Cincinnati Reds' Andrew Abbott Makes Baseball History in Debut

By tossing six innings of one-hit ball on Monday, Cincinnati Reds rookie Andrew Abbott became the first left-hander since 1901 to put up that kind of statline.

On Monday night, we told you that Cincinnati Reds rookie pitcher Andrew Abbott made team history in his major league debut.

After further research, it turns out he also made baseball history.

Per @OptaSTATS on Twitter:

Andrew Abbott of the @Reds is the only left-hander in the modern era (on any team) to toss 6.0+ shutout innings with 6+ strikeouts and no more than 1 hit allowed in his MLB debut.

— OptaSTATS (@OptaSTATS) June 6, 2023

Abbott went six innings, allowing just one hit against the Milwaukee Brewers. The Reds won the game, 2-0, as Abbott walked four and struck out six.

He is the No. 6 overall prospect in the organization and the highest-rated pitcher.

A second-round pick out of Virginia in 2021, here's a portion of his prospect profile from MLB.com:

He made quick work of the High-A Midwest League to kick off his first full season in 2022 and spent most of the year, with a trip to the Futures Game mixed in, with Double-A Chattanooga.

It was clear pretty quickly Abbott wasn’t being challenged enough in Dayton, so the Reds promoted him so he could face a better level of hitters, feeling that the learning experience was worth the struggles the southpaw faced at the level. While his fastball sits mostly in the low 90s, it can play up thanks to deception in his delivery and the cutting action to the pitch, though he needs to trust it and come in on right-handed hitters more frequently. He always has had a plus curve that he manipulates well in terms of velocity and shape, but in 2022, he added a distinct slider with more sweep. It's thrown a tad harder than his curve, which still has good depth, and might be a tick better at this point. His changeup could be a very effective pitch, but he needs to throw it more.

Abbott struggled with his command in Double-A, though he did finish off with three impressively efficient outings in September. He gets high marks for his IQ and competitiveness on the mound, giving confidence he’ll learn from the bumps in the road to keep developing as a future big league starter.

The Reds are now 27-33 on the season while the Brewers are 32-28.

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