Sunday, March 10, 2002
Hamilton makes pitch for No. 1
By John Fay jfay@enquirer.com
The Cincinnati Enquirer
SARASOTA, Fla. — If Opening Day was Monday and not April1, there'd be little question about who the starting pitcher would be.
Joey Hamilton turned in another sparkling outing in the Reds' 6-1 victory over the Minnesota Twins at Ed Smith Stadium Saturday.
He went four innings. He allowed one run on three hits. He walked none and struck out five.
Hamilton has allowed only one run in nine innings this spring.
“When you come into spring with a job guaranteed, the numbers don't mean a lot,” Hamilton said. “When you're in a situation like mine — trying to win a spot — they mean a hell of a lot.”
Hamilton, a 31-year-old right-hander, threw only 53 pitches. Other than the 3-0 fastball Jacque Joneshit out for a homer, they were all pretty good.
“I was really impressed,” Reds manager Bob Boone said. “That's a big-league effort.”
Hamilton is a different pitcher than the one who made four starts for the Reds late last year.
“He's smoothed out his delivery,” Boone said. “His shoulder is healthy now. He worked so hard this winter.”
Hamilton won 15, 12 and 13 games in a three-year span from 1996-98. Then came the shoulder problems.
Hamilton had his sinker and slider both working Saturday.
“I was real pleased with both,” he said. “My change-up needs some work. But it'll come around.”
HOWINGTON SHINES: Ty Howington started the other game of the split-squad doubleheader against the Twins and was even better than Hamilton.
Howington, a 21-year-old left-hander, allowed a single in the first inning and then retired the next 10 batters in a row. He went 4 2/3 innings — the longest outing by a Red this spring — allowing two hits. The Reds won 2-0.
Knuckle-baller Jared Fernandez pitched 3 1/3 innings of one-hit ball to get the win.
“That's good,” Boone said. “We want them all throwing well. We want them to make our decisions tough.”
DAVIS UPDATE: Lance Davis will throw a session in the bullpen today. If that goes well, he'll start Tuesday against the Philadelphia Phillies in Clearwater.
Davis, the 25-year-old left-hander, was scratched from his last start with tightness in his throwing shoulder.
“It felt like I had a big knot in the back of my shoulder,” he said. “It seems fine now.”
Davis and the Reds are hoping it was the tightness that kept him from being effective. Davis has gone a total of 2 1/3 innings in his two outings. He has allowed seven hits and walked six.
“I think the tightness had a lot to do with it,” Davis said. “I wasn't able to finish my pitches. I couldn't put the ball where I wanted it.”
ETHERTON UPDATE: Seth Etherton will throw off the mound today for the first time since straining a lat muscle. The plan is to work Etherton into a game sometime next week. Etherton is coming back from shoulder surgery. The strained lat was unrelated to the surgery.
“I'm shooting for (March) 15th or 16th,” he said.
STINNETT GOES HOME: Backup catcher Kelly Stinnett returned to his home in Mesa, Ariz., to attend to personal matters. He is expected to return in the next few days.
TOP 100: The Reds had three players among Baseball America's list of the top 100 prospects. Austin Kearns was 11th, Howington 25th and Wily Mo Pena 65th.
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Hamilton makes pitch for No. 1