Reds vs. Pirates, Game Two: Preview and Lineups

It’s just about over.

I type these words simultaneously relieved and disappointed.

The Reds are bad. They’ve been bad for large swathes of this season, especially both at the very beginning and the very end of this season. The three weeks to begin the season cost Bryan Price his job. It’s likely the last three weeks of this season will cost Jim Riggleman any chance he may’ve had to keep his after this one (or, at least, it should... among other reasons). There have been multiple times that included multiple week stretches where not only has the team bad, but they’ve been boring in doing so.

But it’s still baseball. Or, at least something resembling it for about six months this season. And generally, baseball is better than no baseball. And we’re going to get a post-season that looks like it’s going to be very compelling, so that helps. But still, it’s not Reds baseball, and that stinks. It stinks a lot. We won’t be able to watch our favorite team again for six months. While we probably need a break from this iteration of the Reds, we don’t need one that last six months. Especially when those six months will feature cold and snow and grayness and nights that begin at 4 PM and all of the other awful things that winter brings.

So that sucks. I’m guilty of using this space to complain about how not-compelling these Reds are. But damnit, I’m going to miss them when they’re gone. And that clock expires tomorrow evening.

Jameson Taillon will go for the Pirates today. He’s likely to finish the season with something like 190ish IP and a 3.10 ERA, which is incredible. For a long time when they were both in the minor leagues, Taillon was the pitcher that most closely aligned with Robert Stephenson. I don’t really know if had anything to do with comparables or stuff, but they were very constantly ranked next to one another on the prospect lists. Taillon has finally made good in the Major Leagues.

Wouldn’t it be pretty cool if Robert Stephenson, somehow someway, was able to do something like that in 2019?

Michael Lorenzen will make his third and, obviously, final start of the season. As good as he was in his first start against Milwaukee, he was not good against the Marlins, allowing 9 hits and 4 runs on 2 walks and 0 K in 4 innings. That’s gross as hell, really, considering the opponent.

The rational thinker in me believes that another bad outing today will put to bed the idea of Lorenzen being a starter on this team. But, I’m sure we’ll still be talking about this very thing as a storyline going into 2019 regardless of what happens this afternoon.

CIN Lineup

PIT Lineup