TODAY’S GAME
Brewers at Reds, 4:10 p.m., FS Ohio, 700, 1410
Curtis Partch didn’t have far to go to reach the dugout after his major-league debut Sunday.
He walked 100 feet or so, just like every other Reds pitcher at the end of the inning. It must have felt like the longest walk of his life, however. When he reached the bench, his teammates, one by one, walked by and patted him on the knee or whispered encouragement.
“They knew it was my first outing,” Partch said, “and I was going to be nervous.”
Partch’s six-year journey to the big leagues had just culminated in his first appearance on a major-league mound, and the first batter he faced, the Cardinals’ Matt Holliday, hit a grand slam as the Cardinals routed the Reds 11-4 in 10 innings.
Partch retired the next batter, but you only get one first game in the majors and his resulted in a headline on the Internet that summed it up quite nicely: “The unfortunate debut of Curtis Partch.”
Partch had a 27.00 ERA after that first game. Only one of the runs was charged to him. Two days later, he threw a scoreless inning against the Cubs and Thursday he blanked the Cubs from the 10th to the 13th inning at Wrigley Field in a game the Reds lost 6-5 in 14 innings. His ERA is now 1.69.
If the Reds had won Thursday and swept the Cubs, Partch would have been the hero. Instead, he was the lone bright spot for a bullpen that suddenly looks as shaky as a dog in a thunderstorm. He gave up one hit with no walks and struck out four.
“I didn’t have a whole bunch of nerves going like my first outing,” Partch said. “I did a good job of trying to stay focused on just throwing the next pitch. I didn’t want to be thinking, ‘Oh, it’s a tie ballgame.’ I just wanted to focus on what I needed to do, and all the other stuff would take care of itself.”
Partch said he hadn’t thrown four innings since he was moved to the bullpen at the beginning of the 2012 season with Double-A Pensacola.
“The last inning, I was a little tired,” he said. “But I just wanted to focus on keeping the ball down. That helped out a lot. With the game being tied, I knew I could be in there for at least two innings, maybe more.”
Reds manager Dusty Baker described Partch’s performance as excellent.
“That was as good of a performance as you’ll see, especially for a young player, for his confidence, especially after he gave up that slam to Holliday,” Baker said.
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