The Reds move forward in decent shape after Speedway Classic debacle
CHICAGO — The Cincinnati Reds took the field on Monday to face the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field, where there were plenty of hot dog buns and hamburgers available. The air conditioning in the clubhouse was also set to a normal temperature.
The Reds have survived the Speedway Classic, and the bullpen is in good enough shape entering this week’s series against the Cubs.
“We have everybody available today except for Suter,” Terry Francona said. “We’re ok. We tried to really monitor that yesterday. We deal with that all year. It’s nothing new. You never want to get to a point in your bullpen where it backs up on you. That’s hard to get out of.”
The rain delay debacle on Saturday that wasted a potential start from Chase Burns hurt the Reds on Sunday when the game resumed, but it also could have been worse without a rule change that was agreed to late Saturday night.
On Saturday night, Francona and Braves manager Brian Snitker discussed protocol for the game’s resumption on Sunday.
Snitker had a question for everyone in the room.
For special events, MLB allows each team to add one player to the active roster for the day. For example, the Reds added Chuckie Robinson to the roster for the Field of Dreams Game in 2022. On Saturday, the Reds brought TJ Friedl back from the paternity list and technically made him their 27th man.
But the rule states that in these events, that 27th man has to be a position player and can’t be a pitcher.
“Who said it had to be a position player?” Snitker asked.
“Nobody knew,” Francona remembers.
Francona said in that room, “We may not be able to finish this game tomorrow” without another pitcher.
According to Francona, commissioner Rob Manfred said, “We’ll change that.”
On Monday, Francona credited Manfred for making that much-needed call.
“I cornered him when we left and said, ‘Tell me you’re serious now because I didn’t want him to wiggle out of it,’” Francona said. “He said, ‘It’s the least I could do.’ He was actually pretty cool.”
The Reds then appointed Lyon Richardson as their 27th man, but he had to actually get to Bristol. Manfred offered his private plane, which Richardson boarded in order to arrive at the game with time to space. Richardson went on to pitch two scoreless innings in the 4-2 loss.
The Braves, because of how their pitching plans happened to be lined up before the unexpected circumstances on Saturday, had the flexibility to add a starting pitcher to their roster. That pitcher was a starting pitcher, and Hurston Waldrep allowed just one run in 5 ⅔ innings.
“(The extra pitcher) helped,” Francona said. “It helped them maybe more than us. But it got us through the game.”
On Monday, Francona had one idea for how MLB could handle these events going forward: Play two games in three days instead of having it be a one-off.
“Maybe make it a series or two games in three days so if there’s rain, that would probably help that,” Francona said. “But there’s so much I don’t know if someone lose a (whole home) series. I don’t understand all that.”