{"id":99208,"date":"2025-04-14T19:43:19","date_gmt":"2025-04-14T23:43:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=99208"},"modified":"2025-04-14T19:43:19","modified_gmt":"2025-04-14T23:43:19","slug":"the-reds-dominant-start-in-the-pitching-staff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/04\/14\/the-reds-dominant-start-in-the-pitching-staff\/","title":{"rendered":"The Reds Dominant Start in the Pitching Staff"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Cincinnati Reds<\/a> have climbed back to .500 after a rough start to the season, as they are now 8-8. They are coming off a three-game weekend sweep of the Pittsburgh Pirates and will be welcoming the red-hot Seattle Mariners into Ohio this upcoming week.<\/p>\n

Spearheaded by their ace Hunter Greene, the starting pitching and the bullpen have been dominant. The Reds are at or near the top of the league in many categories, pitching-wise, carrying the offense, which has not performed as well to begin the season.<\/p>\n

Cincinnati\u2019s Pitching Rankings<\/h3>\n

We know Cincinnati\u2019s pitching has been good, but how does it stack up relative to the league?<\/p>\n

Total Pitching Staff:<\/p>\n

2.9 fWAR – 1st in MLB<\/p>\n

.181 BA – 2nd in MLB<\/p>\n

Reds Starters:<\/p>\n

2.5 fWAR – 1st in MLB<\/p>\n

2.68 ERA – 2nd in MLB<\/p>\n

17.8 K-BB% – 4th in MLB<\/p>\n

Reds Relievers:<\/p>\n

3.23 ERA – 8th in MLB<\/p>\n

Notable Standouts<\/h3>\n

Hunter Greene – (SP)<\/p>\n

Greene has shoved to a 0.98 ERA in his first four starts of the year. He has taken on his SP1 title after a breakout year in 2024 and has not looked back. His peripherals are excellent; his 2.46 xERA and .194 xBA are in the 81st and 82nd percentile, respectively. His command has exceeded expectations, as he\u2019s walking just 4.0% of batters faced (87th percentile), all while missing plenty of bats (31.3 K% and 33.3 Whiff%).<\/p>\n

As the season progresses, Greene is certifiably the head of the rotation, and if the Reds play their way into October baseball, Greene will, without a doubt, toe the rubber in game one of the series.<\/p>\n

Graham Ashcraft<\/a> – (RP)<\/p>\n

Ashcraft is making the first transition in his career, going from a starter to a reliever. There were doubts about this transition, as he struggled heavily in spring, but he has been lights out in \u00a07 1\/3 innings this year, allowing zero runs.<\/p>\n

Emilio Pagan – (RP\/CP)<\/p>\n

Pagan has stepped in as the Reds closer in place of the injured Alexis Diaz. He has been nails so far, notching four saves already, posting a 1.23 ERA in 7 1\/3 innings. With how much Diaz is currently struggling in Triple-A Louisville, chances are Pagan will be able to hold onto the closer role throughout the remainder of the season.<\/p>\n

Nick Lodolo – (SP)<\/p>\n

Lodolo has started three games so far this year, tallying 18 2\/3 innings of 0.96 ERA ball. He is every high school baseball coach\u2019s favorite player, as he walks just 1.4% of batters faced, good for the 96th percentile. He is also limiting hard contact well, with a 4.9 Barrel% (72nd percentile) and a 36.1 Hard-Hit% (67th percentile).<\/p>\n

Season Expectations<\/h3>\n

This pitching staff is one of the best in the league, and the team needs them to continue their dominance to have a shot at playing October baseball. The offense is currently 29th in the league in wRC+, with important players like Jeimer Candelario, Spencer Steer, Jake Fraley, and Christian Encarnacion-Strand all struggling to be impactful at the plate. Matt McLain<\/a> hitting the shelf with a hamstring injury early in the season isn\u2019t helping either.<\/p>\n

The offense will be what the offense is, but they can perform better. The Reds have lost three games with the score of 1-0, which is not the fault of the pitching. As the position players begin to step it up at the plate, Cincinnati can become a sneaky team that can squeeze its way into October, most likely through a Wild Card spot.<\/p>\n

Main Photo Credits: Katie Stratman-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Cincinnati Reds have climbed back to .500 after a rough start to the season, as they are now 8-8. They are coming off a three-game weekend sweep of the Pittsburgh Pirates and will be welcoming the red-hot Seattle Mariners into Ohio this upcoming week. Spearheaded by their ace Hunter Greene, the starting pitching and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5447,"featured_media":99243,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[2307,5869,1277,2613],"class_list":["post-99208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reds","tag-emilio-pagan","tag-graham-ashcraft","tag-hunter-greene","tag-nick-lodolo"],"modified_by":"Evan Mazza, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5447"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99208"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99208\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":99244,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99208\/revisions\/99244"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}