ST. LOUIS – The Cincinnati Reds pitching staff has issued the second-most walks (433) in the Major Leagues this season, which may be a side effect of their strikeout-heavy approach.
There’s the adage that walks haunt, but Reds pitching coach Derek Johnson said he doesn’t view it as a team-wide problem.
More:How Tucker Barnhart's defense lifted the Cincinnati Reds to a win against the Cardinals
“Well, I think it's relative,” Johnson said. “Is it a problem? It probably is for some. It probably isn't for others. It's relative in order to when it happens in the game. Some of that is personnel, some of that is maybe us just needing to be better. I can live with that, too.”
The Reds had four pitchers who were averaging more than five walks per nine innings: Cionel Pérez, Jeff Hoffman, Lucas Sims and José De León.
Tejay Antone, the Reds’ most effective reliever this season, has allowed as many walks (11) as hits (11).
“In terms of calling it a problem, I think it becomes a problem when you make the players too aware of it, if that makes sense,” Johnson said. “If you talk about walking too many people, what happens? You start walking more people.
More:Michael Lorenzen hopes to join Cincinnati Reds bullpen by end of June
“For me, I think in the big leagues in general, you cannot be afraid of getting hit. If you're not afraid of getting hit, if you're not afraid to challenge the hitter and throw the ball across the plate, you've got a chance. Who knows if you're going to win or lose, but you definitely have a chance.”
The Reds have the second-highest ERA in the Majors this season, so there are plenty of areas that they need to improve. Walks may be one of them, but they aren’t at the top of Johnson’s list.
Of course, the Reds want to attack hitters and work ahead in counts, but they don’t want to give up homers, either.
“I think what we've seen in the last few weeks is that the walks have gone down,” Johnson said. “It still is probably with some of the same guys that have that problem in the first place. It's only a problem if you make it one. At the same time, we're still looking for the same thing. We're still talking about the same things, which is we need to get ahead. We're still talking about everything you ever needed to know in baseball, you learned in Little League, because it's true.”
MOUSTAKAS UPDATE: As Joey Votto and Aristides Aquino inch closer to returning with their rehab assignments at Triple-A Louisville, Mike Moustakas is still working his way back from a right heel bruise.
“The report I got (Thursday) was he was able to push off on his foot and play catch and move around a little,” Reds manager David Bell said. “He’s not running. He’s still doing a lot of his running indoors and in the water. But the next step is to be able to do that outside. (Thursday), he was playing catch out on the field and able to push off of his foot. He’s still dealing with the injury, for sure. I’ve spent a lot of time with him the last few days. He’s not running around yet. It’s going to still be some time.”
Moustakas injured his foot when he awkwardly stepped on the first base bag in Colorado last month.
More:Nick Castellanos: MLB 'doesn't care' about pitchers using foreign substances
“It just never went away,” Moustakas said after he went on the 10-day injured list. “It kept hurting and hurting and hurting, and then it got to the point where I couldn't even get off the field. I couldn’t really run, so David basically said, ‘You’re not going to go back out there.’ Thought I’d be better a lot faster than I was and got X-rays. X-rays came back negative. MRI came back, said it was a little more significant than we thought.”
FIRST WIN: Vladimir Gutierrez earned his first big-league win Thursday when he allowed two runs on three hits and three walks across five innings.
"It means a lot, especially it’s my second start of my career in this league," Gutierrez said through team interpreter Jorge Merlos. "It means a lot to me. I have to thank God because he gave me this opportunity to be here and to successfully do what I did today."
Bell confirmed Friday that Gutierrez will remain in the rotation for his next start.
"As of now, there’s no plans to change our rotation," Bell said. "Yeah, just staying on track with the five-man rotation. Not skipping anyone, not manipulating at all. There’s no plans. Until that changes, that’ll be the way going forward."
Source link
