ST. LOUIS – Alex Blandino couldn’t hide the pain when he was hit by a 91-mph fastball in the fifth inning Friday.
He bent at the waist, took a step and then looked straight up as he tried to avoid moving his right hand. He walked with his hand behind his back as a trainer approached. He briefly remained in the game before he was replaced by a pinch-runner.
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The news was worse Saturday when he was placed on the 10-day injured list with a broken right hand. It was a clean break, Reds manager David Bell said, so his injury won’t require surgery. He’s expected to miss the next three to six weeks.
“It’s part of the game,” Bell said. “You hate to see it. Blandy was in good spirits and those things could be worse. He'll do everything he can to heal and get back.”
Reds lead the majors in hit batters
The Reds lead the Major Leagues with 40 hit batters this season. They’ve ben hit 13 times in their eight games against the St. Louis Cardinals this year, including seven times on Thursday and Friday. It was the first time in Cardinals franchise history that they plunked at least three batters in consecutive games since at least 1901.
None of the hit by pitches in the first two games of this weekend series appeared intentional. Blandino was the only one of the four hit batsman that was plunked with a fastball Friday. Adam Wainwright hit two batters in the first inning Thursday, which included one with the bases-loaded that led to a run.
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“I can't control how other teams pitch or pitch us,” Bell said. “I always – until it's obvious – give teams the benefit of the doubt that it's not intentional. I don't believe it is.
“It doesn't make it any easier. I think there's an element of needing to be careful. Our pitchers, we want them to be aggressive. We want to get outs and that's the name of the game. Sometimes hit-by-pitches do happen. At some point, there needs to be an awareness of where the ball's going. I know we've been hit a lot. I know we've been hit a lot by this team. Sometimes I get a feeling or a sense when it's on purpose and I haven't gotten that. It's unfortunate that we've had some injuries and balls near the head and all that.”
More hit batters in baseball
The surge in hit by pitches has been a problem throughout the sport. There are 0.86 batters being hit per game this season, according to Baseball-Reference’s figures, which is the second-highest rate since 1900. The highest was last year (0.92 hit batters per game).
St. Louis leads MLB with 47 hit batters and the Chicago Cubs, another National League Central team, is second with 40. Reds pitchers, entering Saturday, ranked 18th with 21 hit batters.
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Incidents can lead to fights
The benches cleared between the Reds and Cardinals during the second game of the season. Nick Castellanos was hit by a Woodford pitch, which he thought could’ve been intentional. Brandon Woodford and Cardinals manager Mike Shildt said that it wasn’t.
Castellanos received a two-game suspension for shouting and flexing over Woodford when he scored on a wild pitch, and he told "The Chris Rose Rotation" that he was fined $10,000.
Bell was ejected on April 25 after Jonathan India was hit by a pitch off his helmet in St. Louis.
“I've separated the situations,” Bell said. “To me, it's over, it's in the past. I definitely didn't agree with the (Castellanos) suspension. He didn't hurt anyone. He didn't hit anyone. It was a reaction. But as far as I'm concerned, that's over. We've dealt with that.
“We can control how we play the game, how we handle situations, how we do things. Until someone else, another team steps over that line, we'll continue to focus on that. There's really nothing else we can do there.”
ROSTER MOVE: The Reds called up right-handed reliever Ashton Goudeau to replace Blandino on the 26-man active roster.
There are just four infielders on the active roster: India, Eugenio Suárez, Kyle Farmer and Mike Freeman. Tyler Stephenson has been starting most games at first base when he’s not catching.
Joey Votto, who broke his left thumb when he was hit by a pitch on May 5, is expected to return from the injured list within a few days.
“You look at what Tyler Stephenson has done in the middle of a season for a young player, really remarkable how he's stepped in and done a really good job at first base,” Bell said. “I think we can keep making it work. I don't think we need to do anything too drastic or move someone out of position at this point with Joey being real close to being back.”
LEFTY TROUBLE? It’s been a tough stretch for left-handed relievers Sean Doolittle and Amir Garrett, the only lefties in the Reds’ bullpen.
Doolittle didn’t record an out with two outs in the ninth inning Friday. He’s allowed five hits and two walks against his last 15 batters and all three of his inherited runners have scored.
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Garrett has yielded seven runs on five hits and three walks in his last three innings.
“Amir has had a few really good days of work,” Bell said. “I’ve kind of been observing. He’s working a lot closer with (pitching coach Derek Johnson) than me on any of that stuff, but just watching what he’s doing, I’m excited to get him back out there. And Sean is going to be fine. It wasn’t a good night last night, but he’s shown enough that we know throughout the course of the season he’s going to be able to help us, for sure.”
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