Cincinnati Reds sweep Chicago White Sox behind Graham Ashcraft, stellar starting pitching
CHICAGO — Take it for what it’s worth after the Cincinnati Reds pitching staff bulldozed the dead-team-swinging Chicago White Sox, before finishing a six-game trip at pitcher-friendly T-Mobile Park in Seattle.
But maybe it’s worth asking three turns through the rotation: Do the Reds have the best pitching staff that nobody’s talking about?
“I’m not going there quite yet,” pitching coach Derek Johnson said even before Opening Day starter Frankie Montas took his fourth turn in Monday’s series opener against the Mariners in Seattle.
“I think we have some talent,” Johnson said. “But there’s still some things to prove. It’s just about sticking with our process – even though that sounds cliché it’s true –and seeing where we land as the season goes on.”
Fair enough. But with a mere 90 percent of the season left to play, the Reds’ rotation left Chicago – and the steaming rubble of the White Sox lineup – with a top-five starting rotation WAR in the majors, a 3.66 rotation ERA and an overall sub-4.00 staff ERA.
That included a pitching-led first-ever three-game sweep of the White Sox by the Reds over the weekend in which the Reds outscored the Sox 27-5.
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By the time Graham Ashcraft got through 5 2/3 innings to close out the sweep with an 11-4 victory Sunday, the three starters in the series had combined for 18 1/3 innings, allowing just two earned runs (0.98 ERA) and 10 hits – eight of them singles.
Ashcraft’s eight strikeouts pushed the three-game total for the starters to 21 with just three combined walks.
“They made my job easy,” said Christian Encarnacion-Strand, whose two-run homer jump-started a four-run third inning in Sunday’s series sweeper. “They all pitched well. They made the infield and the outfielders almost have days off it seemed like.”
Granted, the woeful White Sox rank last in the majors in runs and on-base percentage and have been shut out five times already.
But the starters’ performances in particular were no aberration, either. And the potential difference Nick Lodolo’s return could make for the rotation after the power lefty missed nearly a year because of a leg injury is hard to overstate.
In his first start in 343 days Saturday, he pitched five no-hit innings before allowing an infield single in the sixth, then exiting after retiring the next two batters. He struck out 10.
That followed Andrew Abbott’s seven-inning gem in Friday’s 11-1 win over the Sox.
“Those guys are definitely nasty,” said Nick Martini, who went 4-for-10 in the Sox sweep, including a two-run homer and run-scoring single Sunday. “To get Lodolo back – as you can see, he’s got incredible stuff – and Montas, Ashcraft. It’s definitely a lot better than people think.”
There’s not an All-Star among the starters. And the only All-Star selection on the entire staff belongs to Alexis Diaz, who’s not even the best pitcher in his family (although don’t try to convince him his brother Edwin is any better).
But they’re competitive deeper into the rotation than at least any other team in the National League Central, especially with Lodolo back. And when Ian Gibaut returns from the injured list in the next few days, who gets pushed off the active roster?
Reds officials continued to debate that through the weekend, even bringing some of the starters with minor-league options into the conversation. Good luck with an easy answer.
They’re not the star-studded, high-priced Yankees or Phillies, or even the pitching-centric Guardians.
But put it all together, and that’s what raises the original question: The best pitching staff nobody’s talking about?
“Let them think like that,” Frankie Montas said as he took his 2.16 start to the season into Seattle Monday night. “We just go out there and compete. We’re on the same page on that. We don’t really want that type of clout, we won’t want that type of recognition from the league or whatever.
“When you go out there and do what Nick did (Saturday), that was fun to watch,” Montas added. “We keep doing stuff like that, the way we pitch is going to speak for itself.”
Maybe it already has. Especially the starting pitching.
“We’ve talked about it being a strength now for a couple of years, and it’s getting better,” manager David Bell said. "We have young pitchers that continue to improve. We added Frankie and Nick (Martinez) to the mix (as free agents).
"And we have depth. But we also have a guy like Nick Lodolo coming back and Hunter (Greene) and Graham continuing to work to get better every time out. It’s coming together.”
Martinez moved to the bullpen after two starts with Lodolo’s return. He’s not out of the starting mix long-term. But the move for now means the current starting five’s collective ERA is 3.18 in 13 starts.
“I would never want to try to be too fantastic with any sort of projection of what we’re going to do or what we can do,” Johnson said. “I just know that we’re in the thick of it right now and we’re getting after it and inch by inch we’ve got to get better.”
Johnson’s been around too long to start daydreaming on possibilities in April. And the memory of scrambling daily to patch together a beat-to-hell rotation with nothing close to depth during a surprising pennant chase last summer is fresh.
But when Greene follows his best start of the season with his worst last time out and still gives the club six innings, that’s what Montas is talking about.
Same with Ashcraft, who struggled with his stuff Sunday but still found success enough to get through most of the sixth.
“A lot of us — all of us but one are really young — we’re starting to come into our own more and more each season, each game,” Ashcraft said, without exactly calling Montas, 31, old. “There’s still a lot for us to learn, and I feel like we’re starting to execute those things that we’re starting to pick up on. Part of the process is just carrying it out through the season each (start).”
And staying healthy. And weathering inevitable performance storms. And, yeah, there’s still 90 percent of the season to play.
“It’s still early in the season. We’re still working on things,” Montas said. “Just imagine when we’re in midseason form and we already know the way we’re going to attack hitters and the way our pitches are playing.
“Just imagine what we can do when all that is there.”
Game notes
When Elly De La Cruz went 0-for-5 on Sunday, his streak of consecutive games reaching base ended at 19. It was the second-longest active streak in the majors, trailing only Christian Yelich of the Milwaukee Brewers (23). … Martini’s home run off White Sox pitcher Tanner Banks Sunday was the lefty-hitting outfielder’s first career HR off a lefty (of 11 total). … The Reds were 10-23 against the White Sox all-time — and 2-8 against them in Chicago — until the weekend sweep. …It was the Reds’ first sweep against anybody since they took three straight from the Angels in Anaheim Aug. 22-24. “Every win means something,” Encarnacion-Strand said. “When we can sweep it’s a really good feeling for our team.”
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Do Cincinnati Reds have MLB's best pitching nobody's talking about?
