Brandon Dixon is known for his power. And coming into Monday night he had yet to hit a home run for the Louisville Bats. It was time.
In the bottom of the 8th inning, Brandon Dixon took a 2-1 pitch and launched it a nautical mile. Well, not really, but he hit it a very long way. It went over the berm in left-center in Louisville Slugger Field. The distance on that one was 435 feet. Take a look at the blast in the video below. He didn’t miss it. Maybe it should count as two home runs.
Hunter Greene struggles on Monday night
Things didn’t go well for Hunter Greene on Monday night in Lansing. After dealing with terrible weather in his first two starts of the season, one with temperatures in the 30’s, and the next one with rain coming down, it was the one in solid conditions that was the first real struggle for the young right hander.
The 18-year-old didn’t make it out of the first inning. Greene faced nine batters in the inning as he battled his control. He walked three batters in the inning with one strikeout. He allowed two doubles and a grand slam in the inning before being removed for reaching a pitch limit for an inning of work. In total he was charged with seven earned runs, two of which scored after he left the game.
The control wasn’t there, but the velocity was also down a bit in the start. Greene topped out at 97 MPH with his 29 pitches. In his previous two starts that would have been the slowest fastball that he had thrown, and he topped out at 101 in both starts.
It was a rough night. It happens to almost everyone at one point in time or another. His ERA is going to take quite a while to recover after that outing, though.
Eugenio Suarez to begin rehab in Louisville today
The Cincinnati Reds announced late on Monday night that Eugenio Suarez will begin a rehab assignment in Louisville on Tuesday. He fractured his thumb on April 8th when he was hit by a pitch. The initial diagnosis was 4-8 weeks. The next update was good, and that things looked better than expected and he may only miss 4 weeks.
Well, apparently even that was longer than it appears that it’s actually going to take. Suarez has been taking ground balls on the infield, and hit off of the tee without pain over the weekend. That was good enough for the Reds medical staff and now the third baseman is heading to Louisville to start a rehab assignment. He’s allowed to spend up to 20 days with the club on his assignment, but if he’s there for more than 4-5 days, I’d be very surprised as long as there’s no set backs.
Mitch Nay keeps on slugging
When the Reds made a minor league rule 5 draft pick up of Mitch Nay this past December there wasn’t much written about it. Part of that is because, well, minor league baseball. But the other part of it is that the players typically available in the minor league rule 5 draft after players that aren’t considered to be among the best 78 players in the organization (players from the MLB Rule 5 aren’t on the 40-man, but players in the Triple-A Rule 5 are also not among the next 38 players that an organization protects). These players usually are selected to fill a role that is missing in an organization, not always someone seen as a future piece in the Major Leagues.
Mitch Nay, however, could be an exception to that rule. His numbers in 2017 weren’t good for the Lansing Lugnuts. In 61 games the then 23-year-old hit just .222/.265/.393. But, there’s a whole lot more to what was going on than just the numbers. Nay was coming back after basically missing two full seasons of baseball. In the second half of 2015 he began to feel something in his knee. Eventually it would come out that he had a staph infection. That would lead to three different knee surgeries over the next few months.
It took a while to recover from that. Nay played in eight games at the Blue Jays complex in rookie ball at the end of 2016. He wouldn’t get onto the field in the 2017 season until June. Even then, he wasn’t quite playing at 100%.
In the 2018 season, Mitch Nay has played nearly every day. He has played in 17 of the Daytona Tortugas 18 games this season. The former 1st round pick (2012 – Blue Jays) has been hitting like he’s making up for lost time. He’s hitting .313/.347/.627 in 67 at-bats. The right handed hitting third baseman has six doubles, which is tied for 2nd most in the league. He also has hit five home runs, one behind the two leaders in the league. Those five home runs are the most he’s ever hit in a month during his career. In July of last year he had four homers in 23 games with Lansing.