This team can hit, but the pitching staff has some glaring limitations.
RELATED: Wild pitch costs Reds in 8-7 loss to Indians
Last night, talented rookie starter Amir Garrett pitched five innings but only had problems in one. That was enough. He lost Francisco Lindor to a one-out walk after being ahead 0-2 in the count, gave up a double to Michael Brantley then couldn't put away Carlos Santana, whose single scored Brantley with the tying run and proceeded a mammoth two-run homer by former Red Edwin Encarnacion.
The Reds came back to tie it only to see fourth or fifth-best reliever, free-agent acquisition Drew Storen, give up the go-ahead run in the eighth.
Eugenio Suarez hits a 3-run home run to tie it at 7-7 in the 7th. A bunch of sports writers up here rewriting their stories. #ohiocup pic.twitter.com/tJb6VucvPl
— David Jablonski (@DavidPJablonski) May 24, 2017
Contrast that to a night before when they actually got a great start from a veteran Scott Feldman, who saw the team’s three best receivers shut the door after he left. (Two of them were presumably not available last night.)
Such is life on the rebuild.
On the bright side, manager Bryan Price sees Robert Stephenson on the upswing lately…
Here’s how Joey Votto deals with hecklers https://t.co/s6bhb0lPe7
— Marcus Hartman (@marcushartman) May 23, 2017
Scott Schebler’s three-game home run streak was snapped last night, but the slugging right fielder got on base via a walk before being lifted as part of a double switch.
Like most great people from the Midwest, the Iowa native says he once thought football would be his thing past high school.
"I didn't get any looks out of high school for baseball," Schebler said. "I thought it was going to go football. I was a little bit of an underdog my whole career. It puts a little chip on your shoulder. You always want to prove people wrong. It can be a good thing or a bad thing because last year I had a chip on my shoulder and I was trying to prove everything to everybody, thinking 'I've got to show them why they traded for me.' You saw it in a bad way. I pressed. You've go to find ways to use it to benefit you."
He entered last night on pace for 47 home runs.
He probably won’t hit that many, but he’s got to be giving the Reds something to think about as the trade deadline gets closer and they will have to start figuring out how to juggle their young hitters.
READ MORE: Schebler exceeding expectations after slow start
Photos: Indians beat Reds 8-7 to even Ohio Cup at 1-1 https://t.co/RQDQeUiqqa pic.twitter.com/NtfQFuluHU
— David Jablonski (@DavidPJablonski) May 24, 2017
LeBron James scored 34 points last night while Kyrie Irving added 42, and the Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Boston Celtics in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals last night.
Although we’ve been writing Boston obituaries for about week already, there is still at least one more game to be played in this series, believe it or not.
Then it’s off to the Finals, where the Golden State Warriors may score 140 a night…
"He wanted to put the team on his shoulders."
— Cleveland Cavaliers (@cavs) May 24, 2017
- Coach Lue on how @KyrieIrving stepped up tonight.#DefendTheLand pic.twitter.com/343GzPyEAv
Football is back in earnest down by the Ohio River, and there’s good news and bad.
William Thompson III and Brandon Thompson are back, but Dre Kirkpatrick is out.
Meanwhile, the NFL is changing the rules about celebration, and Marvin Lewis is against it.
Why?
He’s worried about the example it sets for the kids.
"We had a good standard, and the whole standard has always been you want to teach people how to play the game the correct way and go about it the correct way. And that's not a very good example for young people."
This is a reasonable take, but the flip side is that a celebration that doesn’t shame the opponent also is likely to fire up youngsters looking for some entertainment on a Sunday afternoon.
I suppose it might be interesting to see if there is a difference between Sports Media Twitter and the average fan, though.
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