Cincinnati Reds Running Blog (5/09)
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by user Kevinsecaur
Check out this article and the rest of my blog here.
I was also wondering if anybody on armchair would be interested in a Reds live blog on that site. If there'd be people reading and commenting, I think it would be cool to do once every two weeks or so. If it'd be nothing more than a monologue from yours truly (like you're about to read), I'll keep doing it in this format. Let me know what you think...
Apathetic has become the buzz word of sorts in Cincinnati when describing local fans' feeling toward the Reds. That's fitting because pathetic is really the only word that comes to mind when describing the team's play on the field.
A team that, on paper at least, should be better than last year's 80-82 squad that competed for the division all season long and finished just 1.5 games behind the eventual World Series champs is off to a rousing 14-19 start and finds itself last in the NL Central 9.5 games out of first place. NINE AND A HALF GAMES! Are you kidding me?!? Just as a point of reference, the only team in MLB that is farther from first is the Royals (11.5 back in the AL Central). I didn't think it was possible for a team to be that far out of first on May 9th.
The trendy thing to do these days is to jump off the Reds bandwagon and give up hope for the '07 season. Well, we here at Secaur on Sports have never been too keen on conforming and giving in to peer pressure. (Though we have to admit we saw this coming a mile away, predicting Cincinnati to 74-88 this year.) Instead, I kicked back in the recliner and kept a running diary of Wednesday's Reds-Astros game live from Great American Ball Park. Here's what went down:
7:10 - It wouldn't be a Reds game if I didn't mention the announcers. George Grande and Chris Welsh are in the booth for Fox Sports Ohio so, needless to say, I'm pretty pumped. Grande has to be the George Hamilton of sports broadcasters. Maybe skip a session at the ol' tanning bed there, George. We're underway right on time.
7:11 - Craig Biggio doubles off of Ken Griffey Jr.'s glove in right-center, and Junior is slow getting up on the play. Five or six years ago, he would have made that play standing up. I'm not even angry; I just hope he's not injured.
7:16 - Lance Berkman and Luke Scott, Houston's three and five hitters in tonight's game, flat-out destroy Reds pitching. Scott's hitting .429 against us this season. That combined with the facts that Roy Oswalt is now 19-1 career vs. the Reds and Dan Wheeler has five of his seven saves this season against Cincinnati makes me thrilled we're playing Houston ten times this month. Rumor has it the 'Stros are trying to find a way for Oswalt to start five of those games.
7:23 - Brandon Phillips singles to extend his hitting streak to 12 games, and the first two Reds hitters have reached base. This is also significant because Houston starter Woody Williams is 0-5 with a whopping 5.49 ERA so far this year. Williams also has not beaten Cincinnati since 2004, so I like the idea of getting to him early.
7:33 - ...And so much for getting on the board early. Alex Gonzalez drew a walk, but the Reds leave the bases loaded. First and second with no one out and we fail to score. Have I mentioned this team struggles to do the little things necessary to win baseball games consistently? It's kind of a recurring theme in these blogs.
7:37 - Welsh tells us, "The Astros are just playing hot baseball." Yeah, they're on a two-game winning streak and are 6-4 in their last ten games. Scorching!
7:52 - Since Biggio's double to lead off the game, Reds starter Matt Belisle has retired eight of the last nine batters he's faced.
Have you ever seen when the graphic that tells us what pitches a certain guy throws and photos of the different grips he uses? Well, I have a baseball in my apartment, and every time without fail I pick it up and model the grips of the different pitches. Hey, the Reds' bullpen has sucked all season. Do you think they could use a right hander who throws a 46 mph fastball and a circle change?
7:56 - Berkman drills a two-out, two-run HR off of Belisle. I told you he kills Reds pitching. The thing is it came off an Edwin Encarnacion throwing error that would've ended the inning. Encarnacion has struggled with his fielding in the past as he tends to over-think his throws. In this case, little things turn into big things when Ensberg reaches base on the error eventually leading to Berkman going yard. It's 2-0 Astros.
7:59 - We're headed to the bottom of the third with the heart of the order due up. The Reds are gonna get at least a run back here. Gotta jump on Williams and can't afford to play from behind all night.
8:04 - Phillips leads off with a triple off the CF wall, and Dunn hits a bomb into the right field seats. Brand new ball game.
So much is made of the lefties in this line-up -- and rightfully so with Dunn, Junior, Hatteberg and the impressive and surprising Hamilton -- but Phillips is hot and Gonzalez is hitting .300 with seven homers (in spite of his defense not being as good as advertised). Plus, Conine is gonna hit and if Edwin's bat comes around, this Reds line-up has the potential to be just plain scary against right- or left-handed pitchers.
Ross is the only weak link in the starting eight; yet, the lack of timely hitting is just absurd. These guys just don't get the job done with two outs, and the Reds seem to leave a ton of runners in scoring position. Then when the bats do come through, like last night, the bullpen blows it. Basically, that's two paragraphs just to say that being a Cincy fan right now is pretty frustrating.
8:10 - It seems to me like Belisle is throwing a lot of first pitch strikes and getting ahead of Astro hitters on most at bats. That's a definitely good sign.
Speaking of OJ Simpson, did you hear he got asked to leave a restaurant in Louisville over the weekend? I was talking to this guy I work with who swears this is illegal. Now I'm no lawyer and I'm certainly not trying to be insensitive, but I thought if you owned a restaurant you could serve and refuse to serve pretty much whoever you pleased. I always thought you didn't even need a reason; you could ask someone to leave for being too tall if you wanted. Anyway, this guy at work assures me that I'm wrong and that not serving OJ is discrimination. Not sure what to make of this conversation, other than it was pretty awkward and the guy I was talking to seems like the kind of dude who would swear to this day that OJ is innocent.
8:13 - Encarnacion commits his second error of the night, again with two outs, this time allowing Adam Everett to reach.
8:14 - After Everett stole second, the Reds opt to intentionally walk catcher Humberto Quintero to bring up Williams.
8:15 - Of course, Williams singles to center, and that'll drive in Everett. Hamilton boots it in the outfield, and it's a 3-2 game with runners on second and third by time all is said and done. I wouldn't be surprised if Matt Belisle and Edwin Encarnacion are not on speaking terms for a while after this game.
8:28 - The Reds strand a baserunner in their half of the fourth, and Belisle retires the side in order in the fifth. If it weren't for the two errors by the guy with the initials EE, Belisle would have thrown five scoreless innings of two-hit ball. Instead, he's given up three unearned runs not to mention all the extra pitches he's had to throw. Little things...
8:30 - The heart of the order (Phillips, Dunn, Junior) due up for the Reds again, and I'm predicting more runs for the good guys.
8:34 - Dunn draws a one-out walk but Cincy goes quietly in the fifth.
8:46 - With runners on the corners, the Reds call a pitch out and Ross mows down Everett. Really nice job by Narron and the Reds' bench. Maybe I should take back some of the negative things I've said about Cincinnati's skipper. Don't get me wrong: the team is still extremely unfundamentally sound (is that a word?), particularly undisciplined at the plate and terribly prepared for games ... but his in-game managing hasn't been that awful lately. Plus, Sparky Anderson himself couldn't manage a bullpen as bad as the one this team has.
8:58 - Belisle comes back out to pitch the seventh. Forgive me for second-guessing, but he's thrown 99 pitches thus far and just barely got out of a jam in the sixth. Meanwhile, Williams is allowed to hit for himself to lead off the inning. It really is awesome to watch two managers who have absolutely no faith in their middle relievers.
9:00 - The 'Stros go down 1-2-3 forcing Belisle to throw all of four pitches in the inning, effectively making me look like an idiot (not hard to do).
9:08 - Houston goes to its 'pen with two down in the bottom of six. Belisle pitched seven innings without giving up an earned run, scattering six hits and striking out seven. Williams threw 6.2 strong allowing two runs and six hits with three K's.
Maybe facing Brad Lidge isn't such a bad thing for Cincy as Williams has really been in a groove the last two or three innings.
9:22 - So much for that notion as Lidge gets four outs for the 'Stros and will turn the ball over to Wheeler to try to close it out.
9:41 - Javier Valentin works a two-out walk, but Conine strikes out swinging to end it. Wheeler picks up his 8th save of the season (six against the Reds). The Astros come away with a 3-2 win and have won the first three games of this series. Cincy falls to 14-20, a full ten games out of first place.
The Reds get two runs on six hits with THREE errors while Houston goes for three runs and eight hits without an error. Belisle was strong again, so hang this loss on Edwin's two errors. On the bright side, the time of the game was only two hours and 31 minutes.
