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Rainey, a compensation pick by the Reds in the 2015 draft, was a non-roster player in spring training this year and was promoted from the Bats on April l0 when Yovani Gallard was designated for assignment. In his major league debut on April 10, in the eighth inning at Philadelphia, he allowed a hit and two walks before Scott Kingery launched his first career grand slam in a 6-1 Cincinnati loss.
Rainey had similar issues in his next appearance, allowing a hit, three walks and three runs in one inning of a 13-4 loss against the Cardinals on April 12 at Great American Ball Park. The Reds optioned Rainey back to Louisville on April 13, replacing him with right-hander Dylan Floro.
The 25-year-old Louisiana native, who was born on Christmas Day in 1992, earned a second promotion with seven scoreless relief appearances for the Bats. Over 9 2/3 innings, he allowed two hits and three walks with 17 strikeouts. Batters went just 2-for-23 (.069) against him.
“He’s throwing the ball well,” Reds interim manager Jim Riggleman said before Friday’s game. “We look for him to get better and more confident. He’s going to be a good one once he gets his feet settled.”
“That’s nice to hear,” Rainey, who made 20 starts and nine relief appearances for the Dragons in 2016, said when Riggleman’s comments were relayed to him. “Obviously, that first time wasn’t what you hope for. I went back down for a couple of weeks and get back to feeling good again. I’m trying to get back to being myself. I know I’m better than that. I wanted to get back here and prove myself.”
Remedial defense: After missing on a couple of diving stops of sharply hit ground balls in recent games, first baseman Joey Votto was working before Friday's batting practice on just those kinds of plays.
After one try, which ended with the ball trickling off his glove into foul territory on a play very similar to one in a recent game, his expletive could be heard in the press box, even with live music blaring from the concourse outside the seating area.
He finally made two straight stops, one to his right and one to his left, and hopped up after the last one, hustled to the bag and slid into it.
Scooter's plan: The Reds medical staff planned to put second baseman Scooter Gennett through a full-blown workout before Friday's game. If he passed, he expected to be back in the lineup for Saturday's 7:10 p.m. game against Miami.
“The trainers wanted to give him a good workout first,” Riggleman said. “I think he’ll be fully ready to go (Saturday).”
Inflammation in his right shoulder, which has plagued Gennett since spring training, has kept Gennett out of the starting lineup since he was Cincinnati’s designated hitter last Sunday in Minnesota. He last started in the field on Saturday, but he still is the only player to appear in all 31 games after pinch-hitting in all three of this week’s games against the Brewers.
Shortstop plan: Riggleman plans to give shortstop Jose Peraza a day off sometime soon, and he was asked who would play shortstop.
“I think I would move (Eugenio) Suarez over there and put (Alex) Blandino at third,” Riggleman said.
Suarez came up as a shortstop, but he’s played a total of 14 1/3 innings over four games, including one start, during the past three seasons, including one inning this year.
Peraza’s start on Friday was his 31stin Cincinnati’s 32 games.
Rocky road: This weekend's series against Miami is just Cincinnati's second all season against a team that was under .500 going into the weekend. The other was last weekend's series at Minnesota, where the Reds won two out of three games to log their first series win of the season.
Every other team Cincinnati has faced this season went into the weekend either .500 or better.
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