Reds Bullpen Finished What It Started on Saturday

It was Chase Petty’s turn to take over for Hunter Greene in the rotation.

Greene, who is throwing a side of the mound Sunday morning, is nursing a right groin strain.

Petty, 22, spent the week in Cincinnati after walking six Houston Astros hitters in his last start. He is working extensively on the side with Reds’ pitching coach Derek Johnson.

The Reds decided to go with Brent Suter as an opener in the 4-1 win over the Cleveland Guardians. The idea was to turn the bulk of the innings over to Petty.

It didn’t work out that way. Johnson and manager Terry Francona decided to go inning by inning. The result was the Reds bullpen started and finished the game.

The reason for using an opener was a balanced decision.

"We're trying to balance getting a win and taking care of Petty," Francona said. "Anything he experiences now will help him. He's an amped up kid anyway. We don't want to take that away from him. Like I explained, we're trying to balance. No one has a crystal ball. We do the best we can."

Suter was super efficient and completed three innings with 47 pitches, allowing four hits, two of them infield hits, and no walks. He struck out one.

Lyon Richardson followed with two innings. He gave up a leadoff home run to Daniel Schneemann to open the fifth, but nothing else. It sent Richardson’s ERA from 0.84 to start the game to 1.54.

Will Benson tied the game with a home run leading off the bottom of the fifth.

"Once Will tied the game, we were so invested in the bullpen, and we won. You'd hate to lose a game like that," Francona said. “Normally on a night like that, you have to be careful, but no one got fried," Francona said. "DJ (pitching coach Derek Johnson) and I talked before the game. We decided we were going to go inning by inning and keep taking the temperature."

Luis Mey picked up his first career win with one scoreless inning. No one was happier for Mey than Suter.

“He’s my guy,” Suter said. “We stand next to each other during every National Anthem. I’m excited for him.”

Graham Ashcraft, Tony Santillan, and Emilio Pagan, who collected his 11th save, allowed a total of one hit over the last three innings.

“We will have to stay away from Suter and Richardson, but Petty will be in the bullpen,” Francona said on Sunday morning.

As of the end of last night's game, the ERAs owned by the Reds' bullpen are as follows.

Suter 1.82

Richardson 1.54

Mey 1.08

Ashcraft 2.35

Santillan 1.57

Pagán 3.68 with 11 saves in 14 chances.