Brady Singer And Chase Burns Face Giants

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Dateline: Goodyear, Arizona

The Reds have their second split-squad day this week. On Sunday they played the Arizona Diamondbacks at Goodyear and the San Diego Padres in Peoria. 

Today Friday the 13th, the Reds and Giants both split up. With Chase Burns taking them on in Scottsdale at 4:00 pm. Brady Singer will challenge the other half at Goodyear Ballpark at 6:05 MT. Three hours later Eastern Time.

Singer has been around the block and knows this already but Terry Francona wants to see Burns pound the strike. Burns is competing for one of the two openings in the Reds' starting rotation. 

Singer is already scheduled to pitch the third game of the opening series with the Boston Red Sox on March 29. Whoever wins the last two spots, Burns, Rhett Lowder or Brandon Williamson will likely get the first two games against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Burns is scheduled to pitch four innings as all of them are in this round of starts. The same for Singer, who worked on his stuff on the back fields early in the Cactus League.

Burns has pitched in three games, totalling eight innings. He has allowed five earned runs on six hits so far. His struggle has been with the strike zone with six walks. On the flip side, he struck out 11.

Singer started two games. He pitched five innings, allowing five runs on nine hits. He's walked four and struck out four.

"It's not just with Burns but all of our pitchers, I want to see them working ahead. It's easy to say no walks, just pound the zone. Things usually have a way of working out pretty good when you do that. Especially with his (Burn's) stuff. Just pound the zone. All of a sudden even not your best breaking ball becomes a pretty good one because they are in a defensive mode. So just work ahead."

Brandon Williamson appears to be all the way back from UCL reconstruction surgery from October 9, 2024. Still just 27, he has been in three games, pitching seven innings, allowing two runs on four hits and a walk, while striking out nine.

"He has a five pitch mix," Francona said. "His breaking ball is very slow but it spins tight. He has mid 90's velocity at times. He is a 6'6" lefty. I love that. I think our biggest challenge and probably his too is getting on a five day, schedule because coming off a surgery like that you're going to feel really good at times but it will be trying to navigate that. It's not his fault. He's done a great job. We have to look out for his best interests also. There is a lot to like."

The lineup for the 4:00 pm game in Scottsdale is:

TJ Friedl CF

Matt McLain SS

Will Benson LF

Nathaniel Lowe 1B

JJ Bleday RF

Jose Trevino C

Garrett Hampson 2B

Tyson Lewis DH

The lineup for the 6:05 game at Goodyear is:

Blake Dunn  RF

Spencer Steer 2B

Elly De La Cruz SS

Sal Stewart 1B

Tyler Stephenson C

Noelvi Marte CF

Ke'Bryan Hayes 3B

Hector Rodriguez LF

Alfredo Duno DH

McLain is slashing .581/.639/1.097 with five home runs. He had an off night against the Dodgers on Thursday when he was 1-for-3 dropping all those numbers slightly. McLain is getting some repetitions at shortstop. Spencer Steer played right field against the Dodgers but will play second base today. 

LHP Carson Whisenhunt will pitch in Goodyear for the Giants. RHP Landen Roupp will pitch for the Giants in Scottsdale.