Cincinnati Reds

There was no injury report last week, basically because nothing happened last week. This week was pretty much more of the same - a very healthy two week stretch for the Reds and the minor league affiliates. Injuries definitely fit the bill of no news is good news. And the main piece of news is also good news: Reds ace Johnny Cueto is set to return to the rotation May 20 against the Mets. That makes 36 days spent on the DL, or just about double the optimistic hope of missing 3-4 starts (score another point for BF's theory). The rotation actually didn't miss a beat in Cueto's absence, pitching to a 2.82 ERA over that month-plus. Tony Cingrani was the only starting pitcher with an ERA over 3.00 over the timeframe (at 3.27). Ryan Hanigan returned to action on May 10, and has been a hit machine since, lending credence to the hope that his early season struggles were indeed due to a nagging thumb injury he'd been trying to play through. It looks now like the thumb and his oblique injury are healed, which is great news for the Reds offensively and defensively. Chris Heisey aggravated his hamstring injury in a rehab game for Pensacola, making a diving play in the field, but it was not thought to be a major setback. He could return after the Mets series when the Reds return to Cincinnati on May 24. In the minor leagues, Armando Galarraga returned to action for AAA Louisville on May 7. He had been sidelined with a foot injury sustained in his first start back after returning from a blister on his pitching hand. C Konrad Schmidt went on the 7-day DL on May 12 with a lower back strain. None of the other affiliates had any injury news over the past two weeks. Slowly but surely, the Reds roster is returning to full strength as it was envisioned in the preseason.

Robert Stephenson went a career high 7 innings and struck out 9 batters in a Dayton Dragons win on Sunday.

Let’s recap today’s titanic struggle….  FINAL Cincinnati 2 Philadelphia 3 W:  Bastardo (2-1) L: A. Chapman (3-2) POSITIVES – Homer Bailey threw seven shutout innings. – Jay Bruce hit another long home run. He has 17 RBI in May. – Joey Votto continued his hot streak, with two hits. Todd Frazier showed a few more signs of snapping out of his slump with two hits. Xavier Paul, who should be batting second, got on base three times in four plate appearances. – Dusty Baker was willing to bring Sean Marshall in to pitch the eighth inning. Baby steps. NEGATIVES – The Reds only scored two runs against a rookie right-handed starting pitcher and a weak bullpen. – The bullpen combination of Jonathan Broxton, Sean Marshall and Aroldis Chapman gave up three runs in two innings. If Broxton had been faster covering first base on Ben Revere’s routine ground ball to first base, he’d have retired the Phillies in order in the eighth. – Ryan Hanigan twice threw the ball into the outfield on stolen base attempts. – The Reds were like 100-1 when Xavier Paul starts. They were leading when he was pulled from the game today. Just sayin’. NOT-SO-RANDOM THOUGHTS – It’s only one loss. It’s only one loss. It’s only one loss. It’s only one loss. It’s only one loss. It’s only one loss. On to New York tomorrow for Johnny Cueto Day. – Aroldis Chapman has two blown saves on the road trip and has even looked frustrated in games when he’s earned a save. Slumps happen to every single closer. We know Chapman can close from last year, when he had the same pitch portfolio. Right now, he’s a middle-of-the-pack closer. – Homer Bailey (2-3) has really been unlucky in terms of wins this year. He’s given up two or fewer runs in six of his nine starts. In some ways, this start was more impressive than his last one, when he pitched a complete game against the Marlins. Today, the location on his fastball was off, he adjusted and pitched his way through several jams. TOP GAME THREAD COMMENTS – renbutler: Gameday confirms that strike three landed in the Delaware River. Horrible call. – cliff: That Homer is such a head case. – Mwv: Chapman not looking good at all on that first batter. – Kyle: It feels like the Reds dominated this series but walk away with the series loss. – Sergeant2: Best to put this game in the rear view mirror and forgettaboutit. Regroup and on to the next game and a nice little winning streak. Plus Cueto’s coming back, can’t wait to see Cueto back in action. Shake it off boys, shake it off. Go Reds!! – Hank Aarons Teammate: Many people here have advocated trading Chapman, not just me. Doesn’t mean I think he’s bad or anything. He’s completely wasted. I’d trade Joey Votto for Mike Trout, in a second. And I love Votto. Broxton is not as good as Lecure, Hoover, or Simon. Or Marshall. Just because he was good many years ago does not mean he’s good now. Unless you ask Dusty Baker.

The Reds felt the elation of back-to-back homers to win a game in walk-off fashion earlier this month — on May 7 vs. the Braves — when Devin Mesoraco and Shin-Soo Choo took closer Craig Kimbrel deep for a win at GABP. Now they know how the other half live. Aroldis Chapman gave up back-to-back home runs to Erik Kratz and Freddy Galvis for a 3-2 Reds loss to the Phillies on Sunday. “Rarely do you see back-to-back homers [to end a game],” Reds manager Dusty Baker said. “We were thinking Galvis has power from the left side. We were thinking Kratz was really the only guy that could hurt you at the bottom of the order. I guess it shows that anybody with a bat is dangerous. That’s a tough one to lose.” Kratz said he was ready for whatever Chapman was bringing. “I look forward for the chance to face anybody,” Kratz said. “We’ve done a good job in this series of coming in against their bullpen and tacking on runs or adding to runs and I think any time we’ve been faced with a challenge like that as a team, we’ve stepped up. He’s just another example of that. So yeah, you definitely look forward to facing somebody who’s going to come after you and he definitely did.” That’s back-to-back blown saves for Chapman after he notched eight in a row to start the season. Add to that the three runs and four hits he gave up to the Cubs in a non-save situation on May 3. Could this be the start of a funk? You remember June of last season? That month he had a 6.97 ERA with one loss and three blown saves, including back-to-back blown saves. After that, he went back to invincible mode and blew only one more save the rest of the season and saved 38 overall. Something to keep any eye on perhaps… “I don’t see any problem,” Chapman said through translator Tomas Vera. “I’ve been hit. Everybody gets hit, why not me? I’m going to get hit as well.” Much more on this finale will be posted on MLB.com shortly. Click here to read. It includes a stroll down memory lane at Citizens Bank Park that isn’t very pleasant. The Reds haven’t won a series here since 2006. Notes: *With six of the nine games of the road trip complete, the Reds rotation is 3-0 with a 1.44 ERA. *The pitching staff had a stretch of 16 scoreless innings against the Phillies, which ended in the eighth when Sean Marshall gave up a two-out single to his first batter Chase Utley. *Jay Bruce remains on fire. Leading off the top of the second inning against Jonathan Pettibone, Bruce hit a 2-1 pitch for a home run to center field. His fifth homer of the season, it extended his season-high hitting streak to 10 games and 15 of the last 16 games. Bruce is 16-for-41 (.390) during the streak with four homers and 12 RBIs. *Joey Votto had two more hits to extend his hitting streak to eight. Votto’s double play in the third ended a streak of eight-straight plate appearances where he reached safely.

#WhyWeSayWeDidntPublishThisEarlierThisWeek 6:40 PM EST: We continue to move forward with additional steps to continue decreasing errors and reimplement core functionalities. — SB Nation Support (@SBNSupport) May 15, 2013 #WhyWeReallyDidntPublishItEarlierThisWeek Good grief, I'm lazy. — Scott Hoberg (@Scoberg) May 19, 2013 Was Everything Broken This Week? hilarious...our phones are not working. But hey started ringing, in my side of the studio, out loud, over the air. I almost answered it. — Lance McAlister (@LanceMcAlister) May 15, 2013 #BestOfTheWeek Wow what a day :) my mom got to watch my first homer back home on Mother's Day :) 🇩🇪🇩🇪🇩🇪🇩🇪 :) — Donald Lutz (@braunerhulk) May 13, 2013 Grouper? I hardly . . . . 34 lb grouper. Mat caught the first Mac daddy! twitter.com/DallasLatos/st… — Dallas Latos(@DallasLatos) May 13, 2013 Pensacola parties hard. The level of niceness in Pensacola just sky-rocketed with Heisey and Parra joining the club.Go #Reds, Go @bluewahoosbball!! — Jamie Ramsey (@Jamieblog) May 13, 2013 It Fits Their Business Model Is there an intentional cricket noise being pumped thru the Marlins stadium? Cuz that may be why no one wants to go to games there #annoying — Joel Luckhaupt (@jluckhaupt) May 16, 2013 No. It’s Just Realistic Fan Fiction just after every inning, but yes… "@jeffshelman: @ctrent are you really live tweeting a rehab assignment?" — ctrent (@ctrent) May 14, 2013 His Complaining? RT @bearcats3774 @johnfayman And your complaining?Turn in your man card!//Complaining? You're reading between the wrong lines — John Fay (@johnfayman) May 16, 2013 Today Is The Worst Day of the Rest of Your Life @jmeramz: On this Date In Future Baseball History: 2016-@jimdaytv finally took the box of "Everyday is Jim Day" t-shirts out of my office. — Jim Day (@JimDayTV) May 13, 2013 More Fun Than Fun. ditto "@jawkneesee: @ctrent I always cringed at Rolen’s Coldplay, but I guess it was his daughter’s choice/fault." — ctrent (@ctrent) May 14, 2013 That Will Be $16.95 @peterose_14 Big fan Pete from Baltimore. Would love to get a retweet from a true baseball great. — Coach Mike (@Orioles33rdSt) May 14, 2013 #ChapmanTweet? Or #WhiteCastleTweet? Stinky slider. @reds #whiff — Michael E. Anderson (@MANderson_PR) May 16, 2013 #ThisGuy. Chris Speier is a pretty bad third base coach. — Josh Bresser (@JoshBresserBRM) May 15, 2013 #AroundTheLeague THE ASTROS GET RELEGATED NOW, RIGHT? LIKE THEY GO DOWN TO AAA AND OKLAHOMA CITY GETS TO PLAY IN THE MAJORS? — NOT BUSTER OLNEY (@TRIPPINGOLNEY) May 18, 2013 What In The Actual . . . and understand hockey is part of Canadian nationalism, baseball is not American nationalism. As El Duque reminded me, we're all boat people — Peter Gammons (@pgammo) May 12, 2013 No, Seriously. What In The Actual . . .? Come on Joey, this isn't Animal House. @redretweeter — Brad Cooper (@btcoop71) May 16, 2013 Even his approach to dropping f-bombs at the plate is unmatched. #Votto — Weathered Fan (@WeatheredFan) May 16, 2013 Why Our Town Cannot Have Nice Things Just published my latest blog entry.Check it outkenbroo.blogspot.com I make my case for the #bengals signing Tim Tebow — Ken Broo (@kenbroo) May 14, 2013 #LOLOL Please be true.... RT @si_mlb: Report: Reds' Baker could replace Mattingly in LA on.si.com/10rsWBU — Brad Cooper (@btcoop71) May 15, 2013 Same chance of any given seat at a Marlins game having a fan in it. RT @facthive: Your statistical chance of being murdered is 1 in 20,000. — rpa (@rpa44) May 16, 2013 But Being One To A Media Member Is

It seems like every May there is a game like this: on the road, the Reds offense puts up early runs while the pitching puts up zeros until it gets handed over to the bullpen, where the worst happens and, within the span of five minutes, the scoreboard flips completely over. In a mirror-image of […]

The Joe Nuxhall Memorial Honorary Star of the Game Not the bullpen. Homer Bailey gets the nod today. Coming off of his 126 pitch CG, he didn't have his best stuff (be it due to fatigue, the weather, the cheesesteak he ate before the game, all, both, neither, either, or none of the above), but he still managed to shut down the Phillies offense. Bailey threw 7 scoreless innings, allowing just 5 hits and a walk while striking out 3. Good job, Homes. Honorable Mentions are due to Jay Bruce (HR), Joey Votto (2 for 4...yawn), Todd Frazier (2 for 4, RBI), and Xavier Paul (1 for 1, 2 BB). A hat tip, too, to Neftali Soto, who got his first career PA today (a sharp grounder to 3B). Key Plays Jay Bruce is hot. Red hot. White hot. Inside-of-a-microwaved-hot-pocket hot. He led off the Top of the 2nd with a solo HR to dead CF off a low fastball from Pettibone, his 5th of the season. Reds led, 1-0. In the Top of the 6th, Joey Votto led off with a single, and he advanced to 2B on a throwing error on Domonic Brown two batters later after Jay Bruce popped out to LF. That was fortunate, as Todd Frazier then doubled to RF, and Votto came around to score. Reds led, 2-0. After Homer Bailey exited after 7 scoreless innings, Jonathan Broxton came in for the Bottom of the 8th and wasn't exactly stellar. He retired the first two batters of the inning despite badly missing his spots, but Ben Revere reached on an infield single when he beat Broxton to 1B on a grounder to Votto. Revere then stole 2B, Michael Young walked, and Sean Marshall was brought in to face Chase Utley (who was 4 5 for 16 in his career off of Marshall). Utley flared a single to LF, and Revere scored. Reds led, 2-1. Unfortunately, the 9th inning. Aroldis Chapman was brought in to face offensive juggernauts Delmon Young, Erik Kratz, and Freddie Galvis; he retired exactly none of them. Young walked, and Cliff Lee came in to pinch run (and was picked off). Kratz then hit a HR far, flipped his bat twice as far, and Galvis followed with another, and that was that. Blown save. Kabloowee. Reds lose, 3-2. Source: FanGraphs Other Notes Sean Marshall recorded 1 out today while throwing just 2 pitches. This is the third time in his last four outings where he has retired just one batter, and it's also the third time in his last four outings he's thrown less than 6 pitches. Either he's not healthy (in which case he should be on the DL), or he's being massively underused. That FanGraph is about as cool as an Erik Kratz bat flip. Homer Bailey is still just 2-3 on the season after 9 starts. The Reds scored 7 and 6 runs respectively in his two wins; they've scored just 7 runs combined in the other 7 starts. Sorry, Homie. I'm not completely sure, but I think how I feel right now is how Cubs fans feel 24/7/365. Next Up: the New York Met-Voles at 7:10 PM tomorrow night at Citi Field. Back to back blown saves by Aroldis? There's something wrong with this picture.

PHILADELPHIA — Aroldis Chapman gave up back-to-back home runs to Erik Kratz and Freddy Galvis in the ninth to first blow the save and then lose the game. The Reds have not won a series in Philadelphia since 2006. They are 12-24 at Citizens Bank Park. Homer Bailey went seven innings and allowed five hits. ...

Philadelphia Phillies catcher Carlos Ruiz’s difficult season just got even tougher. View full post on Yahoo! Sports – MLB – Cincinnati Reds News

Homer Bailey takes the mound for the Reds this afternoon in Philadelphia. Cesar Izturis has been inserted into the lineup after Zack Cozart was scratched because of illness. Get updates from John Fay and others during the 1:35 p.m. game with our live look-in module. Updates: Reds vs. Philies