The Cincinnati Reds have a stable of young pitchers in their rotation, and after Andrew Abbott started the series opener, it’s 25-year-old Hunter Greene’s turn against the Colorado Rockies on Saturday afternoon in Denver.
Greene (2-2, 2.35 ERA) will face Colorado’s Antonio Senzatela (1-3, 4.81) in a battle of right-handers.
Greene has been aggressive in his approach this season. According to The Athletic, he has thrown more pitches in the strike zone than any hurler other than Shota Imanaga of the Chicago Cubs.
“I think he realizes him being fearless in the zone, it’s still going to produce good results,” Reds pitching coach Derek Johnson told The Athletic. “It’s like everything else we’ve ever talked about with him — there’s just been a growth. He’s continuing to show that.”
Sometimes the aggressive approach backfires. Greene had a stretch in which he didn’t allow a run for 18 2/3 innings before the first two batters he faced at Baltimore homered last Saturday. Greene wound up surrendering five runs and six hits in three innings of a 9-5 loss.
But that effort won’t deter him, and his manager doesn’t have a problem with that.
“If I had his stuff, I’d attack, too,” Reds manager Terry Francona said recently.
Greene will face the Rockies for the fourth time in his career and third time at Coors Field. In his previous three starts against them, he is 1-1 with a 6.91 ERA, and he is 0-1 with a 10.80 ERA in his starts in Colorado.
The Rockies are trying to dig out of a historically bad start that has included a franchise-tying 13 straight road losses. Things haven’t been much better at home, where they fell to 3-7 after Friday night’s 8-7 loss to Cincinnati.
Senzatela is one of two Colorado starters to record a victory this season, and his came Sunday in the nightcap of a split doubleheader against the Washington Nationals. It was his first win since 2022 and prevented a sweep by Washington.
Senzatela has made five starts against the Reds in his career, going 2-1 with a 5.76 ERA.
The Rockies haven’t given their pitchers much run support, but there are signs the bats are coming around since Clint Hurdle took over as the hitting coach last week. They have 32 runs in the last seven games.
Outfielder Jordan Beck has been one of the catalysts in the offense with five home runs over the last three games. In just 14 games this season, he has topped his total in 55 games in 2024.
Three of those homers came Thursday in the doubleheader at Kansas City. He went deep twice Friday night, the second straight game with two home runs.
“It was good to see Jordan turn on a fastball — something that we’ve tried to get him aware of, and not guess on pitches,” Rockies manager Bud Black said. “All major league hitters have to be able to hit the fastball, because you get exposed awful quickly (if you can’t). That’s what’s happening to our young hitters over the last month or so.”
–Field Level Media
