Reds’ top of batting order slumping
The Reds honored CINCINNATI — Pete Rose by unveiling a statue of him on Crosley Terrace before Saturday’s game, and they may have found themselves wishing that their current top of the batting order resembled just a little of the man who, as leadoff hitter for the Big Red Machine, helped kickstart one of the most prolific offenses in Reds history.
Going into the game against the Los Angeles Dodgers, leadoff batter Billy Hamilton had three hits in his last 31 at-bats while No. 2 batter Zack Cozart was hitless in his last 19 at-bats — three shy of matching the longest hitless skid of his career.
Their combined slump was one of the primary reasons the Reds had been limited to three or fewer runs in their last four games and five during the seven-game losing streak that matched their longest of the season.
“It’s tough to get things going when me and Billy aren’t doing anything,” Cozart — who had seen his average slide from .350 on May 30 to .318 going into Saturday’s game — said after going 0-for-4 Friday. “Both of us have to start getting on base for the guys in the middle of the order. When we were playing really well, it seemed like one of the two of us was always on base and let the other guys drive us in.”
Ironically, even as his average was sliding, Cozart climbed to the top of the list in starting shortstop voting for the National League AllStar team. Part of his problem at the plate is bad luck. Dodgers shortstop Corey Seager barely had to move to snag the hard line drive Cozart smacked in his first at-bat on Friday.
“The funny thing is I think I’ve been putting some good swings on the ball, but I’m not hitting it the way I want to,” said Cozart, who returned to the starting lineup Friday after missing Tuesday’s and Wednesday’s games in San Diego with a sore right quad. “They’ve been pitching me tough. They’ve been making good pitches.”
Manager Bryan Price figured the slumps were temporary. “They’ve been so good, really igniting the offense and being on base,” Price said. “Billy’s on-base, especially as a left-handed hitter, had gone well up over .335, .345, somewhere in that neighborhood, but what’s inherent with baseball is that you’re going to have periods of time where things don’t go your way, and I’m confident that both of those guys are going to regain their form.”
Left-hander Brandon Finnegan continues to make steady progress on his way back from the shoulder injury that has kept on the disabled list since April 16.
Finnegan on Friday threw 54 pitches in four innings of the Pensacola Blue Wahoos’ 9-3 win over Jacksonville that allowed them to clinch the Southern League South Division first-half championship. Price got a good report from Pensacola manager Pat Kelly.
Another step:
“He liked what he saw,” Price said. “(He had) really good movement on his fastball, good changeup, lot of strikes. He’s progressing how we would like. He feels like it’s a second spring training, so there’s an ebb-and-flow with that. He’s feeling fine. As far as the velocity, he’s going to have that ebb-andflow that you’re going to see in a rehab environment.”
Finnegan threw 35 pitches in three innings of his first rehab assignment last Sunday. Price expects him to go longer in his next outing, tentatively scheduled for Wednesday with Triple-A Louisville, two days after right-hander Homer Bailey starts for the Bats in his third rehab start. Bailey threw 76 pitches over six innings during his last outing with Dayton on Wednesday.
“We’ll have a better idea of the template on these guys once they get through their next outing,” Price said. “We’ll be able to make a relatively quick decision on Homer after his next outing. With (Finnegan), we got up to 54 pitches. We usually in that neighborhood of 15 to 20 added on, so he should be (around the) 75 mark in five innings (in Louisville).”
Right-handers Bronson Arroyo (3-5, 7.01 ERA) is Cincinnati’s scheduled starter in today’s 1:10 p.m. finale of the three-game series against Los Angeles. Arroyo is 0-3 over his last seven starts. Right-hander Kenta Maeda (4-3, 4.95) is due to start for the Dodgers.
Short stay:
and first since Opening Day — was on hand to help honor Reds Hall of Famer Pete Rose, whose statue on Crosley Terrace outside Great American Ball Park was unveiled before the game.
Joey Votto had three hits, including two ground-rule doubles, and Billy Hamilton and Zack Cozart each had two hits while the Reds were hitting three triples in a game for the first time since July 30, 2005, but the Cincinnati went 1-for-17 with runners in scoring position, leaving four runners on third base and seeing two runners be thrown out at home.
The Reds have scored 10 runs over their last five games.
“The tide will turn,” manager Bryan Price said. “We’re too good of an offensive ballclub to think this will last too long.”
The Dodgers needed just six Asher Wojciechowski pitches to turn a 1-1 tie into a 6-1 lead with one out in the third inning. Hyun-Jin Ryu led off by reaching on Cozart’s error. Seager drew a one-out walk, and left fielder Chris Taylor snapped the tie with a linedrive double to left.
Bellinger drilled Wojciechowski’s next pitch into the right-field seats for a two-run homer and a 5-1 Los Angeles lead. Four pitches later, Pederson knocked Wojciechowski out of the game with another no-doubt drive into the rightfield seats, his second homer in two games.
“I just didn’t locate,” Wojciechowski said. “The first two innings went pretty smoothly, then I got into a situation where they had runners on first and second. I worked Taylor into a good count and then left a fastball out over the plate and he put a good swing on it.
“I just got too much of the middle of the plate on three pitches. It’s frustrating. To feel like I felt for the first two innings and then for that to happen is frustrating. I’ve just got to let it go.”
Wojciechowski (1-1) suffered his first loss in six games and four starts since being called up from Triple-A Louisville on May 20.
In his last two games, both starts against the Dodgers, he’s allowed a combined 11 hits and 10 runs, nine earned, in 7⅓ innings for an 11.05 ERA.
Cozart, Votto and Adam Duvall singled to start the third, and Eugenio Suarez walked to push Cozart across the plate, but Scott Schebler lined out to Seager at shortstop, and Ryu nabbed Peraza’s sharp one-hopper and started a 1-23, inning-ending double play.
Price was ejected by plate umpire Stu Scheurwater, a vacation replacement called up from the minor leagues, after he called Hamilton out on strikes to end the third inning with Schebler on second base and Devin Mesoraco on first. The pitch was on the lower edge of Fox Sports Ohio’s strike box, but Hamilton flung his batting helmet and bat to the ground, and Scheurwater was seen gesturing toward the Reds dugout as if to say “That’s enough” before handing Price his first ejection of the season and 10th in his four seasons as Cincinnati’s manager.
“I think it was a young guy trying to do a good job, but there was some hesitation, and I didn’t care for it,” Price said. “You want the call immediately. The hesitation got under my skin. Then he got Billy for the uniform-violation fine thing, and I just didn’t think it was a good enough pitch for Billy to get fined.”