Vladimir Gutierrez made his Major League debut on Friday afternoon in Chicago. The Cincinnati Reds rookie fired out 5.0 innings of 1-run, 2-hit baseball that unfortunately saw him tagged with the loss because the Reds offense came up with zero runs.
“I’m really not upset with the results today, they were really well. I was really happy with my performance today,” Gutierrez said after the game.
The 25-year-old right-handed starter probably got a little bit happier today when it was announced that he would get another start on Wednesday. With Jeff Hoffman on the injured list the Reds needed another starter to step in and that was Gutierrez. But Wade Miley was also due to return from the injured list soon and depending on exactly when he was able to come off could have meant someone else would need to step into the rotation, at least for one start, in order to keep everyone on a 5-day schedule.
But Wade Miley will be able to return to the rotation and start on Monday, with Tyler Mahle set to pitch on Sunday in Chicago. That works out for Vladimir Gutierrez, who will now start in the afternoon game against the Phillies on Wednesday. Hopefully it’s a little bit warmer this time around than the mid-40’s with high winds for Gutierrez.
Alejo Lopez with another multi-hit game in Chattanooga
We are just over three weeks into the Minor League Baseball season. Alejo Lopez has played in 22 games for the Chattanooga Lookouts. He has gone hitless in two games – funny enough the two games came back-to-back on May 20th and 21st, but he walked in both games so he’s been on base in every game this year.
On Friday night the switch-hitting infielder picked up two more hits, going 2-5 and raising his line on the season to .376/.442/.462 with 10 walks and 11 strikeouts in 104 plate appearances. The game represented the 12th time this season that Lopez has had multiple hits in a game. It was the 15th time in his 22 games that he had reached base at least twice.
For those wondering how the splits look as a switch hitter, they are quite similar. He has a .386 average and .899 OPS as a lefty and a .348 average with a .923 OPS as a righty. Lopez has only had 27 plate appearances as a right-handed hitter this year but he’s yet to strike out from that side of the plate.
Lyon Richardson update
The right-handed starter was skipped in the Dayton Dragons rotation this week. If you are a Patreon subscriber then you already knew that. It seems that I did forget to write about it here on the site, though, so here’s your update. He experience some elbow soreness/tenderness so the team is going to give him a little bit of extra rest and he’ll return to the rotation next time through. He wasn’t even placed on the 7-day injured list in the minors if you were wondering how concerned you should be about this news right now (hint: I wouldn’t be).