Partch can't patch up Hillcats' rotation in loss to Keys

After being banished to the bullpen for a week, Curtis Partch rejoined the Hillcats’ rotation Monday night.

It wasn’t a merit-based promotion. On the Cats’ recent seven-game road trip, starter Mark Serrano strained an oblique muscle on his left side, landing Serrano on the disabled list and leaving the Lynchburg rotation perilously thin.

Partch and James Avery are the team’s only true starting pitchers. Jordan Hotchkiss, who will start tonight’s game, began the season in the bullpen. Chase Ware was the closer at Low-A Dayton but has moved into the Hillcats’ rotation via necessity. The No. 5 starter? It could be Lance Janke, who has bounced back and forth between the bullpen and rotation all year.

Cats manager Pat Kelly won’t have to make that decision until later this week, though.

“We’ve got to get through the first couple of days first,” Kelly said before Monday’s 6-3 loss to Frederick, the team’s seventh straight loss in the suddenly hostile confines of City Stadium.

The current state of the rotation is a far cry from where the Hillcats were in April, when Matt Fairel, Scott Carroll, Brad Boxberger and Travis Webb filled rotation spots. All have moved on to Double-A.

Partch allowed all six runs in another rough start. He lasted just 3 2/3 innings, putting the Lynchburg bullpen into scramble mode once again. Partch’s last four starts have been, in a word, brutal. In those starts, he’s pitched 16 1/3 innings and allowed 42 hits and 25 earned runs.

Frederick’s Xavier Avery had a field day against Partch, who fell to 3-8. The Keys leadoff hitter doubled in his first at-bat, singled in his second and crushed a two-out, two-run home run in the fourth that put the Keys up 5-2. Avery’s fourth home run of the season came on a slider that was supposed to be low and away but missed over the plate.

“Early in the game, he wasn’t throwing his sliders for strikes,” Xavier Avery said. “I think we were just sitting on fastballs by then.”

The Hillcats opened a seven-game homestand Monday with several new pieces cobbled between the Reds’ affiliates in Carolina and Dayton. During the road trip, center fielder Felix Perez moved to Carolina, and Carlos Mendez went back to the Mudcats after an injury left Carolina a player short in the infield.

About an hour before first pitch Monday, the Reds released pitcher Sean Watson, a former second-round pick out of Florida State who never panned out. The fact that Watson, drafted in 2006, was still plying his trade at the High-A level three years later didn’t bode well for his long-term organizational future.

The Reds sent outfielder Denis Phipps and catcher Chris McMurray down from Carolina and promoted power-hitting first baseman Chris Richburg from Dayton.

Richburg, a 2009 23rd rounder from Texas Tech who hit 14 home runs for the Dragons, batted fourth for the Hillcats Monday and went 0-for-3 with a walk in his High-A debut.

“With Mendez going, we really had a hole in the middle of the lineup,” Kelly said. “I liked him in spring training. I liked his swing. He could hit the ball to the gaps and to every part of the ballpark. He’s a little bit of an older college player, so it’s nice to get him up here and see what we’ve got.”

Phipps, a native of the Dominican Republic who will turn 25 Thursday, is making his third tour of High-A. With Perez moving to Carolina, Phipps’ role there was greatly reduced. So the Reds sent him back a level to make sure he got everyday at-bats. Phipps batted fifth Monday and went 1-for-3 with a single and a walk.

“Denis is a five-tool guys we’ve always been very high on,” Kelly said. “We’re just trying to get it all to play on the field. He can run, he can throw, he can play defense. He’s got some raw power.”