Is this 2026 or did we go back to 2025. Great start by Abbott, the bullpen keeping them in the game, and the offense sends eleven different hitters up to the plate with only two of them getting a hit. Elly with a single, Sal with a great start to his rookie campaign mashing two doubles and a single. Averaging an exit velo of 94.1 mph with his first double being 109 mph off the bat. That's just about the only positive you can take away from the offensive side of the ball yesterday.
Abbott threw six shut out innings, giving up seven hits, four strikeouts, one walk and a strike % of seventy-one. He got hit around early but found his way out of the few jams he was in. Abbott had an impressive outing on opening day but I think there was someone more impressive that pitched yesterday. Graham Ashcraft. He faced three batters, K, BB, 4-3 put out. What I found to be impressive was his cutter topping out at 101.5. In 2025 he averaged a speed of 97.1 mph on his cutter. Topping out at 101.5 and sitting at 99.5, albeit a small sample size, is enough for me to be optimistic Ashcraft can be a key part of the bullpen this season. Connor Phillips was another guy that threw well yesterday even though his stats don't reflect that. If there is one guy out there that already hates ABS it would be Phillips. I will talk more about ABS and the challenges next. But to continue on Phillips and his rough result of a Boston ABS challenge. In the top of the 9th Roman Anthony worked a 3-2 count and on what started as strike three quickly turned to ball four. Two pitches later a single scores Mayer. A completely different ball game as result of a pitch 0.9 inches below the strike zone.
ABS is something that I am a fan of and would actually like to see it taken to another level. I like what was trialed in the minors a few years back. An AirPod in the umpires ear that tells him the correct call every time. I am not sure why baseball fans would be against the correct call every time. With there strike zone already being defined as 27% up to 53.5% of the batters height. There is no debate, it either hits the zone or it doesn't.
There were four total ABS challenges, Boston winning two of three. The Reds only using one and it was successful. The biggest challenge was was Roman Anthony in the top of the 9th. That challenge, like previously mentioned, lead to two runs. Tyler Stephenson wins his challenge in the 7th to start the inning off with a walk. He turned a would be 1-2 count into a favorable 2-1 count. Reds follow that up with a strike out, fly out and another strike out. I'm hoping in the very near future the Reds take advantages when they win big challenges. The Reds had two pitches in the bottom of the 9th that batters could have challenged and potentially won but they didn't opt to use them. I am having a hard time trying to rationalize why you do not use them in those situations. I can understand waiting until later in the game to use the ABS system to your advantage, but you absolutely can not take them home with you.
Before I predict the game tomorrow I want to touch on the coaches challenges. Four pitches into the game Tito used a challenge on a bang bang play. The call stood and the Reds lost one of their two challenges. In the 5th inning there was another close play at 1st base that went against the Reds. I thought it was more clear that the Reds would win it if they asked for a review compared to their first challenge. Tito decided against it. The butterfly effect that decision had was almost tragic. Sal Stewart had to hold the runner on 1st. That put him in a position much closer than he would play when no one is on base. As a result Anthony hit a line drive at Stewart that would normally be a 1 hop ground out into a line drive off his wrist. Sal remained in the game and hit a single and a double in the innings to follow. Disaster avoided.
Lets look ahead to tomorrows game. Brady Singer takes on a familiar face when Sonny Gray returns to GABP. I would anticipate a line up that looks somewhat like this:
Friedl - CF
McLain -2B
Elly - SS
Stewart - 1B
Suarez - DH
Benson -RF
Steer - LF
Stephenson - C
Hayes - 3B
Not many changes. I see Tito swapping Marte for Benson to get another lefty bat in the line up. If it were up to me I would keep the defensive lineup the same from Thursday and move Marte up to 6th and Steer to 8th.
Prediction:
Reds 5
Red Sox 4
Thanks for reading and chatting along with me! Who Dey & Go Redlegs!
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