Opening Day in the minor leagues didn’t quite go as planned for the Cincinnati Reds affiliates overall. There was a rain out, a starting pitcher not coming out for the second inning, and a loss
Through this week I will be including the Top 25 Prospect Rundown here on the site and game notes, but after that if you would like to get that each and every day, along with additional notes from each game, you can get it emailed to you every morning during the season by signing up at Patreon and helping support the site.
The Louisville Bats lost 6-3. Box Score
- Shogo Akiyama (rehab) went 0-4.
- Mark Payton went 2-4 with a triple, run scored, and an RBI.
- Scott Heineman went 1-2 with a solo home run (1) and 2 walks.
- Nicky Delmonico went 1-4.
- Alfredo Rodriguez went 0-1 with 2 walks and a run scored.
- Brandon Finnegan threw 2.2 shutout innings with 3 strikeouts.
- Cionel Pérez threw a hitless inning with a walk and 2 strikeouts.
- Edgar García threw a perfect inning of relief.
- Art Warren threw a shutout inning with 3 strikeouts.
Game Notes
It was 5-0 before Louisville had a chance to blink as Columbus took advantage of an error, leading to three unearned runs in the 1st. After that the pitching settled in, but it was too little and too late as the offense couldn’t make the comeback.
Shogo Akiyama flew out to center twice, lined out, and grounded into a double play.
The Chattanooga Lookouts were postponed
Double header scheduled for Thursday. Wednesday will be a single game.
The Dayton Dragons won 9-4. Box Score
- Jacob Hurtubise went 1-3 with 2 walks, 2 steals, and 2 runs.
- Michael Siani went 2-5 with 2 RBI.
- Jose Tello went 1-3 with 2 walks and 2 runs scored.
- Eric Yang went 2-5 with a home run (1).
- Quin Cotton went 2-4 with a walk, run scored, and he had 2 RBI.
- Quincy McAfee went 3-5 with a grand slam (1).
- Victor Ruiz went 1-3 with 2 walks and a double.
- Mariel Bautista went 1-3 with a walk, double, and 2 runs scored.
- Lyon Richardson threw 3.0 hitless innings with 3 walks and 3 strikeouts.
- JC Keys threw 2.1 shutout innings with 2 walks.
- Braxton Roxby threw a perfect inning with 3 strikeouts.
Game Notes
Dayton put the game out of reach in the top of the 9th when Quincy McAfee clobbered a grand slam to make it 9-2. The Dragons pounded out 13 hits and had eight walks on the night. Only one player failed to reach base on the night at least twice.
Quin Cotton had himself a night. On top of reaching base three times, scoring two runs, and driving in another, he made a highlight reel catch, too.
Braxton Roxby looked filthy in the 8th inning. He entered the game with two runners on and no outs and proceeded to strike out the side on 15 pitches and strand both runners.
While Dayton held Great Lakes in check most of the night, it was a balancing act as they walked 11 batters.
The Daytona Tortugas lost 4-2. Box Score
- Tyler Callihan went 0-2 with 2 walks.
- Austin Hendrick went 1-4.
- Allan Cerda went 1-3 with a walk and a solo home run (1).
- Ivan Johnson went 1-3 with a walk, steal, and a double.
- Debby Santana went 2-4 with a run.
- Wendell Marrero went 1-3 with a double, walk, and an RBI.
- Christian Roa allowed a run in an inning with 3 strikeouts.
- Tanner Cooper threw 2.0 hitless innings with a walk and 3 strikeouts.
- James Proctor threw 3.0 shutout innings with 4 strikeouts.
- Vin Timpanelli threw a hitless inning with a walk and a strikeout.
- Nick Hanson was charged with 2 unearned runs in 0.2 innings with 2 strikeouts.
Game Notes
Christian Roa only pitched one inning. That likely wasn’t the plan given how the rest of the organiztion’s pitchers threw on the day. His velocity was down in his inning of work from where he was at in spring training by several MPH. As of this time I have no information on whether or not there was an injury involved here or not.
Allan Cerda giveth and taketh away. In the top of the 8th inning he homered to tie the game up. In the bottom of the 9th he made an error with 2 outs that scored the tying and winning run.
Vin Timpanelli, a converted college catcher, threw the hardest pitch of the night for the Tortugas at 95.0 MPH.
Ivan Johnson’s double was 105 MPH off of the bat and was the hardest hit ball of the game. Michael Triana hit two balls at 103 MPH and 104.9 MPH, but both were foul balls in an 11-pitch at-bat that ended in a strikeout.
Top 25 Reds Prospect Rundown
5/5 Game Preview
| Team | Record | Time (ET) | Probable | Box Score | Listen | Watch |
| Louisville | 0-1 | 6:30pm | Santillan | Here | Here | Here |
| Chattanooga | 0-0 | 7:15pm | Greene | Here | Here | Here |
| Dayton | 1-0 | 6:05pm | Salazar | Here | Here | Here |
| Daytona | 0-1 | 12:00pm | Spiers | Here | Here | N/A |
Minor league box scores … i am in heaven.
Heaven? Is that a corn field in Iowa?
A home run shattering the lights above the field
Seems like the stars are aligned again.
This is so nice to be able to see again.
Nice to see Finnegan have a strong outing. I know most people will be watching the bats in Daytona and arms in Chatt. early on, but I’m focused on the arms in Louisville. A good performance for a few outings will probably be all it takes to take Romano’s roster spot.
Doug, is it too tedious to have the player’s name link to their baseball reference page? I assume it would be, but wanted to check.
I usually do that. Baseball Reference has a little “linker” tool. So it’s just a one button push and it works. But given that there wasn’t a season last year, only about 15 of the names linked and the rest didn’t, so I just decided to not do it for opening night and hope that tonight, since guys played yesterday, everyone gets back to being “activated” and it works again for everyone. We’ll see. If I have to do more than 5-10 names manually, it gets too tedious.
I just went back into the post and used the Baseball Reference “linker” tool and it worked like a charm now that there’s game data! I figured it would, but it’s always nice to see that things do work out like you had hoped! I only had to manually add two names.
Thanks, Doug.
Odd to see Triana hitting 9th at Low-A. I guess he is not in the running to replace Mr. Votto at 1B in 2024/2025. I had assumed he was a big bat/no defense guy.
It was interesting to see him that far down in the lineup. But that lineup is fairly stacked. I made the comment to someone else about him batting 9th, and they noted that the guy batting 8th hit over .300 in 2019 with more walks than strikeouts….. so it’s certainly interesting. Even in the Dayton lineup you had Mariel Bautista hitting 9th, which was real strange to see. It’ll all sort itself out I’m guessing. I actually saw some short video after the game of Triana (I had never really seen him swing a bat before). Not that I wasn’t intrigued before, but the video didn’t make me doubt that.
I was surprised to see Siani at DH last night with Cotton in center but it only took an inning to see Cotton make a Siani-type diving catch.
It’s nice to have minor league games to discuss and follow.
Great to have the recaps back!!!
Pretty good relief pitching across the minor league Reds system last night. Good to see Chattanooga going to be on milb-tv this year.
Any word on Roa?
Nothing yet. Information is going to be tougher to come by than normal this year. Radio broadcasters can’t travel with the team for road games, so they aren’t talking to the guys/coaches and then sharing that information with the audience like they used to. Media members are incredibly limited in how they can interact with the players (and unlike the big leagues, there aren’t daily zoom conferences with the managers and a player or two, and the media definitely isn’t traveling to cover road games).