Amir Garrett’s suspension for Cincinnati Reds diminished

PITTSBURGH – Major League Baseball cut Cincinnati Reds relief pitcher Amir Garrett’s ban for “inciting a bench clearing incident” from seven to five games.

Under an agreement with the Major League Baseball Players Association, MLB changed the length of the suspension without giving a specific reason for the reduction.

“We’ll miss him for the next five days, but there’s no point in thinking about it,” said Reds manager David Bell. “We’re going to try to keep him going for those five days and create a simulated game to keep him updated and have him back in Colorado on Sunday.”

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Garrett’s suspension begins Tuesday’s game against the Pittsburgh Pirates. Without Garrett, the Reds will carry a 25-player squad and an eight-player bullpen through Sunday.

While suspended, Garrett can still wear uniform while warming up before the game.

“The good news is that Amir is back on track. I think it’s been three or four good trips in a row where he’s got his confidence back and all of his pitches seem to be working,” said Bell. “He looks the same as always.”

Garrett was suspended after interacting with Cub’s first baseman Anthony Rizzo on May 1, Garrett knocked out Rizzo, and Garrett celebrated by screaming and beating his chest.

Cubs infielder Javier Báez hopped over the dugout railing and yelled at Garrett, and then the rest of the benches were cleared.

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“We’re going to exchange words, blah, blah, blah,” Garrett said last week before the suspension was announced. “Banks free, hold me back, whatever. That was fine. I had no intention of fighting him.

“There was a lot of pent-up aggression from my performance. It’s what it is, we’re moving forward.”

On Monday against the Pirates, Garrett threw 1 2/3 scoreless innings. In his last six games, Garrett has allowed an ERA of 1.69 and only two hits with six strokes.

During this stretch, Garrett lowered his ERA from 16.20 to 8.71.

“It’s important to master your fastball, it clearly has a really good one,” said Bell. “But it makes everything better if he can throw that for strikes. That was part of his success, and his breaking ball, which is his special playing field, was really sharp. It’s a really good combination. “

Manage a taxi team

Since the beginning of the 2020 season, each MLB team has been allowed to transport five smaller leaggers in a “taxi team” and take them on road trips.

The Reds’ current road trip is the first since the beginning of the minor league season on May 4th. As a result, the Reds only have two players in their current taxi roster: pitcher Art Warren and infielder Mike Freeman.

“It can vary depending on what part of the country we’re in or what’s going on with our team,” said Bell. “But we really want our minor league players, especially those about to join our major league team, to compete in minor league games. They deserve it. “

Back to .500

With Monday 14-1 win over the piratesThe reds are 16-16 with the team 20% during the regular season.

“I think we showed jumps of great baseball,” said starting pitcher Sonny Gray. “I think we did some baseball jumps that weren’t great, but that’s likely a lot of teams went through this. … this is a trip where we have to come in and play baseball. “