Elly De La Lose—Series Preview: Reds at Phillies, April 1 – 3
Despite this article’s title, the Cincinnati Reds have not done a ton of losing so far in 2024. Granted, it has only been four days, but the 2-1 Reds have come out of Spring Training with a promising group of talented newcomers and a rekindled drive in their veterans. On Opening Day, the Reds snagged a dominant 8-2 win over the Washington Nationals, and on Sunday, they snatched a victory thanks to a three-run ninth inning, securing a series win on Opening Weekend. Easy? Absolutely not. But a momentum builder? For sure.
Reds’ veteran designated hitter Nick Martini leads the league with a 1.931 OPS through three games, and new Reds starter Frankie Montas, who—despite injury concerns—Cincinnati gambled on and signed to a one-year, $16 million contract during the offseason, threw six shutout innings on Opening Day, his first full start since September 9 of 2022.
Needless to say, the pieces have fallen together nicely so far for the 2024 Reds. With up-and-coming stars like Elly De La Cruz, Wil Benson, Spencer Steer, and Christian Encarnacion-Strand—whose first hit of the season was a walk-off home run on Sunday—along with a young but fiery pitching staff featuring Hunter Greene and Andrew Abbott, the Reds could be the dark horse to nab the NL Central for the first time since 2012, when Cincinnati let a 2-0 series lead slip away to Pablo Sandoval and the San Francisco Giants. And with external additions like the aforementioned Montas, utility man Jeimer Candelario, and reliver-turned-starter Nick Martinez, who quietly turned around his career in San Diego, the Reds are more talented and experienced than they have been in the past.
For the readers out there who embrace the ideology of “TL;DR,” the short version is this: The 2024 Reds aren’t the Atlanta Braves, but they sure aren’t the team that lost 100 games in 2022 either.
Who’s Hot, Who’s Not?
Now that we’ve got three games in the book, we can finally dive into the Phillies’ starting nine. Based solely on performance, the biggest conversation point has to be Johan Rojas, the Phillies’ 23-year-old centerfielder. Rojas was hitless in eight at-bats against the Braves, striking out twice, walking once, and getting hit by a pitch once. Rojas’ speed played a crucial role in salvaging game three of the series but the lack of offense is still concerning.
With the way Brandon Marsh has been swinging the bat, it will become harder and harder to justify sitting him, even against tougher lefties.
Rojas is sitting out for the first time in 2024 in the first of three against Cincinnati. Here’s the rest of the lineup:
- DH Kyle Schwarber
- SS Trea Turner
- 1B Bryce Harper
- C J.T. Realmuto
- 3B Alec Bohm
- RF Nick Castellanos
- 2B Bryson Stott
- LF Whit Merrifield
- CF Brandon Marsh
Atop the lineup, Kyle Schwarber and J.T. Realmuto have both hit well, but Realmuto will likely get game three of this series off since Phillies’ manager Rob Thomson has shown a tendency to stack an off day in front of or behind a scheduled off day for the team, which the Phillies have on Thursday.
Injury Updates
When “injury updates” is a storyline for the second series of the season, it is not usually a good thing, but in this case, the Phillies aren’t doing too terribly. Bryce Harper and Brandon Marsh will continue to rest periodically due to their setbacks during Spring Training, and after Saturday’s game, reliever Luis Ortiz was put in the 15-day IL with an ankle sprain, so Nick Nelson was recalled from triple-A Lehigh Valley.
Nelson allowed one run in 5.1 big-league innings in 2023 and is expected to serve as a long man in the Phillies’ ‘pen.
Orion Kerkering threw a scoreless inning of relief in triple-A, and the Phillies expect him to return from the IL when eligible on April 9, the second game of three in St. Louis.
Game Times and Broadcasts
- Monday, April 1, at 6:40pm ET on NBC Sports Philadelphia, WTTM 1680 (Spanish), and 94.1 WIP
- Tuesday, April 2, at 6:40pm ET on TBS, NBC Sports Philadelphia, WTTM 1680 (Spanish), and 94.1 WIP
- Wednesday, April 3, at 1:05pm ET on MLB Network, NBC Sports Philadelphia, WTTM 1680 (Spanish), and 94.1 WIP
Pitching Matchups
Game 1: Christopher Sanchez (LHP, 3-5, 3.44 ERA) vs. Andrew Abbott (LHP, 8-6, 3.87 ERA)
Game 2: Spencer Turnbull (RHP, 1-4, 7.26 ERA) vs. Graham Ashcraft (RHP, 7-9, 4.76 ERA)
Game 3: Zack Wheeler (RHP, 13-6, 3.61 ERA) vs. Frankie Montas*
All statistics are from the 2023 regular season.
*Montas did not pitch in 2023 due to injury but threw six scoreless innings against the Nationals on Opening Day.
