Reds at Giants, Game 3: Preview and Lineups

It feels like just seconds ago that we were bubbling with optimism about the Cincinnati Reds for the first time in who the hell knows how long. A 6-game win streak, a sweep of the Los Angeles Dodgers on a dreaded west coast trip, and visions of sugar plums danced in our heads.

Well, a blink later and we’ve seen Joey Votto’s back flare up and send him to the bench, Eugenio Suarez’s ankle roll over and send him to the bench, and we now get to cross our fingers that reclamation project Matt Harvey can salvage a game against the San Francisco Giants to avoid being swept.

Yeesh. That escalated quickly.

Votto is in the lineup today after pinch-hitting last night, which is good, but Suarez’s sore ankle has him getting a day of rest. As for Harvey, well, let’s just hope the Giants hitters look as off today as the Dodgers did against Harvey on Friday.

Let’s also hope that the bats can get to Giants starter Andrew Suarez early, and often.

First pitch is set for 3:45 PM ET.

Cincinnati Lineup

San Francisco Lineup

Other Notes

• As MLB.com’s Mark Sheldon noted in that there lineup tweet a scroll up from here, that wasn’t the original Reds lineup today. Suarez was scratched after initially being in there, though he was oddly slotted in the 3-spot in the lineup with Joey Votto hitting cleanup.
• As you’ll also notice, Alex Blandino - who’s in the lineup now - wasn’t in the original lineup, which is enough to make me want to throw paper airplanes at Jim Riggleman when he’s got his back turned. Benching him again today would’ve marked the fifth time in the last six games in which he didn’t get a start - even with three of those six games having had lefty starters on the mound.
• Just as we’d begun to get excited about Jose Peraza, his production completely cratered. He’s hitting just .167/.186/.214 in his last 10 games. For the season, he now owns the 4th worst wRC+ of all hitters in baseball who’ve had at least 160 PA.