The Cincinnati Reds picked up their first win of the spring on Monday afternoon against the Texas Rangers, beating their Cactus League foe 9-6 in game number two of the spring training schedule. Today we’re going to start in the last inning of the game rather than the first because that’s when we got to see right-handed reliever Jose Adames.
In the ninth inning we got a chance to see Jose Adames take the mound for the Reds. He’s been with the Reds since December of 2016 when the organization selected him in the minor league phase of the Rule 5 draft. But he missed all of 2017, all of 2018, and nearly all of 2019 after undergoing TWO Tommy John surgeries. He pitched in instructional league in 2017 and was bringing the heat then, too. But he was injured again. He finally returned to the mound in the final week of the 2019 season – pitching in one game for the Arizona League Reds and three for the Billings Mustangs.
Jose Adames is now 27-years-old and has been through some things. It’s great to see him get a chance, even if it’s in spring training, to get out on the mound to pitch for the big league club. And he did his part, picking up a save with a hitless inning that included a walk that was erased on a double play. Oh, and he hit 100 MPH today according to C. Trent Rosecrans of The Athletic. That’s not surprising, as he was sitting 96-99 last year in his short period of time with the Billings Mustangs. You’d have known all about last September that if you subscribed over at Patreon.com/Redsminorleagues where you get all kinds of additional notes throughout the season. How’s that for a sales pitch?
The rest of the game
It was an early day for Luis Castillo, who allowed three runs while walking two batters in the first inning. He didn’t make it through the inning before giving way to R.J. Alaniz with two outs in the top of the first. Alaniz fired off 1.1 perfect innings with a strikeout. After a shutout inning by Tyler Thornburg, Joel Kuhnel entered the game for Cincinnati. The big right-handed reliever threw 1.2 perfect frames that included a strikeout. Sal Romano would come on in relief and toss 1.1 hitless innings with a walk. David Carpenter ran into trouble in the seventh inning, giving up three runs. But Junichi Tazawa came on for a shutout eighth inning.
At the plate things were accomplished more so by the big leaguers on Monday. Phillip Ervin crushed a grand slam in the 1st inning, and Mike Moustakas added a solo shot of his own in the 3rd. Among the prospects, Jose Garcia and Jonathan India both had a sacrifice fly – India also walked in his other plate appearance. Mark Payton went 1-3 with a run scored. Shortstop Alfredo Rodriguez got the start at shortstop and just missed a home run, instead earning a double off of the wall in center field as he went 1-3 on the day. Stuart Fairchild, who homered on Sunday, walked in his lone plate appearance.
You can see the box score for the entire game here.
Nice to Fairchild hit one out. This guy might continue to grow.
There have been a few real positives in the first couple days of games coming from a minor league perspective. Adames was obviously a big one. Alf-Rod contributing offensively and showing some power. Finnegan having a nice performance. Of course it is ST so the big leaguers performance doesn’t mean that much yet, but the young guys are trying to prove something right now. With the number of guys getting hit by pitches it might be a good idea to keep the young guys in there a while. Are they confusing Reds with Astros?
Speaking of Astros, wonder if anyone is going to keep a running total of number of HBP of the players involved in the scandal (knowing not all are on Houston anymore)?
Not sure if India counts in your summation, MK, but otherwise let’s not confuse red with astros orange.