Reds fall to Brewers 4-2 in MLB debut of Sal Romano

The Joe Nuxhall Memorial Honorary Star of the Game

Sal Romano's big league debut was a short one - at least in terms of the number of innings completed, With the rookie facing growing pitch counts and the team in an early 3-0 deficit, the Cincinnati Reds bench turned to Tim Adleman for his first appearance in the big leagues this year, and he responded with an impressive outing.

Adleman threw 3 straight scoreless innings and eventually left after allowing a lone run in h 4 IP from the bullpen, in which he allowed just 2 hits and no walks against an impressive 5 strikeouts. While he pitched from the 'pen today, the depleted nature of the team's pitching staff means he may well get plenty of chances to eat innings regardless of role in the coming weeks, and what he showed today would certainly go a long way to that end.

Honorable Mentions are due to: Eugenio Suarez, who belted another homer; Joey Votto, who was on base three times (with two singles and a plunk in the back); Billy Hamilton, who walked and make more absurd plays in CF; Wandy Peralta, who actually retired Eric Thames; and Blake Wood, who fired a perfect 1.1 innings of relief (with 2 Ks).

Key Plays

• Despite some lengthy innings and high early pitch counts, Sal Romano reached the Top of the 3rd in his big league debut with the game still scoreless. Unfortunately, Arismendy Alcantara booted a routine grounder at 2B for his second error of the game, and Ryan Braun* followed with a 2-run blast into the RF seats. Travis Shaw then backed him up with a long solo shot into Juan Francisco territory atop the RF deck, and the Reds were down, 3-0.
• That inning wrapped Romano’s day, and brought in Tim Adleman to help put up zeroes while the Cincinnati offense tried to chip away at the lead. An iceberg-sized chip came off in the Bottom of the 4th when Suarez launched a mammoth 2-run homer into the second deck in LF after Adam Duvall had walked in front of him, and that brought the Reds within a run a 3-2.
• Eric Thames hits dingers. Lots of them. For the fourth consecutive game, he dingered, belting an Adleman meatball well into the seats in right-center to put Milwaukee ahead, 4-2.
• After that, the Cincinnati bats fell quiet again, and Neftali Feliz closed things out for Milwaukee. Reds lost, 4-2.

Tony Graphanino

Source: FanGraphs

Other Notes

• Romano’s final line: 3 IP, 3 R (2 ER), 4 BB, 2 K on 82 pitches. Two errors hurt both his overall line and his pitch count - especially the 1st inning drop of a foul pop-up by Alcantara. That came early in the count against Braun, and cost Romano somewhere in the neighborhood of 18 extra pitches to finally get three outs in that frame.
• Billy Hamilton's stupid crazy amazing catch from the 6th inning was completely amazing crazy stupid.
• The Reds will have an off-day on Monday, and it truly couldn’t come at a better time for the exhausted arms in the bullpen. They’ll pick back up on Tuesday by hosting the Baltimore Orioles for some interleague play, tangling over who gets to claim bragging rights about the great Frank Robinson. Ubaldo Jimenez and Bronson Arroyo will be the starters in the first game of the series, so grab nine gloves and go sit deep in the OF ready to catch a dozen dingers in two days. First pitch is set for 7:10 PM ET.
• Tunes.