Reds face another soft-throwing lefty, or left-throwing softy or some combination of those words

by — September 11, 2019 in Game/Series Preview

We’re hoping tonight goes better than last night.

Pitching Matchup

Sonny Gray continues to have an excellent season and ranks among league leaders in several important statistical categories.

Marco Gonzalez is a soft-throwing lefty. The Reds have struggled against the last three they’ve faced (Drew Smyly, Jason Vargas and Alex Young). The Reds managed just 3 runs in 18+ innings in those games with a 39% strikeout rate and 4% walk rate. Lately, the Reds haven’t hit much against any kind of pitcher, but the junk ball lefties (to use Mike Hart’s apt phrase) seem to be particular kryptonite.

Reds Lineup

Pretty standard lineup from David Bell versus left-handed pitching. Jose Peraza with another start in LF. Thought maybe Michael Lorenzen might get a start in CF and Phillip Ervin moved to LF. Curt Casali catching Sonny Gray. Kind of surprising Jose Iglesias is batting ahead of Ervin.

Here are the splits for Reds hitters against left-handed pitchers. Unusual to see Votto with just a 77 wRC+ against lefties. If you want to read a good, even-handed article that puts Votto’s season in perspective, read this from Chad Dotson in the Cincinnati Magazine.

Mariners Lineup

[Graphics: Baseball Savant]

Big thanks to Mike Hart, who contributed graphics and charts and the research on lefty pitchers for this post.

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Steve Mancuso

Steve Mancuso is a lifelong Reds fan who grew up during the Big Red Machine era. He’s been writing about the Reds for more than ten years. Steve’s fondest memories about the Reds include attending a couple 1975 World Series games, being at Homer Bailey’s second no-hitter and going nuts for Jay Bruce at Clinchmas. Steve was also at all three games of the 2012 NLDS, but it’s too soon to talk about that.

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