The Cincinnati Reds are much better now than they were a month into the season Authentic J'Mon Moore Jersey , and it’s partly because Anthony DeSclafani is much better than they anticipated.
Not only DeSclafani, the pitcher. DeSclafani, the hitter, too.
The Reds return to Great American Ball Park on Thursday to take on the first-place Milwaukee Brewers, but that’s nothing new of late for interim manager Jim Riggleman’s resurgent team.
The Reds have played their last seven games against teams that were in first place or within percentage points of the top spot. They swept the Cubs in four games and won two of three in Atlanta.
“It says a lot for our club that we can play first-place clubs and win these series,” Riggleman said Wednesday following a come-from-behind 6-5 win at Atlanta, the Reds’ ninth victory in 10 games and 12th victory in 15 games.
“(We want to) keep rolling into Cincinnati,” Adam Duvall said after his two-run single keyed a three-run seventh inning that included a Scooter Gennett RBI single.
DeSclafani (3-1, 4.09 ERA) is a big presence during the surge, and not just because he’s won his last three starts — this after missing all of last season and the first two months of this season with multiple injuries. After missing so much time, the Reds simply weren’t sure what they would get from him this season.
His last time out, the right-handed DeSclafani limited the Cubs to two runs and three hits in 6 1/3 innings, and he contributed the game’s biggest hit Saturday with a grand slam — the first slam by a Cincinnati pitcher in 59 years.
DeSclafani will be yet another bat in the Reds’ order that Milwaukee right-hander Junior Guerra (3-5, 2.82) must be concerned about in the opener of the four-game NL Central series.
The Brewers continue to occupy first place in the division, but even a three-run ninth inning wasn’t enough Wednesday as they lost 5-4 at home to the last-place Kansas City Royals, whose .313 winning percentage is the second-worst in the majors.
“Even in our losses, we’re making the other team work a lot,” starting pitcher Brent Suter told reporters. “From that respect, I love how we’re playing. (But) it would be nice to win some of these series.”
The Brewers have lost six of their last 10 games, and now they must take on a Reds team that doesn’t look anything now like the team Milwaukee swept in a three-game series April 30-May 2 at Great American Ball Park — losses that dropped the Reds to 7-24. The Brewers have won five of six overall from the Reds this season.
“We just want to keep winning. If we take series after series we’re going to be just fine,” said Reds reliever Jackson Stephens (2-0), who got the win Wednesday with 1 2/3 scoreless relief innings.
The Brewers, conversely, led 1-0 Wednesday Authentic DJ Chark Jersey , only to have Suter and reliever Josh Hader give up five runs in the seventh inning. Hader allowed a two-run single to Adalberto Mondesi, Lucas Duda’s sacrifice fly and Whit Merrifield’s RBI single — the first time in 27 games this season Hader has given up more than one hit in an inning.
“Josh’s velocity was good. Everything was good,” Milwaukee manager Craig Counsell said. “He threw the ball well. They jumped on the first pitch, and we’ve seen that a lot lately, but he’s been so effective that obviously multiple hits in an inning is something we haven’t seen. They got him today.”
The Reds certainly didn’t get to Guerra when they faced him on April 17.
Guerra didn’t get the decision in a 2-0 Brewers win, but he shut out the Reds on one hit over 5 2/3 innings, striking out seven and walking three. In his career, he is 1-1 with a 4.76 ERA against Cincinnati in five games, including four starts.
Most of the current Reds hitters have only a minimal number of at-bats against Guerra, with Eugenio Suarez going 2-for-3 with a homer.
DeSclafani is 2-2 with a 4.15 ERA in five games against the Brewers, starting four of them, but hasn’t faced them since 2016. Ryan Braun is 2-for-10 (.200) against him.
The assistant head coach is gone, but head coach Marvin Lewis is coming back for a 16th try at a playoff victory.
And so it goes in Cincinnati.
In a what-have-you-done-lately league, the Bengals remain the outlier. Lewis met with the media on Wednesday, a day after getting a two-year extension through 2019, and talked in general terms about how his team needs to change.
Better players. Better coaching. Better performance.
All the things he’s said many times during the second-longest active coaching tenure in the NFL, behind only Bill Belichick. Unlike the New England coach, who has five Super Bowl titles, Lewis has yet to win a playoff game.
But owner Mike Brown hates change and was willing to give Lewis yet another chance after yet another futile season.
The 82-year-old owner didn’t attend the news conference – he rarely addresses the media – so it was left to Lewis to explain why he was still there.
”You’re going to have to start from scratch regardless, so you might as well start from scratch with someone you understand, you know,” Lewis said.
”Everybody can always look at what’s negative from it, but the only way we can go about it and do it positive is to get back to work and go about it.”
One change: Lewis wanted more control over the coaching staff and evidently got it. Paul Alexander, the assistant head coach and offensive line coach for 23 seasons Authentic Mike Gesicki Jersey , was let go.
Bill Lazor, who was elevated to offensive coordinator after an 0-2 start last season, will remain in the role and get a chance to redesign the NFL’s worst offense in the offseason.
Defensive coordinator Paul Guenther will interview for the job with the Raiders, making it likely Lewis will have to find a replacement.
Lewis has defied the odds and kept his job, and he’s not the only odds-beater in Ohio.
The 0-16 Browns have retained head coach Hue Jackson for another season as well.
The Browns and Bengals have played a total of 64 games the past two seasons and won 14 collectively, yet neither team is changing head coaches.
Must be something in that icy Lake Erie and Ohio River water.
In Cincinnati, fans were still trying to wrap their heads around Marvin Lewis 16.0, with a few upgrades to fix some of the many bugs in the program.
Lewis said Brown wants to win a championship, and that’s why he decided to keep Lewis in charge despite his record so far.
Lewis is 0-7 in the playoffs, an NFL record for coaching futility. His teams lost five straight opening-round games from 2011-15, another record.
The Bengals haven’t won a playoff game since the 1990 season, the sixth-longest streak of futility in league history.
Brown decided that Lewis was the best choice, regardless of what’s happened in the past 15 years.
”I tell people when you go to a car lot, you know what you’re looking for and they’re not going to sway you one way or another, that’s what you’re going to do,” Lewis said. ”I believe that about (NFL owners).”
During the news conference, a media member relayed questions from fans, including one from a woman named Betty Lou at a chili parlor in northern Kentucky about the team’s commitment to winning.
One of Lewis’ jobs in his latest incarnation will be trying to win back Betty Lou and many other fans who gave up on him.
Bengals’ attendance plummeted last season to one of the lowest in the league. They had 10,000 empty seats for a home game against the rival Steelers.
Paul Brown Stadium was half-empty for the final home game. Bringing Lewis back and rearranging the staff won’t create a surge in ticket sales.
Brown chose to stay in his comfort zone rather than trying something different.
”I think sometimes there’s a tendency to think that the grass is greener, and it doesn’t necessarily end up that way often,” Lewis said, referring to NFL owners.
”So I think if they feel good about the relationship they have and where they’re headed that way, I think it’s a little different that way.”
—
« also had Key liningAnthony Walker Jersey »
Weitere Artikel der Kategorie Allgemein
RSS-Feed abonnieren
Besucher
Forum Statistiken
