REDS POSTCAST: Will Benson POWERS the Cincinnati Reds to a SWEEP of the Cleveland Guardians

REDS POSTCAST: Will Benson POWERS the Cincinnati Reds to a SWEEP of the Cleveland Guardians

[Music] This is the Reds post, your instant game reaction for the Cincinnati Reds, part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every [Music] day. It’s sweep Sunday here on the Reds post. Welcome to another installment brought to you by our friends at Locked on Breads and the Lockdown Podcast Network. My name is Tim Daniel and I have been podcasting about the sads for over 5 years at publications such as Late Night Reds and the Riverfront. And thank you all so much for hanging out with me today as we celebrate a sweep a sweep over the Cleveland Guardians, baby. And what an excellent day, an excellent weekend at the Guard against the Guardians here at GABP. If you are just checking me out for the first time today, welcome. Thank you so much for spending your Sunday afternoon with me. If you are a everydayer, we definitely thank you guys as well. Be sure to spread the word out for us as well. You can subscribe to us here on YouTube or your podcast app of choice. You can also get my good friends Jeff Carr and Stephen Offenbaker on Monday through Friday on Locked on Reds on this very feed. Like I said, whether it’s there on YouTube or your podcast app of choice on today’s show. Let’s Will Benson copy paste every day. We’re talking Will Benson of late and you love to see it. You absolutely love to see it. We’re going to talk about Andrew Abbott start today and I have a little bit of a thought process I want to run by you guys and I’m really curious what you have to say. I can’t wait to see your comments when I say it in that segment. And should we cute lover boys? Everybody’s working for the weekend because the Cincinnati Reds are drastically better on the weekend than they are during the week. And I’m going to break into that as well. And we already have it. Patrick is our the number one Will Benson fan is already fired up. He says, “Will Benson’s my hero and I will die for him.” Whoa. All right. Had to seal my wife’s ride because the Reds swept the Guardians. Sticks and tape. I like it. Sweeping is fun. Branch Brown. John saying beam me up, baby. Nikita back to 500. Keep it rolling versus Pittsburgh. I love it. The vibes are high today. Everyone’s in a good mood because the Reds have proved to the Cleveland Guardians when it comes to the Ohio the Ohio Cup, they’re the twos and we’re the ones. Let’s get right to it, everybody. This is what you’ll be talking about. Will Benson. Will Benson. Will Benson. Will Benson. Will Benson and more Will Benson because Will Benson is now officially made himself the MVP of the Ohio Cup, barring any insanity coming and the three games set in June in Cleveland, which I mean the Reds only have to win one and they they clinch the cup. Five home runs in four games. 29 at bats in the major leagues this year. Five home runs. Good for fourth on the major league roster already. 29 at bats. He’s just standing behind Matt Mlan and Austin Hazel each have six. Nelly de Cruz who has eight and we talked about this quite a bit in the sense that he’s just kind of become the spark right like this offense needed a spark really bad especially coming out of that sweep against Houston they really needed something they really I mean well not a sweep against Houston but that Sunday game and then the Friday game when they also got a shut out as well meant say shut out not sweep there but having Benson come in and just kind of lift everybody up everybody seems like they’re in better spirits the team is like playing much better together. Like the defense since he’s been back in the whether he’s been playing right center or left, the outfield defense has been better. And we’ve been talking all year. I mean, all off season, all last season, basically since 23, the team needs to go get more outfielders. The team needs to go get more outfielders. And so far, the guys they have brought in to play outfield, whether it’s Austin Hayes, Gavin Lux, or Will Benson, um have really kind of stepped up and have really kind of taken advantage of this. and they’ve all three been really good for this team. Reese Hines, I know the numbers aren’t great necessarily, but the clutch home runs have been humongous so far. Uh, so having him come around as well has been fantastic. this just feels like it’s a team that really need needed this spark and to have him come in and do it something where we were looking for them to go out and get guys and you don’t have to worry about it because he comes up from Louisville and I saw in one of my group chats uh my buddy James Urban who was a friend of mine uh in my days at the riverfront tweeted his Will Benson idea is send him down for a week and bring him back up for three weeks every time because it seems like when he gets called back up is when he goes crazy and he gets on these hot runs. So, you know, again, I know it’s an extremely small sample size. We’re talking about 29 at bats. I think 33 played appearances if we count as walks. Um, so that’s pretty solid as well, obviously. Let me go ahead and just make sure I have that correct. I can’t tell you guys a fact and it’d be incorrect. Not wouldn’t be like me at all, would it? Okay, maybe it would. So, he has now 30 at bats. Sorry. So, I was already off to a bad start and he has three walks. So, in the last seven games, he has a OPS of 1.182. On his season so far, his OPS is 1.357 and he looks great. So, I hope it keeps going. I know you guys are having fun with it as well. Um, this has kind of been pretty awesome for him. I’m sure especially going against this former team, a team that traded him for Steve Hajer, who the Reds got in the Spencer Steer Tyler Mallet trade and has not been heard from since. Um, so we’re going to hope the best for him because I think this is something the Reds really needed obviously and we would really love to see Will Ben. He’s like an easy dude to root for, right? Just super easy, super likable um and just brings games like this and now is for sure leaps and bounds the front runner for the Ohio Cup MVP. So, we will take it and bring it in to Pittsburgh. We got two big division games coming up. Two big division series coming up, I should say. Um, so if he wants to go to PNC Park and hit a few more there and do a little Barry Bonds home style there, I’ll take it. I’ll absolutely take it. We all will. Um, especially now that, you know, he’s played all three outfield positions this week. So, this has been awesome. And shout out Will Benson for an unbelievable weekend. We can’t thank you enough as Reds fans for sticking it to the Guardians who I really don’t dislike the Guardians at all. I mean, I root for Cleveland teams outside of the Guardians, obviously. Not the Browns, not the Browns. So, I guess just the Cavs, but you get the gist. Um, so I love that Jake calls him his spirit animal. Um, that’s pretty funny. Um, says, “Hey, Pittsburgh, my area locked in from Eastern Ohio.” What up? Um, so there we go. Now, Brandon Kamik says, “Trade him now to World Series hopeful the plugin at Cleaner versus the Guardians if they sneak in there.” I don’t want him traded, but I know what you’re saying. You are my guy, Brandon. It’s good to see you. Um, so Will Benson obviously gets to the praise for today. Um, but let’s go ahead and let’s talk about Andrew Abbott here. And I want to get into his start he had because she was pretty excellent today. And we now bear the question, what does it look like if Andrew Abbott can get his walks in order? We’ll talk about that and more right after this. Looking for a snack that’s both delicious and nutritious? 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Thank you guys all for hanging out with me today as we celebrate the joy of a sweep this week for the Cincinnatic over the Cleveland Guardians by a final of 3 to one. If you are checking me out for the first time, thank you so much for hanging out for all of our everydayers. Thank you for coming back every day as well. Oh, Nikita right here talking about a wonderful pistachios, one of her favorite snacks. Um, and yeah, the bullpen could definitely use a quality start from Andrew, from Nicoladoo in a in a big day of offense. I completely agree. So, let’s go ahead and toss well and let’s chat about where this game kind of became in hand for the day Reds. Time to reveal where the game was won or lost. It’s the turning point. It’s the weekend of Will Benson. I don’t know what more we could do here. I mean, I feel like Will Benson deserves all this praise this week and rightfully so. So his second homer today makes it a three nothing game and Cleveland does score a run after that but that was all they could come could get across and as the Reds went three to one. So as great as Will Benson was and he certainly was great. I really love the day the Reds got from Andrew Abbott. Now three walks in five innings is not great but not terrible. Uh but an excellent five five innings pitch five strikeouts, four hits, three walks. 43 strikeouts in 35 innings this year, guys. He has a 1.8 erra. He has been tremendous. The thing with him now is just kind of getting these walks down. And if they can get the walks down, you’re talking about a guy who can give them six, seven. You guys are talking about in the chat right now. They need a long start from Nicolola tomorrow. I think Andrew Abbott is certainly capable of having those starts for the Reds, especially if he can get it get these walks down. If he gets the walks down, he’s excellent. I mean, his whip still looks really good on the season. He’ll be pulled up real quick just to make sure. I looked at it just a second ago. His whip currently is at 1.11, but how many games does he have where he’s had four, five, three walks, things like that, and these shorter outings? Colorado was one, but he still is managing to give you guys excellent games. I don’t think it’s out of my element, and I’m curious your guys’ thoughts here. If Andrew Abbott gets these walks in order, could we be talking about him being a selection for the All-Star team? I mean, Hunter Green is probably going to make the team if he’s gets more, you know, because it seems like he’s going to be back to starting if he keeps doing what he’s been doing. But is it possible for the Reds to get two starters here? I mean, there’s a lot of really good pitchers in the National League. I understand that, but I bet if you put Andrew Abbott’s numbers up against a lot of those guys, he’s definitely going to have a conversation. Um, so certainly a possibility. I don’t know if I’m just way over my skis here. I might be and just feeling the vibes and feeling really good from the win, but I certainly think he deserves the conversation at this point. And so I’m curious, anyone in the chat who wants to throw in that as well. Uh we got to get your thought get your thought there. Um so Jake says it right here. Had to watch the Cleveland broadcast because of the MLB TV, but they were impressed with Andrew Abbott. My wife’s uncle who’s a diehard Guardians fan is like a like obsessed with fantasy baseball. Has been in this league that he’s had for about 15 years. And every year since Andrew Rabbit’s come up, he always drafts him and always puts him on his team. This year he was hurt, drafted him. So when he comes up, I know he’s going to be able to he’s gonna be able to go through here. Um, so I think that he’s been really great and obviously, you know, probably been their second best pitcher consistency wise uh for the starters behind Green. I know Lola’s had some ups and downs. Nick Martinez has been really good of late, but started off slow. Uh Brady Singer has been a little up and down. Um, so this is going to be, you know, I’m really excited to see what we’re getting from him and I’m really really happy for that as well. And guys, I want to get to something real quick here because there must there’s a trend here and I’m curious if you guys thoughts on as well if you even care about this if I’m just like finding things to talk about here, but Mr. Wan says Will Benson Hall of Fame and I am all for that. Um, but first, let’s go ahead and get to our locked on player of the game. Spoiler alert. This is the locked on player of the game. Hey, it’s Will Benson. I don’t know. Did you guys not expect that? I don’t know who else would it be. It’s Will Benson, but uh Kevin asks here, “Is Frley hurt and that’s why Benson’s playing?” Just subscribe. Thank you. Thanks for the subscription. I appreciate it. Um I think so. Like we heard that he had this issue um for a while, right, with the had the ball bounce off his thigh and they just haven’t seen him again. And I don’t know. I don’t know if you can turn to him again. So, um, we’ll see how that goes. And Jim says, “This podcast needs to refer to Will Benson as Red’s legend Will Benson moving forward.” You know, Jim, some are saying some are saying Will Benson may be the greatest red ever to wear number 30. Some some um, okay, so if you saw the thumbnail, you see the the caption there on the segments for the day. I’ve put together this thing where I’m looking at this conversation for the rats and it makes me listen to lover boys everybody’s working for the weekend Friday, Saturday and Sunday weekend games. And one of the caveat to this is there was one four game set with Milwaukee early in the season that they they lost the Thursday game. The Reds are 15-8 combined on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday games this year counting today. Friday they’re 5-2. Saturday they’re 6-2 and Sunday they’re now 4-4. So if you put that in context they’re what 24- 24 after today. So they’re 500. So Monday through Thursday they’ve won nine games all year and Saturday s and they’ve nearly doubled it on the weekend. The Reds are a weekend team and I think that’s a good thing. You know what we have for free weekends for those of us who don’t who have a desk jobs on the Monday through Friday. We want to go watch the Red Legs on the weekend. It seems like we’re gonna be having a good time with the way they’ve played on the weekend so far this year. These Friday, Saturday, Sunday days seem to be their days. That’s the days they click in. That’s the days they’re ready to roll and give you guys a show. And boy, have they been giving us a show on those days during the week. So, need to see it step up a little bit during the week as well. Um, but right now seems like it’s going pretty well. And look, if this is true, then these next few weekends are pretty good. You got back-to-back weekend series against the Cubbies. That’s obviously games you need to find a way to be competitive in. Um, after the Cubbies, you got Arizona, pretty good. You got the Detroit Tigers, the best team in the American League. The Cardinals, who have been on fire in St. Louis, and the Padres’s, the Phillies, and the Rockies are your weekend series up to the All-Star break. So, if they can keep this going on the weekends, maybe we got something going here. Uh yeah, Sydney says they need to need you didn’t stay away from the Sunday streak like they have where you’re with late night reds. That was they had some rough ones like that. So uh yeah, absolutely. But hey, I can close out today saying it’s a beautiful day to be a Reds fan. This is say Reds are victorious and need to go and take care of those bums from Pittsburgh. They once again find a way to not have to face Paul SK in this series. So that’s pretty pretty awesome. Um, so you absolutely take that. So you feel like you got an advantage here. You feel like you have a chance to go out there and take care of business against the Pirates. If you get two out of three going into the series against the Cubbies, a sweep is great. Two out of three, I’ll absolutely take as well. Um, but the Cincinnati Reds are victorious today against the Cleveland Guardians, three to one. The Reds have three runs on nine hits, no errors. The Guardians, one run on nine hits, one error. Your winning pitcher today is Andrew Abbott. He’s now 3 and0 with a 1.8 RA. Your losing pitcher is Luis El Ortiz. He’s now two and five with a 4.66 RA. And the save goes to Amelia Pagan for his 12th and his third save in a row. That was got me nervous there for a bit, but he did look he did take care of business. So, uh, the Reds are back at it tomorrow and Pittsburgh for game one of a three game set against the Pirates before they have an off day on Thursday. Um, this is say Reso seeing Nick Lollo take the hill. He is three and four with a 3.42 42 RA going against Mitch Keller who is 1 and5 with a 415 RA. First pitch should be at 640. He should see me around 9:15 9:30 as long as they don’t go to extras. Everyone, thank you so much for taking some time to hang out with me today for just a few minutes. I am Tim Daniel. Go Red Legs. I will see you all tomorrow night.

The Cincinnati Reds completed a three-game sweep of the Cleveland Guardians with a 3-1 victory on Sunday afternoon. Will Benson led the offensive charge, launching three home runs to power the Reds’ scoring. On the mound, Andrew Abbott delivered five shutout innings to keep the Guardians at bay. Emilio Pagán closed out the game in the ninth inning, earning his third save in as many days. The win marked a strong statement from the Reds as they wrapped up the series in dominant fashion.

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