The Real McCoy

About The Real McCoy

Hall of Fame baseball writer Hal McCoy is in his 36th year of covering the Cincinnati Reds, the longest tenure for any active writer covering one team. Counting spring training and postseason games, McCoy has covered more than 7,000 major-league baseball games, written close to 18,000 baseball stories and eaten enough hot dogs to give Babe Ruth indigestion.

Get more from Hal

Hal's e-mail newsletter is the only place you can get his weekly commentary on the Reds. Sign up

June 2008

RSS Syndication

XML The Real McCoy
XML More 'DDN' feeds

More recent entries

• Homer - As in Home Run
• Bench: Catch Every Ball
• Casey: 1,500 and sadness
• Good Friday on the 13th
• Sean Casey: He's everywhere
• Burying the silly hatchet with Brandon Phillips
• Strawberry pie, Bruce and The Mayor
• The view from down under
• The Great Homer Bailey Mystery
• Volquez shares his knowledge
• More entries...

Archives

• June 15, 2008
• June 14, 2008
• June 13, 2008
• June 12, 2008
• June 11, 2008
• June 10, 2008
• June 9, 2008
• More archives...

Home > Blogs > The Real McCoy | Cincinnati Reds baseball news > Archives > 2008 > May > 14 > Entry

Janish a big hit — literally

By Hal McCoy | Wednesday, May 14, 2008, 09:22 PM

Let’s talk mostly about good stuff because there usually isn’t much good stuff to talk about.

Let’s get this out of the way first. The negative baloney — the 6-0 lead the Reds had in the ninth inning Wednesday night before Mike Lincoln and Francisco Cordero gave up six runs, enabling the Marlins to tie it, the tying runs coming off Cordero on a three-run homer by Cody Ross (a member of the Reds for about 30 seconds two years ago).

It was Cordero’s first blown save this year. End of gloom, doom and sadness.

The Reds came back to win it, 7-6, with a heart-pounding finish. It was rookie Paul Janish, called up Tuesday night after Jeff Keppinger broke his kneecap, who ended the game with a single to right field, driving in pinch-runner Johnny Cueto (should the Reds be using valuable pitching beef to run the bases?).

What a story. Janish gets the game-winning hit in his second major-league at-bat. And a bloody nose from a teammate in the raucous celebration.

“I’ll take another bloody nose tomorrow if we can win it again,” said Janish, who came into the game in the eighth for defensive purposes and was the offensive star.

“It’s hard to explain the feeling, and I could say I hope it only gets better, but that’s pretty hard to beat,” said Janish. “It was pretty ideal. The bloody nose was well worth it, and I’d doing it again tomorrow if I got the chance.”

Manager Dusty Baker said he not only felt Janish would come through, he predicted it.

“Like Yogi (Berra) always says, ‘It ain’t over ‘til it’s over,’ and he ain’t lying,” said Baker. “To get a game-winning hit in your first major-league game? That’s heaven-sent. I said in the dugout, ‘Janish is going to win this game.’ You know, sometimes it’s your day and circumstances couldn’t be prevented because it might have been his day. It certainly was his day.”

It was starter Bronson Arroyo’s day, too. Then it wasn’t. It was his 6-0 lead that Lincoln and Cordero spit up, costing Arroyo a win. But his effort was magnificent.

Remember in St. Louis when Arroyo won a game and revealed that he added swimming to his workout routine, you know, “Swim to win.”

He wouldn’t say it, but after his one-run, four-hit effort Saturday in New York I wondered if the day before he swam across the East River and the Hudson River?

Then before his start Wednesday night against the Marlins — on only three days of rest — I spotted a large bag of dog food in front of his locker, something called Innova, and I asked, “Change your diet?”

He laughed and said, “That’s for my dog. I share custody.”

Then he took custody of the Great American Ball Park grass and treated the Florida Marlins like Yorkies — no runs, five hits, two walks, five strikeouts.

“I felt stronger as I went along,” said Arroyo. “I’ve been working out harder and I just feel like I can manage the game with 120 pitches and still be strong enough to beat guys in the seventh and eighth innings. I really couldn’t prior to a start in St. Louis.”

And he was performing on only three days of rest instead of the usual four.

“Three days rest? I think you feel better,” he said. “The command is there, you feel strong. You haven’t had that much time off and first thing you know you’re back on it again and that’s great. I was happy with seven zeros, that’s for sure.”

Florida came to town on a seven-game winning streak and in first place in the rugged National League East. The Reds have now whipped them three straight times, tying their longest winning streak of the year (3), done once before when they took three straight in San Francisco.

Are the young, no-name Marlins impostors? Is this the start of something big for the Reds?

Permalink | Comments (27) | Post your comment |