Cody Reed expected this back in April http://www.rockiesfanproshop.com/authentic-greg-holland-jersey , but he had to wait until August for it to happen.Finally, the Cincinnati Reds are showing confidence in the left-hander, who was expected to be one of their four young starting pitchers this season but lasted only one start in that role.More Brewers coverageBrewers Final Pitch: Chacin dominates mound in Game 3 of NLCSChacin, Brewers blank Dodgers to take 2-1 lead in NLCSDespite struggles, No. 23 Badgers still have hope in Big TenStrong winds could be factor for Brewers, Dodgers in NLCS Game 3Photos of the Week: 10/7/18 – 10/13/18With the way runs are piling up in their series against the contending Milwaukee Brewers, the Reds probably could use a fresh arm on the mound.Reed (0-1, 3.68 ERA) appeared in four games, including one start, for Cincinnati in April, before being shipped back to make 17 starts at Triple-A Louisville. He rejoined the Reds earlier this month and has a 2.79 ERA in seven relief appearances.Now, Reed is getting the chance to start again and will take on Brewers left-hander Wade Miley (2-2, 2.32) in the final game of the three-game National League Central series Thursday at Great American Ball Park.Regardless of who is on the mound, look for some runs to be scored — there were a combined 41 runs scored in the first two games, starting with the Reds’ 9-7 victory Tuesday night.On Wednesday, Christian Yelich went 6-for-6 and hit for the cycle, and the Brewers overcame a four-run deficit to stay in the lead for the second NL wild-card berth with a 13-12 victory in 10 innings. Jesus Aguilar hit a long solo homer to center and Erik Kratz later added an RBI single in a two-run 10th, allowing Milwaukee to withstand Brandon Dixon’s solo homer in the bottom of the 10th.“It was one the craziest games I’ve ever been a part of David Dahl Jersey ,” Yelich told Fox Sports Wisconsin. “I don’t know how to describe it, honestly. It was nuts. A lot of stuff happened I’ve never seen before in a baseball game.“It was huge for us; we needed that win. Credit to the guys for staying with it, battling and pulling it out. It was huge.”The Reds couldn’t win despite scoring four times against Brewers All-Star reliever Josh Hader and getting four homers, including reliever Michael Lorenzen’s three-run drive — his fourth of the season — and Eugenio Suarez’s two-run shot. Billy Hamilton of the Reds went 4-for-5 and Mike Moustakas of the Brewers was 4-for-6, and each homered.Yelich’s cycle — a single, double, triple and homer — was the second in the majors this season; Mookie Betts had one one for the Boston Red Sox on Aug. 9. But Yelich’s cycle was the first to be combined with a 6-for-6 performance since Ian Kinsler of the Texas Rangers did it in 2009.Milwaukee is 10-5 against Cincinnati this season.Now, it’s Reed’s turn to face the Brewers. Reed is 1-9 with the Reds over the last three seasons, making 12 starts, but was given the chance to start again after the team decided to move right-handers Sal Romano and Robert Stephenson to the bullpen.Reed liked how interim manager Jim Riggleman used him in several high-leverage situations following his Aug. 13 recall from Louisville, and he has pitched 4 1/3 scoreless innings in his last four appearances.Riggleman called on Reed to face Anthony Rizzo of the Chicago Cubs with one out and the bases loaded Friday, despite Rizzo being 2-for-6 against him with two home runs. Reed got Rizzo to ground into a double play, although the Cubs went on to win 3-2 in 10 innings.“I stuck my hand out (to Riggleman) and said, ‘I appreciate you calling on me in that moment because this time last year and in my first year in ’16, that never would have happened,’ ” Reed told the team’s website. “I think it makes me more confident that he’s confident bringing me into that situation. As soon as the phone was ringing when (Matt) Harvey got into that little jam, I was thinking, ‘Please be me.’“A definite confidence boost that the manager has the belief in you in that moment.”It doesn’t hurt that Reed is left-handed.“His last few starts in Louisville indicated he’s moving in the right direction http://www.rockiesfanproshop.com/authentic-bryan-shaw-jersey ,” Riggleman said. “All things being equal, we’d like to have one left-hander in the rotation, at least. You’re not going to force that to happen. … Hopefully Cody would fit in there.”Reed is 0-1 with a 7.27 ERA in eight carrer appearances, including one start, against Cincinnati, and he has not allowed any runs over 2 2/3 innings in his four appearances against the Reds this season.Miley is 4-2 with a 3.42 ERA in eight career starts against Cincinnati, including a 3-1 win at Great American Ball Park on May 2. In that game, he gave up one run and three hits in six innings in his first start of the season. Miley missed more than a month with a groin injury sustained during spring training. NEW YORK (AP) — Jacob deGrom, Max Scherzer and Aaron Nola are going pitch for pitch in the NL Cy Young Award race.Problem is, that prize might not do the trio justice. Not according to baseball’s advanced analytics.With 2½ weeks left in the season, it’s time to ask: Should one of those three be MVP?“It’s the best player in the league,” deGrom said. “If that happens to be a pitcher and they can win it, then it’s well deserved.”There’s no debating deGrom’s dominance, even if it’s not translating into wins for the struggling New York Mets. Scherzer’s awards-season resume is more traditional, bolstered by league-leading totals in victories and strikeouts. And Nola is right there, too, in a breakout season with the Philadelphia Phillies.But an MVP? For three pitchers who are going to miss the postseason? Some don’t think pitchers should even be considered for the award, though they’ve won 25 times before.The stats devised by sabermetricians suggest it would be a swing and a miss not to consider a pitcher — certainly not in a year when the crop of NL hitters just doesn’t add up.The National League has produced at least one hitter worth 6.0 wins above replacement (WAR) each season since the Chicago Cubs‘ Hack Wilson topped 1926 at 5.7 Tyler Anderson Jersey , according to Fangraphs.This year’s group is equally underwhelming, strictly by the numbers. Milwaukee teammates Lorenzo Cain (5.4) and Christian Yelich (5.3) top the circuit, followed by Arizona’s Paul Goldschmidt (5.2), St. Louis’ Matt Carpenter (5.2), Chicago’s Javier Baez (4.9) and Colorado’s Nolan Arenado (4.8).For a catch-all stat like WAR — which measures contributions on offense, defense, baserunning and pitching — that 0.6 gap from Arenado on up is nearly negligible. Can’t go wrong choosing among them.But that group is far behind the league’s top pitchers by the same measure. DeGrom leads the NL with 8.1 WAR, and Scherzer, Nola and Diamondbacks ace Patrick Corbin are also ahead of the hitters. Over at Baseball-Reference, which has its own WAR formula, Scherzer (9.7) holds the top spot way ahead of Cain (6.3), with Nola, deGrom and Rockies left-hander Kyle Freeland all beating the batters.It’s unusual, but not unheard of, for a pitcher to lead a league in WAR. By Baseball-Reference’s math, Clayton Kershaw did it when he won NL MVP in 2014, as did Justin Verlander for his AL MVP in 2011. Corey Kluber, Cliff Lee http://www.rockiesfanproshop.com/authentic-antonio-senzatela-jersey , Roy Halladay and Zack Greinke each did it over the past decade, too. But in the age of ever-tighter pitch counts and innings limits, it’s not as common as it once was and figures to keep getting tougher.Of the 25 pitcher MVPs, 14 were awarded before the Cy Young Award was introduced in 1956. Prior to Kershaw and Verlander, the previous pitcher winner was reliever Dennis Eckersley in 1992, and the prior starter to take MVP was Roger Clemens in 1986.Marlins manager and 1985 AL MVP Don Mattingly was the runner-up to Clemens that year — and wasn’t thrilled about it.“Hard for me as a player, to kind of know I play 160 games or whatever it is and then somebody has 30, 35 starts,” Mattingly said.He’s changed his mind since becoming a manager. Doesn’t hurt that he was leading the Dodgers when Kershaw won MVP.“If you’re talking about them as Cy Young and MVPs, they’re guys that are basically taking care of your bullpen that day, stopping any kind of streaks, adding to streaks — a guy you know you can count on,” Mattingly said.Mattingly has seen plenty of deGrom, Scherzer and Nola in the NL East.“I can see where you could look at them as being most valuable player,” he said.The cases for those pitchers are a little different from their predecessors — especially for deGrom.The Mets ace is just 8-9, putting him in the historic position of having more WAR than wins. According to Baseball-Reference’s records, deGrom would be just the second qualified pitcher ever to have more WAR than wins, following Eddie Smith (4-17 record Chris Rusin Jersey , 4.1 WAR) with the Philadelphia Athletics in 1937.At this point, deGrom’s underwhelming win total probably won’t hurt him much in Cy Young balloting. Voters set aside the stat when crowning Seattle’s Felix Hernandez in 2010 despite a 13-12 mark, and the electorate seems to agree that victories aren’t paramount to being the best pitcher.But to be the most valuable? Voters might still be stuck on wins there. Opinions are all over the board on how to quantify value — some voters insist MVPs have to come from winning teams, others see winning as something of a tiebreaker, and a growing number of progressive writers try to separate a player’s performance from that of his teammates entirely.That’s where deGrom’s candidacy could fall apart. Of the 21 starting pitchers to win MVP, all of them won at least 20 games. DeGrom is going to have a hard time winning 10.That’s not deGrom’s fault, of course. He has a 1.71 ERA this season, and yet New York is 12-17 behind him thanks to minimal run support.DeGrom has taken to helping himself, driving in four runs since Aug. 3, including New York’s only RBIs in 2-1 losses to the Braves and Cubs.Scherzer has been even better with the bat. He’s hitting .270 with six RBIs and a stolen base. Those contributions won’t help him stave off deGrom in his pursuit for a fourth Cy Young and third straight in the NL, but it could sway some MVP voters.Nola’s pitch seems to have lost a little steam as the Phillies have faded out of the playoff picture. Philadelphia dropped 6½ games behind Atlanta in the NL East after getting swept by the Nationals in a doubleheader Tuesday. Nola was 16-4 with a 2.29 ERA prior to a start Wednesday and wasn’t far behind Scherzer with 8.9 WAR, per Baseball-Reference.Unless a hitter separates from the pack over the final couple weeks, one of those three just might be an MVP.“It’s been done before,” Mets manager Mickey Callaway said. “They should be considered.”