The Cincinnati Reds have announced the left handed pitcher John Lamb will make his Major League debut with a start on Friday night.
John Lamb will start Friday night, Holmberg moved to Saturday, DeSclafani on Sunday #Reds
— C. Trent Rosecrans (@ctrent) August 13, 2015
Lamb was one of the pitchers acquired in the Johnny Cueto to the Kansas City Royals trade. The left hander has made three starts for the Triple-A Louisville Bats since being acquired and thrown a total of 17.0 innings with a 2.65 ERA in that span.
In his first start with the Bats he allowed three runs over 5.0 innings on six hits and three walks while striking out eight batters. All three runs came in the 1st inning of the game. He’s really settled in since that inning, following it up with four shutout frames the rest of that day.
His second start in the organization went for 6.0 innings with just one run allowed on four hits and three walks with six strikeouts. Lamb faced the first two batters of the 7th inning with both runners reaching and one of them scored the lone run he would allow in the game.
The last start was the best for Lamb since arriving in the organization. Like the previous start, he tossed 6.0 innings with four hits and just one run allowed. Unlike the previous one, he walked just one batter and he had seven strikeouts in the game.
The first inning he threw in the organization was rough. Since then he’s allowed two runs in 16.0 innings (1.13 ERA) with 11 hits allowed, six walks and 20 strikeouts. Here is how his entire season, all in Triple-A (for both organizations) has gone:
| Team | W | L | ERA | IP | H | HR | BB | K | WHIP |
| Omaha | 9 | 1 | 2.67 | 94.1 | 80 | 7 | 29 | 96 | 1.16 |
| Louisville | 1 | 1 | 2.65 | 17.0 | 14 | 0 | 7 | 21 | 1.24 |
Those are some awfully strong numbers from the 24-year-old left hander. There doesn’t seem to be too much left for John Lamb to prove at the minor league level. That puts the next obvious step at the big league level. Lamb will be taking over the rotation spot for right hander Michael Lorenzen. It’s unknown at this point whether that means that Lorenzen will head to Triple-A or will make a move into the Reds bullpen.