CINCINNATI — David Bell was in the Reds dugout for the end of just one of the three games against the Yankees, getting ejected in both Friday’s series opener and Sunday’s series finale.
Although Bell wouldn’t say it, both times he was ejected for what it was suggested seemed like the umpiring crew not enforcing the rules evenly against baseball’s most popular team.
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“Well, I think you said ‘seems like,’ which I don’t know is necessarily true,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said Saturday, the day after his starter, Clarke Schmidt, was allowed to wash off what was described to Bell as a “sticky substance” on his wrist during Friday’s game.
After the umpires convened and allowed Schmidt to return to the game washed clean, Bell argued and was ejected.
Sunday, Bell was ejected in the eighth inning when Yankees pitcher Wandy Peralta quick-pitched catcher Luke Maile.
“He did it (Friday) night. We were on the lookout for it,” Bell said following Sunday’s 4-1 loss to the Yankees. “I made my point on the field. It’s probably better to just leave it at that. I think it’s pretty obvious I didn’t think he gave our hitter a chance to be ready and I think that’s part of the rule, unless I have the rule wrong.”
On the field, Bell indicated to home plate umpire Emil Jimenez that Maile was looking down when Peralta began pitching. The rules stipulate that the batter must make eye contact before the pitcher can begin throwing the ball.
After Jimenez ejected Bell, Bell seemed ready to make his way to the dugout before Brian O’Nora, the crew chief umpiring at second base, walked toward the pair and said something to Bell. That resulted in Bell turning back around and prolonging the argument.
Boone, meanwhile, was ejected in the first inning after the umpires reversed a call turning a foul ball by the Reds’ Spencer Steer into an RBI double.
Since Bell’s first year as a manager, 2019, only Boone has been ejected more times (24) than Bell (23). Over that same period of time, the manager who has been ejected the third-most times is Milwaukee’s Craig Counsell (15). Bob Melvin has been ejected 14 times since 2019, while Scott Servais, Torey Lovullo and Rocco Baldelli have been ejected 13 times.
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“This is gonna be an expected answer, but I mean, any time you’ve got a manager that really cares and is sticking up for you, it’s awesome,” Maile said. “I know I appreciate it, I know our guys appreciate it, but we gotta follow through a little bit better. And that’s on us.”
Boone told reporters after Sunday’s game he was wrong to get ejected, that he argued the replay when he knows that’s against the rules.
Bell declined to elaborate further on the ejections on both days, not saying anything about the umpires or the rules beyond his understanding.
Peralta’s been accused of quick-pitching already this season. In spring training, he struck out a batter in just 20 seconds total.
Friday’s perceived transgressions by Schmidt clearly seemed to be more egregious to the Reds, especially in light of Yankees starter Domingo Germán earning a 10-game suspension for his use of a foreign substance last week in Toronto.
When umpires checked Schmidt’s hands before the bottom of the fifth inning, they found the fur from his glove stuck on his left wrist. Schmidt told reporters afterward it was from a mixture of sweat and rosin. The umpiring crew, with O’Nora behind the plate, got together and allowed him to wash his hands and come back out. That incensed Bell.
After the game, Bell declined to get into specifics and again didn’t want to say anything publicly on Saturday.
It’s not the first time the Yankees have gotten a warning and seen a player allowed to wash his hands. Germán, who is currently serving his suspension, was allowed to wash his hands in an April start against the Twins.
“In some of the cases where it’s been, go wash it off, I think Clarke is an example of that is obviously glove and sweat and whatever related,” Boone said Saturday. “So that’s different than walking out there with sticky hands.”
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Clarke told reporters after the game that he “had nothing to hide.”
Schmidt, 27, had a 1-4 record and a 6.30 ERA entering Friday’s game. In that game, the spin rate on each of his four pitches was higher than his average this season, with his sinker the most improved, averaging 2,476 revolutions per minute in his first nine starts of the season and 2,607 on Friday. His slider was 108 rpm more, the curve 75 rpm better and his cutter 66 rpm improved. His average spin rate on his sinker and cutter was the highest of the season Friday, while the slider and curve were the second-highest averages of the season.
Of his 25 highest spin rates on sinkers this season, 13 came in Friday’s game. A total of 15 of his pitches Friday were among the top 100 highest spin rates for those pitch types in all of baseball this season.
In the first four innings of the game, Schmidt’s curveball went from 3,033 to 2,941 after washing his hands. His other pitches — cutter (minus-78 rpm), slider (minus-40 rpm) and sinker (minus-37 rpm) also decreased after he went into the clubhouse.
“I did not know that,” Boone said. “I’m sure (the) guys look at that.”
So too did the Reds — and Major League Baseball may as well.
As MLB tries to crack down on the use of sticky substances, it needs to go beyond the umpire’s physical checks and use the spin rate data we all have access to now. The spin rates are there and if they spike, perhaps that’s reason enough to do another check and then do an inspection. Anything suspicious coupled with a jump in spin rates — again, something that could be spotted in real-time by a computer program and relayed to umpires who are now in contact with New York in real-time.
More changeups for Greene
Since spring training, the word most frequently used around Hunter Greene — by coaches, catchers and Greene himself — is ‘changeup.’ With a triple-digit fastball and a plus slider, the development of the changeup is what will elevate Greene into the kind of pitcher both he and his club think he can become.
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Sunday, Greene threw 12 changeups according to MLB’s StatCast data, the second-most he’d thrown in any start this season, trailing only Monday’s start in Colorado, when he threw 13.
“He used his changeup a lot, which I think increased the effectiveness of his fastball,” Bell said.
That said, the Yankees only swung at one changeup all day — and Harrison Bader hit it for a home run.
“We encouraged him to throw it, so you’ve got to live with that,” Bell said. “I think he can, too. I think it’ll help him in the long run, throwing that pitch.”
He did get two called strikes on the pitch, the first time he’s had more than one this year.
“That’s a pitch everyone knows I’m working on and still had a lot of success with it in other situations,” Greene said of Bader’s homer. “That’s part of the game. Overall, I threw really well.”
Dunn impressing in Dayton
Dayton Dragons outfielder Blake Dunn learned the hard way to make sure he calls for the ball when chasing a pop-up in foul territory on the right side of the infield.
Last June, both Dunn and first baseman Ruben Ibarra were going for a ball in foul territory in St. Lucie and collided. Dunn is a solid 6 feet, 210 pounds. He played four sports in high school, including football, where he never came off the field, serving as his team’s quarterback, free safety, kicker, punter, kick returner and punt returner. He’s taken a hit before.
But this was different.
Ibarra stands 6-foot-5 and weighs 290 pounds. Simple physics tells us that one of the two people in the crash was going to be hurt. Both were, because Dunn’s not exactly a waif. Ibarra missed five games, but Dunn missed two and a half months with a separated shoulder.
“Any time I get a ball in that area I’m screaming ‘it’s my ball’ from now on,” Dunn said. “Even if I don’t catch it, I don’t care as long as we don’t collide.”
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At 24, Dunn is the oldest position player on the Dragons’ roster, but he’s also one of the least tenured, as far as professional experience goes. Wednesday night was just his 80th minor-league game since being taken in the 15th round of the 2021 draft out of Western Michigan.
Dunn’s first minor-league season was cut short in just his fifth game at Class-A Dayton when a ball bounced off the artificial turf in the outfield of Jackie Robinson Ballpark, took a funny hop and hit him in the face, breaking his nose and ending his season.
The injury list for Dunn is long — a torn ACL that cost him his senior season in high school and a hamate bone cut short his senior year in at Western Michigan (add that to the COVID-19-abbreviated 2020 season and he had just 148 plate appearances in his final two years of college). Last year he missed the first month of the season with a forearm strain and in just his 18th game back, he ran into Ibarra.
This season — knock on wood — Dunn’s been healthy, which in turn has led to production.
Dunn was the Reds’ Minor League Player of the Month in April when he hit .386/.539/.702 with five homers and 11 steals. He’s cooled down in May, hitting just .200, but still has a .316 on-base percentage in the month and six steals, including Sunday when he reached three times without a hit, scored twice and stole a base.
A National League scout compared him to the Reds’ TJ Friedl and Michael Siani, but added that he has “better tools.”
Observations from Daytona
• When the Reds traded Sonny Gray to Minnesota for Chase Petty before the 2022 season, most of the scouting reports on the Twins’ 2021 first-rounder were about the 100 mph fastball he showed in high school. Still just 20, Petty’s 2023 was delayed by an elbow injury and last year and made his second start on Wednesday.
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Against Fort Wayne this past week, Petty went four innings, allowing an unearned run on three hits and a walk. He struck out six batters. He also went four innings in his first start on May 10, where he allowed an earned run on a hit, a walk and a hit batter, while striking out three.
In his second start, his fastball sat 94-95 mph, but it was his off-speed pitches that impressed me the most. He has a plus changeup and a slider that looked really good when I saw him. It’s pretty impressive at that level and age.
• Catcher Matheu Nelson, the 35th pick in the 2021 draft, is repeating High A after starting there last season. The former Johnny Bench Award winner from Florida State threw out three base stealers in Wednesday’s game. Last season he threw out 25 of 75 would-be base stealers (33 percent) and entering Sunday, he’d thrown out eight of 20 would-be base stealers (40 percent). One of the players he threw out, Jakob Marse, had 13 steals as of Sunday and had been thrown out four times, including Wednesday.
The week that was
In a week that may be more notable for the debuts of Matt McLain, Brandon Williamson and the team’s City Connect uniforms, the Reds went 1-5, losing two of three in Colorado and then getting swept in Cincinnati by the Yankees.
The week ahead
Remember when the Cardinals were in last place and the butt of jokes? That’s not the team coming in for four games this week. The Cardinals are 11-3 since May 6. With their victory over the Dodgers on Sunday and the Reds’ loss, they’re now ahead of Cincinnati in the NL Central standings. Oddly with baseball’s new schedule, this is the first time the Reds will have faced St. Louis this season. After four games against St. Louis, Cincinnati travels to Chicago for three at Wrigley Field against the Cubs.
Injury updates
• 1B Joey Votto (right shoulder) was again at Louisville on Sunday to take live batting practice.
• RHP Fernando Cruz (right shoulder strain) started a rehab assignment at Triple-A Louisville on Sunday. He has three scheduled appearances, including Sunday’s one-inning stint that saw him strike out the first batter he faced and retire the next two on groundouts.
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• OF Henry Ramos (right hip strain) was put on the IL before Saturday’s game against the Yankees. He suffered the injury two steps into his attempted steal of third base against the Yankees on Friday.
• OF TJ Friedl (left oblique) is scheduled to take live batting practice on Monday. The earliest he could return would be Tuesday, Bell said.
Minor-league report
• Triple-A Louisville (21-23): On May 2, RHP Ricky Karcher’s ERA stood at 23.32. Against Omaha that day, he gave up three runs on a hit and four walks without retiring a single batter. He didn’t allow a run in his next seven outings, including Sunday, dropping his ERA to 9.87. Over those seven outings, he’s pitched 10 innings, struck out 10 batters, walked seven and allowed just two hits.
• Double-A Chattanooga (19-19): RHP Connor Phillips struck out 13 of the 19 batters he faced for Chattanooga on Saturday. He allowed two runs on three hits with one walk over five innings. Phillips, acquired along with Brandon Williamson, Jake Fraley and Justin Dunn in the Eugenio Suárez/Jesse Winker deal, is 1-2 with a 3.96 ERA in eight starts with 65 strikeouts over 36.1 innings.
• High-A Dayton (17-22): C Michael Trautwein has gotten rave reviews for his receiving and game calling and his bat has been playing at a level that has the team featuring him in the outfield as well. Drafted in 2021 out of Northwestern, Trautwein is hitting .273/.379/.466 with four homers for the Dragons.
• Class A Daytona (16-23): In his first full-season action in the United States, 19-year-old 2B Carlos Jorge is making quick work of the Florida State League. In 33 games, he’s hitting .336/.410/.508 with three homers and 10 stolen bases. He had an OPS of 1.015 in the Dominican Summer League in 2021 and .934 in the Arizona Complex League last year, so he is right in line with what he has done at other levels.
(Top photo of Bell’s ejection: Dylan Buell / Getty Images)
