New York Mets at Cincinnati Reds - July 20, 2021
The Cincinnati Reds (48-46) are in a bad place. They made it to the All-Star break with some much promise and hope, but have lost the first four games to begin the second half. The Reds have lost three of those games despite leading in the 6th inning or later. The Reds lost last night despite scoring 11 runs. It’s just one of those things were nothing has gone right. The Reds simply have to find a way to stop the bleeding. They will try to do that tonight against the New York Mets (49-42) at 7:10 PM.
Wade Miley will make his second half debut after an incredible first half. Miley’s 2.80 ERA is the 15th best in all of baseball.
Believe it or not, Miley has somehow not faced the Mets since 2015! He has a career 4.30 ERA in 4 starts against the Mets…….not that it really matters very much.
Robert Stock will be making a spot start for the Mets today due to the DeGrom injury. Stock has made two starts this year. His last start was actually pretty solid against the Brewers back on July 7th: 4.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 1 HR, 2 BB, 5 K. However his other start actually came against the Mets when he was with the Cubs back on June 16th, and it was not good: 4.0 IP, 4 H, 5 R, 1 HR, 6 BB, 3 K. Yet, somehow the Mets decided to acquire him.
Stock was originally a second round pick of the Cardinals back in 2009. He never made it to the big leagues in St. Louis and bounced around from team to team. He was actually in the Reds organization in 2017 (High-A Daytona Tortugas and the Double-A Pensacola Blue Wahoos – 2.82 ERA in 70 innings). He made it to the big leagues in 2018 with the Padres where he actually had a really good year in the bullpen (2.50 ERA/2.71 FIP in 39.2 innings). His fastball was touching over 100 MPH in 2018, but he got hurt. His fastball is down to an average of 96.1, and he has bounced around since, only pitching 32.0 MLB innings since the start of 2019.
This season, Stock has a 3.57 ERA in 35.1 innings between the Cubs and Mets AAA affiliates. He has been used as both a SP and RP this year, however, he just threw 1.0 inning on Sunday for the Mets AAA affiliate. He will probably not be able to go very deep tonight. Stock’s only career appearances against the Reds were 4 in relief in 2018, and he threw 4 shutout innings with 2 BB and 3 K.
Aristides Aquino FINALLY gets a start with Castellanos still out of the lineup. Aqunio has a .922 OPS on the season.
The Reds have got to be eager to get into the Mets bullpen as early as they can. The Mets RP has a 5.24 ERA/5.77 FIP in the month of July. The Reds RP actually are at 4.74 ERA/4.51 FIP in July. The Reds surprisingly have the two highest RP in July in fWAR with Heath Hembree (0.5 fWAR) and Amir Garrett (0.4 fWAR).
It looks like Jeff Hoffman will be staying the Reds rotation after his start tomorrow. The Reds optioned Vladimir Gutierrez to Triple-A and called up Ashton Goudeau to help fill out the bullpen – at least for tonight.
This afternoon David Bell provided updates on nearly every one of the fifty players currently on the Reds injured list (not actually 50). Doug Gray covered it here if you want to read about everyone with a little more detail. Nick Senzel, Alex Blandino, Lucas Sims, and Michael Feliz are all expected to rehab next week. There’s also updates on Tejay Antone and Mike Moustakas.
The Reds have now signed 12 draft picks
Cincinnati has now officially signed 12 of their 22 draft picks, and signed one undrafted college player. You can get all the details over at RedsMinorLeagues.com.
Closer update with the Mets. Edwin Diaz has had three straight bad outings for the Mets.
It’s pretty obvious, but the Reds need a win today. Tomorrow’s pitching matchup is less favorable for the Reds. This is the night to end the losing skid. Go Reds!
