CINCINNATI — Hunter Greene knew his teammate needed a pick-me-up.
One out away from a feel-good Opening Day win over the Giants, Ian Gibaut had just surrendered a two-out game-tying single to Patrick Bailey and a tie-breaking three-run to Wilmer Flores.
Relievers usually are the ones picking up the starter at the end of the game. This time, Greene, after five solid innings, allowing two runs, three hits and striking out eight, felt the need and responsibility to do the same for Gibaut.
The Reds rallied against Ryan Walker in the ninth much like the Giants did against Gibaut, getting a run-scoring single from TJ Friedl with two outs. But Matt McLain’s fly ball landed just feet shy of a game-tying home run and the Reds fell, 6-4.
“Ian’s a dawg, and that’s what I told him,” Greene said. “I know people might not want to hear that, but people need to believe that, because he is the last couple years he’s been with us, he’s been in very tight situations, and he’s made it look easy getting out of them. This game is difficult. He wasn’t able to do that today, but he’s one of our best pitchers. So I know once again, people might not want to hear that. Fans might not want to hear it, but they need to believe it, because it is true.”
“It’s very tough. I have a great relationship with Ian, and it goes way beyond the baseball field. So I know how hard he works, you know? I know he wants to represent the city well. I know he wants to represent the organization well. And sometimes Matt comes down to one pitch, and we’re at the highest level. So just like how our pitchers are good, hitters are good, they work just as hard as us. So you know you don’t want them all. You wish you would have won it all or done well today, because it’s opening day. But it didn’t go that way. So we got to be able to turn the page and get back out there.”
Gibaut, who got burned on a four-seam fastball to Bailey and left an 85-mph sweeper up to Flores, appreciated the words of encouragement from Greene.
“Hunter pitched incredibly well, attacking the hitter, attacking the zone, incredibly well,” Gibaut said. “It was a first-pitch strike clinic, it seemed like. Everybody, one after another, did their job, and then (stuff) happens.”
Still, Greene felt the obligation to say something to Gibaut.
“Because I easily could not have done it and could have been selfish and stayed in my locker, but that’s not my character, and I wanted to know that I support him, and I look past what happened today, and I know the rest of the team feels that way about him,” Greene said.
Before the game, TJ Friedl told me what exactly Elly De La Cruz meant when he said Wednesday that the most important aspect to come out of spring training was “better communication in the clubhouse.”
Sometimes it means talking to a teammate about playing the game the right way, making the right play at the right time. Sometimes, like Greene showed after Thursday’s game, it means taking a teammate aside and just giving them words of comfort and confidence, propping them up when they need it the most.
“It’s a little bit of both. I think it’s a lot of that, I think plays into the accountability that we talked about in spring training,” Friedl said. “And I think a lot of it is just like us as players, holding each other accountable through communication, like through just talking to each other. We have to be there for one another. I mean, this is the longest season in any professional sport, right? So this is something that we need to be there for. We go through this stuff every day together. So we need to be there for each other, to talk to, to lean on, to count on, things like that. So I think all that comes in with the communication.”
Friedl is another well-respected leader in the clubhouse, and words like that demonstrate it. Friedl wenbt 2-for-5 Thursday in the opener. As a leadoff hitter, he sets the table for the lineup and clearly shows he can do likewise in the clubhouse.
“It’s nothing personal, but if there is something that you have to say to somebody, pull them aside and say it to them,” Friedl continued. “There’s a way to do things right. There’s a right and wrong way to do things. And that’s something that’s obviously known. But I think that’s also part of it, is having that open communication, to have that dialog and just bring things up, talk about it, and then get over it. I think that’s a big part of the game. It’s gonna happen. There’s highs and lows to every team, but I think as long as you communicate as an open book, that’s how successful teams stay together.”
Asked if he was concerned that one game like Thursday could be deflating, skipper Terry Francona scoffed at the notion.
“Oh, it better not deflate us too much,” Francona said. “It’s no fun losing (in) any way. Losing late is hard. If that’s too much for us, I got the wrong read on our guys.”
Greene agreed with his skipper’s assessment.
“Just being able to learn from it. We’re gonna all watch our film,” Greene said. “I know the hitters are gonna watch their at-bats. I’m definitely watching my film (right away), and I know the rest of the relievers are gonna watch their film. And that’s part of us being professionals. And I’m trying to figure it out and continue to learn and build and not make the same mistakes. So, I believe that’s how we’re going to do it.”
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