GOODYEAR, Arizona – When Cincinnati Reds pitcher Tejay Antone started warming up for his fourth inning on Sunday against the San Diego Padres, he felt a “little tweak.”
At first, Antone’s plan was to stretch until the inning started and then pitch the fourth inning. But when second baseman Mike Moustakas saw Antone stretching, he called out the trainer for his teammate.
Moustakas told Antone, “Don’t push it.” Antone took that advice, leaving the game with a mild right groin strain before the fourth inning started.
“(It) just grabbed a little bit, and I was like that doesn’t feel great,” Antone said. “It wasn’t like, ‘Oh my gosh, I just tore anything’ or something crazy like that. It was just a small little tweak.”
As he left Goodyear Ballpark, Antone said he told the trainer that he expects to make his next start. That’s a good sign for a team that has already seen two starting pitchers have minor injuries in the last three days.
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Before he left the game, Antone continued his standout spring training. When he took the mound at the start of the fourth, Antone had already struck out five batters and allowed just one earned run.
Through eight innings this spring, Antone has only allowed one earned run while striking out 13 batters.
“He’s been so good, his stuff is so good,” manager David Bell said. “If anything, maybe he tried to do too much. Maybe he was trying to improve on his last couple of times. That’s pretty hard to do. It doesn’t get much better than what he did. It’s natural. It’s part of what makes him as good as he is.”
Antone had another impressive spring training outing on Sunday even though it was statistically his worst start of the year. In the first inning, Antone’s fastball was sitting at 95 mph, and he reached 98 on one pitch. Three of his five strikeouts on Sunday came off his slider, which was his most effective pitch on Sunday.
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Antone was on track to pitch four innings on Sunday, which is a sign that he’s on track to be a starter in the regular season.
“I feel like I’m right where I need to be,” Antone said. “I feel great, my arm feels great, off-speed pitches are great. I’m going to nurse my leg back to health and I’ll be good to go.”
Entering spring training, Antone had a chance to pitch himself into the starting rotation. During his first two appearances of the spring, Antone allowed three hits and no runs in five scoreless innings. With an improved fastball, Antone had the second-most strikeouts on the team entering Sunday, and he added five more against the Padres.
Antone became the third Reds starting pitcher to get injured this week. Wade Miley left Thursday’s game with a left hamstring injury after throwing 1 ⅓ innings, and Sonny Gray is taking three or four days off due to back spasms.
The Reds rotation depth is being tested as the healthy big league starting pitchers are Luis Castillo, Tyler Mahle, Michael Lorenzen, José De León and Jeff Hoffman. Tony Santillan, Brandon Finnegan and Vladimir Gutierrez have also thrown multiple innings this spring.
Bell said he hasn’t made a decision yet about whether Antone will be a starter or a reliever in 2020, or what Antone’s spring will look like following his recovery.
“We’re trying to get him to a point where he could be able to help us as a starter or a reliever, and try to keep the options open,” Bell said. “Just as easily, we could adjust that and scale it back the rest of the way. Now, the priority will be doing what’s best for his health, so it’ll look different, and we’ll have to come up with a little different plan from here until the end of spring training once he gets healthy.”
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