Stating his case
Williamson making bid for spot in Reds’ rotation
With one week to go before the Cincinnati Reds break Spring Training in Arizona, Brandon Williamson made another strong statement in his push for a spot in the Reds’ starting rotation on Sunday in Peoria, Ariz.
He pitched four shutout innings vs. the Seattle Mariners at Peoria Stadium. He allowed two hits, walked one and struck out four.
Seattle drafted Williamson in the second round of the 2019 MLB June Amateur Draft. The Mariners sent Williamson to Cincinnati in March of 2022.
The Reds led 2-0 when Williamson left the game, but the Seattle came back to win 6-3.
Pat Brennan of the Cincinnati Enquirer reported that Williamson called Sunday’s performance “a good spring outing” as he ran his streak of consecutive scoreless innings in Cactus League play to seven.
Williamson appears to be one of three pitchers competing for two starting rotation spots. He felt good about his case after Sunday’s outing where he threw 63 pitches, 41 for strikes.
“I feel real good,” the Martin County West graduate told Brennan. “Every game I went out, I’ve just tried to fill it up. Kind of take results out of it, I felt like my process has been really good through them all, and that’s kind of helped me getting better results.
“I throw a lot of pitches, right? If I can get those five, six pitches over the plate, even if I’m not totally juiced up throwing as hard as I possibly can that day, I feel like I can get a job done.”
Brennan wrote that against the Mariners on Sunday it wasn’t who he faced or what the box score read after Williamson’s outing as much as how he looked, and how he’s progressed this spring.
He pitched out of the stretch with runners aboard and worked out of trouble in the first inning. Then, he retired nine of the last 10 Mariners he faced over his final three innings.
Brennan wrote that it was an ideal spring outing. The right amount of adversity provided him with a manageable amount of stress, and he managed it prior to essentially shutting the door on Seattle.
Reds manager Terry Francona said Williamson has been looking good.
“Every time he gets further into a game or further, however you want to say it, like I said, it’s been 15 months (for Williamson),” said Francona, who in his second season in Cincinnati. “He’s crossing hurdles and there’s going to be a lot of them. But he’s bouncing back. ‘D.J.’‘s (Derek Johnson) said his sides (bullpens) were good and he’s doing a good job.”
The Reds have nine games remaining before Opening Day, but a decision on the rotation will have to come soon.
“The first two guys got on (on the first inning) and he kind of locked it in,” said Francona. “That was fun to watch.”
For the spring, Williamson has a 1-0 record with a 1.64 earned run average. In 11 innings he’s allowed two runs, six hits, walked two and struck out 13.
Opening Day for the Reds is Thursday, March 26 at home vs. the Boston Red Sox.