The Cincinnati Reds won their game on Sunday afternoon to pick up a series win over the Houston Astros. That gave them a 2-game winning streak. But down in Triple-A Chase Petty was making his first start since being sent down following his spot start in Chicago. In the 4th inning he threw a pitch with two outs and his catcher, Will Banfield caught it and then stood up immediately and looked towards the Bats dugout and appeared to call for the manager and trainer to head out to the field and then he began to walk to the mound. Petty was out there looking at his hand and when the trainer got out there she also was taking a look at his hand and the conversation was rather brief and then the two of them walked off the field.
Petty was likely the favorite of the options that Cincinnati had to come up later this week and fill in for another spot start (or perhaps more) when the rotation gets back around to the spot that Rhett Lowder was in. Lowder, who isn’t officially on the injured list yet, is heading there. Petty missed a week in the middle of April with a finger injury. There was something going on with his fingernail that landed him on the 7-day injured list (that’s the length for the minor leagues). He missed the minimum amount time and when he returned he fired 6.0 shutout innings in his first start back.
Cincinnati won’t need a starter to come up until Saturday if they want to go that route. With Monday being an off day they can keep the other four pitchers on regular rest for Tuesday through Friday before having to put someone else out there. If this is the same issue for Petty as before, and it’s not something else, perhaps he can still be an option for Saturday.
If he’s not going to be ready to pitch, though, the Reds will have to make a different choice. And that’s where they kind of get into a weird situation. On the 40-man roster right now Petty is the only true starter that is not in the big leagues. Jose Franco has been a starter in the past, and when he was optioned back to Triple-A last week the plan was to stretch him and return him to the Louisville rotation so he could provide depth in that role if it was needed. But he also pitched on Sunday and threw just 31 pitches and 2.0 innings. He is not stretched out and ready to be a starting pitcher yet. At least not in a “we need five from you today” kind of way.
With that said, if Petty can’t go for Saturday it’s likely that Franco would be the guy. It would likely just turn into more of a “bullpen” day where you get as much from Franco as you can and then turn things over to the bullpen after 2-4 innings depending on how many outs Franco can get on whatever his pitch count winds up being.
Cincinnati is likely going to call up someone else for Rhett Lowder this week. They very well could just choose to activate Caleb Ferguson from the injured list to add another bullpen arm. He has been on rehab and has been pitching in Triple-A with the Bats. That would still leave them with a need for Saturday for someone who can provide some length. Depending on how the week plays out, though, it’s also possible they just got with a full on bullpen day and go with someone like Sam Moll to start the game and see if he can give them 2-3 innings. Last week he was asked to throw 40 pitches against Pittsburgh, so they may not feel too out of line to ask him for 45 or so in that kind of scenario assuming they haven’t needed him for a few days prior to that.
What’s Next
With Monday being an off day the Reds will get some rest. But on Tuesday they’ll welcome in the Washington Nationals for a 3-game series to wrap up the homestand. The Nationals are 19-22 on the season, have lost two games in a row, and are just 5-5 in their last 10 games.
Their offense has been similar to the Reds for much of the season – carried by two players. James Wood has hit .244/.392/.526 this season. He’s not hitting for a high average, but he leads the league in walks and gets on a base a ton while also hitting for a ton of power. CJ Abrams is hitting .287/.385/.531. He’s been the more well-rounded hitter, and he’s also leading the league with 36 runs batted in. No other regular (anyone with at least 100 plate appearances) has an OPS+ that’s more than average and several guys are well below-average. And like Cincinnati they have had some guys with bench/platoon types of roles find some success, but others really struggle.
Their rotation has been a mess outside of Foster Griffin and Cade Cavalli. Griffin has been dominant, posting a 2.12 ERA in his eight starts. Cavalii has been solid with a 4.02 ERA in his nine starts. The other three guys have ERA’s of 5.22, 6.94, and 7.44. The Reds will have to face Griffin on Thursday afternoon, but they get Miles Mikolas and his 7.44 ERA on Tuesday and then Jake Irvin and his 5.22 ERA on Wednesday.
The Nationals are playing like some of the early 2000’s Reds teams. They score a lot of runs but they also give up a lot of runs. No team in baseball has allowed more runs than Washington’s 230. Only Atlanta has scored more runs than the Nationals 217.