In their first game of the second half, the Cincinnati Reds pulled out an 8-4 road victory over the New York Mets, a game in which leadoff hitter T.J. Friedl went 0-2 with no RBIs. In the process, though, Friedl tied a long-standing MLB record.
Despite going hitless, Friedl scored two runs, having gotten on base three times – all via a hit-by-pitch. Plunked by Mets starter Sean Manaea in the inning, Friedl was also hit by Manaea’s relief Alex Carrillo in the fifth, and then one more time in the eighth inning by Brandon Waddell, tying for the most times any player has been hit by a pitch in a single game in MLB history.
Reds Giveth The Plunk And Take It Away
Friedl’s painful if productive night marked the 36th time in MLB history that a single player has been hit three times, and the third time this season. Tyler Freeman of the Colorado Rockies was hit three times by Washington Nationals pitchers back on June 17th, while the Nationals were the beneficiaries (if that is the right word) of a three-hitter a month earlier as CJ Abrams was plunked three times by the staff of the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Of those 36 occasions in the 150-year history of Major League baseball, 24 have come in the 21st century. Be it due to more aggressive modern pitching, greater movement, the diminishing importance of the unwritten rules or some combination thereof, hit-by-pitch rates are higher in the modern game than they have ever been. Indeed, the last seven MLB seasons have been seven of the eight seasons with the highest frequency of hit by pitches in history, with 1900 standing as the lone anomaly.
The Reds know about this modern day uptick in hit-by-pitches as much as anyone. Their 2022 total of 110 hit opponents is the record for any team in any given season, surpassing the 2023 then-Oakland Athletics and 2008 then-Cleveland Indians for top spot on the list. If they can dish it out, it is perhaps only fair that they take some of it back.
Friedl’s Good Season Only Gets Better
Friedl is having a excellent season as the Reds’ lead-off hitter. His three-plunk night raised his on-base percentage for the season to .370, good for 13th in the National League amongst qualified hitters, and he is flanking it with nine home runs, ten steals and quality outfield defense.
With the Reds once again finding themselves in the middle of the pack – their 51-47 record ranking only fourth in the competitive National League Central, 7.5 games back of the Chicago Cubs and increasingly far behind the streaking Milwaukee Brewers – they will have to make the same decision it seems as though they have to make at this point in every season. The Reds will need to pick a lane and either be buyers or sellers, for trying to be both is akin to being neither.
If they do decide to sell, then Friedl could be one of those on the market. He has all the tools required of a Major League center fielder, with speed, power, average and defence, and he also remains cheap. More than the others, the last of these may convince the Reds to keep him – after all, with all the hit-by-pitches and on-base percentage, he is doing his job.
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