Brent Suter strikes out the side in Cincinnati Opening Day debut: What Larkin, Welsh said

Cincinnati Reds relief pitcher Brent Suter, a former Moeller High School standout, looked sharp in striking out the side in the top of the 8th inning of the Reds' win against the Washington Nationals on Opening Day at Great American Ball Park.

Suter added a second scoreless inning in the 9th, boosting his strikeout total to four.

Play-by-play announcer John Sadak mentioned during Bally Sports' Ohio broadcast that Suter is the seventh player from Moeller to appear in a Major League Baseball game for the Reds, joining Bally Sports analyst and National Baseball Hall of Famer Barry Larkin.

Reds manager David Bell, also a Moeller alumnus, played 12 MLB seasons but never for the Reds.

"It's a big deal here in Cincinnati, especially Moeller High School, to come out and don the colors of the organization you grew up watching and loving," Larkin said. "Very different pitching mechanics from the left side. He's just been a winner, and what a great, great man."

"He brings his own level of energy to the clubhouse," Welsh added. "Obviously a very bright guy. … He's an outlier even for a left-hander. Look how quickly he works."

"What makes that change-up so effective is how fast he works on the mound," Larkin said. "In his cadence, but mechanically, there's a lot of moving parts there. He muscles that change-up and allows that ball to just kind of roll in there at 75, 76 miles per hour."

"You know you have a good change-up when the hitter slows his swing down to try to make contact, and that's what just happened right there," Welsh added. "Suter was a 31st-round draft pick out of Harvard. You go back and you look at his college statistics. He was 2-6 with a 5.4 earned run average. I didn't know the Ivy League was that tough! It was easier for him to pitch in Colorado for the Rockies last year than it was in the Ivy League!"

Video of Suter's stellar Reds debut from Twitter/X:

Suter after the game, from @BallySportsCIN:

LOVE SPORTS? [ Subscribe now for unlimited access to Cincinnati.com ]

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Brent Suter strikes out side in Cincinnati Reds debut on Opening Day