Watching Sal Stewart struggle for the first time as a big leaguer was rough. After ripping through the month of April and taking home National League Rookie of the Month honors, May greeted him with a dose of what happens when big league pitchers and coaches finally get to scout you in detail via big league video evidence.
Across 17 games from April 29th through May 16th, Sal collected just 10 hits in 67 AB, smashing nary a homer and striking out twice as often (16 times) as he walked. He hit just .149/.240/.224
in that span, and there’s no coincidence that the Cincinnati Reds hitting a skid coincided with that.
The last week, though, has seen a much needed resurgence. He entered play on Wednesday in Philadelphia having been on-base multiple times in four straight games, and then erupted for a 4 for 5 day that saw him double, swat a late 2-run homer to put the game on ice, and score 3 times in the Reds 9-4 win over the Phillies. That earns him today’s Joe Nuxhall Memorial Honorary Star of the Game award, and deservedly so.
Sal even turned in a good defensive performance at the hot corner, making an acrobatic catch over the rail along the Reds dugout on a pop fly. It’s as if the Reds had no need to go acquire a different 3B last July after all!
The win secured a series victory for the Reds and pushed them back to a pair of games over the .500 mark at 26-24, and the club wrapped their two-city road trip with a .500 record after dropping the first series to the Guardians in Cleveland.
Sal backed Andrew Abbott, who turned in another solid performance in a string that’s been much, much more akin to what we’d come to know about him prior to his own April slump. Abbott fired 5.1 IP and allowed just 3 hits and 2 runs (one earned), dodging some early control problems – he walked the first two batters he faced in the game and the first one scored – to pour in a 96 pitch outing the Reds sorely needed. Brock Burke ran into some trouble when he took over, yielding a 2-run dinger to Edmundo Sosa, but the rest of the bullpen effort was nails in the form of scoreless frames by Connor Phillips, Graham Ashcraft, and Sam Moll.
Nathaniel Lowe helped Sal carry the offensive load on the day, swatting a pair of doubles and driving in a trio. Blake Dunn, who started against a RHP in the outfield as TJ Friedl continues to sit, doubled and tripled and scored twice. Even PJ Higgins chipped in with a pair of RBI singles as the Reds breezed on a rare day where Elly De La Cruz (0 for 5, 3 K) was off his best.
The Reds have the day off on Thursday, and on Friday they’ll begin a home series against their NL Central rivals from St. Louis. Chris Paddack is scheduled to get his second start since joining the Reds in the series opener in Great American Ball Park Thursday evening, with first pitch slated for 6:40 PM ET.
