After a rocky start to his MLB career, the Cincinnati Reds hope that the Sal Romano or August and September is the real one.
After only one quality start in his first five appearances for the Cincinnati Reds, Sal Romano has put together a string of effective, sometimes gritty, starts. Romano tends to stick around until the game is decided. That makes him the workhorse of the young starters in Cincinnati.
The most impressive stat for Romano is his record. He is 4-6 in 12 starts. He has ten decisions in 12 starts, meaning that he stays around long enough to get the decision.
In his last seven starts, dating back to August 1, Romano has pitched at least five innings every time out. That has shown in his average innings per start. Romano has raised his average from below five to 5 1/3. During this stretch he had his best MLB start to date.
It isn’t all roses for Romano. He still has a high WHIP and other mediocre secondary stats. His current WHIP is 1.51.
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Romano is allowing an OPS of .826. Much of this is because he is allowing an OBP of .355. Between the walks and a batting average of balls in play of .307, Romano is having trouble keeping runners off of the basepaths this season.
Despite some questionable season long stats, Sal Romano has a string of good starts for the Cincinnati Reds.
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His last time out the only earned run that Romano allowed was on a home run. He went 5 2/3, struggling with his control after a line drive hit his throwing hand. He still only allowed a total of two runs and four base hits.
The start before that Romano went six innings allowing three runs and two walks. He only threw 98 pitches, but an amazing 59 were strikes. Striking out five and allowing six hits shows that he has the stuff to succeed at the MLB level.
Before that Romano had two consecutive games where he pitched seven innings in back to back games. Over fourteen innings, Romano only allowed 3 runs and 11 hits. He threw 202 pitches, 122 for strikes.
On August 13 Romano struggled through five innings allowing six earned runs. 56 of his 90 pitches were strikes. He did allow a home run, but just one.
The two times before that Romano went six innings each time out. He allowed too many runs, but he got through it. That is a needed skill for this squad.
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This is the hope for the Reds, that Romano is a work horse. The Reds appear to have a potential ace in Luis Castillo. Now the Reds just need to figure out what Sal Romano is moving forward.