It was unheard of not that long ago
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A manager begins a game not with a starting pitcher but a reliever — and with more relievers to follow.
Cubs manager Joe Maddon, certainly not a stranger to taking a risk, tried it Saturday with poor results against a suddenly hot team that’s not playing like a last-place club.
Don’t look for him to make the same mistake Sunday.
Maddon will run out one of his regular starters, right-hander Tyler Chatwood (3-5), at Great American Ball Park to try to avoid a four-game sweep by the Cincinnati Reds, who are playing nothing like the tail-ending team they’ve been all season.
The Reds mounted their second six-game win streak of the year — the first time they’ve done that since 2012 — by making quick work of the Cubs’ starter-by-committee plans Saturday during an 11-2 victory keyed by the pitching of right-hander Anthony DeSclafani.
And, remarkably, keyed by the hitting of DeSclafani, who hit the Reds’ seventh grand slam in 33 days and their third of the week, but the first by a Cincinnati pitcher since Bob Purkey against the Cubs on Aug. 1, 1959.
DeSclafani (3-1) posted his third win in a row while giving up two runs and three hits in 6 1/3 innings.
Cubs reliever-turned-starter Luke Farrell (2-3) was long gone by then, having been lifted with only a 2-1 deficit and two outs in the third inning. The Reds went on to score eight more runs against the Cubs’ bullpen — and catcher Chris Gimenez, who pitched the eighth inning.
DeSclafani’s shot came with two outs in the third inning against left-hander Brian Duensing
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“All in all, I was trying to hit the ball hard somewhere and not strike out,” said DeSclafani, who came into the game with a .138 career batting average. “I knew a fastball was coming and I tried to square it up, and it happened to go out. … It was awesome. It all happened so quick.”
And slowly the Reds, once 8-27, are starting to play the way they expected when the season started. They’ve won nine of 11 and are 5-0 on their current six-game homestand.
“When you get down in the standings, it can be deflating,” said Reds interim manager Jim Riggleman, who replaced Bryan Price during the terrible start. “But they kept coming to the ballpark and working hard, and now we’re getting closer to respectability in the standings, though we’re not there yet.”
The Cubs’ domination of the Reds is disappearing, too – going into the series
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“We’re playing clean baseball — we’ve run the bases, made plays … are getting timely hits,” Riggleman said. “We have a nice string of well-played games.”
This probably isn’t encouraging to the Cubs’ faithful, either. Chatwood is 0-4 with a 4.18 ERA in five career appearances against the Reds. He has walked 63 batters in 68 1/3 innings this season.
Despite Chatwood’s lack of success against the Reds, only Joey Votto (2-for-10, .200) has double-digit at-bats against him.
Chatwood opposes right-hander Sal Romano (4-7), who is coming off his best start of the season — seven shutout innings against the Detroit Tigers on Tuesday. Romano gave up four hits and struck out six despite walking four in a 9-5 Reds victory in which the Tigers scored all of their runs in the ninth inning.
Romano’s last start against the Cubs wasn’t a good one. He surrendered seven runs and six hits in five innings of a 10-0 Chicago victory on May 19. He is 0-1 against them in two career games.
Maddon gave Kris Bryant the day off Saturday after he went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts in the Reds’ 6-3 win Friday as he tries to get some of the slumping hitters going. Bryant is likely to be in the lineup Sunday against Romano.
“We’ve got to get (Willson) Contreras going, we’ve got to get KB (Bryant) and (Anthony Rizzo) going,” Maddon said. “I mean, these were our primary offensive weapons last year, and they really haven’t hit their stride yet.”
Panthers coach Ron Rivera may have figured out the only way to avoid injuries to key players in training camp.
”Not practice,” Rivera said after Wednesday’s practice.
The Panthers are less than a week into training camp but have already lost two key players to potential season-ending injuries.
Right tackle Daryl Williams, a second-team All-Pro last season
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The Panthers aren’t the only team hurting.
The Green Bay Packers have lost inside linebacker Jake Ryan and safety Kentrell Brice to severe leg injuries, while Los Angeles Chargers cornerback Jason Verrett also went down. Other teams have lost important players to injuries, too.
It’s nothing new, of course.
Injuries happen every year in training camp, a reminder of the fine line coaches must walk between preparing their team for the physicality of the regular season and avoiding injuries to key players that can derail a season.
”If you look at what happened (with our injuries) the truth of the matter is there is nothing you can do about it,” Rivera said. ”That was a freak injury for Ross where the receiver was falling to the ground and he happened to step into it and got rolled up. Daryl was kick-sliding and turned his ankle and came down on it.”
Rivera said injuries are the ”unfortunate nature of this game.”
Still, as a coach he is always looking for ways to prevent them, constantly telling players to ”be smart” on the field.
He did that prior to Wednesday morning’s practice on a slick field at Wofford College following overnight rain.
”I told the defensive backs and the linebackers, `Hey, let’s be smart about the receivers crossing because we don’t want to catch anybody in a bad spot,” Rivera said.
Some injuries can be prevented.
That’s why Rivera and his assistants were unhappy with rookie safety Rashaan Gaulden earlier this week he knocked wide receiver Jarius Wright to the ground in the back of the end zone with a vicious blow to the upper body – one that might have collected a fine from the league had it happened in a game situation. Wright remained on the ground for almost a minute before getting up.
He returned to practice a short while later.
Panthers wide receiver Devin Funchess immediately yelled at Gaulden after the play, saying ”that’s what we talked about – you have to know better.”
Coaches later called Gaulden aside to reprimand him.
”Hey
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Overall, Panthers left Matt Kalil said that ”sometimes you just can’t control” injuries.
”You want to play aggressive out here and you want to go full speed and get a game-time simulation,” Kalil said. ”We want to be smart. I think what we can do as veterans, and as players, is we have a guy who is about to fall we want to keep him up and keep him off the ground. But it’s hard because there are a lot of guys flying around out here.”
Panthers cornerback James Bradberry said there is a contact on every play.
”It’s very tough because one of the key components of making a Super Bowl run is having everybody healthy. And when you have prominent guys go down, it’s tough,” Bradberry said. ”You’ve just got to have that next-man-up mentality. And that’s what we have here.”
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