than the Cubs at the top. Wake up and beat the Cubs at least 2 out of 3, or be 10+ games out by Monday. I didn’t really expect them to make the playoffs this year. But, then the season starts and you start thinking, “well maybe”. Not happening-the question is what is Krall going to do to fix it?
Absolutely nothing … like he’s done the
entire time … it is frustrating beyond belief
I am not sure 2 of 3 this weekend is good enough. Sure, it is fine if your objective is another 500 like season. But everything that I read and saw in March and April indicated we expected significant improvement over the last couple of 78-82 win seasons. I have not sensed anything from Krall or Francona that says the expectation is anything different as we approach June. Now we get to the Duh moment. As you note, what are we going to do differently in June to gain some of that 7.5 game deficit back? Continue to expect McLain, Stephenson. CES and Candelario to start hitting 260 instead of 180 or 210? Or Elly to hit 290 instead of 245? OK, I can get onboard with that if there are some logical conditions attached to it. Like how long are we going to ride that dead horse. June 15? Until we fall 9-10 games behind the Division lead? This is the team that traded for these hot prospects (Steer, CES, Marte, Arroyo) 3 years ago or wouldnt trade any of them (McLain, Stephenson, Fraley, Lodolo) for proven talent because they were going to be so great in 2024 or 2025. We knew we needed a big big bat and we added nice “single hitters”in Lux, Hays,and Trevino. Nice improvements no doubt and possibly enough if McLain, Stephenson, Steer, Candy, and CES were banging the ball. But they are not and it is June and you now have 7.5 games to make up in 4 months. And then there is the 2026 background music. How does that mesh? Krall, is the strategy going to be that Steer, McLain, CES, etc. are really great untradable pieces who we are going to build around and we are going to trade our best players like Lux, Hays, and Martinez? Come on. No thanks. Swallow hard and go get the players you need. Teams have been 10-12 games behind at the AS break and made the playoffs. But they sure didnt do it hoping for better. Pads got Arreaz, Dbacks got a Closer and a bat, and Braves got 3 new OFs after Acuna went down.
“Not happening-the question is what is Krall going to do to fix it?”
hahaha Very funny. If he makes a major in season move to improve the team winning now it will be the first time unless I’m missing something.
“Tyler Stephenson and Spencer Steer each had three hits on the night. Cincinnati’s lineup combined for three hits between everyone else.” There it is. Please put a better lineup on the field, Tito. Espinal 0-4. The bottom of the line-up 0fered, too. McLain?
Good to see those 2 hitting, though.
Yep. Really the only plus for the evening.
How is it within rules to shut the lights off as you’re bringing in a reliever? Couldn’t that screw with a hitters eyes or head? On, off and on and then 1 minute to adjust.
It just didn’t seem right to me, is this a common thing now?
???????????
The Royals shut the lights off in the 8th with 2 outs as their reliever came in because the pitcher was “lights out”. Benson was hitting and had to adjust to that antic. I’d never seen that before.
It happens all of the time, all around baseball.
Yes. There are lighting effects as well as other visual and sound effects throughout baseball at breaks in action. It’s throughout pro sports.
The headline could have read, “Jonathan India stars for the Royals in their win over the Reds today.” Well almost.
I’m glad India’s gone. He never will repeat his rookie season, let alone do better.
I’d rather have India batting second and playing 2B than what the Reds are currently putting out there!
Brady Singer has been great, I’ll admit, but McClain to this point is no replacement for India. Wish we still had him.
The 3 catchers + Joe + Hampson seem not helping the Reds in my opinion. There should be some roster moves before the series at Chicago.
The lineup 2nd spot continues to be a deep weakness, much chances to score runs pass and are wasted by that spot.
Horrible throw by Connor Joe letting Garcia scores from 1st base
Greene hasn’t his best stuff but could keep the game in the line..
After the bullpen has been a little rested in this series and adding an day-off tomorrow I hope the relievers can improve their outings at Chicago this weekend
How are you lumping the 3 catchers in with Joe/Hampson?
I mean , in my opinion, they carrying 3 catchers is not good at this moment and Joe/Hampson look to provide low value
Wynns has started once and batted four other times in 3 weeks. More of an observer than a catcher lately.
Joe and Hampson are cheap upgrades from the Louisville crew of Dunn, Hurtebise, Hinds, etc. No more no less. We do not have offensive players in the minor leagues who can contribute this year. If you want more offense, then you need to go out and get it. We got to the finish line line on Tucker (900 OPS) and didnt close choosing not to part with Arroyo, Stewart, and Dunn. Yeah, Tucker is a little better than Dunn or Hurtebise or Joe or Fraley or Benson. These are the pieces Francona was given and left spring training with. Now you can plug any 2-3 of the 5 into the nightly lineup but I think you evenjtually come to the point that we need something much better. Pile on top of that the 2-3 hot shots that arent hitting their weight and you have the 2025 Reds aqnd quite probably the 2026 Reds. Some upgrades are required or it will be 2026.
Good game all the way around. Mey struggled but bounced back. Some good defense by the Royals. Greene solid 5 innings. 3-2 is easier for me to deal with than blowing a 6 run lead.
On to Chicago!!
how many called third strikes?! at least take a hack at it now and then.
Yep, and McClain starts almost every bat in an 0-2 hole. He needs to sit or be sent down for a bit. He’s hurting this team.
I’m glad to see someone else has noticed this as well, it seems like McClain always starts 0-2. No wonder he is battling the Mendoza line. It feels like he has no consistent approach and his plate discipline seems to have spiraled leading to higher chase/SO rates. I think a brief 1-2 week stint in the minors to work on that would be helpful, maybe they will do that when Fraley or CES is ready, which would allow them to cover 2B better with Lux/Steer. (Perhaps they would have done that already if Marte was still raking at 3B.) I’d be in favor of swapping him for Hinds now, but overall am in favor of Hinds playing everyday in LOU if the OF ever returns to full health.
Stage is set for a 3 game is sweep: offense on a hot streak and Greene on the mound, but another let down again. Yes, this team needs a big bat or two, but above all this team needs to have killer instinct. It’s very difficult to root for a mediocre team. The emotional roller coaster from a couple good wins followed by a couple painful losses is a bit too big
Bullpen came in and walked 3 guys. That will cost you almost every time. Kept it close though. Not a bad KC trip.
Espy in the last 3 innings, must lead the NL in GIDP, or at least it seems that way. Great D, nothing better than a 8 or 9 hitter though. If we’re being honest, of all the non-pitchers on IR, other than Marte from his last 10 plus games before he went down, none of them add anything more than what is already there. The starting pitching is playoff caliber, half the Iineup is, the other half is not, and the bullpen, well if the guy brought in gets the first guy out, all good, if not, they bad!
I’ll say it again re all of this focus on Espinal. Yes, he is a 7 or 8 hitter in the line-up. However, he’s taking the spot of the grossly underperforming McLain. When is McLain going te reclaim his spot so Espinal can go back to where he belongs in the order? I know I’m not the only one asking this question.
Agreed. It is not Espinal’s responsibility that he is being over-exposed, used in the number 2 spot, etc. All winter, there was general agreement that Espinal was a nice infield reserve, one who’d contribute well if used within limits. Yes he does small things well. No, he is not something he isn’t. No, he does not fill out the lineup.
Espinal’s had some untimely GIDP but today’s was only his second in innings 7-9 this year. (I know, I’m shocked too. He’s got six total on the season.)
Junior Caminero of Tampa Bay has seven in innings 7-9. He’s the king. Heston Kjerstad of Baltimore is runner-up with five. Caminero’s 16 total GIDP also leads the majors.
Dang facts. Stubborn little boogers.
The Reds signed Joe and the new guy and put them in the lineup which is a joke.They are gone when players return but what’s really sad is this team felt they had nobody in the minors and signed these guys.The roster is flawed and throw in the fact they have no depth then this what we get.No way and I mean no way this is a major league organization.Its a circus.Get Hinds up here and play Benson and Lux against lefties.
The Royals are a pretty good team, a team built for their ballpark. As a general matter, it’s difficult to sweep a good team.
I’m an old fan who clearly remembers lefthanded hitters like Johnny Mize, Stan Musial and others hitting lefthanded pitching routinely. It’s gone too far. In order to hit against lefty pitchers, lefty hitters have to hit against them. For me, that’s a key to a good offense on a winning team especially with outfielders.
We did take a series in a tough ballpark, but I’m with those very disappointed we couldn’t convert when the opportunities came up. Can’t really fault Greene. Looked like he was struggling with some footing and some Royals but good wood on decent pitches. Plus Cameron was really dialed in against us.
Shake it off and get ready for Wrigleyville and the Stupid Cubs.
Yesterday and today there were footing issues on the mound.
Hunter didn’t look like he got his slider going. Same with his first game off IL, if I remember, too. The split had its moments, but like virtually everyone pitching in the ML’s, landing the breaking ball …
Seems to me that doing what Greene has been doing, pitching at a very high level, is so hard that even a very brief IL stint is disruptive.
But, as Greene says, “Go ahead, bet against me.”
Taking that liner from Garcia off the calf in the 4th didn’t help his footing any, either.
Greene’s average slider last night was 91.3, for the season it’s 88.9. Make of that what you will. (I’m making nothing.)
I just read that the Reds are 0-22 when trailing after 6 innings. Where are our rally-Reds?
Sounds bad and is bad. But to know how bad, you need some context: the records of other teams when they’re behind after 6 innings. I bet few if any do very well.
The 0 and 22 after 6 is an indictment of the whole team including the manager. The Mclain issue has really hurt this team. He needs to be sent down. Somebody said earlier that they treat Mclain like he has some great track record, he doesn’t, he has only played really well for about 3 months 2 years ago. Just maybe he isn’t very good. I am sure Sal Stewart could hit better than he has and so could Urbaez from Louisville. I am sorry, but I have had it with Mclain this year.
Reds Groundhog Day……….get to .500 then lose the next game……….sigh.
…and dude is gonna regret not signing that extension when Reds approached him about it … going backwards in a hurry
Mey’s inning was painful to watch. I’d probably give him a breather in AAA. Toughing it out as an “effectively wild” one-pitch pitcher probably isn’t the best thing for him long term.
Richardson is right there. While I don’t expect miracles from him either, he did fine in his last run, and as a RH changeup guy he gives the bullpen a look they don’t have right now.
The worst thing about this loss would be Hays getting hurt again after fouled one of his foot off …he was X-rayed and the results are inconclusive so he will be scanned today according to Tito…it doesn’t sound good actually
Well, now that it’s summer, and I have a little time, I can return to my job as “guy who looks things up.”
McLain is, believe it or not, probably fine. There’s not a substantial difference in his batted ball profile between 2023 and 2025. His BABIP is .238, which is unsustainably low. You’d definitely like to see the strikeouts come down (and they’ve been trending that way, though not as much as we might like). His expected stats have him as a slight tick above average.
I know at this point in the season, there’s a tendency to think that the players have all shown us who they are, but it’s mostly still early. Guys will find the back of their baseball card way more often than not.
Agree completely. McLain’s underlying analytics from ’23 and ’25 are very similar, and in a lot of ways better in ’25, particularly in BB% and Hard Hit %. Chase rate is about the same, but whiff rate has increased somewhat.
It’s just a matter of time before those underlying stats are normalized in results.
I think a lot of the folks here calling for McLain to be sent down are the same ones that wanted Steer to be sent down in early May.
Yes, Jason and AllTheHype are on it. My big takes from his batted ball data is:
Unlucky: BABip from 23-25 is .385 to .238 and xWOBA from .332 to .310 where .315 is MLB Avg. All of that with pretty similar data mentioned above.
Walking more: BB% from 7.7 to 10.6.
Strikeouts: SO% from 28.5 to 31.7. Obviously an area requiring attention.
Still hitting it hard(er): HH% from 42.6 to 48.6 where MLB Avg is 39.9
Getting under it too much?: his LD% down 2, GB% down 4, and FB% up 6. LA up 2 and now 3% above MLB Avg.
Hitting more to deepest part of park: Pull% down 1, Oppo% down 1, Center% up 2.
It basically looks like he just needs to cut down a bit on the SOs and turn some of them FB into LD and he’ll start seeing better results. He’s still hitting the ball hard. Lots of positive signs that this is temporary, but also be sure to temper your expectations some based on how lucky he was his Rookie year.
Yes, because most of us who would send them down do not believe in burning MLB PAs on guys who aren’t physically ready to take them when the guy can be optioned to AAA to find his groove.
An option trip to AAA can be as short as 10 days or as long as it takes for the player to find his groove. When a guy has found himself and gone as far as he can go versus AAA pitching, bring him back up to finish the process.
How many MLB PAs have the Reds burned on Steer and Stepenson to get them to the cusp they are on now? How many have they burned on and continue to burn on McLain to get him to this point? Why is there such resistance to the alternative of sending them down to get their eye and bat speed up to snuff?
@Jim
Because there are no replacements that can do better. Sending Steer down in early May, when most folks were calling for it, would have wasted his production in AAA when it could have been (and was) used for the Reds instead this month.
Calling Steer injured in early May was speculation and not fact.
@Jim
You’re assuming that what we’re seeing has nothing to do with luck, and it pretty clearly does. McLain has hit the ball in such a way that, with neutral luck, he’d be an average MLB hitter and an excellent defender at an important defensive position. Sending him down accomplishes nothing. You send guys down when like, say WillBenson, there are obvious flaws that need to be fixed. Not when, like with McLain, they’ve just been getting unlucky. 200 PAs isn’t that many. He could have a couple of good games and people would mostly quiet down about his numbers.
All of these analytics to try to tell your eyes that they are lying. Im afraid the Reds have also put alot of stock into some of these analytical statistics and based off the results, Id say they have been looking at the wrong ones for a couple of years now. These are extremely subjective and vary on a number of different factors. McLain looked confident at the plate in 2023, he has not looked confident in 2025. I dont care what his batting average with runners on 2nd and 3rd with 2 strikes on a hard hit ball to left is versus the year before.
The Reds will absolutely burn big league at bats to try to get a guy going when there is a small (and i mean small) number of position players who are above being sent down. Who else remembers the ole classic “hit the struggling guy lead-off until he gets going” move from our old skipper? Lets put an automatic out at the top of the lineup in order to get one guy going.
Obviously it’s time to start trying some new things/philosophies. Its unbelievable how much these past seasons are starting to look alike.
Analytics are subjective compared to the eye test and memory?
This is the Redleg Nation code :
1) 1 week slump- He needs to sit for a game
2) 2 week slump- Needs to sit for a couple of games
3) 3 week slump – He needs to be sent to AAA
4) 4 week slump- He needs to be traded
5) 5 week slump- DFA
I’m more optimistic than many of the regular contributors here, and try hard not to get worked up about any one game. But a lineup featuring Joe, Hampsen, and a struggling McLain 7-9 against a soft tossing lefty was doomed from the start. With that lineup it feels like the FO said “Dunn and Hurtubise and our slumping starter just aren’t major league ready, let’s replace them with veteran versions of the exact same guys and see if that’s somehow better.” It’s not. A couple weeks ago I thought McLain was turning a corner. I was wrong. I agree that he needs some time in AAA to focus on his fundamentals and get back to what he’s capable of, and I can’t wait for Marte and CES to replace Joe and Hampsen. Shake it off, catch your breath, then bring on the Cubs. Go Reds!
CES has been significantly worse than McLain over his last 200 PAs (which is about how many they’ve each had between 2024 and 2025). And McLain was better in 2023.
I think CES will probably be okay. But having faith in him and no McLain is illogical.
I do have faith in McLain, and expect in the long run he’s the better offensive player. I’m just saying right now that I’d like to see McLain get some time to work on his process, patience and pitch recognition in an environment where his struggles don’t matter – at AAA. I’m definitely not giving up on him long term, and if the Reds could keep only one I’d prefer McLain over CES. But I want both to be healthy and helping the Reds offense.
The good thing about the upcoming Cubs series is the Reds will be facing a right handed pitcher all 3 games. There will be no reason whatsoever of Joe or Hampson to be playing . None.
McLain has enjoyed a golden boy status with broadcasters and fans. I am not saying it’s undeserved, as opposed to recognizing how good his 2023 really was. I am also not sure how well it has served him, either.
I also don’t give any credibility to the “he’s never done much” feelings. They show limited insight and, above, focus on his AA year. In actuality, his Hi A year had a deficit of not hitting for much power. He then, quite intelligently, used his AA year to learn how to counter that, hence a lower BA and an increase in strikeouts but also marked by the success of learning how to get to his power in games.
There were cynics suggesting “oh, he’s selling out for power,” which completely missed the point. He was using AA in a very specific way. And, the following season, it all came together. If anything, it was a very good example in individual player development. So, my best advice is ignore those critiques. They are way off the mark.
Now, that said, there is no denying McLain is in trouble, perhaps deeper trouble than our erstwhile broadcasters want to admit — see above golden boy. Not insurmountable but truly significant. Searching for the Why? shouldn’t be that challenging, however. He tore up his shoulder and missed an entire year. That he is struggling is in reality to be expected. That his struggles are now compounding — his timing is way off, he is getting fooled on pitches, very badly, and things may be affecting his defense — should not be unexpected. This is especially true given what we know about shoulder injuries for hitters (they suck power and take forever to reverse) as well as what we know about Matt McLain, he has durability issues.
When people say he needs this or he needs that, what i hear is that McLain time and opportunities to get right. Batting him 8th or 9th seems fine to me. Having him complemented by Connor Joe, Garrett Hampson, Santiago Espinal playing every day, to me, is what is not fine. If things worsen, he might need done AAA time to reset. I do not know if we are there yet.
Solid analysis, thanks!
Spot on DaveCT.
I have to admit I expected him to be our best position player this season. It doesn’t matter if it’s the shoulder or missing an entire season, he just not cutting it.
1 Friedl (CF), 2 Steer (1B), 3 EDLC (SS)
4 Hays (LF), 5 Lux (2B), 6 Stephenson (DH)
7 Benson (RF), 8 Trevino (C), 9 Espinal (3B)
C Wynns
INF Urbaez
INF/Of Joe
OF Hinds
Also bring back Richardson for crying out loud
Baseball is a funny game and a very fickle friend. Matt McLain has the capacity to be one of our best players and carry this team, as he’s done before, within weeks and possibly within days. And, by season’s end, he can have a very serviceable 2025 contribution and decent numbers. The question is how. And that, right there, is why Tito et al get the big bucks.
I can say this as well. It is not the first time a second year player (in essence) has struggled under high expectations — he is a homo sapien after all. Add that he had been anointed by a HOF manager as one of the two most important hitters on the team, compound it with his injury (and resultant spring training slowdown), a freakin’ brutal April and May, then throw it all into the margarita blender. It might be one to just say, yeah, I’m pouring it out.
Last, McLain’s struggles are amplified significantly by Candelario’s poor start, likely decline and injury, CES’ poor start and injury, Steer’s injury and slow start, Stephenson’s injury and slow start, Marte’s injury, and Hays’ injuries. Friedl wasn’t lighting it up either. Think of the pressure on both Elly and McLain to carry things. And Elly didn’t miss a year.
That’s where Trevino, Espinal, and the rest of the bench deserves a ton of credit, as they held things together maybe more than we really know.
The 3rd catcher crap has to go. He serves no purpose.
@Dave, he does have compounding factors for his “sophomore slump“. I still have full confidence that he’ll be one of the best players on the roster eventually.
@JB, we have no one today to replace him. We’ve been signing other teams DFA’s to fill out a MLB roster.
Agree, JB.
The concern or fear of losing a 3rd string catcher, especially when we have not one, but two *starting* caliber catchers is getting excessive.
And all of the hand wringing about not having a good 4th string catcher at AAA should we lose Wynns, it is far from a certain truth and not a big concern.
Will Banfield was signed, brought to ML camp and given significant reps with the ML pitching staff for this purpose. He is a fine 3rd or 4th string catcher, as would be PJ Higgens if you were to want more hitting than receiving at the time.
Is it that big of a concern that Banfield wouldn’t hit if we need him to catch 1-2 games a week?
I don’t fret over 3rd string catchers let alone 4th stringers and I don’t recommend anyone do so either (but if ya have to, have at it). There are far greater fish to fry.
MBS, half way there … i’d have to check if it’s too early to bring Richardson back. Might be Zulueta out of roster rules.
By the way, my semi rant above re catchers was not in response to you.
I don’t know what the line in the sand is on McLain. Let’s start there. June 15? 10 games behind the Cubs? This isn’t spring training or practice games. We need offensive results and soon…..or it will be too late. This is crap or propaganda that we should give him time to figure it out. Will that apply to CES and Candy when they return? I sincerely doubt it. When you are this far along in your rebuild, you don’t keep rolling these guys out until they come out of the coma. We are not the Pirates or Rockies or White Sox. We are more like the Cubs, Tigers, and Orioles (won 100 games last year before the injury bug destroyed their pitching staff). Time to win.
I have no problem playing guys coming off of injuries and trying tow work it out at the big league level.Guys like Ty Steve and Steer and Little Mac must come thru for this team to even play 500 so let it be and let it be.My problem is that we go out and sign Joe and the new guy and plug them in immediately.This is a criminal indictment on the guys on the farm and on the entire organization.Dunn and the other outfielder were pretty bad but didn’t they earn a spot on the opening day roster?Would have to go back and look but hasn’t Joe already got more at bats then either got and it looks like Hampson is headed that way.Won’t even talk about Hinds and what he has done in the minors and was given what 15 at bats.While I am here we don’t have another infielder in the minors that can play? Come on this is just insane to see what we are putting out there as a big league team against a lefty while Hinds hits in AAA and Benson and Lux watch from the bench.
Different view. Dunn, Hurtebise, and Hinds had opportunities, albeit somewhat limited, and hit 120 ish in those opportunities. Joe and Hampson are proven 230 hitters and offer better versatility. No argument that both are below average major leaguers and on their fourteenth team. But Tito’s job is to win games and the data suggests that Joe and Hampson are the better major leaguers. Tempered a little by the fact that both Hinds and Benson both are both putting up career best minor league numbers and may have discovered the secret.
On the other point, neither Lux nor Benson have shown any ability to hit LHP with any consistency. The chances for a hit are better with Joe, Hampson, Wynns, and Hinds.
You get down to the real problem here is that the Reds still need that RF power bat. I think that is somebody like Acuna or Trout. But that would cost you 3 of your top prospects so Krall is automatically uninterested. What a shame. But it could be Rece Hinds if he would hit 45 HRs to go along with a 190-200 batting average. That works for Schwarber and he can’t even play defense at any position. I certainly could live with that.
The Reds really are pretty bad against lefty starters. I heard the Phillies I believe have 3 pretty good lefty starters. We’d probably get smoked if somehow making the playoffs if facing some of those better teams! Although I think they hit Boyd with the Cubs well last week?
Mclain hitting 9th, playing good defense , hitting .180, is ok if the rest of the lineup is consistently solid.
I think the better team though if Mclain continues to struggle hitting would be either Espinal at 3B and Lux at 2B or Marte at 3B when healthy and Espinal at 2B. And with that I’d probably move Espinal down to 7-9 in the order.
It’s a judgment call on Mclain believing by playing him more he’s going to figure things out this year.
Even if he does I think they made a bad decision keeping him up so long while struggling and not coming through. The bigger issue was having Mclain, Steer, and Stephenson all up struggling at the same time at one point. It was like the Bermuda Triangle of bad right handed hitting with those 3 for a couple weeks there where they were all lost at sea hitting wise.
Thankfully Stephenson and Steer seem to be figuring things out. The offense has been better overall. It seems like if they just had one above average regular hitter to play at 3b or RF it’d go a long way to help the lineup. Someone who isn’t a platoon player. Of course they are hoping that player is one of their younger guys, but if they could find someone through trade like that I’d try to bring them in if trying to really win this year. I’m not sure they are totally committed to winning this year. They may not think they’re good enough which is ok in a sense but the problem is the fans were kind of sold that 24 or 25 were going to be the years they go for it. How much time does Krall and company have to create a real winner I wonder?
With the bases loaded and less than two outs I wish Espinal would try to lay a bunt down might confuse the defense and give Elly a chance with bases loaded.
Where do we get the idea that there is offensive help at Louisville? We have tried Dunn, Hurtebise, Hinds, and Benson. Fraley is on the shelf. What is so hard to accept that none of these 5 guys is the answer? Do we need to look at 2024 stats again? We do not have an offensive RF and have not. We knew this last July, last September and again in spring training. Until we get a real offensive RF in here, I refuse to accept that this team can be competitive with the Cubs. Yeah, bring up Johnson, bring up Jordan, and when they fail, admit we need something much much better.