Reds’ Eugenio Suarez doubles in his first at-bat while on rehab

This morning the Cincinnati Reds sent infielder/designated hitter out to Triple-A to begin a rehab assignment. The Louisville Bats were in Columbus, Ohio to take on the Clippers in a road series that will continue through Sunday. Suarez has missed the last month while dealing with an oblique strain, but has been taking some infield practice and swings for more than the last week as he’s ramped things up.

Louisville had to complete last night’s game this afternoon after things were suspended by rain in the 8th inning on Tuesday night. Suarez didn’t join that game when it resumed just after noon. But when the second game began at 1:30pm he was in the lineup as the Bats designated hitter and was hitting third in the lineup.

In the first inning he came to the plate against left-handed pitcher Kolby Allard and on the second pitch of the at-bat he hit a long fly ball to right-center that initially looked like a triple as Suarez stood on third base at the end of the play. The umpires sent him back to second base for a ground-rule double, though.

Huntington Park in Columbus has a bit of a unique outfield wall situation and there’s a tall wall in right field where the padding sticks out from the wall up to about eight feet or so before the other 12 feet of the wall is some sort of fencing. The ball hit by Suarez hit the top of the lower-level padding and bounced upward, but on replay it showed that it then hit the bottom of the scoreboard and bounced back onto the playing field and thus making it a ground-rule double.

Eugenio Suarez would play all nine innings of the game and finished the day 1-4. His second at-bat resulted in a lazy fly ball to right field. In the 6th inning he grounded into a fielders choice. Suarez then took a called strike three in the 8th inning to wrap up his day.

After spending the day as the designated hitter, Suarez is expected to play third base in his next game on Thursday evening.