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Hall of Fame baseball writer Hal McCoy has retired from the Dayton Daily News after covering the Cincinnati Reds for 37 years. Hal's blog, though, will continue to be a must-read for Reds fans. He'll share his thoughts on the team this season and will file updates from Great American Ball Park. You also can catch Hal in print every Sunday in his popular Ask Hal columnHome > Blogs > The Real McCoy | Cincinnati Reds baseball news > Archives > 2008 > April > 21
Monday, April 21, 2008
Welcome to the bigs, Matt
Matt Belisle, facing a major-league team (and at this point, with the Los Angeles Dodgers, that’s debatable) was not very good. In fact, awful is an insult to the word.
Final: Los Angeles Dodgers 9, Cincinnati Reds 3, and it wasn’t that close.
But let’s defer that for a moment.
What frosted my Spaldings during the game, before I checked with manager Dusty Baker, was what happened in the third inning when Ryan Freel led the inning with a single. Keep in mind, the Reds are down five runs, losing 5-0, way behind and struggling against Brad Penny.
And then I wrote, before checking with Baker:
So what did Freel do? He tried to steal second and was out from the distance between the Ohio River and downtown Columbus. If Freel has a license to steal, it should be immediately revoked. There is no way he gets the steal sign there. He ran on his own.
Instead of a green light, Freel needs ankle shackles. You have to applaud Freel’s hustle and will to win, but intelligent baseball plays into the equation somewhere along the line.
Now here is what Baker said. He sent Freel and his reasoning passed muster with me. So I’m wrong for the millionth time in my career.
“That was me — I sent him,” said Baker. “Even though we’re down 5-0, you still have to try to get something going early in the game. We were trying to get on the board. We were getting it taken to us and we wanted to try to reverse it and take it to them.
“You have two choices,” Baker added. “You can wait back and get beat up or you can fight back and try to do something,” Baker added.
Now Belisle, who constructed a 3-0 record and a 1.17 ERA while pitching three games on rehab against the Class A Tampa Yankees, the Class AA Birmingham Barons and the Class AAA Pawtucket Pawsox.
While that isn’t something to frighten a legitimate major-league pitcher, neither are the present-day Los Angeles Dodgers. They came to Cincinnati having lost nine of 12 and they were swept in Atlanta, scoring one run in each loss (4-1, 4-1, 6-1).
They had one run on Belisle’s second pitch, a 379-foot home run by Rafael Furcal, who is 4-for-4 with two homers for his first four at-bats against Belisle.
Then the Dodgers scored two in the second and two in the third and owned nine hits off Belisle after four innings. Belisle gave up three hits to start the fifth and was gone, sent to warm up the shower heads for his teammates.
His line: four innings, seven runs (five earned), one walk, three strikeouts and a real downer to everybody who thought maybe he had it together.
The Reds had two hits off Penny at the time, one by Freel, then they got two harmless but long-distance solo home runs from Edwin Encarnacion and Joey Votto.
And I’m still wondering — a little bit — about stealing when you are down 5-0 with no outs early in the game. But Dusty knows best.
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TweetPatterson: a temporary seat
Corey Patterson’s name was not on the Cincinnati Reds lineup sheet tonight - as many have begged for, pleaded for and prayed for.
Ryan Freel was in center field and batting leadoff, Patterson’s normal spots. But his 0 for 20 and 1 for 28 slide-for-life had nothing to do with his one-night stand in the dugout.
Baker was not aware of Patterson’s slump until a writer informed him Sunday.
“Really?” said Baker. “I did not know that. He hasn’t been striking out a lot so a long stretch of no hits is not as noticeable as when a guy piles up the strikeouts.”
Unless Freel hits for the cycle, drives in four, scores five and makes three stupendous catches, Patterson will soon return. Not Tuesday, though. The Reds face lefthanded Hong-Chih Kuo, so Freel or Norris Hopper will be in center. Or maybe Jerry Hairston, Jr.
But it looks as if Patterson will be back Wednesday and Thursday when the Reds face the Atlanta Braves and two righthanded pitchers.
So why did the righthanded Freel start against righthanded Penny Monday?
Baker goes to the stats for match-ups. The almighty matchups, no matter how small the sampling. But at least it’s something more than a stray shot into the air. For example, Freel is 6 for 14 against Penny and Patterson is 1 for 6.
That’s not all, though. Baker has stats that show that Penny is tougher on lefthanded hitters (.229) than he is on righthanded hitters (.286). “And Freel normally hits righthanders better than lefthanders.
Hey, he doesn’t have to convince me with numbers. I’m all for Freel or Hopper in center field. I’d prefer Hopper and his bunting bat, but it is only effective against lefthanded pitchers.
One never knows what Freel might do. All depends on what Farney tells him to do.
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TweetSpecial for Marc
Most of the folks who make comments on this blog are knowledgeable and understanding folks.
There are a few like Marc whom we have to ignore. Classless folks.
As for misspelling Hairston’s name, I got it right the first time. As soon as I heard about it, I furiously typed it to get it on the blog so the readers would know about it. I had about two minutes to get to a meeting with Dusty Baker, so I didn’t proof read it. And, Marc, I don’t have editors. My posts go directly on-line.
As for the comment on my eyesight, I find that totally classless. As for retiring, I’ll determine that - but people like you push me closer to it.
To everybody else, thanks for reading and thanks for the great responses.
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TweetSay goodbye to Castro
Infielder Juan Castro was designated for assignment Monday and infielder Jerry Hairston Jr., another of manager Dusty Baker’s compatriots in Chicago, was called up from Class AAA Louisville.
Castro, who played all four infield spot in a Gold Glove manner, was 0 for 10 so far this season. Hairstone was hitting above .400 at Louisville.
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