Reds pitching coach Derek Johnson has a mantra he drills into his pitchers: “Be great at what you’re good at.”
It has almost become a cliche around the Reds because it’s brought up so much. Again and again, we hear it from all the Reds pitchers.
What rookie Ryan Hendrix is great at is throwing a slider. He has thrown it more than his 96 mph fastball this season and thrown it equally to left-handed and right-handed batters. He’d thrown it 172 times out of 310 pitches coming into Sunday’s game against the Rockies, according to Baseball Savant. Sunday, he threw six pitches total — five of them the slider.
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Still, with the bases loaded, his team holding a two-run lead and a full count, it would have been understandable if catcher Tucker Barnhart had called a fastball. Rockies catcher Dom Nuñez had just laid off a slider to move the count to full, yet Barnhart called for the Hendrix’s signature slider once again.
This time it was buried in the dirt; Nuñez swung at it, and Barnhart blocked it and stepped on home plate, ending the inning. The Reds would go on to win 6-2 and improve to 32-31, moving above .500 for the first time since April.
Hendrix, who faced only Nuñez, got the win, his third in his rookie season, having relieved Tony Santillan.
The rule that a starter has to pitch five innings to qualify for a win seems silly when someone can follow and pick up the win (or “vulture” it, in baseball parlance) on six pitches, but Hendrix couldn’t pick up the save in the fifth inning, so he earned something.
Having the confidence to bury a slider with a full count and the bases loaded, in the middle of a downpour, no less, was a big moment — something Lucas Sims, who pitched the final two innings, noticed from the bullpen.
“It’s like it’s all about perspective, right?” Sims said. “You don’t give a shit about playing in the rain when you’re a kid, so why care about it now, right? You can look at it one of two ways, but he didn’t let it bother him. He executed probably one of the biggest pitches of his career thus far, and I think that’s going to be big for him moving forward.”
Hendrix said he wasn’t surprised when he got the call from Barnhart.
“It’s just basically trusting it,” Hendrix said. “Making it start in the zone was the only thing I needed to do. Make it start in the zone and make it look like a fastball. It was huge, Tuck having the trust behind the plate to call that 3-2 slider.”
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It helps having a two-time Gold Glove winner behind the plate, too. Barnhart is one of baseball’s best at blocking pitches, allowing the catcher to call those kinds of pitches in that situation.
“With the bases loaded, it could’ve got ugly right there with a passed ball, but having him behind there is huge,” Hendrix said.
It was a big day for the Reds bullpen, a unit that lost its best and most reliable member this week when Tejay Antone went on the injured list.
The bullpen wasn’t pressured much in the first two games of the series, as the Reds outscored the Rockies 21-8, but Sunday was the first game clinging to a lead with Antone on the IL.
Santillan, making his big-league debut, nearly got through five innings, but after a hit batter and two walks and with the rain coming down, manager David Bell went to the bullpen. First with Hendrix and then four more relievers: Brad Brach, Amir Garrett, Heath Hembree and finally Sims.
Garrett threw just three pitches to strike out Charlie Blackmon, and after Hembree gave up a solo homer, Sims had the only two clean innings, nailing down the victory.
“I think we’re at a point where we came together as a group and realized: ‘It can either go one of two ways at this point, boys. Let’s figure out something. Let’s come together. Let’s make this mean something. Let’s pass the baton and let’s get this thing rolling,'” Sims said. “This was a very big game for us. Very big game for us.”
Greene on the move
Top prospect Hunter Greene is headed to Triple-A Louisville, and fellow hurler Nick Lodolo might not be far behind.
Greene sent out a tweet early Sunday, thanking Chattanooga for the support during his time there. He didn’t mention he was headed to Louisville, causing some to assume he was headed to the big leagues, but Greene is indeed Louisville bound. The Bats start a series in Omaha, Neb., on Tuesday and return to Louisville on June 22 for a series against Indianapolis.
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Greene, 21, was 5-0 with a 1.98 ERA in seven starts for the Double-A Lookouts. He threw a total of 41 innings with 60 strikeouts, 14 walks and three hit batters, finishing his time there with a 1.00 WHIP.
Lodolo, 23, has made six starts for the Lookouts, going 2-0 with a 0.90 ERA. He has 45 strikeouts and six walks in 30 innings, but he left his last two starts early with blisters on his fingers, including Saturday’s outing against Pensacola.
Neither Greene nor Lodolo is on the team’s 40-man roster. Greene, though, will have to be protected after the season, so he’ll be on the 40-man next year.
Although no impending call-ups to the big-league level are immediately likely for either player, heading to Triple A would at least make such a move possible. As it stands, only players from Triple A can be called up directly to the big leagues because those players and coaches must adhere to the same COVID-19 protocols as the big-league players and coaches.
Castellanos at ease
As he kept extending his hitting streak earlier this week, Nick Castellanos noted to Reds media relations director Rob Butcher that he’d talk about it when he got to Game 57.
It was stopped at 21, so Castellanos spoke — in person — to the media Thursday. Castellanos had spoken before about his dislike of video calls, so he was able to talk to reporters before the game on the field after new regulations allowed such in-person access to the media.
It was one more step toward normalcy. Castellanos has already noted that the biggest difference between 2020 and 2021 is his happiness.
If his performance is a reflection of his happiness, it’s a shock he doesn’t have an ear-to-ear grin every second of the day.
Part of the change is as simple as his living conditions. He said last season he lived in an Airbnb in the city, but he’s moved out of the city this season so he can have more space.
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“Too much noise and being around too many people can make me anxious,” Castellanos said. “I kind of like having my space — not just for me, but also we have a 140-pound dog that needs space.”
His dog, by the way, is a Neapolitan mastiff named Lola.
Mastiffs, much like Castellanos, put up a fierce front and can have a big bark. Castellanos, though, is showing the outside world what his teammates have known: that he’s a fierce competitor but also someone they can follow who loves them.
Often when teammates are asked about Castellanos in interviews — including a postgame interview with Jesse Winker on Sunday — they bring up the respect he has earned. According to Castellanos, that’s as important as any number he puts up.
“I think what matters to me most is the imprints that I leave on my teammates and the people that spend their hard-earned money to watch me play,” Castellanos said.
The Reds put up a banner with his now-famous flex over the Cardinals’ Jake Woodford on the side of Great American Ball Park, a several-stories-tall reminder of what the team and fan base think of him.
His performance has also helped the team return to a record above .500, with the Reds winning 10 of their last 13.
“What’s changed for us? Nothing, really. We’ve just played hard and we’ve gotten rewarded from it,” Castellanos said. “Everybody is able to sleep better at night, be happier and want to be in more conversations. When you walk away with a ‘W,’ coaches are in a better mood, players are in a better mood. No one is walking on eggshells. I’ve said it 100 times: In any organization, winning literally takes care of any problem that you might have.”
No secret for Miley
Calling games for Wade Miley is pretty easy, according to Barnhart. To right-handed batters, Miley throws cutters in and changeups away. To left-handed batters, it’s cutters away and fastballs away, his catcher said.
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“He does what he does,” Barnhart said. “There’s no secret.”
So, in a sport in which sign-stealing represented a major scandal, how can a pitcher whose average fastball velocity (89.9 mph) sits among the lowest in Major League Baseball be so successful?
“I think one of the things he does is he pitches off of what is called ‘effective velocity,’ which is really cool, which the hitter perceives as a certain velocity, but based on where it’s located, it acts differently. And so he just keeps guys off balance,” Barnhart said. “He throws a lot of strikes, and from a hitter’s perspective, a guy that throws a lot of strikes puts you in a situation where you have no other choice but to take your chances at trying to hit it or you’re just going to be backed into a corner and have to hit with two strikes all the time.
“I just think that he does a very good job of changing speeds and mixing his pitches, even though there is no secret that’s what he’s going to do. There’s not going to be a surprise if he runs out there and throws five changeups in a row, which guys don’t do much anymore, or five cutters in a row or whatever it may be. He just pitches kind of in an unorthodox way, but everybody knows what he’s going to do.”
Once batters start stepping out and asking for time against the quick-working Miley, Barnhart said, “I know we got them. Because they’re thinking more about the pace than they are about what he’s trying to do to them, and at that point, I feel like the at-bat is over.”
X-factor
Saturday was the Reds’ 10th game scoring 10 runs or more, the most in baseball. They’re also 9-1 in those games.
It was also the third game this season in which Miley has started and the Reds scored 10 runs.
“I haven’t lost with 10 yet,” Miley said. “I’ll stick with that philosophy.”
The one defeat suffered when scoring 10 was the 14-11, 10-inning loss to the Diamondbacks on April 22. That game was tied at eight after nine innings.
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On the other hand, Reds pitchers have allowed 10 or more runs seven times. Entering Sunday’s game, that was tied with six other teams — the Tigers, Mariners, Braves, Rockies, Twins and Orioles — for the most in baseball. Two other teams, the Pirates and Rangers, have allowed 10 or more runs six times.
The Reds are 1-6 in games in which they’ve allowed 10 runs, with the only victory coming in extra innings with a 13-12 win over the Cubs on May 2.
Moose on deck
Mike Moustakas has hit .235/.333/.456 with 12 homers and 40 RBIs in 72 games for the Reds in 2020 and 2021, but as much as his production, one of the plaudits consistently mentioned about Moustakas when he signed was his ability to lead.
That can be hard to do when not on the field. In each of his first two seasons in Cincinnati, Moustakas has had two injured list stints: once each season with illness and then a quad bruise last season and a right heel injury this season.
The Reds are 38-31 with Moustakas in the starting lineup, including 14-12 this season. The good news is he’s coming back as soon as this road trip, Bell said Saturday. He’s been on the field this weekend, running the bases, taking infield and doing other activities.
MVP choice
I saw a tweet Sunday about National League MVP odds, and Jesse Winker was listed but Castellanos wasn’t. I found that odd. Of course, I did check with The Athletic’s partner, BetMGM, and it had both at +2,000 to win the NL MVP, behind only Jacob deGrom, Fernando Tatis Jr. and Ronald Acuña Jr. and even with Kris Bryant.
But because I saw it, I asked our MLB writers — many of whom will be MVP voters — which player they’d take, giving them the basic stats.
• Winker: .339/.413/.628, 169 OPS+, 17 HR, 38 RBIs, 1.9 bWAR, 2.5 fWAR, 180 wRC+
• Casetellanos: .362/.418/.638, 173 OPS+, 13 HR, 36 RBIs, 2.8 bWAR, 3.4 fWAR, 185 wRC+
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The vote was pretty one-sided, 11-2, but as one colleague wrote: “Coin flip. Numbers close. Winker would win my top-of-the-head tiebreaker because he just seems to dominate games, damn near winning them by himself when he’s rolling.”
Another noted: “Right there in those WAR numbers — they both hit, one of them runs/fields better than the other. So, Castellanos.”
Minor-league roundup
Triple-A Louisville Bats: After a slow start, OF TJ Friedl is picking it up in Louisville. In 11 games this month, he’s 11-for-32 with more walks (six) than strikeouts (five). Two of his three homers this season have come in June.
Double-A Chattanooga Lookouts: SS José Barrero (formerly Garica) hit his fifth home run of the season Sunday and his first this month. He’s hitting .375/.405/.475 in 10 games this month.
High-A Dayton Dragons: Right-hander Graham Ashcroft struck out 10 batters in six innings Friday. He is 3-1 with a 2.67 ERA in seven starts and 48 strikeouts in 33 2/3 innings pitched. He has walked 21 and hit seven.
Low-A Daytona Tortugas: As Reds director of pitching Kyle Boddy noted on Twitter after the Tortugas’ game Sunday, two of the team’s pitchers in their 4-3 victory were position players in college and converted to pitching. Jake Gozzo, who is listed as a first baseman in the Reds’ media guide, picked up the win, pitching 1 1/3 scoreless innings. He was followed by Vin Timpanelli, a college catcher signed out of Ramapo College in New Jersey, who picked up his third save of the season. Timpanelli is 0-1 with a 1.17 ERA, 0.91 WHIP and 23 strikeouts in 15 1/3 innings pitched. He’s still listed as a catcher on MiLB.com.
(Photo of Ryan Hendrix: Dylan Buell / Getty Images)