C. Notes: Reds relievers are on fumes as they try to hang in for key stretch

During his postgame interview on Sunday, Reds manager David Bell was answering a question and noted, “our bullpen’s pitched a lot.”

Even though starter Graham Ashcraft worked into the seventh inning on Sunday, he had to turn it over to Ian Gibaut, making his 60th appearance of the season.

Gibaut, 29, had made 61 big-league appearances in his career before 2023. The next time he pitches, he’ll have doubled his career appearances in this season alone. His 60 appearances are the second-most in the National League.

And it’s not just Gibaut. Alexis Díaz has pitched in 58 games, as has Buck Farmer. Lefty Alex Young, now on the injured list, has appeared in 57 games.

Like Gibaut, Díaz will reach double his career appearances in his next outing, appearing in 59 games as a rookie last year. Farmer, 32, is the odd man out for not matching his career total coming into the season. He actually has two seasons with more appearances.

All of that said, the use seems to be catching up with the Reds.

On the last day of July, Díaz picked up his 32nd save of the season, retiring all three Cubs he faced on a total of nine pitches. He gave up three runs in his next outing when Bell tried to extend him into the 10th inning, as the Reds lost to the Nationals.

Since then, he has merely been good, as opposed to superhuman.

Digging into his numbers, hitters are making better contact (92 mph average exit velocity in August versus 89.6 mph leading up to it). He’s allowed as many homers (two) this month as he did in the other four and more importantly, he’s throwing fewer strikes. In the first four months of the season, 61.2 percent of the pitches he threw were for strikes. In August, it was 53.9 percent. His strikeout rate has gone down from 12.93 per nine innings to 8.68 per nine. His walk rate has increased from 3.8 per nine innings before August to 6.75 per nine this month.

The Reds do have a day off to rest on Thursday, but Friday’s doubleheader will be the second in two weeks for a team that’s already tired.

August’s schedule was a gantlet and that will continue into early September, with a series in San Francisco against the Giants and then a homestand starting with the Cubs, who now sit ahead of the Reds in the standings, and the surging Seattle Mariners, now leading the American League West.

After that, though, the Reds have just three games the rest of the way against teams with a winning record: a home series against the Twins.

That’s a good thing. But the Reds have to get there first and that’s going to be tough if they can’t finish off games.

Tiebreaker in hand

Although the Reds did lose the four-game series in Phoenix against the Diamondbacks, winning one of the four games there secured a tiebreaker over Arizona thanks to the sweep the Reds recorded at Great American Ball Park earlier this season.

It’s important to remember that there are no longer tiebreaker games; instead, ties are broken by regular season performances.

The first tiebreaker is head-to-head record between tied teams.

The Reds have the tiebreaker against the Diamondbacks and lose the tiebreakers to the Brewers and Phillies.

The Reds split a four-game series with the Giants in Cincinnati, so the winner of the three-game series in San Francisco will get that tiebreaker.

Later this week, the tiebreaker with the Cubs will be determined. The two teams play four games at home and the Reds are currently 5-4 against the Cubs.

The Reds split six games with the Marlins, so it would go to the team’s intra-division record. If that’s the same, it goes to the inter-division record, the games in the league but out of the division.

The Reds are currently 16-23 against the NL Central with 13 games remaining against division teams — four against the Cubs, six against the Cardinals and three against the Pirates.

The Marlins are 15-21 in the NL East.

Rookie of the Year watch

Matt McLain has 14 stolen bases in the majors after swiping 10 bags in Triple A. (Katie Stratman / USA TODAY)

While the Reds have several Rookie of the Year candidates, the team got another up-close look at the favorite for the award in the National League in the Diamondbacks’ Corbin Carroll.

In the series at Chase Field, the 23-year-old Corbin went 6-for-12 with two triples, a homer and a double, as well as a pair of stolen bases. He also walked five times and struck out just two.

On the season, Corbin is hitting .281/.364/.520. But he has struggled (this past series excluded) in the second half, hitting .264/.360/.457 in the second half after hitting .289/.366/.549 in the first half.

Not only has that dropped him from the MVP conversation, but it’s also helped push Reds rookie Matt McLain into the conversation for the award for the league’s best rookie.

McLain is hitting .290/.357/.507 with 16 homers and 14 stolen bases. That’s not good enough to take the award from Carroll, but it’s still good.

The award is really Carroll’s to lose, and he’s a heck of a talent, as the Reds saw this week. Elly De La Cruz, Spencer Steer and Andrew Abbott will likely garner votes for the award, along with the Dodgers’ James Outman and Bobby Miller.

Sunday, Carroll stole his 40th base of the season, making him the fourth rookie to record 20 home runs and 40 steals.

Of the other three, two won the Rookie of the Year. Tommy Agee won the 1966 American League Rookie of the Year while a member of the White Sox, hitting 22 homers and stealing 44 bases. In 2012, Mike Trout had 30 homers and 49 steals, the most in baseball that year. Trout won the Rookie of the Year in the AL that year and finished second in MVP voting to triple-crown winner Miguel Cabrera. In 1977, the A’s Mitchell Page finished second in voting to Hall of Famer Eddie Murray, hitting 21 homers and stealing 42 bases.

The week that was

The good feelings of the sweep in Anaheim were mitigated by losing three of four in Arizona. Overall, the Reds still have a winning record so far on this trip, but they were supposed to beat the Angels and had a chance to separate themselves from the Diamondbacks in the wild-card race, but now sit 1 1/2 games behind Arizona for the third wild card.

The week ahead

This may be the most important week of the season, with three games in San Francisco against the Giants and four at home against the Cubs. Those two teams are in the playoff hunt with the Reds, with the Cubs in sole possession of the second wild card at the moment and the Reds and Giants looking up at the Diamondbacks for the last one.

Injury Updates

• LHP Nick Lodolo (left tibia stress reaction) returned from his rehab assignment after an MRI showed a recurrence of the stress reaction in his left tibia. He is scheduled to get a second opinion soon.

• RHP Tejay Antone (right elbow flexor strain) agreed to an extension to his rehab stint recently. He pitched three more times this week and didn’t allow a run in any of the three appearances and notched a strikeout in each. He hasn’t allowed a run in any of his past five appearances, including his back-to-back outings on Aug. 18 and 19. He is expected to return soon.

• C Curt Casali (left foot contusion) was returned from his rehab assignment earlier this week due to illness.

• RHP Justin Dunn (right shoulder strain) pitched an inning for Louisville on Tuesday but was returned from his assignment with a setback following the one-inning outing. He threw 20 pitches, gave up a homer and walked a batter in that inning.

• OF Stuart Fairchild (concussion) played at Louisville this weekend, picking up a single in five at-bats with a walk and a strikeout. He is eligible to return from the IL on Monday.

• OF Jake Fraley (stress fracture in left fourth toe) is expected to join Louisville for a pair of rehab games before returning later this week.

• LHP Alex Young (left hamstring tightness) is eligible to come off the IL on Sept. 9.

• IF Jonathan India (left foot plantar fasciitis) took batting practice in Anaheim, Calif., and worked out at the team’s spring training complex in Goodyear, Ariz., while the Reds were in Arizona.

• 1B Joey Votto (left shoulder strain) is eligible to return from the IL on Sept. 3.

Minor League Roundup

• Tripe-A Louisville (65-59): SS Jose Barrero had a pair of homers and a double for 10 total bases Wednesday against Toledo. This month he’s hitting .289/.311/.614 with six homers with 20 RBIs. He did have just two walks and 29 strikeouts in the month. On the season he’s hitting .271/.331/.562 at Triple A.

• Double-A Chattanooga (65-54): RHP Carson Spiers is 4-1 with a 3.00 ERA since the start of July. Sunday he allowed two runs on two hits with two walks and eight strikeouts. Over the past two months he has 65 strikeouts and 20 walks in 48 innings pitched. On the season, the 25-year-old out of Clemson is 8-3 with a 3.69 ERA. Spiers was signed as a free agent in 2020 when the draft was limited to five rounds.

• High-A Dayton (60-60): OF Hector Rodríguez was promoted to Dayton at the beginning of the week. He had hits in two of his three games after the promotion and went 2-for-10 overall with a double and an RBI. He hasn’t walked or struck out at the higher level. In Daytona, the 19-year-old left-handed hitter hit .293/.347/.510 with 16 homers and 18 stolen bases.

• Class A Daytona (51-66): OF Ethan O’Donnell, a sixth-round pick of Virginia in last month’s draft, was hitless in his first four games at Daytona, but since then has hits in nine of his past 11 games, including multiple hits in four of his five games in last week’s series against Ft. Myers. In 12 games at the level, he’s 13-for-42 (.310) with two doubles and a triple.

(Top photo of Alexis Díaz: Albert Cesare / Cincinnati Enquirer / USA TODAY)