Cincinnati Reds Press Clippings May 6, 2018

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1 Cincinnati Reds Press Clippings May 6, 2018 THIS DAY IN REDS HISTORY 1960-Jim O Toole, pitches a four-hit shutout and drives in the only run of the game, with a sixth inning single Mahle tosses quality start, but Reds shut out By Jeff Wallner Special to MLB.com May 5th, 2018 MLB.COM CINCINNATI -- The Reds came into Saturday's game leading the National League in runs scored in their previous 11 games. But Marlins pitchers abruptly ended that streak of success. Reds rookie right-hander Tyler Mahle allowed three runs -- on homers by Starlin Castro and Justin Bour -- over six innings, but Marlins lefty Caleb Smith and three relievers combined on a four-hitter to hand Cincinnati a 6-0 loss at Great American Ball Park. It marked the fifth time the Reds have been shut out this season. The start of Saturday's game was delayed 10 minutes due to rain, but it didn't take long for the Marlins to get to Mahle. Castro's first homer of the season and the 100th of his career put the Marlins ahead, 2-0, in the first inning. He also hit his first career home run at Great American Ball Park in "I looked up on the board and saw that he had zero home runs," Reds interim manager Jim Riggleman said. "I thought the law of averages might get us tonight. Mahle let a slider stay up, and Castro got him." Castro went 2-for-4 with three RBIs. Mahle struggled with his command early in Saturday's game, but he had retired 12 of his past 13 batters when Bour crushed his 3-2 pitch to make the score 3-0. "I continued to make average pitches," Mahle said. "The balls they are hitting out is missed location. I throw a lot of fastballs, everybody knows it. So when I miss with that, it tends to get hit hard." Bour's team-leading sixth homer of the season was a low liner with an exit velocity of 111 mph and a 17-degree launch angle, according to Statcast. Mahle (2-4) allowed his three runs on five hits and struck out four. He did not walk a batter during his team-high fourth quality start. "I thought Mahle settled in and threw the ball pretty well," Riggleman said. "Three runs in six innings keeps us in the game and gives us a chance. I'm satisfied with what Tyler did. I'm sure he feels he wasn't on top of his game." But the Reds didn't have many scoring chances against Smith, who scattered three hits in 5 2/3 innings with one walk and seven strikeouts. He has 26 strikeouts and only two walks in his last three starts over 18 2/3 innings. "He was really good," Riggleman said. "We knew he had good stuff, and he showed it tonight. Nice easy delivery, and the ball's coming out 94, 95 [mph]. Good breaking ball. He was a real challenge." Scooter Gennett, who returned to Cincinnati's lineup after missing four starts, went 0-for-3 with two strikeouts. It's the first time this season that the Reds' pitching staff hasn't issued a walk. Mahle was able to minimize the damage, but at the end of the day, it wasn't enough.

2 "Six innings, three runs isn't a good day in my opinion," Mahle said. "So, I'm not happy with that at all." MOMENTS THAT MATTERED Reds can't capitalize: The Reds had few scoring opportunities in Saturday's game, but the best chance came in the sixth when Castro booted a routine grounder to put runners at first and second with two outs. Drew Steckenrider replaced Smith and got Eugenio Suarez, who was batting.345 in his past eight games, to pop out to second. "We caught a break when they made the error, so we brought the tying run to the plate there," Riggleman said. "Their bullpen came in and nailed it down." Twin killings: Smith got Devin Mesoraco to ground into a 5-3 double play -- one of four the Marlins turned in the game -- to end a threat in the fifth. UP NEXT The Reds go for the series win in their three-game set against the Marlins at 4:10 p.m. ET on Sunday with left-hander Brandon Finnegan making his fifth start of the season. Finnegan has allowed three or more earned runs in each of his starts and has not pitched past the fifth inning. It's his second career start against the Marlins, who will counter with former Red Dan Straily. Lorenzen, Disco on pace for late-may returns By Jeff Wallner Special to MLB.com May 5th, 2018 CINCINNATI -- Right-handers Michael Lorenzen and Anthony DeSclafani both threw on Friday in Goodyear, Ariz., and the reports were positive. "They came out of it very well," Reds interim manager Jim Riggleman said. "There haven't been any setbacks." Lorenzen threw 40 pitches in his third bullpen session on Friday without issue. He has been out since mid-march with a right teres major muscle strain near his shoulder. He is scheduled to throw live batting practice on Monday. DeSclafani tossed 29 pitches over two innings in an extended spring training game on Friday and is scheduled to throw a side on Sunday. It was DeSclafani's first game action since sustaining a strained left oblique. It's the third straight year that DeSclafani has gotten hurt during Spring Training. He missed the entire 2017 season with a right elbow sprain. DeSclafani isn't eligible to be reinstated until May 28. Lorenzen also remains on track to return toward the end of May, but he'll need to throw simulated games and likely go out on a Minor League rehab assignment to stretch him out before he's activated. "They're both doing very well," said Riggleman. "They're both on schedule to join us, whenever that is." Swelling Sal For the second straight start, Reds right-hander Sal Romano used his pitching hand to field a ground ball on Friday night. A day later, he was paying the price. "Yesterday, for sure," Romano said, when asked which barehanded play hurt worse. Romano had some swelling in his right hand and received treatment on Saturday. In the third inning of the Reds' 4-1 win, Romano made a barehanded play on a hard grounder from Marlins pitcher Wei-Yin Chen, then calmly threw to Joey Votto for the out. Romano said following Friday's game that he will refrain from doing that in the future. The Red Knight? Matt Harvey's sudden availability will likely spark interest among several clubs, so will the Reds take a flyer? Riggleman said that decision will occur above his pay grade, but he's aware of the hubbub surrounding the former Mets ace. "He's a guy that is going to get a lot of attention around the league," Riggleman said. "I think a lot of people are going to have to make a decision: Do we want to add him to our club? What do we have to give up to get him?"

3 The Mets designated Harvey for assignment on Saturday after he refused going to the Minor Leagues. The Mets have seven days to trade Harvey or release him. Harvey, 29, went with a 2.53 ERA through He's 9-19 with a 5.93 ERA since then. "I've been watching on TV a lot of talk about that," Riggleman said. "We haven't had any discussions about that. I'm sure [assistant general manager] Nick Krall and [general manager] Dick Williams, his staff and [executive advisor] Walt [Jocketty] are aware of it and considering whether it's something we would engage in, but I don't know." CINCINNATI ENQUIRER Cincinnati Reds shut out for the 5th time this season in loss to Marlins Bobby Nightengale, bnightengale@enquirer.com Published 10:04 p.m. ET May 5, 2018 Updated 11:06 p.m. ET May 5, 2018 After such a slow start to the season, the Reds started to make some strides offensively throughout the past two weeks. Consider Saturday s matchup against Miami pitcher Caleb Smith a step backward. The Reds were shut out for the fifth time this season Saturday in a 6-0 loss to the Marlins at Great American Ball Park in front of a crowd of 19,609. Smith, who has thrown 12 2/3 consecutive shutout innings, overpowered the Reds lineup with a lot of movement on his fastball and a strong slider. He struck out seven in 5 2/3 innings, giving up three hits. Reds starter Tyler Mahle couldn t match his counterpart, surrendering a pair of home runs. Of course, against Smith, there was no room for error. "Six innings, three runs isn t a good day in my opinion," said Mahle, who allowed three runs on five hits. "So no, I m not happy with that at all." In the top of the first inning, Mahle fired a high slider that didn t slide, which Starlin Castro pulled over the left-center wall for his first home run of the season in 117 at-bats. It was the 100th home run of his career. Castro received the silent treatment from his teammates in the dugout as they congratulated Martin Prado, who singled beforehand and scored on the homer. Justin Bour added a solo home run in the sixth inning after Mahle retired nine hitters in a row. Mahle has allowed a National League-leading nine homers this season, which he said, "It's got to stop, for sure." Mahle said he had to battle for all six of his innings on the mound because he was making "average pitches." Manager Jim Riggleman said he was satisfied with the 23-year-old's outing because he still gave his team a chance to win. "The balls that they are hitting out are missed locations," Mahle said. "I throw a lot of fastballs and I think everyone knows it. When I miss with that, it tends to get hit hard." At times, the Reds looked helpless against Smith. They produced two hits in the first four innings, which included a bunt single from Jose Peraza. Pitching from the stretch, Smith forced Joey Votto into a double play following Peraza s 60-foot hit. The Reds, who dropped their record to 8-25, had their best opportunity to score in the fifth inning. Adam Duvall reached on an error and Scott Schebler added a one-out single. With two runners on base, Devin Mesoraco grounded into a double play. It was the first time the Reds were shutout since back-to-back losses to Milwaukee on April They ended the night with as many hits (four) as double plays. "(Smith) was good," Riggleman said. "He was really good. Nice, easy delivery and the ball is coming out at 94, 95. Good breaking ball. He was a real challenge. "We knew he had good stuff and he showed it tonight." A walk, an error and a high pitch count forced Smith out of the game in the sixth inning. At the plate with two outs was Eugenio Suarez, the Reds hottest hitter with 12 RBI in the last week. Facing reliever Drew Steckenrider, Suarez popped out in shallow center field.

4 The Marlins (12-20) added three runs against the Reds' bullpen in the eighth inning via an RBI single by Castro and a two-run single from Brian Anderson. All three runs were changed to Austin Brice, who was traded from the Marlins in 2017 (with Luis Castillo and minor leaguer Zeke White) for Miami's Sunday starter Dan Straily. Adam Duvall looks to break out of slump, adjust to pitchers Bobby Nightengale, bnightengale@enquirer.com Published 6:23 p.m. ET May 5, 2018 Updated 6:38 p.m. ET May 5, 2018 Adam Duvall is hopeful that his first-inning home run against the Miami Marlins on Friday night was a sign of progress. Maybe a chance to turn the page on an abysmal start to the season at the plate. He was hitless in his previous nine at-bats. After hitting 30-plus home runs in the past two seasons, he s up to five in 31 games. It felt good to just barrel up a ball, said Duvall, who entered Saturday night with a.167 batting average and.380 slugging percentage. Duvall extended his arms on a 90 mph fastball from Marlins starter Wei-Yin Chen, lifting the ball over the wall in right-field for an opposite-field home run. He hit five homers to right field last year. I haven t been able to really drive the ball the other way, Duvall said. Being able to do that is a good sign. Reds manager Jim Riggleman believes one of the main differences from last season is that pitchers have adjusted to Duvall. It happens with all young hitters. Pitchers saw how he took advantage of bad breaking balls with two strikes and changed their approach. Now it s up to Duvall to adjust to the way he s being pitched. A lot of times pitchers would be working him and then I think they would feel like, 'Here is a big guy, we re going to try to trick him with a breaking ball,' and they made a lot of mistakes on him, Riggleman said. He hit a lot of two-strike breaking balls out of the park last year. You get the league s attention when you do that. Duvall isn t striking out more than he did last season. But the balls he's put into play aren t falling for hits like they did in the past. How does he avoid trying to do too much? I don t know that I have the answer for that, he said with a grin. Duvall said that he doesn t try to listen to many outside voices when going through a slump. But when the team is struggling, it s difficult to avoid putting more pressure on himself at the plate. I mean, you can t get two hits in one at-bat, he said. You just have to trust that you put the work in and that it s going to come around. DeSclafani, Lorenzen progressing from injuries: Anthony DeSclafani, sidelined with a left oblique strain, threw two innings in an extended spring training game Friday in Goodyear, Ariz. He faced 11 batters and tossed 29 pitches. The Reds expect DeSclafani to throw a side session Sunday. Relief pitcher Michael Lorenzen, out with a right shoulder strain, had a 40-pitch bullpen session Friday. He is scheduled to throw live batting practice Monday. They are both doing very well, Riggleman said. They are on their schedule to join us whenever that is. There hasn t been any setbacks. DeSclafani made 20 starts in 2016, recording 105 strikeouts and a 3.28 ERA in 123 1/3 innings. On the 60-day disabled list, he isn t eligible to join the team until May 28. Interest in Matt Harvey?: The New York Mets designated right-hander Matt Harvey for assignment on Friday. Harvey refused to go into the minor leagues, so the Mets have seven days to trade or release him.

5 The National League s starting pitcher in the 2013 All-Star game, the 29-year-old Harvey was placed in the bullpen after losing speed on his fastball in mid-april. He allowed 21 runs in 27 innings this season. Would the Reds be interested in adding him? We haven t had any discussions about it, Riggleman said. I m sure Nick Krall, Dick Williams and his staff, Walt (Jocketty), and all of them are probably aware of it and considering whether it s something that we would engage in but I don t know. Reds Xtra: Cincinnati Reds are working on adding some more Latin flavor John Fay, jfay@enquirer.com Published 1:57 p.m. ET May 5, 2018 It s been a little over two weeks since the Cincinnati Reds fired Bryan Price. The wink of an eye in baseball time. But long enough to show that Price was not the problem. The Reds have played better under Jim Riggleman, but that s mostly because they ve hit better. Riggleman would be the first to tell you that and the first to say that he has nothing to do with the hitting. A manager has some effect on a team, but the largest part of the equation of any team is the players. I said when Price got fired, and I ll say it now: The Reds don t have enough good players. I talked to Bob Castellini a couple of days after Price s firing and he still seemed convinced that the rebuild was on track. He told Paul Daugherty the same thing. This is a talented group of ballplayers. They re fine, young men. We ve got a very good clubhouse, he said. We have very fine baseball people. We re doing the best we can. We re thinking a lot, we re working hard. I don t doubt any of that. But the Reds don t have enough good players in the majors or the minors to think about competing for the postseason. The Reds have to be looking into why that s the case. They are, and have been, said president of baseball operations Dick Williams. There are things going on away from the field and in the farm system and investments in the franchise, Williams said. Today, we ll look at international signings. I ve mentioned it a lot lately: The Reds have one signed-and-developed Dominican or Venezuelan player on the 25-man roster, left-handed setup man Wandy Peralta. He's a nice player. But when more than 20 percent of rosters are made from the aforementioned countries, you d expect the Reds to have more than one player. In fairness, the Reds spent big in Cuba and came away with Aroldis Chapman and Raisel Iglesias. As for the Dominican Republic and Venezuela, Williams says the Reds are working on it. If we look in the mirror, one of the areas we d like to have been more productive out of the some of the Latin signings we ve had, Williams said. So Williams came up with a plan when he took over two years ago. I took a look across all the different areas and did a multi-year plan, Williams said. Each department head, we looked at what they wanted, what they needed. We wrote business plans and went to ownership and got money for new investments." One of the things the Reds did was build a new academy in the Dominican. The Reds have been playing catch-up in the Dominican for 40 years. The club pulled out under Marge Schott, which is equivalent of college football program saying: Let s pull out of recruiting Florida. The Reds re-entered in the early 2000s through an agreement with then-reds player Jose Rijo, who built an academy. It was a bad idea on many levels.

6 Reds general manager Dan O Brien ended the agreement when he took over in Wise move. Rijo thing ended badly. The Reds began sharing a Baseball City facility with four other teams under O Brien. (Side note: Johnny Cueto was signed as the Reds were stocking that facility with players). That was the arrangement until two years ago. The Reds took over the Chicago Cubs facility two years ago and spent close to $1 million upgrading it. We built a new building with a kitchen, new gym, new dorm rooms, new classrooms, Williams said. We built all new batting cages, renovated the fields. We have two fields, instead of one. We think that will contribute to getting more players out of there. One, because they ll have better facilities with us. Secondly, we ll have more room to bring players for tryouts and work them out in private. We were overcapacity before, so it was hard to get a place to bring in a player and get a week-long look at them. That was a big move for us. The Reds also pulled out of Venezuela because of the political unrest. That caused a hiccup in our supply chain, Williams said. There were a lot of good Venezuelan signed. But it was a tough market because of economic and political instability down there. We are now scouting in Venezuela again. We ve hired people on the ground. We hope to get into that market. The Dominican and Venezuela markets are hard. You sign players when they turn 16 and hope they develop over the next five years or so. The Reds spent $4.5 million on Yorman Rodriquez and Juan Duran in Rodriguez reached the majors briefly; Duran never made it out of the minors. Cueto, as mentioned above, was signed for $35,000. So, it s a bit of a crapshoot. It also can be a dirty business. Think of college basketball recruiting with less regulation, less oversight and more money involved. Look at what happened to Rijo. Teams have been fined, front office people suspended. But it s part of baseball. And it s part of the equation if the Reds want to get the good players necessary to compete. The new academy should put the Reds in a better position to do. They ve also added scouts in Mexico and Central America. The new team at Greeneville in the Appalachian League is intended mainly as a landing spot for Latin players. These moves, of course, have no effect on But, if they work out, it could keep the Reds from getting into the kind of fix they re in right now. Transactions 05/06/18 St. Louis Cardinals recalled Mike Mayers from Memphis Redbirds. St. Louis Cardinals recalled Carson Kelly from Memphis Redbirds. St. Louis Cardinals placed C Yadier Molina on the 10-day disabled list. Pelvic injury with traumatic hematoma. Washington Nationals sent RHP Shawn Kelley on a rehab assignment to Potomac Nationals. Cleveland Indians optioned Ben Taylor to Columbus Clippers. Cleveland Indians recalled CF Greg Allen from Columbus Clippers. St. Louis Cardinals placed RHP Dominic Leone on the 10-day disabled list. Right upper arm nerve irritation. 05/05/18 Atlanta Braves optioned LHP Max Fried to Gwinnett Stripers. Arizona Diamondbacks recalled RHP Braden Shipley from Reno Aces. Toronto Blue Jays optioned Jake Petricka to Buffalo Bisons. Toronto Blue Jays recalled Anthony Alford from Buffalo Bisons. Tampa Bay Rays recalled RHP Ryne Stanek from Durham Bulls.

7 Minnesota Twins transferred RHP Ervin Santana from the 10-day disabled list to the 60-day disabled list. Right third finger. Minnesota Twins placed C Jason Castro on the 10-day disabled list. Right knee meniscus tear. Minnesota Twins selected the contract of C Bobby Wilson from Rochester Red Wings. Baltimore Orioles sent 2B Jonathan Schoop on a rehab assignment to Norfolk Tides. Chicago White Sox placed 2B Yoan Moncada on the 10-day disabled list. Left hamstring tightness. Chicago White Sox recalled SS Jose Rondon from Charlotte Knights. Arizona Diamondbacks optioned RHP Kris Medlen to Reno Aces. Atlanta Braves recalled RHP Lucas Sims from Gwinnett Stripers. New York Mets designated RHP Matt Harvey for assignment. New York Mets recalled RHP Hansel Robles from Las Vegas 51s. Washington Nationals activated 3B Anthony Rendon from the 10-day disabled list. Washington Nationals optioned 3B Adrian Sanchez to Syracuse Chiefs. Boston Red Sox activated LHP Eduardo Rodriguez. Boston Red Sox optioned LHP Bobby Poyner to Pawtucket Red Sox. Milwaukee Brewers traded RHP Oliver Drake to Cleveland Indians for cash. Arizona Diamondbacks signed free agent RHP Clay Buchholz to a minor league contract. Texas Rangers sent 2B Rougned Odor on a rehab assignment to Frisco RoughRiders. Tampa Bay Rays optioned RHP Chih-Wei Hu to Durham Bulls..