Left-handed starter Andrew Abbott made his first rehab start tonight. Abbott joined the Triple-A Louisville Bats on a rehab assignment in Omaha, Nebraska.
On a cold, windy night, things did not get out to a great start for the lefty as the first hitter he faced hit a wind-aided home run. He would give up another hit in the inning, but stranded the runner in a 13-pitch 1st inning. In the 2nd inning he gave up a leadoff single on a soft liner into center, but he faced the minimum as he induced a groundball that turned into a double play to end the inning, needing just eight pitches to get the job done.
After only needing a handful of pitches in each of the first two innings, things weren’t as easy for Abbott in the next two. He needed 15 pitches to get through the 3rd inning that also saw him walk a batter and give up a single. The lefty had to labor a bit more in the 4th inning as he worked around a 2-out walk and threw 22 pitches – running up his total on the day to 58 through 4.0 innings.
Andrew Abbott pitched into the 6th inning of the game. The first batter of the inning was former Red Joey Wiemer. He hit the ball 433 feet, but it was just foul. The next pitch wasn’t foul, and it wasn’t as far, but did go 378 feet for a solo home run. It was the second home run and second run allowed by Cincinnati’s rehabbing lefty of the day. He’d follow up serving up a homer to his former teammate by getting a fly out to the wall and a strikeout. That wrapped up his day at 5.2 innings of 6-hit, 2-run, 2-walk, and 4-strikeout baseball. Abbott threw 85 pitches with 48 strikes, had seven ground outs, and four fly outs on the night.
For those wanting some pitch details, here you go. He threw 40 fastballs and averaged 90.2 MPH. He mixed the secondary stuff in well, throwing 12 change ups, 16 curveballs, and 17 sliders.
The Reds expect Andrew Abbott to make one more rehab start. That will likely come on Sunday in Omaha with Louisville.
