Everyone who has played organized baseball has heard this cardinal rule: Never make the first or third out at third base.
Tuesday against the Marlins, TJ Friedl was caught stealing third for the final out of the second inning. Nobody on the Reds coaching staff blinked an eye.
“If it didn’t make some sense it wouldn’t be a rule — or unwritten rule, whatever you want to call it — for a long, long time,” Reds manager David Bell said. “I respect that and there’s some logic to it for sure. But I do think sometimes you can play too strictly by the rules and that can hurt you, too. I think it’s something to be aware of, but there’s also benefit to getting an extra base.”
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The logic is sound. It basically boils down to the fact that a runner on second is already in scoring position and making the third out at third ends a potential rally. Getting the first out there can also cut a rally short, especially with three more outs available and that runner in scoring position.
Entering Sunday, the Reds led baseball with 16 outs made at third base, nine of those coming on steal attempts. But they also led baseball with 26 steals of third base and were fourth in extra bases-taken percentage (48 percent), five percent better than the league average (43 percent).
Aggressive base running has been part of the Reds’ strategy this season, including using pinch runners at third base. A big reason is that this Reds team is faster, as a whole, than we’ve seen in a long time. The Reds entered Sunday with 130 stolen bases, the most in baseball, with five players — Friedl, Jonathan India, Elly De La Cruz, Will Benson, and Spencer Steer — in double digits. The team was also eighth in run scoring percentage (33 percent), which is the percentage of time that a runner reaches base that he’ll score. The league average is 31 percent.
Going to third and not being afraid of making outs there are big parts of the identity of this Reds team. The Athletic’s Eno Sarris wrote a good article about how teams across baseball, not just the Reds, are newly emboldened to try to get to third base.
As Sarris noted, the league matched its 2022 total attempts of steals of third by late July.
“We also walk a fair bit. Say (Friedl) gets to third base and the next guy walks, that’s a tough spot for the defense to be in,” Bell said. “We’ve seen that on both sides. That can end up being a second-and-third situation. We’ve cashed in on that a lot. It opens a hole at first base for the hitter to be more likely to get a base hit and drive him in. There is the wild pitch and there is the infield hit. There’s the really hard-hit ball to an outfielder that becomes a run if you’re at third base. There’s a lot of different ways that that can help you.”
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Bell said he likes his runners to be more sure of getting to third base, but he encourages it.
“If we have a guy that is capable of stealing third base and they’re thinking about doing it, that doubt of ‘I can’t make the third out at third base,’ can really affect the confidence in which they get a lead or convicted of stealing a base,” Bell said. “We try to take that out as much as we can.”
Ramos returns
The Reds called up switch-hitting outfielder Henry Ramos on Friday when IF/OF Nick Senzel was optioned to Triple A.
Ramos, 31, played 19 games for the Reds earlier this season before he went on the IL with a hip injury.
At Triple-A Louisville, Ramos hit .315/.399/.522 with nine homers in 54 games with the Bats. On Thursday, he hit a 495-foot home run, the second-longest homer in Triple A since Statcast has been in use at all Triple-A parks in 2022.
495 ft?! 🤯
Henry Ramos DEMOLISHES a homer way over everything.@LouisvilleBats | @Reds pic.twitter.com/5CbLZfsFsy
— Minor League Baseball (@MiLB) August 11, 2023
Halls of fame
A pair of former Reds infielders were honored this week, one by his former big-league club and another by his university.
First, Bill Doran was inducted into the Astros’ Hall of Fame on Saturday.
Doran, a Cincinnati native, has served in various capacities with the Reds’ front office and is currently a special assistant to the general manager.
Drafted out of Miami University by the Astros, Doran played parts of nine seasons with the Astros before getting traded to Cincinnati in 1990. He played for the Reds from 1990 to 1992.
After debuting with the Astros in 1982, the switch-hitter led all Astros hitters in runs, stolen bases and walks during the decade. He’s in the team’s top 10 all-time in hits, runs, steals, walks, at-bats and triples.
Then, Ole Miss announced Saturday that former Reds shortstop Zack Cozart would be inducted into the M Club Hall of Fame this fall.
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Cozart, a second-round pick in 2007 by the Reds, was a three-year starter at Ole Miss, earning All-American honors as a sophomore. Cozart played with the Reds from 2011 to 2017, earning All-Star honors in 2017. He played with the Angels from 2018 to 2019.
The week that was
The Reds salvaged a .500 week with an extra-inning victory over the Pirates in the second game of a doubleheader. After losing two of three at home to the Marlins, the Reds went on the road and took two of three from Pittsburgh. Reds starters went 2-0 with a 2.73 ERA over the six games, while the relievers were 1-3 with a 4.71 ERA.
The week ahead
The Reds have two much-needed off days Monday and Thursday with a two-game series at Great American Ball Park against the Guardians before welcoming the Blue Jays to Cincinnati. The second part of the home-and-home series with Cleveland is in the last week of the season.
Injury updates
• IF Jonathan India (left foot plantar fasciitis) had a setback, Bell told reporters in Pittsburgh, including MLB.com. An MRI showed further tearing in the foot and he was shut down from running for two weeks.
• RHP Hunter Greene (right hip pain) allowed three runs on four hits with three walks in 3 2/3 innings on Thursday for Louisville. He is scheduled to start for the Bats Tuesday in Iowa in what was expected to be his last rehab start.
• LHP Nick Lodolo (stress reaction in his left tibia) pitched two scoreless innings, allowing a hit and walking four in Arizona on Friday. He threw 22 pitches.
• RHP Tejay Antone (Tommy John surgery) was scratched from his appearance Saturday, but Antone pitched Sunday for Louisville, striking out two of the three batters he faced in a perfect inning.
• RHP Ben Lively (pectoral) made his first rehab start Sunday for the Bats, giving up six runs on six hits
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• RHP Vladimir Gutierrez (Tommy John surgery) pitched Wednesday and Saturday for the Bats. After a scoreless inning Wednesday, he allowed four runs on two hits and two walks with a strikeout in 1 1/3 innings.
• C Curt Casali (foot) began a rehab assignment with Louisville. In three games, he’s 2 for 11. Casali has caught two of the three games he’s played in for the Bats.
Minor league roundup
• Triple-A Louisville (60-52): IF Matt Reynolds hit the Bats’ 167th home run of 2023 on Wednesday, setting a new club record for home runs in just the 109th game of the season. The Bats hit two more homers in that game and through Sunday, have 171 home runs with more than a month left in the season. Reynolds is second on the team in homers to Christian Encarnacion-Strand.
• Double-A Chattanooga (59-48): The Lookouts completed their first 2023 series sweep, taking all six games from Pensacola at AT&T Field in Chattanooga. CF Jacob Hurtubise stole three bases and now has 27 steals on the season. Hurtubise is hitting .315/.455/.502 this season with six homers, eight doubles and nine triples.
• High-A Dayton (56-52): In his first week at High A, 3B Sal Stewart went 8 for 24 (.333) with four walks and four strikeouts. At 19, he is the youngest player on the Dragons’ roster. Stewart hit .269/.395/.424 with 10 homers in 88 games in Daytona, walking (66) more than he struck out (59).
• Class A Daytona (47-58): SS Victor Acosta struggled in his first month of the season, hitting just .200 in April. Since then, the 19-year-old, who was acquired in exchange for Brandon Drury at the 2022 trade deadline, has hit .276/.382/.379.
(Top photo of Will Benson: Justin Berl / Getty Images)
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