CINCINNATI – The Reds had no exact plans to have Jeff Hoffman and Jose De Leon in their 202 rotation. It became necessary when Sonny Gray and Michael Lorenzen opened the regular season on the injured list.
Like Hoffman on Sunday, De Leon took full advantage of his opportunity to step up Monday against the Pirates. In an undecided decision, he scored nine more than five innings before the Reds got a 5-3 victory at Great American Ball Park. Once again, Nick Castellanos got a great play at home that got a 2-2 draw at the bottom of the seventh inning to help Cincinnati win for the third time in their first four games.
“We’re going to have to pick each other up,” Reds manager David Bell said. “We talked about having the initial pitching depth and we’re lucky to have it, but for these guys to go through it and be an important part of a pitching staff that has been successful, it helps us keep rolling. “.
In his first start since 2016 with the Dodgers, De León started the evening in a disastrous way. His 2-2 change with an offside in the first inning failed over the strike zone, and Phillip Evans crushed him to get a 445-foot solo homer on the left field. The catcher Tucker Barnhart was seen doing a kind of shrimp when the ball came out of Evans’ bat. Two batters later with two outs, Colin Moran threw a first-throw slider to make a 374-foot homer on the right field that made it a 2-0 game.
Nothing De Leon did after that surprised anyone except perhaps the pirates who threw once more at him. With an average of 94 km / h, De León threw the first two batters of the second inning.
“I was able to settle in after these two solo plans. Solo shooting won’t kill you, “De Leon said.” I just came out there with a different advantage in the second inning and was more aggressive. I took it personally. “
De León, who had not beaten since 2019 with the Rays, recovered himself. Running from first base, Nick Senzel beat a ground player chosen by a Jonathan India midfielder. Two batters later with two outs, De León landed a single on the right side to score Senzel for his first major league and RBI hit.
In the third inning, after a simple advantage from pitcher JT Brubaker and an error from shortstop Eugenio Suárez when he suppressed the exchange to play the double game, De León attacked the side, all with beaches of 94 or 95 mph. including the two beaters who burned him for homers before, Evans and Moran.
In the fourth inning, De León withdrew the winger in order on five pitches. At the time, I was still a little tired of directing the bases at the second inning.
“I had to try to calm down. That entry was when I heard something click,” De Leon said. “I spent time in the mound between the plots, breathing deeply. It was something I think helped me being a little tired of that entrance.”
De León attacked the winger again in the fifth inning, which included a two-way walk. Bell lifted the right side after a first step to open the top of the sixth inning.
On Sunday, Hoffman got the 12-1 victory over the Cardinals with five strong baseball innings in one throw. He was still the record-breaker at the end of the fifth when Castellanos crushed a three-run homer to break the tie at 1-1.
“These are the kind of starts we need from him and all of our starters,” said Mike Moustakas, who tied the game at 2 with a solo home run of two on right field in the fifth inning. “Especially when we don’t score runs and they’re able to do it, it demands pressure from us.”
The races were no longer difficult to get once Castellanos scored at home in his fourth appearance of the night with a start in the seventh inning. Two more goals scored in the eighth.
Against Pittsburgh left-back Sam Howard, Castellanos acknowledged good sliding control by 3-1 after refusing to add a full count. Howard followed with a 94 mph fast ball, and Castellanos was everywhere with a 431-foot drive on the left field that left his bat at 108.9 mph. He turned the bat around and rounded out the bases, finishing his day better than he started.
Earlier in the day, MLB ordered Castellanos to suspend two games for its part in a bank clearing incident Saturday against St. Louis. Louis. You are allowed to play while your resource is pending.
“Viouslybviament has brought us to start this season,” Moustakas said. “Its energy is electric.”