The 2024 season was one that Connor Phillips would like to probably forget about and put behind him. Things got so tough for him in Triple-A that the Cincinnati Reds felt it was best to shut him down from pitching in games, send him back to the spring training complex and work on things in non-game environments. He didn’t see any game action for two months before returning to Louisville where he made five starts at the end of the season. His final start with the Bats saw him strike out a season high nine batters without any walks in 6.0 innings of 2-run baseball.
On Wednesday evening he made his first appearance in the Arizona Fall League in the Glendale Desert Dog’s second game of the season and Phillips picked up where he left off in Louisville a few weeks ago. The right-handed started threw 4.0 shutout innings, walked no one, and he racked up seven strikeouts. Phillips had 13 swings-and-misses in the game despite throwing just 58 pitches in his outing.
The slider was the big pitch of the day for Phillips. He threw 25 of them and 18 went down as strikes. Of those 18 strikes, 13 of them got swings, and of those 13 there were eight swings and misses. He relied on his fastball a lot, too, throwing 27 of them and getting nine swings with three misses. His fastball topped out at 99.4 MPH on the day and averaged 97.7. That’s in line with where he was at during the regular season in terms of both pitch usage and velocity. Phillips didn’t use the curveball or change up much – throwing them a combined 10% of the time in the game. That’s also in line with what he had done during the regular season.
Carson Rudd pitched out of the bullpen later in the game and he found success for Glendale. The right-hander threw 2.1 shutout innings while allowing three hits, walking a batter, and striking out three. He closed out the year with a strong finish for Chattanooga, allowing just one earned run in the final five weeks that saw him throw 18.2 innings.
Rudd was leaning heavily on his slider on the day, throwing it 58% of the time. He mixed in his 4-seamer and added in one change up on the evening. All four of his swings and misses came on the slider.
Between the outings for Phillips and Rudd was the outing for Arij Fransen. He, unlike the other two, struggled on the day. He allowed four runs on four hits – including on home run – and he walked two batters in 1.2 innings.
No Reds position players participated in the game.