Reds Beat: Brandon Williamson ‘Fills it up’ in 4 Scoreless, Matt McLain Continues His Spring Tear with 6th HR, Connor Phillips Shines

PEORIA, Ariz. — Brandon Williamson is doing his best to make it impossible for Terry Francona to leave him out of the Reds’ rotation to start the season.

The left-hander took another big step Sunday with four scoreless innings, allowing just two hits, striking out four and walking one in Cincinnati’s 6-3 loss to the Mariners before 9,223 at the Peoria Sports Complex.

Williamson’s best work might have come in the first inning when the first two batters reached on a Brendan Donovan single and a walk to Randy Arozarena. Luke Raley popped out to short, Rob Refsnyder lined out to right and Cole Young grounded out to first. From that point, Williamson retired nine of the final 10 batters he faced, including the side in order in the second and his final inning – the fourth. Williamson continued what has been a strong spring for the Reds on Sunday.

“I filled it up,” Williamson said of his six-pitch mix. “Early on, I was trying to figure out the change up and kind of the slider too. I felt like later as the game went on, I got a little more crisp with those things.”

The jam in the first inning was something he prepared for in pre-game.

“I had worked quite a bit in my stretch to kind of accommodate that,” Williamson said of his pregame bullpen. “It’s harder to go right into the stretch and then first inning, you’re just in it right away, but I thought it was good spring outing.”

“The first two guys got on and then he kind of locked it in and really pitched well, that was fun to watch,” skipper Terry Francona said. “Every time he gets further into a game or further, however, you want to say it, like I said, it’s been 15 months, he’s crossing hurdles, and there’s going to be a lot of them, but he’s bouncing back. (Pitching coach Derek Johnson) said, his sides have been good. He’s doing a good job.”

In four spring appearances, including two starts, Williamson is 1-0 with a 1.64 ERA. In 11 innings, he’s allowed just six hits, two runs, striking out 13 and walking two, with a 0.73 WHIP. On Sunday, he mixed in all six pitches, a true sign that he bearing down for the start of the season in the rotation.

“I feel real good,” Williamson said. “Every game I’ve went out and just tried to fill it up, kind of take results out of it. I felt like my process has been really good through them all, and that’s kind of helped me get better results. … I throw a lot of pitches right. If I can get those five, six pitches over the plate, even if I’m not, totally juiced up throwing as hard as I possibly can that day, I feel like I can get a job done. I feel like that was kind of a product of what happened today.”

On the offensive side, Matt McLain continues to tear it up. He went 2-for-3 with a solo homer to get the Reds on the board in the third. It was his sixth of spring, the most by a Red since Adam Duvall had six in 2017. He drove a George Kirby pitch to the berm in left-center. He is batting .553 and slashing .553/.605/1.105 in 13 games.

“I can’t believe that ball went out,” Francona said. “That ball looked like he had to go down and away. And he’s as s–t, man.”

Francona joked before Sunday’s game when asked about McLain and the offense in general, “Want him to have .600 instead of .500. I mean, with the whole group, you want them feeling as good as they can about themselves. There’s a couple guys really swinging, a couple guys really not, and some guys in the middle. But, I mean, you can see, like by design, nobody’s played nine innings, but they played back to back to back. They can try to start to get some timing and some rhythm, and that’s and also have their legs be heavy enough where we don’t have to play catch up the last this last week.”

Connor Phillips struck out all three batters he faced in the seventh for a perfect inning.

“Real good inning. I was really happy to see that when he was he threw that some fastballs here with life through the zone. I love that,” Francona said.

It was not as pretty for veteran reliever Pierce Johnson, who retired just one batter, allowing five runs on three hits and two walks. All five batters who reached scored. But Francona wasn’t sounding any alarm bells afterward.

“Actually, the (pitches against) the first hitter were really good,” Francona said of Johnson, who retired the first batter on a flyout. “He ended up going full count, lost the guy on a breaking ball, and then it just got away. His stuff has been as consistent as anybody we’ve had all spring.”

Brock Burke allowed two hits, a run and a walk and struck out one in his inning of work in the sixth.

Francona Sunday Morning:
* On Tejay Antone to minors: “We kind of told him … it was so intriguing watching him pitch and I don’t think it’s unfair for us to want him to go to Triple-A and kind of get inside the groove of a grind and how you bounce him back and and I think he understood that. There’s always going to be some disappointment. And I don’t want to speak for him, because the guys are week from (Opening Day). But I tried to remind him, like everything you’ve been through, enjoy competing and pitching, because he has done a terrific job. And I think his better days are ahead of him… So just tried to remind him of that.”

* Noelvi Marte in CF Sunday in Peoria against Mariners “We’re not trying to re-invent the wheel. We’re just trying to cover options and as and doing it here, if it just seems to make sense to me, where all of a sudden, if you’re in April, May, if something happens and you’re like, damn, I wish I had done that. That’s all. That’s what it is.” Marte handled both fly balls cleanly and chased a gap double and threw back to the relay man accurately.

* JJ Bleday and Dane Myers: “Dane is going to be a good defender wherever you put him. JJ, will stay on the corners. I know he’s played center, but we have guys that we would put there ahead of him. JJ has had a couple miscues. I think he can be a quality defender. Dane, I think is going to be above average wherever you put him out there and he throws. They both throw really well, which is good in today’s game, you don’t always see that.”

* Preference on Sal Stewart is to keep him at first and let Geno Suarez play third as a back-up to Ke’Bryan Hayes when Hayes isn’t in the lineup.