LOUISVILLE – Brandon Williamson has been promoted to Triple-A Louisville by the Cincinnati Reds. The Martin County West graduate had been with Double-A Chattanooga this season.
Williamson, who is listed at 6-foot-6, 210 pounds, had made 14 starts for the Lookouts.
He had a 5-2 record with a 4.14 earned run average. Williamson pitched 67 and one-third innings, allowing 31 runs on 61 hits, walking 40, hitting five and striking out 74. Opponents are hitting .242 vs. Williamson.
He came to the Reds organization as the centerpiece of a six-player trade Cincinnati made with the Seattle Mariners.
Williamson is rated as the No. 5 prospect in the Reds’ organization by Baseball America and No. 4 by MLB.com.
He was drafted by the Milwaukee Brewers in the 36th round of the 2018 MLB June Amateur Draft from North Iowa Area Community College and by Seattle in the second round of the 2019 MLB June Amateur Draft after a season at TCU.
Williamson spent 2019 with the High-A Everett AquaSox and then the 2020 minor league season was canceled due to the pandemic.
He split 2021 between Everett and the Double-A Arkansas Travelers.
The Louisville Bats play in the 10-team West Division of the International League. There are also 10 teams in the East Division.
Among the other teams in the West Division are the Iowa Cubs, the affiliate of the Chicago Cubs; and the St. Paul Saints, an affiliate of the Minnesota Twins.
Louisville plays in Des Moines Aug. 9-14 and St. Paul Sept. 13-18.
Williamson will be briefly be reunited with former TCU teammate and friend Nick Lodolo, who made his second rehab start with the Bats Wednesday. Lodolo had made three starts for Cincinnati and had a 1-2 record in three starts.
He’ll rejoin the Reds’ rotation after pitching four and two-third innings vs. the Toledo Mud Hens, allowing one run on six hits, striking out five.
Since 2019, Williamson and Lodolo have lived together in the offseason in Fort Worth.
Williamson is expected to make his first start for Louisville Saturday at the Toledo Mud Hens, an affiliate of the Detroit Tigers.
Martin County connection
There are now two Martin County products playing professional baseball about 90 minutes apart along I-64 E in Kentucky.
Fairmont graduate Luke Becker is an infielder with the Lexington-based Kentucky Wild Health Genomes of the independent Atlantic League.
On Sunday he hit for the cycle in a 7-6 loss in Lexington to the Charleston Dirty Birds. Becker homered in the first inning, doubled in the second, tripled in the fourth and singled in the seventh.
He had five runs batted in for the day and scored twice.
Becker leads the team in five categories. He’s first in home runs (11), RBI (40), runs scored (43), walks (27) and total bases (104).
He has a .296 batting average (59-199).