CINCINNATI — The lineup wasn’t the only place Brandon Drury was happy to return to Friday night.
After missing two games with a hamstring injury and being limited to pinch-hitting duties on Thursday in Tampa Bay, Drury was batting fifth as the designated hitter in his first return to Great American Ball Park since the Cincinnati Reds traded him at the deadline in 2022.
“It’s actually pretty cool being back here because this is when I got my career back on track,” Drury said. “I was signing back-to-back minor league deals, and then Cincy gave me an opportunity to play here, and I kind of found myself here. So it feels good to be back.”
Drury hit .298 with a .354 on-base percentage, 12 home runs and 38 RBIs in 52 home games with the Reds at GABP before they traded him to the San Diego Padres.
He appeared in 92 games overall with the Reds in the first four months of 2022, which was 20 more than he had played in the prior two seasons combined.
“Really it was the previous four years before coming to Cincy that were a real grind,” said Drury, 31. “I got DFA’d a couple of times and signed the minor-league deals. And then to find my footing here and play every day in the big leagues and again and have some success was pretty special for me.”
Angels manager Ron Washington said whether Drury returns to play first base over the weekend will depend on how he comes out of Friday’s game.
“We’re not ready to put him on the defensive side and let him make sudden moves, so we let him DH today because he’s ready to go, and we’ll see how he comes out of that,” Washington said.
Washington didn’t want to commit to anything, but he said he likes Drury’s chances of playing in the field Saturday and/or Sunday.
“There’s a good chance,” he said. “I’m not sitting here guaranteeing it, but it’s a good chance. It depends how he comes out of today. If he happens to get on base and runs the bases, it’ll say a lot.”
SCHEDULING STRIKES
Washington, pitching coach Barry Enright and other members of the staff have a plan to address the ongoing, head-scratching inability to throw strikes that has been plaguing the starting pitchers despite the intense focus on it in spring training.
“We’re gonna have a conversation when we get back home with our starters – just the starters – and we’re gonna have each one of them explain to us why they’ve gotten away from what we talked about in spring training,” Washington said.
The Angels entered the weekend series in Cincinnati ranked last in the majors in first-pitch strike percentage at 57.8.
“When you’ve got a young staff and you see things not going the way you want them to go, you have to have conversations with them,” Washington said. “Because maybe it’s something we’re not doing as a staff to help you do what we promised each other we were gonna do.
“Each one of them is going to explain why they’re not doing what we talked about,” Washington said. “And if our pitching staff has something to do with it, I want each one of them to call them out in their presence.”
Washington emphasized the fact that it is going to be a conversation and not a lecture. But he said the starting pitchers are going to get it corrected.
Because they have to.
“We’re gonna get back to throwing strikes, because that’s the only way we’re gonna survive,” Washington said. “We can’t survive if we don’t throw the ball over the plate.”
GARCIA GETTING GOING
After a dismal debut this season in which he gave up four runs (three earned) on three hits without recording an out followed by allowing a home run in his second appearance, reliever Luis Garcia has not surrendered a run in his last seven appearances.
In fact, he’s allowed just one hit and no walks with five strikeouts in that seven-game stretch.
“It was just a matter of time for Garcia to get back together,” Washington said.
Related Articles
Angels waste strong outing from Griffin Canning in loss to Rays
Angels emphasize more innings and strikes from starting pitchers
Angels reliever Robert Stephenson to miss season
Angels rally in 9th inning to beat Rays
Angels encouraged by Jose Soriano’s development as a starter
Thursday at Tampa Bay, Washington brought in Garcia with runners on the corners and one out with the Angels trailing 2-1 in the sixth inning. Garcia got the Rays’ Jose Caballero to ground into an inning-ending double play before pitching a perfect seventh with two strikeouts.
“He has his sinker working again, and he proved that the other day when I brought him in in a first-and-third situation and got a ground-ball double play,” Washington said. “It doesn’t always happen like that for you, but it happened.
“That’s the way it’s been going,” he added. “He’s been getting a lot of ground balls recently, and in some tough situations he’s really been getting the ball on the ground. That’s what we want him to do.”
UP NEXT
Angels (LHP Patrick Sandoval, 1-2, 4.67 ERA) at Reds (RHP Graham Ashcraft, 2-1, 4.15 ERA), Saturday, 3:40 p.m. PT, Bally Sports West, 830 AM