San Francisco @ Cincinnati preview
Great American Ball Park
Last Meeting ( Jun 9, 2010 ) San Francisco 3, Cincinnati 6
In a week devoted to high-profile rookie debuts in major league baseball, Mike Leake just keeps flying under the radar.
Leake will be looking to maintain his perfect record when the Cincinnati Reds take on the San Francisco Giants on Thursday in the finale of a four-game series.
With the "Super-2" arbitration deadline in the rearview mirror, teams have begun to bring their top prospects up to the majors, headlined by Washington’s Stephen Strasburg on Tuesday. While Strasburg lived up to the hype with a 14-strikeout, no-walk performance, his glow leaves the likes of Florida Marlins top prospect Mike Stanton and Pittsburgh Pirates prospects Brad Lincoln and Jose Tabata with some room to breathe.
The Reds paid no attention to the "Super-2" deadline when they decided to break camp in April with Leake, and so far they have no regrets. Despite not having thrown a pitch in a minor league game, Leake, who was drafted seven spots behind Strasburg in the 2009 First-Year Player Draft, leads Cincinnati with five wins and a 2.22 ERA.
The 22-year-old Arizona State product has allowed two earned runs total in his last four starts and has not surrendered an earned run in either of his last two outings, including a seven-inning, no-walk effort at Washington last Saturday.
Leake’s emergence is a big reason the Reds have managed to hang with the St. Louis Cardinals atop the National League Central, as most of the rest of the staff has been up and down so far in 2010. The right-handed Leake, meanwhile, has been a model of consistency, posting quality starts in 10 of his 11 outings.
Cincinnati’s biggest worry regarding Leake will probably end up being how far to extend him this season. Should the Reds stay in the race through September, Leake is likely to approach 200 innings – a dangerous mark for such a young arm.
Cincinnati snapped San Francisco’s three-game winning streak Wednesday with a 6-3 win in the third game of the series. Scott Rolen went 3-for-3 with a pair of RBIs and Orlando Cabrera had four hits for the Reds. Jonny Gomes added three RBIs and Aaron Harang went seven innings for the win.
The Giants will send No. 5 starter Todd Wellemeyer to the mound on Thursday to try and stop the NL’s top offense. The veteran right-hander is coming off a terrible outing at Pittsburgh last Saturday, when he was lit up for six runs and nine hits in three innings by the 29th-ranked offense in baseball.
Handed the No. 5 slot in spring training when top prospect Madison Bumgarner failed to earn the job in the spring, Wellemeyer will need to pick it up if he hopes to hold onto the job much longer. Wellemeyer has appeared in 20 games – five starts – in his career against the Reds, going 2-4 with a 4.53 ERA.