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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 > September
September 2008
All over (for the Reds), including the shouting
The Cincinnati Reds didn’t go away like a sly, slinking fox; they went away like a wounded fox with a fear factor complex.
They couldn’t have made a louder thud than if they had, as a team, leaped from the top of the Gateway Arch, losing their last five games of the 2008 season.
And the finale Sunday against the St. Louis Cardinals was a microcosm of the way the Reds played when games counted.
The Reds, playing defense as if the baseball was a round piece of dry ice, were obliterated by the Cardinals, 11-4.
Adam Pettyjohn’s first major-league start since he nearly died from colitis in 2001 was not pretty, but a lot of it was because of little help from his friends.
Pettyjohn gave up eight runs on seven hits in two-plus innings, but defensive lapses by second baseman Danny Richar, right fielder Jay Bruce and center fielder Corey Patterson enabled the Cardinals to keep swinging when innings should have been over.
In other words, it was the way the Reds played in April, May and early-June, when they buried themselves into oblivion.
“We were playing well, then the last five games they kind of beat us up,” said manager Dusty Baker. “We ran out of gas a little bit. They gave me all they had and gave me effort. We didn’t play very well today, made some costly mistakes and Pettyjohn deserved a better fate.
Pettyjohn gave up a two-run homer in the first to Ryan Ludwick, then had two outs and nobody on in the second.
Pitcher Brad Thompson lobbed one behind first that first baseman Joey Votto and second baseman Richard converged upon — clearly Richar’s ball. But he pulled up and it dropped for a single. Four more hits and three runs followed.
“In that second inning there were a couple of balls we didn’t get to that we should have and that cost us three runs and next thing you know the gates are open,” said Baker.
Baker, though, sees better days ahead and as writers cleared his office for the last time, he smiled and said, “I’ll be talking to you after we make those blockbuster deals.”
But he was more serious after the 74-88 season in which they finished fifth, 23 1/3 games behind the first-place Cubs and 11 behind the fourth-place Cardinals.
“People are going to hear from us. And soon,” he said. “We have a great group of core players and other players around the league are telling me that we’re not that far away. I believe it. I feel the same way.
“We have a couple of things we have to add and I think the experience we had going down the stretch this year will help us next year,” Baker said.
“We have some young players who had to find out if they belong here and they did and now they have come away with the idea they can play here and play winning baseball,” he said.
Joey Votto singled, homered for the 24th time and drove in two runs, making a push, probably too late, for Rookie of the Year. His 24th homer gave him one more than Chicago Cubs rookie catcher Geovany Soto.
Unfortunately for Votto, ballots were due from baseball writers by the end of Sunday’s games and many may have missed his 11-game run down the stretch during which he hit .452 (19-42) with eight multi-hit games, five homers and 12 RBIs.
Nevertheless, Votto is ready to shut it down.
“I’m happy the season is done,” he said. “I want to see my family — my mom, my brother and my girl friend. I thought I could do what I did and I’m happy with the way I finished strong.
“I thought I made big strides defensively and I’ve become part of a team that can do something in 2009,” he added.
Of his shaky day, Pettyjohn said, “I wish I had thrown better and gone deeper into the game. I felt fine and it probably was the long layoff. But it is hard to hang your head after what my wife and I have been through and I just want to thank the Reds and Dusty Baker for giving me this chance.”
Baker, though, admits it is time to shut it down this year.
“Now the year seems long,” he said. “End of the race, end of the road. And you kind of realize where you’ve been and what you have been through.
“But the good thing is that guys see, feel and believe about where we’re going — which is up,” he said.
And with that, Baker yanked shut the zippers on a couple of travel bags, closing the 2008 season, the eighth straight losing year.
BAKER IS LOOKING forward to the offseason, a period of rest, but his itinerary sounds like anything but rest.
“First, I’m going to try to do nothing, which is very difficult for me to do,” he said. “I’m sure I have a bunch of honey-do’s around the house. When you’ve been gone since February 15, the woman of the house is ready for you.
“I have some farming to do, too,” he said. “I have to tend to my grape vines and they’ll produce grapes next year. I’ll spend some time with my dad and my son’s (Darren) various events. He had his first football game yesterday and scored a touchdown and they tied.
“I’ll take some time to go hunting and fishing, I have a couple of speaking engagements and before you know it it is December and time for the winter meetings,” he said.
As for baseball, it is never far from his mind.
“I’ll always be thinking about helping (general manager) Walt Jocketty get this team together,” he said. “Part of the job is trying to talk to free agents (to come to Cincinnati) and I’ll be on the phone quite a bit.
“What you have to do most is take the time to re-charge for next season,” he said. “You have to take the time to re-charge. You have to start the season with the tank full, not three-quarters or half-full. You don’t later want to run out of gas.”
BAKER WAS talking about all the last-season turmoil this year to determine wild card and division champions and remembers fondly a few in which he was involved.
“I remember days like this, the last day when it was decided,” he said. “We had a couple of them with the Dodgers — down to the wire. Going down to the wire? Ain’t nothin’ better than that. Going down to the wire, going neck-and-neck.”
Reds media relations director Rob Butcher is working the World Series this year, helping Major League Baseball, and Baker said, “Next year you are going to be too busy doing your own work.”
Implication? Reds in the World Series.
SOMEBODY CONGRATULATED Javier Valentin on his pinch-hit home run Friday, the sixth pinch-hit home run of his career.
And he said, “I have to do something. I’m a free agent. I have to feed my kids.”
The Reds have nine possible free agents — pitcher Jeremy Affeldt, catcher Paul Bako, pitcher Josh Fogg, infielder/outfielder Jerry Hairston, Jr., pitcher Mike Lincoln, pitcher Kent Mercker outfielder Corey Patterson, Valentin and pitcher David Weathers.
It is likely the Reds will try to re-sign Affeldt, Hairston and Lincoln. Mercker plans to retire and Weathers said he plans to test the market.
“I’ve never had that many free agents on one team,” said manager Dusty Baker, “and when we started the season we had three more (Scott Hatteberg, Ken Griffey Jr., Adam Dunn).”
FIVE PLAYERS on the Reds roster are eligible for salary arbitration — third baseman Edwin Encarnacion, pitcher Matt Belisle, infielder/outfielder Jolbert Cabrera, pitcher Gary Majewski and infielder Andy Phillips.
For sure, the club will offer a contract to Encarnacion, but the rest are dubious — 50/50 at best.
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TweetA meeting in St. Louis under the ARCH
First of all, read this post about the big summit meeting of the big-heads in St. Louis today and how Bob Castellini wanted to know Dusty Baker’s goals.
Should he need to ask? If it isn’t a World Series championship, and pronto, then they have the wrong man. But they don’t.
After reading this, be sure to go to my previous post and read about Sunday’s pitcher, Adam Pettyjohn, and how he was days from death and lost 60 pounds and most of his intestines, but came back to not only live but to pitch again.
Sunday is his first major-league start since 2001, when he was hit with a deadly disease. A heart-warming story.
But first …
Owner Bob Castellini, general manager Walt Jocketty and manager Dusty Baker spent nearly five hours huddled in a St. Louis Hilton hotel suite discussing the future of the Cincinnati Reds.
At one point, Castellini turned to Baker and said, “What are your goals?” If Baker didn’t say, “Win a World Series and win it soon,” he should have been handed a ticket to Sacramento.
Baker sat in his office before Saturday’s game with the St. Louis Cardinals and said, “I told him exactly what I’m telling you now.
“The town, the people (fans) made it a lot less tough and more enjoyable than it could have been,” he said. “There is very little mean-spiritedness. I went into this situation with my eyes open.
“I’m in this for the long run to make this organization better and good for a long time.”
Told that fans are waiting for nothing more than a winner and that they’ve been overly patient during eight years of losing and no playoff appearances since 1995, Baker said, “That’s what I’m waiting for and that’s why I came.
“I’m seeing improvement and I’m seeing fight the way we’ve come back — like Friday night (down 6-4 in the ninth with two outs, Javier Valentin tied it with a two-run homer, though the Reds lost, 7-6) and like in Houston (down 8-1 in the ninth, the Reds scored five runs and had the tying run at-bat).
“Very rarely now are we blown out of games,” Baker added. “There has been only one game we’ve been blown out of in a long time (Cubs 14-9 on Sept. 6, but they also lost to Milwaukee week ago, 8-1).
“I like what I’m seeing and I’m liking this team, especially the nucleus,” he added. “And I’ll tell you there are other people taking notice of this team lately, you know.”
Baker said he hates to see a season come to an end, especially now.
“It’s always sad to me to have a season end,” he said. “It has been a long road and we’ve come through a lot together. Now I’m one year older and one year closer to the end of my career.”
But as he told Castellini, “Sometimes it is difficult to be patient because time is running out. That’s OK, though, because when I leave I want to have made this team a winner, won a championship and leave the organization in a better place than when we got here. I want to do what Tom Kelly did with the Minnesota Twins.”
VOLQUEZ: TENDINITIS
As expected, an MRI Saturday on pitcher Edinson Volquez’s left knee revealed nothing more than tendinitis. He’ll continue treatment and rest.
QUOTE
“The hardest thing about patience is being patient.” — Reds manager Dusty Baker.
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TweetFrom near-death to back on the mound
When Adam Pettyjohn faces The Great Pujols today in Busch Stadium, he won’t melt into a perspiration puddle. He’ll close his eyes briefly and think back to 2002.
He’ll think back to when he lost 65 pounds in three months. He’ll think back to when doctors told him he came within days of his body functions shutting down. He’ll think about near-death.
There is a line in his biography in the Cincinnati Reds media guide next to 2002 that says, “Did Not Pitch.” It almost could have said, “Did Not Live.”
So when the 30-year-old Pettyjohn makes his first major-league start since 2001 today against Pujols and the St. Louis Cardinals, he knows there are things more difficult than locating fastballs and holding runners on base.
The lefthanded Pettyjohn was a No. 2 draft pick of the Detroit Tigers in 1998 and steadily moved up the system until he reached the majors in 2001. He was 1-5 with a 5.82 ERA in six games, nine starts and seven relief appearances.
But something was wrong.
On Saturday, a day before his first major-league start in seven years, Pettyjohn smiles broadly and says, “I’ve been through it a little bit.”
He said it matter-of-factly, as if what he went through was nothing more than a long line at the grocery store checkout counter.
“I had ulcerated colitis right after my rookie year with the Tigers,” he said. “They took my entire colon out.”
Usually, Pettyjohn is a solid 200 pounds, but during his illness his weight dropped to 135 in a span of seven to eight weeks.
Pettyjohn paused to think about it, thinking about getting married after his rookie season and what it eventually entailed.
“It was diagnosed in the spring of 2001,” he said. That was the year of his major-league debut. “They diagnosed it and did the colonoscopy and all the proper tests.
“When they gave me the medications, there was about a two-month supply,” he added. “Right when the medication ran out was when I got called up (from Class AAA Toledo to Detroit).”
That’s when things turned ugly.
“I didn’t go back to get my medication,” he said. “I had a million things going on at the time.”
So Pettyjohn pitched without the medication and said sheepishly, “When the season was over, we just went home. A couple of the colonoscopies I had early were so brutal — there was no sedation, they couldn’t put me under — that I was hoping my body would heal itself.”
That wasn’t Dr. Pettyjohn talking, that was youth and stubbornness.
“Being young and strong, I thought that might happen,” he said. “Obviously, that didn’t happen and when the symptoms began coming back in October and November of 2001 (after his rookie) season I just basically hid it, hoping it would heal itself.”
That, as it turned out, was a terrible decision — like throwing Pujols a belt-high fastball right down the middle.
Pettyjohn and his wife went on their honeymoon and when they returned Pettyjohn decided it was time to see a doctor.
“They gave me all the same type of medication as I took before,” he said. “It was too far gone then and they didn’t realize it until mid-March.”
How bad was it?
“I couldn’t walk on my own,” he said. “I was walking with the aid of a walker for the last two weeks before I had surgery in March.” This isn’t good for a 22-year-old pitcher.
“I couldn’t use my voice because it was too sapping of my strength and energy,” he said. This isn’t good for a 22-year-old newlywed.
“I got married on January 12 and I still weighed 195,” Pettyjohn said. “By March 17 I was down to 135 pounds and it had nothing to do with my wife’s cooking.
“It hit fast and it hit hard and was a very tough thing to go through,” he added. “But I’m definitely better for it.”
That’s a positive way to look at near-death, which doctors told him was very close.
“When all this happened, I really didn’t care if I ever played another game of baseball,” he said. “The doctors told me after I had surgery in that when they opened me up I was literally days from my organs shutting down. I was so malnourished and nutritionally depleted. I was lucky to get the surgery when I did.
“What that disease does is spit out anything that’s in your intestines,” he said. “I was going to the bathroom 20 to 25 times a day. I was losing all my nutrients. All my blood. I was anemic, too. I had about half the blood count of a normal person.”
Pettyjohn, though, wouldn’t quit.
“A lot of hard work,” he said about the process of returning to the game. “When I started I couldn’t lift more than 10 pounds. For a year, my body didn’t do anything. Heck, I had a colostomy bag for six months.
“I didn’t have any choice over what I went through, but it definitely gives you a new and good perspective,” he said. “It gives you an appreciation for having your health and being able to go out and play this game.”
It wasn’t easy coming back.
He played briefly at Erie, Detroit’s Class AA affiliate, at the end of 2003, but was released. The San Francisco Giants signed him for the 2004 season and he pitched at Class AAA Fresno before he was sold to Oakland in mid-season and pitched at Class AAA Sacramento.
To stay in baseball, he had to sign with Long Beach of the Golden Independent League for 2005. When he went 10-2 with a 3.92 ERA in 16 starts, Seattle signed him to a minor-league contract for 2006. By June 21, he was released.
So it was back to Long Beach and the independents for just two starts before Oakland signed him again on July 14 of 2006.
Milwaukee signed him to a minor-league contract for 2007 and he won 16 games at Class AA Huntsville and Class AAA Nashville.
The Reds signed him last December as a minor-league free agent and he won 16 games for Class AAA Louisville and was rewarded with a promotion to the Reds on September 12, even though he was not on the 40-man roster.
And now, this afternoon in Busch Stadium, all the packing and moving and perseverance pays off. Albert Pujols? Who’s he?
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TweetAnother one down the drain (story, game)
Bet most of you don’t know of the hundreds of stories I’ve written over my career that never see the sports page. They are written, then things changed, and they are destroyed, never to see the light of print.
And it’s a bummer. Baseball writers hate it. It happened AGAIN in St. Louis. It always seems to happen in St. Louis and Houston, where the time differernce makes games end right on deadline.
That’s what happened Friday night. St. Louis led, 6-4, with two outs and one on in the ninth. Two strikes on pinch-hitter Javier Valentin.
So I sent my story, pushed the button on my computer. Back in the office, they began to edit it to get it quickly into the paper.
Then…bing, bam, boom. Valentin hits a home run to tie it, 6-6. The story is meaningless. Written for nobody but myself. Hey, guys, I’ve been at this a long, long time. I don’t need to practice.
I furiously began re-writing. Then the Cardinals won in the bottom of the ninth and I quickly filled in the gaps and pushed the button again. One game. Two stories. One meaningless.
The bane of the baseball writer.
The troops are retreating, two by two like Noah’s Ark, back to sick bay and points beyond, making it difficult for Cincinnati Reds manager Dusty Baker to fill out a lineup card.
He lost a couple more for the St. Louis series when closer Francisco Cordero underwent foot surgery and when Andy Phillips returned home for the birth of a child.
And with the recent defections to the surgeon’s table by outfielder Chris Dickerson and second baseman Brandon Phillips, Baker’s roster is full of crossed-out names, leaving him short even with the September call-ups.
That’s why Jerry Hairston Jr. was in unfamiliar territory Friday, left field, where he misplayed three balls into triples that led to two runs and an eventual 7-6 defeat to the St. Louis Cardinals in Busch Stadium.
It ended dramatically but quietly in the bottom of the ninth in front of a full-house of 44,709 when Mike Lincoln gave up a bases-loaded sacrifice fly to Troy Glaus.
Hairston, a stand-up guy, stood in front of his locker afterward describing the frustration of his night of triples.
“Wasn’t my finest hour, or I should say, my finest day,” he said. “One of those days. Couldn’t do anything right and if you play the game long enough it is going to happen.
“If it had been football, I put my defense behind the 8-ball,” Hairston added.
Baker only has to fill out two more cards after Bronson Arroyo reached 200 innings Friday for the fourth straight season, but gave up a career-high 13 hits, getting no-decision and finishing 15-11.
“It’s nice to get 200 four years in a row because it is kind of a goal, especially doing it the hard way this year,” he said. Then he smiled and added, “I would have taken 199 with a win.”
The Cardinals opened with rapid fire on Arroyo in the first after he issued a one-out walk to Felipe Lopez. Albert Pujols, Ryan Ludwick and Glaus each singled for two runs.
“Kind of a funny inning,” said Arroyo. “A couple of checked swings and a broken bat (Pujols) that also blooped in. They just found the holes.”
The first seven Reds made outs against Braden Looper before Ryan Hanigan singled in the second, then Joey Votto drew the Reds even in the third.
After Jeff Keppinger opened with a single, Votto drove his 23rd home run over the right field fence to tie it, 2-2. Votto also singled and walked.
The Reds took a 4-2 lead in the fifth, first scoring a by-the-book run — Hanigan singled for his second hit, Arroyo sacrifice bunted successfully for the second straight time and Jeff Keppinger’s second hit, a single, plated Hanigan.
Just how they draw it up in spring training, but seldom does it work that easily.
Votto walked and Edwin Encarnacion singled for another run.
It didn’t take long for the Cardinals to catch up at 4-all — just the bottom of the fifth. Lopez singled and Pujols crushed his 36th home run that was last seen headed for the Mississippi and the possible sinking of the Casino Queen riverboat.
“I thought Albert was looking inside and I tried to challenge him away,” said Arroyo. “Left it in the middle of the plate, right on the tee for him. A guy as good as he is isn’t going to miss that too often.”
About Hairston’s defensive exploits, Arroyo smiled and said, “That kind of stuff happens. Jerry hasn’t played much outfield in his career. We have a lot of guys were mixing and matching at different positions and stuff happens.”
The Cardinals took a 5-4 lead in the sixth when Hairston misplayed two balls into triples, one by Adam Kennedy and one by Looper, then Hairston misplayed another Kennedy hit into a triple in the eighth that led to another run and a 6-4 lead.
Javier Valentin’s two-out pinch-hit home run in the ninth, his sixth pinch-hit homer, tied it, 6-6, then Lincoln came in with a runner on first and walked Pujols on 3-and-2 and hit Ryan Ludwick on 1-and-2 to load the bases and set up the game-ending sacrifice fly.
“Looked like Triples Night in left field,” said manager Dusty Baker. “You don’t often see triples to left. Usually it’s to right. Tough way to lose on a sacrifice fly, especially after we came back on Valentin’s home run.”
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TweetThe ranks keep getting thinner
Left Dayton this morning at 6:20 a.m. and arrived in St. Louis at 6:30 a.m. (an hour time difference). Jumped a train from the airport to downtown and was at the hotel by 7 a.m. (Good job, American Airlines).
They even had my room ready, so I slept until noon at the Westin, my favorite hotel in the league.
Now I’m in Busch III for the the final three games of the season, wondering where the season went.
Just wondering. When rookie Johnny Cueto pitched this spring, and was lights out, he wore No. 77. Then he changed to 47, the number worn forever by pitcher/bullpen coach Tom Hume, until he was let go after last season.
Shoulda stayed with 77, Johnny.
Arrived in St. Louis to discover that the Reds are falling like trees in a tornado - and we know about that in Dayton.
Did you think Francisco Cordero was a bit, uh, overweight this year? Did you think Cordero was a bit slow running to cover first base? Did you think he walked too many this year and got into too many jams?
Yes, yes, yes, yes. And there was a reason.
Turns out the Reds’ $46 million closer pitched all season with a sore right foot and on Friday he had a bone spur removed.
Cordero was unable to do the normal running pitchers do to stay in shape and keep the pounds off.
Nevertheless he 5-4 with 34 saves in 40 opportunities and appeared in 72 games.
“It bothered him all year long and we were trying to keep him to use against teams that were in the playoff hunt,” said manager Dusty Baker. “He’ll be in a boot for four weeks, but should be ready for spring training. This thing has bothered him since spring training. He couldn’t run, couldn’t cover first base. He said some days it felt fine and other days it would kill him. That plays tricks on your head. And that’s one reason his weight was up. The bicycle is one thing, but running is another, especially when you are used to running.”
Asked who the closer will be for the last three games, Baker smiled and said, “We’ll see. Probably David Weathers. He has done it the most.”
Edinson Volquez, shut down from his scheduled Sunday start with a knee problem that has bothered him for several weeks, was back in Cincinnati to have it examined Friday.
Outfielder Chris Dickerson underwent surgery Friday to remove a bone from his left ankle.
JOEY VOTTAO woke up Friday morning with an extra triple. After reviewing the tapes, Major League Baseball reversed the official scorer’s call on a ball Votto hit to left field.
Ty Wigginton, normally an infielder, was playing left field and badly misplayed the ball, turning in different directions, but didn’t touch it. It was ruled an error until MLB changed it after the Reds appealed.
“It was a fair change,” said Baker. “The thing is, he is not an outfielder and you have to take that into consideration, too.”
In the same game, Votto hit a ball that thudded against a yellow line on the right field wall. Umpire reviewed it to see if it was a home run and ruled it was not. Since umpires reviewed that play, it is not eligible to be overturned by the MLB committee.
MICAH OWINGS, strictly a pinch-hitter now, plans an offseason of hard work on his troublesome shoulder so he will be ready this spring to compete for the one spot that appears available in the rotation behind Aaron Harang, Bronson Arroyo, Edinson Volquez and Johnny Cueto.
“I’m going to be doing a lot of exercising and shoulder isotonics, really stay on top of it,” said Owings. “I’m going to start throwing a little earlier in the offseason than I usually do to get ready for spring training. I usually start just before Christmas, but I’ll start earlier.”
Owings thought about pitching winter ball, but the Reds haven’t mentioned it, so it is on hold, “Although I’d do it if they wanted me to. With the two starts I had at (Class AAA) Tucson, I still had 115 innings. The most important thing for me is to stay with the stretching and strengthening.”
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TweetVotto: Rookie of the Year (Almost)
I don’t vote for Rookie of the Year. I vote for MVP and Manager of the Year.
If I had a vote, I’d vote for Joey Votto. Call me prejudiced, call me a homer, call me anything but late for dinner.
I’ve seen Votto all year and I’ve seen a superstar in the making.
I know. He won’t win. He is up against Chicago Cubs catcher Geovany Soto, who has THREE ADVANTAGES. He made the All-Star team and Votto didn’t. He plays for the division-winning Cubs and Votto plays for a stinkeroo. And Soto is a catcher, an extremely important position on a winning team.
Their numbers are so close they almost are a 1 and 1A entry.
Anyway, Votto has my vote - if I had one.
Votto admits he thinks about it, knows he is probably second choice, knows that the odds are long because Soto made the All-Star team and plays for the Cubs.
“That doesn’t mean I’ve given up on it, but I sincerely believe that when Geo was the catcher for the All-Star game it was pretty locked up,” said Votto.
“But I want to finish strong and I want to play to my best capabilities, but you can’t deny what he has done and what that club has done. Playing for the Cubs is a huge, huge deal and I tip my cap to him. He’s had a great, great year.”
And so has Votto — .288, 22 home runs, 30 doubles, 79 RBIs. Soto’s numbers are eerily similar — .286, 23 home runs, 28 doubles, 84 RBIs.
Votto continued stuffing the ballot box with glossy numbers Monday that included his 22nd home run and a two-run double.
The Reds came from four runs behind with a six-run seventh inning, punctuated emphatically by Votto’s two-run opposite-field double, and beat the Florida Marlins 7-5 in the final 2008 game in Great American Ball Park.
Starter Aaron Harang was down, 4-1 when lifted for a pinch-hitter in the seventh, but when the Reds scored six he was the winning pitcher.
“Did Aaron get the win? Good. I’m glad we helped him because we owe him,” said Votto. “There was an early three-month stretch where we weren’t helping him at all and we owe him a few more and hopefully we’ll give that to him in 2009.”
While talking about 2009, Votto was asked if he wishes this season could continue, instead of ending after six games on the road.
“I wish we were playing in October and I wish we were playing in the playoffs, but we didn’t earn that this year,” said Votto.
With Harang down 4-0 in the sixth, Votto crushed a 406-foot home run with two outs.
Then came the seventh.
Danny Richar singled and Corey Patterson doubled. Richar scored on pinch-hitter Ryan Hanigan’s fielder’s choice on which he reached base. Jolbert Cabrera batted for Harang and walked, filling the bases.
Jerry Hairston Jr. singled for two runs — one of his three hits — to tie it, 4-4. Facing a rugged lefthander, Arthur Rhodes, Votto drove a two-run double the opposite way to left field.
“Been a long time since we scored Harang a lot of runs and they came just on time,” said manager Dusty Baker. “We extended him, left him in there (122 pitches) to get him a victory.
“Votto’s hit against a guy with the experience of Arthur Rhodes says a lot,” said Baker. “He is real tough on lefthanders and he had a zero ERA up there. A great hit by Joey.
“I’m very proud of what he has done, especially what he has gone through (his father’s death at mid-season) and he is a clutch hitter who works hard, studies, works hard on his defense and baserunning. Sooner or later he’ll be an All-Star.”
And, hey. We haven’t even talked about Jay Bruce.
THE HOME SEASON is over for the Cincinnati Reds, their final game Monday played in Great American Ball Park in front of the Red Sea (oh, those were a sea of empty red seats, about 40,000 of them).
So how about a recap:
Record in GABP: 43-38
Longest home winning streak: 9 (May 7-28)
Longest home losing streak: 8 (Aug. 5-16)
Four memorable moments:
ONE: Rookie Johnny Cueto’s major-league debut on April 8 against the Phillies — two runs, five hits, no walks eight strikeouts — and he never came close to that afterward.
TWO: Former Dayton Dragon Paul Janish’s first major-league hit is a 10th-inning game-winning walkoff single against the Marlins after the Reds blew a six-run lead in the ninth. Janish’s reward? A shaving cream pie in the face.
THREE: Former Dayton Dragon Jay Bruce makes his major-league debut against the Pirates on May 27 and goes 3 for 3 with two walks and the crowd shouts, “Bruuuuuuce, Bruuuuuuce,” on every at-bat, hit and walk, something they continue to do, even on the road.
FOUR: A decent meal in the media dining room on July 26.
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TweetAnswering the barbs and the clueless
A man called the Cincinnati Reds ticket office Monday morning and said, “I have 12 people who want to come to the game today. What time does it start?”
And the answer was, “What time can you be here?”
Ka-boom.
You know that’s not true, because there weren’t a dozen people in Great American Ball Park Monday afternoon to watch the Reds and Florida Marlins play a game that was rained out in May.
On this day, the Reds had more mascots and cheerleaders than fans. They had the upper deck closed. When Florida’s Jeremy Hermida homered in the first inning, it was announced as, “412 feet. And that’s not the number of fans here.”
OK, I DON’T NORMALLY respond often to posters on my blog because most of you have a clue and make sane, well-thought comments. Now and then a few reveal they don’t have a clue. That would be some who responded to yesterday’s blog about Ryan Freel and Norris Hopper not showing up since they went on the DL.
TO JSHORTT: I appreciate your sane and calm approach in saying that you have seen Freel and Hopper at the park and working out. And you are correct. Freel and Hopper have appeared a couple of times, but not often.
TO GREG: I played baseball all my life, from the time I was 5. I went to college (Division I) on a baseball scholarship, so I did play the game. You sound like Tracy Jones. Even though I played the game, you don’t have to have played the game to know about it and love. How much did you play?
TO BRUISER: This isn’t speculation, pal. This didn’t come from me. And I didn’t write it to create controversy. I don’t do that. This came from comments in the clubhouse by teammates, coaches and other people INSIDE the organization.
As for all those comments excusing Freel because his wife just had a baby. How many of you guys stayed home a long period of time, stayed away from your job, because your wife had a baby? If you did, are you still employed?
CHRIS: No, it’s not a big issue deal, just something that is being talked about in the clubhouse - the mood about things in the clubhouse is important. As for what you consider important, I told you to light a match and burn that letter you received from Reds management. Meant nothing. And all those questions about the future have been addressed and asked. Management just isn’t prepared to answer them yet.
That comes in the off-season.
I know the informed and those who want to be informed are the silent majority, but it is still disconcerting when the name-callers and the uninformed creep into the blog. It again makes me stop and think, “Why bother?”
To those who gave calm, reasonable reasons why they think what Freel and Hopper are doing is OK, that’s fine. Appreciate your input. And to those who agree with my viewpoint, same thing. Thanks.
To the loudmouth minority …
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TweetWhere did Freel and Hopper go?
There are a couple of players who not only are on the DL, they are AWOL.
Well, maybe AWOL is a bit harsh. AWOL means absent without leave and, well, maybe it isn’t too harsh.
Nobody said Ryan Freel and Norris Hopper couldn’t leave when it was determined that injuries ended their season. And they haven’t been seen much in the clubhouse.
In contrast, Alex Gonzalez hasn’t played all season, but he is in the clubhouse all the time and has been most of the season.
It says something to manager Dusty Baker and it says something to the other players.
“Are you with us or not?”
Brandon Phillips broke his finger a couple of weeks ago. Yes, that was only a couple of weeks ago, in contrast to the injuries to Hopper and Freel that happened long ago.
But Phillips could have packed it in and packed it up. Gone home. Instead he is still wandering the clubhouse and dugout, sometimes in his uniform. Baker has to shoo him out of the dugout during games, “Because he has those two pins in his finger and what if a foul ball comes in there and he sticks out his hand to fend it off?”
The point about Freel and Hopper is this? When it comes down to making some choices next spring, what is going to be remembered about them? They didn’t care enough to stick around and support their teammates.
Baker likes guys like Edwin Encarancion and Jay Bruce, guys who got hurt recently but are already begging to get back in the lineup.
After missing five straight games, Encarnacion took batting practice Sunday and said, “I plan to play (today).”
Bruce was hit by a pitch Saturday and although he said he is all right, manager Dusty Baker didn’t even ask him about playing Sunday, “But I’m sure he’ll be OK (for today).”
Of Encarnacion’s and Bruce’s desires to play, even with nothing at stake, Baker said, “I like that. I’m telling you, I like guys who want to play. I don’t care if nothing is at stake, you have to want to play. I don’t like those shut-it-down guys who shut it down.
“Guys who want to play have pride and hunger,” Baker added. “And you can’t give that to anybody. It comes from inside. You have it or you don’t.”
What do you think? Should Freel and Hopper at least be at home games? There was a time when Matt Williams had a broken hand with a cast on it, but he was in uniform before games making soft toss pitches to his teammates.
Guess you know where I stand.
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TweetWhen he can’t pitch, he can hit
When a pitcher can’t pitch, for whatever reason, his value to a baseball team usually is the same as a bride at a wedding without a groom.
And there was a wedding in Great American Ball Park Saturday in the stands before the Cincinnati Reds-Milwaukee Brewers baseball game. Both bride and groom showed up.
Micah Owings does not apply — he is a pitcher who can’t pitch right now, but he isn’t useless.
Owings, who has put away his slider and changeup for the year due to an injury, still carries a bat — and for a good reason.
The guy can hit.
The Brewers and C.C. Sabathia discovered that Saturday in Great American when Reds manager Dusty Baker sent up Owings to pinch-hit.
The bases were loaded with one out and the Reds down a run when Owings fought off a 1-and-2 pitch and lobbed a two-run single down the right field line that gave the Reds a one-run lead and they held on for a 4-3 victory.
After making life miserable and unbearable for the Brewers in Milwaukee recently, then ruining Arizona’s hopes and dashing St. Louis prayers for a wild card, the Reds are in the process of squashing Milwaukee’s wild card ambitions. They’ve beaten Milwaukee four of five over less than a two-week period.
It was the second game-winning pinch-hit for Owings since the Reds acquired him from Arizona in the Adam Dunn trade.
“C.C. was throwing a great game and I’d never faced him before and I was just trying to put something out there,” he said. “I love hitting and I’ve been blessed from an early age to be able to hit.
“I just love playing the game,” Owings added. “It was a disappointing season as far as pitching goes. I know I’m a lot better than what I showed, then I hurt my arm.
“I feel a lot better now and they made the decision to shut me down from pitching, but at least they are letting me swing the bat,” he said.
Sabathia, 9-1 when the game began and pitching on three days of rest for the first time in his career, gave up three straight hits to start his day, including a run-scoring single by Joey Votto.
Then he settled in and gave up only a bunt single by pitcher Johnny Cueto in the fifth and the Reds were down, 2-1.
The sixth was when things became unraveled for the blue Brew Crew.
Votto opened with a single and Andy Phillips walked. Corey Patterson dropped a sacrifice bunt that first baseman Prince Fielder picked up. Then he dropped it for an error that filled the bases.
After Jolbert Cabrera popped up, Owings delivered for the 3-2 lead. Adam Rosales followed with another single to make it 4-2, a run that was needed because closer Francisco Cordero gave up a leadoff home run to Rickie Weeks in the ninth.
Jason Kendall then singled and with one out shortstop Jeff Keppinger bungled a potential game-ending double play ball. Cordero walked Ryan Braun to fill the bases, then recovered by striking out Fielder.
The Reds are 10-7 this year against Milwaukee and Cordero, who pitched last year for the Brewers, has six saves, something he says, “Is just a coincidence, something that has just happened because of opportunities. I struck out Fielder with a change-up, a pitch that has been good for me recently.”
Cueto (9-13) held the Brewers to two runs and six hits over six innings to gain his first victory in his last five starts, although he lost only two of those starts.
The Brewers scored their only two runs off him in the fourth, a run-scoring single by Corey Hart and a run-scoring double to Weeks.
“The only bad pitch Cueto made all day was a hanging slider to Weeks,” said manager Dusty Baker.
In the middle of that two-run sixth, Fielder tried to score from second on Hart’s single and center fielder Jerry Hairston Jr. threw him out from the distance between home plate and Newport, Ky.
It was not a prince of a day for Fielder. He veered inside the baseline and elbowed catch Ryan Hanigan while trying to score, he made the error the kept the Reds’ big sixth inning going and he struck out to end the game.
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TweetREDS RECORD!!! - Not Majors
Hey, Aaron - the talk was about REDS - Joey Votto and Jay Bruce. The writer and Dusty Baker were referring to the REDS RECORD FOR ROOKIES - which is Frank Robinson with 38. I don’t think McGwire played for the Reds.
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TweetBaker’s prescription for success
Dusty Baker watches what he is seeing on the baseball field these days from his Cincinnati Reds and feels good about 2009.
And he wonders what might have been in 2008, “If we hadn’t led the league in broken bones, had eight or nine deaths of close relatives that takes it toll emotionally, had to play so many different shortstops (six)and had so many injuries that left us thin in the outfield — like Ryan Freel and Norris Hopper.”
And he mentions three things at which the Reds must improve dramatically:
ONE: Road record (30-45).
TWO: Record within the National League Central (29-41), especially against Houston (2-10) and last place Pittsburgh (6-9)
THREE: Defense, “Improved defense, big-time,” he said. “There was a long period where we were giving away one or two runs every game.”
Baker, though, sees 2009 as a much better season.
“You look at Edinson Volquez (16-6), Johnny Cueto (8-13) and you know Aaron Harang (5-16) is going to be better and you hope Bronson Arroyo (15-10) is going to be the same,” he said.
“Then we have a young kid like Josh Roenicke and you know Francisco Cordero (5-4, 31 saves) is going to be better, even though he has been great lately,” Baker added. “Bill Bray made it through the year without injury for the first time.”
And Bake likes what he sees of some of the young players called up in September and said, “They’ll be better, especially if they make the adjustments and I feel they will.
“Our bullpen is better and I think Jared Burton (5-1) is getting better and better. Brandon Phillips and Edwin Encarnacion will have better years. We’ll hopefully have Jerry Hairston Jr. with us from from the beginning.”
Baker cited a deeper bench and more speed, “And I love speed,” then added, “There are a lot of reasons for optimism. We have a different team right now, one that’s young and with a good nucleus.”
Of course, that’s what every manager says, right?
“You want light at the end of the tunnel and you want hope, but you don’t want manufactured hope, you want real hope. We have it,” he said.
THOSE SEVEN home runs the Reds hit Friday night against the Brewers not only shattered the pysche of Milwaukee’s pitching staff, it emptied the supply of fireworks.
Fireworks are touched off after each Reds home run and after each Reds victory, but that won’t happen the rest of the season — a game today against the Brewers and one Monday against the Florida Marlins.
Because of last week’s windstorm, Rozzi’s World Famous Fireworks stopped production and the company’s supply is gone..
ON YONDER ALONSO: “He hit some good ones, showed some power and hit some line drives and, yes, he hit a few out yonder.” — Manager Dusty Baker after No. 1 draft pick Yonder Alonso took batting practice.
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TweetVotto-Bruce: Friendly competition
Questions and comments:
Is Milwaukee’s Prince Fielder the heaviest vegetarian in the world or does he just keep eating very big carrots?
When first baseman Fielder couldn’t scoop a throw out of the dirt, somebody in the press box said, “The only thing he can scoop is ice cream.”
It’s a tough crowd, a tough crowd.
ANOTHER ONE from a Milwaukee person, this one about former Reds pitcher Todd Coffey, now pitching for the Brewers.
“When he took his shirt off we thought his name should be Todd Coffey & Donuts.”
ON THE BRIGHTER side, Rita Butcher, mother to Reds media relations director Rob Butcher, brings homemade pies to the press box a couple of times a year. This week she brought some apple and some pumpkin.
Best pumpkin pie I ever had. Then I tried a piece of the apple. Best apple pie I ever had. That’s makes Rita Butcher three-for-three, because her strawberry pie is not only gthe best strawberry pie I ever had, but the best pie EVER.
MILWAUKEE BREWERS were 5 1/2 games up in the wild card two weeks ago. They are 4-14 in September. Some teams have a pennant race, the Brewers have a sausage race.
The fun at the expense of so-called contenders continues for the Cincinnati Reds — a bunch of guys who entered late with no marbles and are taking away everybody else’s marbles.
It all began two weeks ago when the Reds took two of three from the Chicago Cubs in Great American Ball Park.
Then they took two of three in Milwaukee, two of three in Arizona and came home to take two of three from St. Louis.
Every one of those defeats were dagger-stabs to the losing teams.
On Friday night in Great American. they began torturing the Milwaukee Brewers again, an 11-2 annihilation that put another carpenter’s nail in Milwaukee’s playoff door.
Before the game, manager Dusty Baker said emphatically, “I’d like to end this weekend on a very-high note.”
How about a high ‘C?’
The Reds slammed seven home runs, two each by Joey Votto and Jay Bruce, plus one each by Jerry Hairston Jr., Jolbert Cabrera and pinch-hitter Andy Phillips.
First baseman Yonder Alonso, the Reds’ No. 1 draft pick in June, was in the park and Votto figured he would show the kid that he won’t be giving up his job without a skirmish.
Both Votto and Bruce own 21 home runs. They are friends, yes. They are in friendly competition, yes.
Asked if they were, Votto said, “Very, very much so. We get on each other and there is a little half-smirk when one or the other does something. I guess it is called one upmanship. He is one of those guys who is just so good that it is nice to have someone at that level to compete with.”
Votto hit the longest, but he smiled and said, “A homer is a homer. He hit two today and so did I.”
Bruce smiled equally wide over the competition question with Votto.
“It is friendly competition,” he said. “We push it other unconsciously — I mean subconsciously. If we were unconscious we wouldn’t be awake.”
Both are wide, wide awake.
“We just have a good time, play the game hard and let our abilities take care of itself,” Bruce added.
Baker sees the competition, too, and likes it;.
“It is good to see them matching each other and it shows how bright our future is and how bright their future is,” he said. “They’re good friends. They hang together, they play catch together. That’s what you want. You want those guys close. There is no envy and no jealousy involved.”
Baker asked what the record is for a rookie hitting home runs, since Votto and Bruce are rookies and when somebody said, “Frank Robinson, 38,” Baker laughed and said, “Whoa. That’s one that is going to stand for a long time and has stood for a long time.”
Rookie Ramon Ramirez won his first major-league game, holding the Brewers to two runs and seven hits over six innings.
The Reds had five runs in the first inning before starting pitcher Jeff Suppan recorded an out — on his 17th pitch — enabling Ramirez to coast as if he were on The Beast at Kings Island.
Hairston led the bottom of the first with a single, Wilkin Cabrera beat a bunt single and Votto drilled his 20th home run. Cabrera singled and Bruce crashed his 20th home run to make it 5-0.
Adam Rosales grounded out for the first out record by Suppan.
Votto’s 21st home run, leading off the third, made it 6-0, then Hairston’s fourth homer, a two-run shot in the fourth, made it 8-0.
The home runs kept coming and it looked as if the stacks in center field would run out of smoke or the Reds would be charged by the Environmental Protection Agency with pollution.
It added up to Cincinnati’s eighth win in their last 11 games and another victory over a contender fast becoming a pretender. Milwaukee is nine games behind the Cubs in the National League Central and 2 1/2 games behind in the National League wild card standings.
It was the second time this season the Reds hit seven homers in Great American, a park record. On May 7 against the Cubs Votto hit three, while Adam Dunn, Brandon Phillips, Paulo Bako and Hairston each hit one.
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TweetFun, games and comedy, too
The Mike Birbiglia comedy show at Dayton’s Victoria theatre Thursday night was outstanding. Very funny guy. And he doesn’t resort to potty talk to make you laugh.
Had seats in the front row (me and Bob Uecker) and at the end of show he did his little gig about me and how he inadvertently made fun of me at the New York Baseball Writers MVP dinner in 2003, not knowing that I am legally blind.
Then he said I was in the audience and introduced me. A fun night.
Wasn’t sorry I missed the Reds 5-4 loss to the Cardinals, though. Am sorry that nobody from out newspaper was there - probably a first since about 1940 or maybe since pterodactyl’s flew over Rockpile Stadium.
But it has been a tough week on the paper, as well as residents all over the area. Because we had no power at our printing plant, our paper was printed by the Columbus Dispatch, so our deadlines were ungodly - like 5 p.m. Wednesday.
That meant there would be nothing in the paper about the game, just a news story about the Reds 2009 schedule and a Reds Notebook.
But today’s paper had nothing on the Reds and the web-site had an Associated Press story. Sorry about that. But I needed a few good laughs and Birbiglia provided them.
Yonder Alonso was wearing jeans and a navy blue sport coast as he sat in the home dugout, but he envisioned himself wearing a Cincinnati Reds uniform.
“I picture myself being here right now playing against the Milwaukee Brewers,” said Alonso, the first baseman out of the University of Miami (Fla.) the Reds drafted No. 1 in June. “I’m ready to put on a uniform and play.”
Alonso signed late and played only 16 games at Class A Sarasota, where he batted .316 with one double and two RBIs, the double coming on his first at-bat.
He’ll catch up on his playing time, though. After he takes batting practice with the Reds today, he is going to play ball In Hawaii, then he is going to play winter ball in the Dominican Republic as the Reds fast-track him toward the majors.
“My first six games in pro ball were nerve-racking and the first couple I wasn’t really myself,” he said. “Baseball is baseball and I loved it.”
When Alonso signed, he said he was anxious to meet Ken Griffey Jr. and Adam Dunn. Instead he met Jay Bruce, a rookie who Griffey and Dunn helped during spring training.
“My goal always has been to play pro baseball and when you love the game so much you just want to get to the highest level,” he said. “Bruce has helped all through this. That’s good because once I get here the young guys here now will help me out. That’ll make my transition easier.
“Jay told me just to be cool every day and that this is a great place and a great city,” said Alonso. “He told me it is a great franchise with a great fan base.”
Alonso played first base and third base at Sarasota, “And I can play the outfield, but I didn’t play any outfield. Whatever they want me to do, I’ll do.”
THIRD BASEMAN Edwin Encarnacion missed his third straight game with a sore left wrist, but neither he nor manager Dusty Baker have plans to shut him down for the season.
“If he can play, he’ll play,” said Baker. “I’m sure there are some things to wants to accomplish. Like I tell them all, round off your numbers — if you have 69 RBIs, go for 70. If are hitting .269, go for .270.”
Encarnacion said his wrist remains sore after he tried to check a swing last Saturday in Arizona against Randy Johnson.
“Maybe tomorrow (today),” he said. “I still want to play. I want to finish strong and a lot can happen in seven or eight games.”
Encarnacion leads the team with 25 homers now that Adam Dunn is gone. He always seems to be way up way down on his performance level and was on an up when was injured — .343 over his last nine games.
THE MILWAUKEE BREWERS changed their rotation, moving C.C. Sabathia from Sunday to this afternoon, the first time in his career he has pitched on only three days of rest.
Taking Sabathia’s place Sunday to face Bronson Arroyo will be Seth McClurg. Sabathia (9-1, 1.82 for Milwaukee) goes against Johnny Cueto.
AS WRITERS walked into Baker’s office, Hall of Famer Frank Robinson was getting up to leave and somebody said to Baker that there were a lot of major-league hits in the room and Baker point to Robby and said, “Yeah, mostly his.”
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TweetHarang treats Cardinals like dogs
They didn’t set off fireworks after each of three home runs the Cincinnati Reds hit in the fourth inning Wednesday.
They didn’t want the SPCA all over their backs. With about 400 canines in the stands on Bark in the Park Night, they didn’t want to frighten the pooches.
But when two bozos leaped out of the stands and led security on a not-so-merry chase, they should have let the dogs out - all of them. Let ‘em chase the goofballs.
The power outage plaguing much of Ohio was not evident — especially in the fourth inning.
The Cincinnati Reds, hitless through three innings against St. Louis starter Todd Wellemeyer, plugged in three solo home runs in the fourth by third baseman Andy Phillips (2), right fielder Jay Bruce (19) and shortstop Paul Janish (1).
And they needed an extension cord to find Bruce’s 438-foot blast that crashed against the black batter’s eye in center.
That’s all Aaron Harang needed to push his record to 5-16, his sixth straight quality start, but only his second win in those six starts.
The home run by Phillips leading off the fourth was all Harang really needed, and it soothed Phillips, who struck out in the first with a runner on second to end the inning, then made a throwing error to start the top of the second.
“What I was excited about was getting Aaron some run support, because he has really pitched his tail off the last six outings and he didn’t have a lot to show for it,” said Phillips.
“For us to be able to put up those three runs in one inning, the way he was pitching, was huge,” Phillips added.
Of his first-inning strikeout and second-inning error, Phillips said, “That was ridiculous, the way I started out — striking out with a runner in scoring position and throwing the ball away. I’m thinking, ‘You have to be kidding.’ “
Harang gave up singles to the first two Cardinals to open the game, then coaxed a double play out of Albert Pujols and coasted the rest of the way — only four more hits as the Cardinals lost for the seventh straight time.
“I knew he would try to drive something and also knew if I made a good pitch that I had a good shot of getting out of the inning,” said Harang. “I threw a slider down and away and the big thing was that it was down.”
Most of Harang’s 111 pitches were down enough that the Cardinals needed shovels to him them as he pitched the team’s second complete game.
It isn’t culture shock when Bruce homers, but it is for Phillips and Janish. Phillips was a late replacement for Edwin Encarnacion (sore left wrist) and Janish was a playing because it was look-see day for him, a rare start to see how he does.
He was called up for a little more than a month in May and sent back in June and manager Dusty Baker said, “He belonged in Louisville to learn in the first place. He was here because we had everybody hurt.
“You want all young guys to learn from that experience,” Baker added. “What happens is they learn how to pitch to you rather quickly. Now we see what kind of adjustments he has made.”
Of Wednesday’s lineup, Baker said, “I’m trying to win games, respect the guys who have been here all year and play the young guys. It’s hard to do all three, but we’ve balanced it pretty good.”
Janish’s home run was his first in the majors and he called it, “An awesome feeling, even if it did hit the top of the wall and bounce over. I hadn’t had an at-bat in awhile, but for some reason I saw the ball real good tonight.”
Janish said he feels more comfortable, more as if he belongs, than his first call-up.
“I was emotionally driven when I came up for the first time and it was awesome,” he said. “I started hot, then the second half — the last three weeks — I struggled pretty bad.
“This time I’m more relaxed and accustomed to being in a big-league clubhouse,” he added. “The first time you’re called up and you see Ken Griffey Jr. in the clubhouse, it is something to adjust to.”
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TweetMore power to you (and me)
Nadine now believes I’m clairvoyant.
Before I left for Tuesday’s game, I told her, “You’ll have power and electricity by 11 o’clock tonight.”
As I walked into the parking garage after Tuesday’s game at 10:55, my cellphone rang. “We have power,” she said. “Just came on.”
What a lucky guess. For all you thousands and thousands who didn’t (and still don’t) have power, how many times have you clicked a light switch, forgetting? How many have times have you picked up the TV remote and clicked the ‘on’ button? How many times have you opened the refrigerator door to grab a snack?
WANT TO get away from it all for a while? Join me Thursday night at the Victoria Theatre in Dayton for comedian Mike Birbiglia’s show - unless it’s sold out. He is a regular on the Bob & Tom radio show and we met at a Baseball Writers dinner in New York in 2004 and he now includes me in his act - part of his schtick. Makes fun of me, actually, but all in good sport and I, of course, love it.
THE NEW YORK METS furnish the opposition on April 6 when the Cincinnati Reds open the 2009 season in Great American Ball Park.
With a later start in 2009, if the World Series goes seven games the season could spill into November.
The National League Central teams play teams from the American League Central for the most part in ‘09, with the Reds entertaining the Cleveland Indians (as always) for three games the weekend of May 22-24, with a return visit to Cleveland the weekend of June 26-27.
The Chicago White Sox visit Great American Ball Park the weekend of June 19-21 while the Reds are in Kansas City June 12-14 and visit Toronto of the AL East June 23-25.
The Reds played in Toronto this season, but for some reason return there while not playing either Minnesota or Detroit of the AL Central.
Manager Dusty Baker hadn’t seen the schedule before Wednesday’s game, but he wrinkled his brow when he heard the team wasn’t going to Minnesota and said, “I like going there. Good fishing.”
After a three-game season’s opening series against the Mets, the Reds dive into NL Central play by hosting Pittsburgh for three, then take a three-city trip for three in Milwaukee, four in Houston and three in Chicago.
The season ends in Cincinnati with three against St. Louis and three against Pittsburgh the weekend of October 2-4.
MANAGER DUSTY Baker’s lineup card was ready, but two of the players on it were not.
Third baseman Edwin Encarnacion (sore left wrist) and left fielder Chris Dickerson (sore Achilles tendon) were scratched just before the Cincinnati Reds took practice prior to their Wednesday game against the St. Louis Cardinals.
“We brought up all these extra bodies and we still end up short,” said Baker, pulling a bottle out of his desk drawer. “We’re about to put Wite-Out out of business.”
Encarnacion, who had a three-run double Tuesday to turn a one-run deficit into a two-run lead in a 7-2 win over the Cardinals, said he hurt his wrist Saturday in Arizona.
“I tried to check a swing on a Randy Johnson slider,” he said, sitting in a clubhouse chair with an ice bag wrapped around the wrist.
Baker knew something extremely painful had to be bother Encarnacion to pull himself out of the lineup, “Because he never says anything. He never even goes into the training room.”
Dickerson’s Achilles tendon has been bothering him off and on since his Aug. 12 call-up from Class AAA Louisville.
KENT MERCKER, who hasn’t pitched early June due to a bad back, was handed an envelope in the clubhouse and he quickly ripped it open, scanned the thick multi-paged letter and tossed it into the trash.
“Talk about a waste eight pages of paper,” he said. “It was addressed to: ‘All potential free agents.’ “
Mercker will be a free agent, but as he said, “What kind of market is out there for me?” Then he paused and said, “Well, hey. I’m left-handed, I’m 40 and I’m well-rested.”
Mercker has tried to play long toss and throw off the mound, “But my back is not working.”
Most likely he is headed for retirement and said, “I’m starting my new profession — turning vodka into urine.”
BAKER SAYS often one of the many things he likes about first baseman Joey Votto is that he is willing to learn, both by listening and by quiet observation.
Before Wednesday’s game, Votto was standing attentively while St. Louis first baseman Albert Pujols displayed some finer points of first-base footwork.
The lesson went on for more than 15 minutes.
REDS UTILITY player Andy Phillips was filling out a Player of the Year ballot when he asked Kent Mercker’s advice. When Mercker suggested Cleveland pitcher Cliff Lee, Phillips balked at picking a pitcher and Mercker said, “Oh, pitchers are players, too, but you are one of those guys who has to pick an everyday player,” to which the seldom-used Phillips said, “Hey, look at who you are talking to.”
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TweetA win for EE and JTM
For most of last season, Edwin Encarnacion was Mr. Clutch — put runners in scoring position or fill the bases and he would drive in some runs, usually sweep the bases clean.
But the man who hit .360 last season with runners in scoring position went into a witness protection program this year.
The St. Louis Cardinals found him Tuesday night, standing there in the batter’s box in Great American Ball Park in the sixth inning with the bases loaded.
Encarnacion drilled a three-run double that turned a one-run deficit into a two-run lead and the Cincinnati Reds turned that into a 7-2 victory over the fast-disappearing Cardinals, losers of six straight games including three straight in Pittsburgh before arriving here.
The Reds put it away in the eighth with a two-run bases loaded double by Corey Patterson.
It also helped Bronson Arroyo win for the 15th time, most in his career, and his 11th victory in his last 14 decisions since giving up 11 runs in one inning at Toronto June 24.
“Sometimes you are not proud of how you’re pitching and sometimes it wakes you up,” said manager Dusty Baker. “Dick Pole (pitching coach) told me at that time that Arroyo is capable of a heck of streak, capable of running off a lot of wins. And that’s what he has done — Dick was telling the truth.”
Fifteen wins is a major deal for Arroyo, who twice won 14, including his first year with the Reds in 2006.
“I’ve said for a long time that 15 wins, 20 quality starts and 200 innings is a goal,” said Arroyo. “I’ve had the 200 innings a few times and 20 quality starts a couple of times, so 15 wins finally puts me over that plateau.”
Arroyo, though, does agree that the Toronto debacle was an alarm clock going off on the mound. It is more the sinker that he is now throwing, one with a new grip Pole showed him.
“That enabled me to command the inside part of the plate on righthanders better than I ever have in my career,” he said. “It keeps hitters from sitting on my breaking pitches and always looking for me to throw pitches away.
“After hitters see you for such a long time, it becomes a big ol’ chess match,” Arroyo added. “You can see them guessing if it is going to be a breaking ball away or a fastball away. Bringing something new to the table — I can see the looks on faces when they swing and miss on a sinker because I haven’t thrown that pitch on a consistent basis since 1996 or 1997 in the minors.”
Arroyo went seven inning, giving up two runs (both homers) and five hits, walking none and striking out four.
Encarnacion took the first three pitches during his big at-bat, taking two for strikes and the third was extremely close.
“He (Looper) threw me two very good pitches on the first two and he finally threw me a split and I saw it perfectly and put a good swing on it,” said Encarnacion.
Of his prowess with runners in scoring position last year and his problems this year, Encarnacion said, “Last year I was lucky with runners in scoring position because when I hit the ball it wasn’t right at anybody. I’ve tried to do the same thing this year, be aggressive, but I haven’t been as lucky.”
So now the Reds are 41-39 against teams over .500 and 28-42 against teams under .500. Go figure.
The Cardinals grabbed a 1-0 lead in the second when Troy Glaus, out a week with a right shoulder strain, returned to the lineup and crashed his 24th home run leading off the inning.
The Reds had only one hit off Braden Looper through five innings, a single by Chris Dickerson — and he was the only baserunner.
Arroyo started the sixth with a single. After Chris Dickerson’s single single and a walk to Joey Votto, Encarnacion unloaded his 1-and-2 two-out three-run double.
St. Louis drew to within 3-2 in the seventh on a home run by Aaron Miles, but the Reds retrieved that run in the bottom half on pinch-hitter Danny Richar’s fielder’s choice.
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TweetThe power play in Cincinnati
A lot of the Cincinnati Reds are without power — and I mean the electrical kind, not the power in their bats. Most of them have neither.
Pitching coach Dick Pole put it in pretty good perspective, though, when he said, “I’m tired of hearing the bitching and the moaning that somebody with a $2 million house doesn’t have electricity. Tell that to the guy in an iron lung.”
Jerry Hairston Jr. feels the same way.
“No power at my place,” he said. “I came to the ballpark to shower. Others have it a lot worse, like those poor people in Crystal Beach near Galveston. Count your blessings. My house is still standing, so I can live with no power.”
Jay Bruce’s Houston home is within three miles of downtown and while the city is torn apart his house was spared.
“It’s like Hurricane Ike was going to get me, no matter what,” said Bruce. “But I didn’t even lose power up here. Just lucky.”
Gary Majewski also lives in the Houston area, but said he got it worse in Cincinnati’s Hyde Park neighborhood than he did in Texas.
“They got our power back on in Houston in a day,” he said. “It’s three days here and still no power. A big ol’ tree went through the power lines here.”
Manager Dusty Baker lives downtown, which wasn’t hit hard in Cincinnati, but he said, “We weren’t spared in MY town. No power. Still don’t have it. It makes you appreciate stuff. This ain’t that bad.”
Aaron Harang had no power until early this morning and said, “Our power came on at 5 a.m. How do I know?. My alarm clock started going beep, beep, beep and I had to get up and turn it off as well as all the TVs and lights in the house.”
There is no power for the third straight day at The McCoys, either. Nadine threw away everything out of the refrigerator. We are living by candlelight. Do you know how tough it is to lay in bed and read a book - holding the book in one hand and a flashlight in the other?
For our morning coffee, we walked a block to a Kroger (which never lost power) and stood in a long line at Starbuck’s. Lots of people need their morning coffee.
The night before we stopped at Donato’s Pizza to place our order for supper because we heard it took 3 1/2 hours for delivery.
Somebody tell me, what did they do before electricity? No, I wasn’t there.
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TweetMeet the one-run wonders
It wasn’t like watching paint dry, it was like watching the third coat of paint being dried with a hair blower.
It would have been more exciting to sit in the middle of the Sonoran desert at high noon counting cacti, or maybe watching the Cincinnati Bengals, than watching the Cincinnati Reds and Arizona Diamondbacks foist futility on 27,297 in Chase Field Sunday.
The Diamondbacks, reputedly in the chase for the National League West title, stranded 17 runners and were 0-for-13 with runners in scoring position, waiting around long enough for Corey Patterson to hit a 10th inning one-out home run off the right field foul pole for a 2-1 Reds victory.
When the much-maligned Patterson homered, the Reds had only two hits and 19 straight hitters had gone down impotently. But it enabled the Reds to finish 4-2 on the trip to Milwaukee and Arizona, with all six games decided by one run.
Cincinnati starter Johnny Cueto used more pitches than a bad salesman, 115 in five innings. At one point in the fifth inning, Cueto had thrown more balls (54) than strikes (53). He walked six.
He finished with 56 balls and 59 strikes, tying Chicago’s Carlos Zambrano and Baltimore’s Daniel Cabrera for most balls thrown out of the strike zone in one game this year.
But the only run he gave up was a fifth-inning home run to Justin Upton, a home run that tied it, 1-1, after Jay Bruce hit his 18th homer, leading off the fourth.
Then 19 straight Reds went down until Patterson’s home run.
“Cueto threw a lot of pitches, but he really battled,” said manager Dusty Baker, referring to the fact the D-Backs left one on in the first, then two each in the second, third and fourth against Cueto.
The stranding continued against the Reds bullpen — two, three, three, zero, two over the last six innings.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen a team score one run and strand 17 batters,” said Baker. “They were threatening every inning and we were fortunate to come away with it.”
The D-Backs stranded 13 Saturday in a 3-2 10-inning loss to the Reds. In the two games, they were 1 for 24 with runners in scoring position.
Former Reds outfielder Adam Dunn stranded 10 runners over the three-game series, five Sunday. His only RBI came Saturday when he was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded.
The Reds did walk him twice intentionally with runners in scoring position. He hit into a double play in the first with two on and struck out with the bases loaded in the eighth against Bill Bray.
Arizona starter Max Scherzer, 24, the team’s No. 1 draft choice in 2007, held the Reds to one run (Bruce’s homer) and two hits over six innings, walking three and striking out nine.
But the D-Back pinch-hit for him in the sixth when they had two on and one out, going for the downs on that one. But pinch-hitter Jamie D’Antona and David Eckstein popped out against lefthander Adam Pettyjohn, making his debut for the Reds.
But with the tying run on second and the winning run on first, Cabrera caught Young looking at strike three.
“I can tell a difference in the way we’ve played since we played the Cubs at home, then Milwaukee and these guys (Arizona) on the road, all contenders,” said Patterson. “Those teams were all down for playoff spots and to us this was our playoffs. And we’ve played great.”
Patterson, hitting .204 with nine homers this year, has been an offensive mirage, but his defense has been exemplary most of the year, including two near-the-wall stabs in this series.
The fact the Cincinnati Reds are 5-2 over a span of seven straight one-run games through Saturday was impressive to Eric Davis, but he wants to see the team do better, like 7-0, and do it in April, May and June — when it counts.
“Our main objective here is to change the mentality,” said Davis, the former Reds superstar outfielder now traveling with the team as an unofficial coach. The mentality, of course, is a losing one — eight straight years of it.
“That’s what we’re working on, how to win, what it takes to win,” he said. “We lost a one-run game in Milwaukee Wednesday that we should have won and we lost a one-run game Friday in Arizona we should have won. Those games make a huge difference over the course of a season.
“We need to learn what to do and what not to do in those kinds of games,” he said. “My message to young players is to do what you can do and don’t try to do more and don’t do less.
“We have the core players here to be good,” he added. “Just a piece here and a piece there and change the mentality.”
The seven straight one-run games isn’t close to a record, not even a franchise record. The 1967 Reds played 11 straight one-run games.
“The only way to learn how to play one-run games is to play in them,” said manager Dusty Baker. “And you can learn something from the losses, too.”
Amazingly, the Reds are 26-18 this season in one-run games — 26 of their 68 wins are by one run.
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TweetOh, those one-run games
By the way, whoever told Jessica Simpson she could sing (and I doubt anybody did) must be tone deaf. At one point during her postgame concert Saturday, screeching while I was trying to write, she said, “I was going to give up singing at one point, but I thought I should continue to use my God-given talents.”
Huh.
OK, back to baseball.
Entering Sunday’s game against the Diamondbacks, the Reds had played six straight one-run games and were 4-2. Is that a record? Not even close to a franchise record. The 1967 team played 11 straight one-run games. Amazing.
“The only way to learn how to play one-run games is to play ‘em,” said manager Dusty Baker. “I just hope they learn something from losing one-run games as well as winning one-run games.”
Amazingly enough, the Reds are 25-18 in one-run games this season. They are 8-8 in extra innings, 10-14 in two-run games and 5-4 in shutout games. They also are 28-24 against lefthanded starters?
Dang. How is this team 67-81?
Seems as if a lot of you are getting excited about the way the Reds are playing these days and, yes, it is different. But don’t get overly optimistic about it.
As Baker himself says, “You can easily get fooled in spring training games and you can eaisly get fooled in September games.”
Remember this. The Reds are way, way out of it. No pressure. None. The teams they are playing these days are contenders under extreme pressure. While the Reds are as loose as tires without lug nuts, the other teams are as tight as an unopened olive jar.
Baker, though, likes what he is seeing.
“These last two weeks, we want to play through the end, not just to the end,” he said. “These guys are doing it. They’re playing hard and they’re playing tough. We want to finish with the best possible record we can and as high in the standings as we can.”
They can improve their record, but they are 11 games behind fourth-place St. Louis, so moving up to a higher rent district isn’t going to happen.
And those who wonder why Paul Bako still catches any games, well, it is because Baker doesn’t want to totally wear out Ryan Hanigan. He already has caught more innings than at any time in his career and he isn’t a big kid. It isn’t feasible to catch him every day the rest of the season. Why break him down for no reason?
How about Wilkin Castillo? He is listed as a catcher/infielder/outfielder and on Sunday he was walking through the clubhouse wearing shin guards.
Will Baker catch him? Probably not.
“That’ll be tough,” said Baker. “Do we do it now or wait until spring training. We don’t want to do anyrthing to hurt the team right now or embarrass the player. He had a tough time the other night catching Jeremey Affeldt in the bullpen - but a lot of people have that problem with Affeldt.”
Asked if he had ever heard of a major-league player listed as a shortstop/catcher, Baker said, “No, never.”
OK, so if you need a photographer for your wedding, don’t call Baker. He did it once for an old friend, Leon Brown, who played a few games for the Mets and visited Baker in his office Sunday morning.
“I was the photographer with a video camera at his wedding,” said Baker. “No kidding, I was. Never done it before. But he couldn’t afford a real photographer, so I did it. You should see all the shots of the floors and ceilings I got for him.”
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TweetPutting Jessica on hold for four hours
Jessica Simpson put on a postgame concert in Chase Field after the Cincinnati Reds-Arizona Diamondbacks game, featuring her first country music album, “Do You Know?”
Yeah, we know.
We know we saw something incredible — a few incredible things — Saturday night in Chase Field.
Most incredibly, we saw pitcher Micah Owings (he plays for the Reds now, you know?) rip a run-scoring pinch-hit double in the 10th inning to lift the Reds to a 3-2 victory over the Diamondbacks.
We know that Owings, formerly with the Diamondbacks, joined the Reds Friday to complete the trade of Adam Dunn to Arizona and we know manager Dusty Baker said, “Owings probably won’t pitch the rest of this year, but I might use him as a pinch-hitter.”
And so he did. And so the Reds won.
We know that Owings spent nearly a month with a sore shoulder, which is why when Baker was asked, “When will Owings pitch for the Reds,” Baker said, “Next year.”
So how much has Owings swung a bat in that month? “I took batting practice yesterday and today,” said Owings. “They wouldn’t let me swing during the treatment for my shoulder.”
Nearly a half hour after his hit, Owings said, “I still haven’t comprehended what I just did. But it means a lot. I was grateful for the opportunity. I thought it might hook foul, but it stayed fair.”
Barely.
“When I told him in the 10th that he might hit, he couldn’t wait to hit and he came through big-time,” said Baker. “How ironic is that he he came through like that in his first game back here?”
We also know that Baker made an eye-popping decision in a throat-narrowing situation with 25-year-old rookie pitcher Josh Roenicke.
And it nearly led to a 2-1 defeat, a defeat avoided only when the Reds tied it in the ninth, 2-2, to send it into extra innings.
The Diamondbacks had runners on second and third with two outs of a 1-1 game in the seventh when Baker took the baseball from Jeremy Affeldt and handed it to Roenicke for his major-league debut.
Not surprising, Roenicke walked Chris Young on four pitches to fill the bases, then hit Adam Dunn with his second pitch to force in the go-ahead run, what looked like a loss until the Reds rallied.
“I don’t think it was baptism by fire,” said Baker. “First base was open. I wouldn’t have put him in with the bases loaded. Then he loaded them himself. It was a tight situation, but he did have first base open.
“He was a closer (at Louisville) and he has been on the fast track. That’s one of the things we have to find out, what he can do in that situation, for next year,” Baker added.
Simpson’s boyfriend, Dallas quarterback Tony Romo, wasn’t there, but 45,075 watched a couple of pretty good throwers of the baseball variety — Arizona’s once wondrous and still darn good Randy Johnson against Cincinnati’s wondrous and getting-better Edinson Volquez.
Johnson, 45, and the possessor of 294 career victories, walked Jerry Hairston Jr. to open the game and he came around to score on Joey Votto’s double for a 1-0 Reds lead.
That’s all the Reds got off Johnson before he left after six innings — one run, five hits, two walks, three strikeouts.
Volquez, 25, pitched six-plus innings, giving up two runs on five hits, but he walked six, hit a batter and threw a wild pitch among his 121 pitches as Baker desperately tried to get Volquez his 17th victory.
Instead he stayed at 16-5 and could only start three more games, so 20 victories is gone.
Volquez, 25, had some hat-tugging dilemmas in the first three innings, coming away undamaged each time.
Arizona tied it, 1-1, in the fifth, through no fault of Volquez’s.
Justin Upton blooped one down the right field line that first baseman Votto could have caught, that second baseman Adam Rosales could have caught, that right fielder Jay Bruce could have caught.
None did. That ball made a divot-dive into the right field grass for a double, Upton took third on Stephen Drew’s bloop single to right and scored on Angie Ojeda’s broken-bat squibber to second base, tying it 1-1.
Volquez went back out to start the seventh but didn’t get an out, giving up a double to Justin Upton and a walk to Tony Clark.
Jeremy Affeldt took over and with two outs Baker made his decision to toss Roenicke into a pressure cooker with the lid screwed down.
“We tried to stay with Volquez for as long as we could to give a chance for that 17th victory,” said Baker. “He was denied, but we’ll take the victory. He is still the victim of early high pitch counts. He is going to get better at commanding that strike zone.”
The Reds tied it in the ninth when pinch-hitter Danny Richar singled to left and took third on pinch-hitter Javier Valentin’s single. Corey Patterson flied to right and Richar tagged at third and started home.
But he stopped. Fortunately for the Reds, D-Backs catcher Miguel Montero bungled the throw home, enabling Richar to score and make it 2-2.
The Reds had two outs and nobody on in the 10th when Chris Dickerson walked. Owings then dropped his double just inside the left field foul line to make it 3-2 and closer Francisco Cordero pitched a 1-2-3 bottom of the 10th with two strikeouts for his 30th save — four hours and one minute after this one game.
All that, Jessica, we know.
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TweetFrom Hurricane Ike to Tropical Storm Randy
They had a bomb-sniffing dog outside the Reds clubhouse before Saturday’s game. If they were looking for home run bombs, they were in the wrong place.
Couldn’t resist.
Probably it had something to do with the fact Jessica Simpson is scheduled for a concert after the game to promote her first country music album. If Tony Romo’s with her, I’m not staying.
If he isn’t, well, I’d probably have as much luck with her as I had with Sandra Bullock in Denver. None. Not even a hello, how are ya?
Maybe she’d look at me and say, “And the Diamondbacks are going to kick your butts,” but I doubt if she knows a batting helmet from a football helmet and the Diamondbacks from The Mighty Ducks.
WHAT IS there to do in Phoenix during the day, when it is 110 in the shade?
If you are Reds traveling secretary Gary Wahoff and FoxSports technician Kent Weaver, you go to Camelback Mountain and go rock climbing. Not me. Not a big fan of rattlesnakes and scorpions. And Wahoff is still picking cactus needles out of his hand from falling on one.
Me? I sat by the hotel pool in Oldtown near Scottsdale (in the shade, of course), smoked a cigar, read a mystery novel and made certain no young ladies drowned in the pool.
CHRIS DICKERSON has a good sense of humor. When he was told it was his time to pee in a bottle, a random drug test ordered by MLB, he smiled and said, “Hope they don’t test for Dunkin’ Donuts. I will so-o-o-o fail.”
Dickerson showed up at the clubhouse Saturday bedecked in USC gear - USC jacket, USC t-shirt, everything but wearing a Trojan helmet and riding a white horse.
Turns out he is friends with former USC quarterback Matt Leinert and he has a bet with Reds equipment manager Rick Stowe. “I have to give him 11 points,” said Dickerson, referring to the USC-Ohio State football game. “That’s OK. We’ll cover. I just want to see Stowe wearing USC gear for a week on the next homestand. That’s the bet.”
And how did the Texans fare from Hurricane Ike?
“Don’t know, haven’t checked about my house,” said Arizona’s Adam Dunn, who lives in Lake Conroe, 45 minutes from downtown Houston. “My mom and dad had a lot of trees blown down and they live 30 minutes from Houston.”
Said Jay Bruce, “We lucked out. I live like three minutes from downtown Houston and my friends said everything is fine.”
Gary Majewski lives 20 minutes northwest of Houston and said he was up until 5 a.m. watching Ike on TV, “Plus my security people called me at 2:45 to tell me my alarm was ringing. I told them not to bother, just the wind.
“My friends told me everybody is good, everything is OK,” Majewski added. “My house is intact. There are just a bunch of limbs and crap in the yard and in the street.”
Then it was time for the Reds to face 45-year-old Randy Johnson, who has been downgraded the last couple of years from Hurricane Randy to Tropical Storm Randy.
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TweetGiving another one away
Just up the Ohio River a few miles north of Cincinnati, in Ashland, Ky., this kid named Brandon Webb lived and he was a fervent Cincinnati Reds fan as he pitched for the University of Kentucky.
The Reds did not draft this kid in 2000, even though he remained available for eight rounds until the Arizona Diamondbacks picked him.
Instead, the Reds selected, in order, David Espinosa, Dustin Moseley, Dane Sardinha, Ryan Snare, Dave Gil, Marc Kaiser, Roydell Williams and Ryan Mottl.
Recognize any of them wearing a Reds uniform these days?
Webb, though, is as recognizable as George Washington on a dollar bill and he showed the Reds why Friday night in Chase Park.
Webb won his 20th game, first National League pitcher to win 20 this year, as the Diamondbacks stopped the Reds, 3-2.
Webb, who won the Cy Young in 2006 and could win it again this year, held the Reds to no runs and five hits over eight innings in pushing his record to 20-7.
Meanwhile, Aaron Harang slithered to 4-16 and was victimized by his own hand.
The two teams argued with zeroes for five innings until Harang provided aid to the enemy.
With one out in the sixth, Arizona’s David Eckstein chopped one to the left of the mound and Harang barehanded it on a high hop.
But his throw to first was high, wide and ugly, skittering down the right field line while Eckstein scampered all the way to third.
Chris Young singled to left and the Diamondbacks had an unearned run and a 1-0 lead.
“I knew he was a fast runner and I was trying to get it out of my hand quickly,” said Harang. “Edwin Encarnacion (third baseman) was yelling for me to eat it and I think I tried to hold up and it just got away from me. with Webb, you know it is going to be a tight game and you try to make every possible play.”
And some impossible.
When Paul Bako doubled with one out in the eighth, manager Dusty Baker pulled Harang and sent Adam Rosales up to pinch-hit. Webb whiffed him easily.
So Harang left after giving up no earned runs and four hits — his fifth straight quality start, during which he recorded one victory, three losses and one no-decision.
“That was probably one of my better outings this year,” said Harang, looking for rainbows. “I guess I should be happy that I wasn’t hurt as badly as some thought earlier this year and I’m able to go out and pitch that way.”
Arizona added two runs in the eighth when relief pitcher Bill Bray walked former teammate Adam Dunn with the bases loaded after he had him 0-and-2 and Mike Lincoln threw a wild pitch with the bases loaded.
So the D-Backs scored two runs on one hit, three walks and a wild pitch.
The Reds made it a tingly night for the 29,00467 fans in the ninth.
They filled the bases against Arizona closer Brandon Lyon with two outs on singles by Edwin Encarnacion, Wilkin Castillo and Corey Patterson, then pinch-hitter Jeff Keppinger drove a two-run single to right, knocking out Lyon.
Chad Qualls came in to face pinch-hitter Jerry Hairston Jr. and struck him out to quell the excitement.
Baker was not pleased that the Reds gave Arizona all three runs. And he wasn’t happy that Chris Dickerson broke late for second on a pitch-out and was easily thrown in the sixth inning when it was 1-0.
“That was something I’ve never seen before,” Baker said with a shrug. “We just have to keep teaching and learning.”
Baker thought Harang was every bit as good as Webb.
“Aaron and Webb were matched up equally and we made some mistakes,” said Baker. “They cost us. Ask Aaron now and he’ll probably tell you he should have eaten that one ball because he had no chance of throwing out Eckstein.
“Then we walked in a run and had wild pitch — gave ‘em every run,” he added. “To me, Aaron and Webb were equal. We beat ourselves.”
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TweetGetting down with Dunn
I’m ba-a-a-a-a-a-ck. I was benched, but now I’m back.
The paper decided not to send me to Milwaukee, what with the team eliminated. So I took four days away from the world and played Mr. Mom.
Now I see what retirmemenrt is like and, hey, it ain’t bad. Read four novels (no, I didn’t start my book, but soon. I promise. Soon).
With Adam Dunn wearing Arizona rust, the paper decided a trip to the desert would b e OK, so here I am, enjoying the dry heat. It’s 100 out, but you don’t feel it. Yeah, right. If you believe that, I have some cacti you might enjoy sitting on.
Anwyay, after an uneventful and pleasant flight via American from Dayton to Phoenix, through Dallas, I had a chance to spend some time with Dunn.
And here it is (And, yes, I’m glad I’m back).
Adam Dunn, resplendent in his rust-colored Arizona Diamondbacks jersey, was leaning on a bat near the batting cage when Cincinnati Reds catcher Paul Bako walked up, carrying a cardboard box.
Dunn left Cincinnati in such a hurry after he was traded to the Diamondbacks August 11 that he left his black African masks hanging on a wall near his dressing cubicle.
Bako delivered them to Dunn and as he squinted toward the Reds dugout he said, “Bako is one of the few guys I recognize.”
Said Dunn, “Looking over there, it is so different. It’s way different. I don’t know too many guys. I didn’t think it would be that weird facing them, but now that they’re here, yeah, it is. It’s a different color red and Cincinnati red is all I’ve ever known.”
Dunn was asked if the Diamondbacks had talked about a contract for next year and he said, “No, nothing. And I’m not worried about it. I’m only thinking about two things — the 17 games we have left and Hurricane Ike.”
Dunn built a new home on Lake Conroe last year, about 40 minutes from Houston and his parents and grandparents live about 25 minutes from Houston.
“And they’re not going anywhere,” he said. “I’ve got aunts and uncles there, too, and they aren’t going anywhere. We’ll know more in the morning.”
Dunn even laughed when somebody brought up Hurricane Bronson.
First, Arroyo told writers the Reds traded Dunn because he was going to ask for between $120 million and $125 million for a new contract.
“Who is he, my agent?” said Dunn. “First and foremost, I would never say anything like that. And if I did the only guy I would have said it to would have been Ken Griffey Jr. But I didn’t say it.
“I don’t talk care about salary and I don’t talk about salary because there is nothing I can really do about it,” Dunn added. “I don’t care about money. I really don’t. Whatever.”
Then Dunn was told that Arroyo said on a recent radio show that the Reds pitchers enjoying the young outfielders chasing down balls, “And, yes, Dunn hit some home runs, but he didn’t catch some balls out there.”
Dunn shrugged that one off and said, “That’s because when Arroyo pitched I didn’t have to go after too many. They went over my head.”
Dunn has played first base five or six times, played some right field and was back in his familiar if not comfortable left field against the Reds Friday in Chase Field.
“I’m a utility guy,” he said with a laugh.
The D-Backs just lost six straight games on the road and fell from first place to second in the National League West, 3 1/2 games behind the Los Angeles Dodgers.
“It’s been fun being in a race and, yeah, we’ve struggled the last week-and-a-half,” he said. “It’s a fun team and it’s a young team. It’s so different in many ways.”
In 27 games with the D-Backs, Dunn is hitting .267 with four homers, 15 RBIs, with 29 walks and 26 strikeouts in 86 at-bats.
Reds manager Dusty Baker looked up Dunn and later said, “It’s real strange seeing him on the other side. No matter which side he is on, he is a quality person, a quality guy.”
Dunn is pumped over being in a championship race for the first time in his eight-plus years.
“Yeah, it is different,” he said. “I just wish we could have played better on the road. We had a chance to separate ourselves (they lost three straight in LA, but we didn’t. We still have 17 games and anything can happen. We can get back on a roll. That’s what we’re looking for.”
Dunn took another glance into the Reds dugout and shook his head said, “It’s weird, so weird. I’m telling you. At least this is red — sort of.”
Dunn is wearing uniform No. 32, the same number Jay Bruce wears for the Reds, but Dunn laughed and said, “That’s not why. I know Jay misses me. Probably carries my picture in his wallet. I’m sure he sleeps with it.”
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TweetDouble disaster dosage for Piniella
The grin on Jolbert Cabrera’s face was as wide as both batter’s boxes and he placed a finger in front of his lips and said, “Shhhh. Don’t tell Lou Piniella. That’s two walk-offs for me against him.”
Cabrera should know, Piniella is like an elephant (only meaner). He doesn’t forget.
The latest was a Sunday thriller in Great American Ball Park, a three-run ninth-inning rally that ended abruptly when Cabrera pulled a line drive single to left scoring the winning run in a 3-1 victory for the Cincinnati Reds over the Chicago Cubs.
The cinema finish was accomplished against Cubs closer Kerry Wood and after Cabrera’s single nestled in the left field grass, he pumped his arms and an angry Wood screamed at him for his celebratory display.
“It was a game-winner and I was showing him up,” said Cabrera. “He has a reason to be mad, but not at me. I was just doing my job. I’m sure if he strikes me out, he pumps his arm.”
Wood had reason to be angry. At himself.
The Reds had only three hits and trailed 3-1 entering the ninth.
Edwin Encarnacion led the ninth with a bloop single to center that skipped past Jim Edmonds for an error that placed Encarnacion on second.
Jay Bruce walked, but Ryan Hanigan forced Encarnacion at third on a sacrifice bunt attempt gone bad. Pinch-hitter Javier Valentin walked on a full-count to fill the bases.
That brought up pinch-hitter Chris Dickerson, who was originally in the starting lineup but was removed just prior to game time with a sore left ankle.
Dickerson shot a two-hopper at shortstop Ronny Cedeno. A game-ending double play? No, the ball took an extremely high hop and deflected off his glove as two runs scored. At first it was ruled an error, then changed to a two-run him that tied it, 3-3.
Then Cabrera produced.
“Remember that game when I was with Cleveland and we fell behind Seattle, 12-0, when Lou managed Seattle?” said Cabrera. “It was the biggest comeback in major-league history. We came back to win, 15-14.”
It was August 5, 2001 and it was also to left field. But it was a broken bat. All this hit did was break a bunch Cubs’ fans hearts.
They thought they had this one won. Instead of taking the series two games to one, they lost it two games to one,.
“It felt like we were playing in Chicago,” said Cabrera. “Sometimes you have to get lucky and we did (with the Edmonds error and the high bounced at Cedeno). We want these teams to do if they are going to go through us to a championship they are going to have to earn their wings and we’re going to make it tough on them.”
Speaking of wings, Piniella flew the coop after the game, ducking the media by telling his public relations representative, “Tell them I decline.”
Baker, though, was more than happy to chat with the media, which he did, then as they left his office his telephone rang.
It was his wife.
“Yeah, it was a nice win,” he said to her.
Baker’s wife said something about feeling sorry for Wood, “Because we’re close, close to him and his wife.”
Said Baker, “Hey, I love Kerry and his wife, too. But we needed this more than he did.”
A quick check of the standings reveals that that is not the truth.
Before the game, Baker stopped Reds starter Aaron Harang, grasped his elbow, and said, “This is your playoff game. This is a playoff atmosphere, what it is like to be in the playoffs.”
And it certainly was that, plus Harang pitched well enough to win — seven innings, three runs, six hits.
To the media before the game, Baker added, “It is our playoffs. This gives us something to chew on.”
There was no chewing until the ninth inning, then the Reds spat out the Cubs as most of the 37,540 blue-clad fans fell silent.
“We wanted to win this game to let them know we were coming after them right to the end, right through the last game we played against them, and to let them know we were coming after them next year with a better team,” said Baker.
The Reds scored first when Encarnacion singled with one out in the second, took second Jay Bruce was hit by a pitch, moved to third on a walk to Ryan Hanigan and scored on Corey Patterson’s fly to right.
The Cubs tied it in the fourth, scoring only one run despite getting three straight hits to open the inning. The run scored while Geovany Soto was hitting into a 6-4-3 double play.
Amazingly, Harang had not hit a batter in 155 innings this season, not one, not once. In the seventh he hit Geovany Soto and Mark DeRosa, back-to-back. And both scored to give the Cubs the 3-1 lead they protected until the ninth.
“I tried to go in on both of them and went too far in,” said Harang. “Then I threw a good pitch on the inner half of the plate to Ronny Cedeno and he barely got his bat on the ball the flared it to right field (for a run-scoring single). I stood on the mound and said, ‘Are you kidding me?’”
That’s what Piniella is saying right now about Wood, about Cabrera, about his team’s sixth loss in seven games.
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TweetYou don’t need a scorecard
On an early Sunday morning in early September, one didn’t need a newspaper or the internet to check the standings to see where the Cincinnati Reds stand and where the Chicago Cubs stand.
Few have access to major-league clubhouses, but those of us who are fortunate enough can take an easy reading.
Reds bottom. Cubs top.
A walk into the Reds clubhouse at 11 a.m. Sunday revealed, uh, not much. There are four couches at one end, couches formerly the domain of Ken Griffey Jr. and Adam Dunn. Now that they are gone, the couches have become the Latin Quarter - occupied by the Hispanics. On this morning they were being used by Javier Valentin, Ramon Ramirez, Johnny Cueto and Edinson Volquez. Jolbert Cabrera and Francisco Cordero are members, too.
But their talk was quiet, subdued. Joey Votto quietly dressed in his corner stall.
Manager Dusty Baker stopped Aaron Harang and said, “This is your playoffs. Treat it like a playoff game.” Then he wandered over to relief pitcher Mike Lincoln, who has had a problem finding outs lately, and talked to him for 15 minutes about pitch selection.
There was no music. A TV was on, with the sound off. Nobody was watching.
Now a trip to the Cubs clubhouse. Loud music. Players in uniform everywhere. Former Cincinnati pitcher Ryan Dempster was with several writers, talking about the Chicago Bears.
There is a clubhouse attendant named Mike Dillon and he loves to torment the Cubs.
On Sunday, he had a pen, but it wasn’t really a pen. He gave it to Cubs catcher Henry Blanco and asked Blanco to sign an autograph. When Blanco began to sign, the pen shocked him.
Blanco, Carlos Zambrano and a couple of other Cubs grabbed Dillon, known in the clubouse as ‘Skins,’ and tossed him into a large laundry cart that is on wheels. Then they wrapped him up in advesive tape like a mummy, including his eyes, and wheeled him from the clubhouse to the playing field.
Blanco poured a bottle of water all over Dillon and they left him baking in the sun at slow simmer.
When Dillion extricated himself, he went back into the Cubs clubhouse and doused Blanco’s locker with a bottle of water. Blanco wasn’t happy and said, “You got some important papers wet, Skins.”
Said Dillon, “You got my underwear wet, important underwear. Fruit of the Loops (sic).”
Dillon rides a bicycle from his home to the park every day and Blanco disappeared for a while, re-appearing carrying the front wheel of Dillon’s bike.
“Are you stupid? Are you an idiot? Tell me you didn’t take the wheel off my bicycle,” Dillion yelled as Blanco handed him the wheel. Said Zambrano, “Whatcha got there, Skins, a unicycle?”
The Cubs leave Cincinnati for St. Louis Sunday night and Skins whispered to me, “Hal, why do they treat me like this? I’m a nice guy.” Then he smiled sheepishly and said, “Wait until they get to St. Louis and check their equipment. They aren’t gonna like me then at all.”
Dillon/Skin wouldn’t say what he did to sabotage the Cubs, but his smile said it was, indeed, dastardly.
Ah, the fun and games of a winner and The Silence of the Lambs in the loser’s quarters.
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TweetBronson Arroyo: Sesenta y Uno
While thousands and thousands of Chicago Cubs fans found their way easily to Great American Ball Park, Cubs manager Lou Piniella had a near Gilligan’s Island type trip.
What figured to be a five-hour trip by car from Chicago to Cincinnati Saturday turned into an eight-hour tour of Ohio because Piniella and the driver, first base coach Matt Sinatro, got lost and had a See Ohio trip.
It was apropos. Piniella’s team has completely lost its way, losing to the Cincinnati Reds 10-2, the Cubs’ sixth straight loss.
Jay Bruce hit his first career grand slam and drove while Bronson Arroyo won his 14th game, 10th in his last 13 decisions.
And Arroyo, tearing a page from Chad Johnson — nee Ocho Cinco — unveiled his new name, which was on his back after the game: Sesenta y uno (61).
Before he did an interview, he laughingly said he wouldn’t answer to any other name and he had a right to do it, “Because my father is Cuban and I am Hispanic so I can do it for real.”
Arroyo said the idea came to him after watching TV all day, “And I’m at home watching that and I’m just dying. I said, ‘Man, he’s on every freaking talk show in America.”
Piniella’s mind is more cluttered over the barrage of losses and his errant automobile excursion was supposed to be therapeutic.
“I wanted to get my mind off baseball and I certainly did that,” said Piniella. “I was sleeping when we got lost and I probably shouldn’t have slept.”
His team is sleeping, too, and shouldn’t be, not with the Milwaukee Brewers yapping at its feet.
MapQuest sent Piniella and Sinatro across Interstate 80-90 and they should have turned south on I75 near Toledo, but breezed on past. MapQuest had them zeroed in on East Liverpool, near the Pennsylvania border.
“I lived in Ohio three years and never heard of East Liverpool, so I knew something was wrong,” said Piniella. They purchased a good old-fashioned road map and threaded their way down two-lane highways, “With lots of trucks,” until they found I-71 in Columbus.
Piniella and his starting pitcher, Ted Lilly, felt as if they were run over by an 18-wheeler not long after the game commenced.
Joey Votto hit a two-run homer with two outs in the first, his 18th homer, and drove in three runs, the Reds scored three on two hits in the second, then Bruce unloaded his 16th homer, a grand slam, in the fourth.
“That’s the first grand slam in my whole life,” said Bruce. “Never hit one. Ever. It’s a pretty good feeling. I’ve had a lot of firsts this year. It’s always fun to beat the Cubs. You get a little more in your tank when they come to town and you have all the Cub fans here. You notice the difference, so I have a good time doing it and I want to beat them every time.”
When Arroyo struck out the side on 10 pitches to start the game, it portended good things and they materialized as he gave up one run and four hits while walking two and striking out six for his 6 1/3 innings.
None of Chicago’s first three hits left the infield, but Arroyo walked Jim Edmonds to start the seventh and catcher Koyie Hill doubled him home. After Arroyo retired Kosuke Fukodome on his 122nd pitch, manager Dusty Baker came to get him.
“It’s nice to get some runs early against Lilly because he has always pitched tough against teams I played for,” said Arroyo.
And of striking out the side in the first on 10 pitches, he said, “There was some good energy in the crowd tonight and I pained some pitches that caught them off guard, as far as my pitch selection. And that set a good tone.”
Manager Dusty Baker, of course, loves beating his old team, especially with so much at stake for the Cubs.
“Arroyo is really on his game, has been on his game,” said Baker. “That was awesome the way he started. He really had it clicking. That’s a dynamic offensive team over there and Bruce’s grand slam gave us a lot of breathing room.”
Votto and Bruce both homered and both doubled and both scored two runs and Baker is thrilled with his two rookies.
“That’s a wonderful thing right there, especially when the guys get on ahead of them and they’ve been playing very well,” said Baker.
“That was a good one to win right there with all the Cubs fan here,” Baker added. “You want to take those fans out of the game early so they don’t excite their team. We did it early. It is fun to play this kind of series.”
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TweetWelcome to Wrigley Southeast
So what does a baseball team do when it is at the bottom of the division and about to play the leader of the division?
Different stuff. The tarp was on the field so there was no outside practice Friday before the Cincinnati Reds played the Chicago Cubs. A few took indoor batting practice.
Edwin Encarnacion sat in a corner of the clubhouse pounding on an African drum - using a stick in one hand and his hand for the other. I’m no music critic and I’ve been accused of having a tin ear, but he sounded good.
Jolbert Cabrera dropped to the floor to open a box. It was a pair of baseball spikes - real nice baseball spikes that were patent leather and were red, black and white. Looking at them, Cabrera said, “Damn, look at these. I must be considered a prospect to get these.”
One problem. The shoes belonged to Brandon Phillips.
“You can have the shoes,” Phillips said to Cabrera. “And you can have all those batting gloves you took out of my locker.” Then aside, Phillips smiled and said, “They’re always taking stuff out of my locker.”
The Reds know that even though this is a home game, a home series, Great American Ball Park will be swarming with Cubs fans and they know when Take Me Out to the Ballgame is played in the seventh inning, they’ll all scream at the appropriate time, “Root, root, root for the CUBBIES.”
Said Manager Dusty Baker, who managed in Wrigley, “They’re here because they can’t get tickets in Wrigley. We’ll take their revenue.”
And Baker hopes his Reds can help take away their lead, too - a five-game margin over Milwaukee.
“We’re playing to have an impact,” said Baker. “We wish we we playing for more, but we’re not. So w’ere playing to have an impact. And the players are not just playing for this year, but they’re playing for next year, too - the long-term effects.
“So far we have played good against good clubs,” said Baker.
NOT MUCH happening here, so let’s move south to Louisville.
Homer Bailey won a game. Bailey wins, Bailey wins, Bailey wins!!!
Poor Homer had gone 21 starts in the majors and minors without a win, but he got one in the International League playoffs Thursday, a 19-3 Louisville win over Durham. And Homer had a 19-0 lead.
But a scout from another team saw the game and said, “Best I’ve seen Homer this year. He was very good. He was throwing strikes and throwing four pitches. And he was throwing 95 and 96 miles an hour in the sixth inning.”
Bailey pitched six shutout innings and Josh Roenicke gave up three runs.
Said Baker, “Good for him. He said when he left here he was happy and that he wanted to go help them win the playoffs. And that’s what he did. I like that he said that. Homer is not going to bite his tongue. He’ll say what’s on his mind. A lot of people might not like that, but I do. I like it.”
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TweetFogg or Ramirez - Need you ask?
A decision that faced the Cincinnati Reds was decided by a strained right groin.
The decision? Josh Fogg or Ramon Ramirez?
Fogg is 2-7 with a 7.58 earned run average. It isn’t likely he’ll be with the Reds next season.
Ramirez is 0-0 with a 2.70 ERA in two outstanding appearances in the last week, his first two major-league appearances. There is a chance Ramirez will be with the Reds next season.
Shouldn’t he be pitching instead of Fogg? The Reds didn’t see it that way Thursday and Fogg started — giving up five runs and four hits in three innings.
Then he trundled home from third base in the bottom of the third on a sacrifice fly and strained his right groin.
The soon-to-be 26 Ramirez, a righthander, replaced Fogg and pitched three perfect innings — nine up, nine gone — as the Reds worked their way methodically back into the game and beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 8-6, scoring three runs in the eighth.
It isn’t likely Fogg will make his next start, so Ramirez steps in, continuing his audition for next season and beyond.
“That’s why we put Ramirez into the game in that situation,” said manager Dusty Baker. “This was a potential start day for him. Fogg’s groin situation is a dangerous situation for a pitcher.
“The way the young man (Ramirez) has pitched he certainly earned the right to start,” Baker added. “The way the kid is throwing, how do you not consider giving him strong consideration.”
In his major-league debut, an emergency start last Saturday, he held the San Francisco Giants to three runs and five hits over seven innings and turned a 6-3 lead over to the bullpen, which promptly blew it up and Ramirez received no decision.
“My confidence was very high today and every time I pitch I try to be positive,” said Ramirez. “I’ll be ready any time they need me, in the bullpen or starting. I’m working hard and I’m ready for anything.
Said Baker of Ramirez’s day, “He threw great, just excellent. When you’re down 5-0, that’s what you want — a guy to come in a throw zeros. Stop the scoring, give us a chance to come back. Impressive. He doesn’t appear nervous, rattled or scared. And he throws strikes, including off-speed pitches for strikes, which is great for a young pitcher.”
After falling behind, 5-0, with Fogg on the mound, the Reds chipped away, or as Baker put it, “We slow-walked ‘em with a bunch of ones until we could get that crooked number (three in the eighth).”
The Reds scored one run in each inning from the second through the sixth to tie it, 5-5. And it was 6-6 in the eighth when the Reds filled the bases and Joey Votto poked a tie-breaking, game-winning single.
“He is a clutch RBI man and he is getting better, that’s what I like,” said Baker. “He is more confident and more comfortable.”
Said Votto, who also homered in the fifth and batted .382 in August and drove in 18 runs, “Just one of those stretches and I don’t know why. We’re trying to win as many games as we can to transfer into next year and I’m trying to do as well as I can and hope that transfers into next year as well.”
Votto had two hits, drove in two and scored one. Jay Bruce also homered, his 15th. Votto’s was his 17th and the Reds will be baseball’s only team with two rookies with 15 or more home runs.
Amazingly, the No. 9 spot in the batting order had four straight hits. Fogg singled in the third, Ramirez singled in the fourth, his first major-league hit, pinch-hitter Andy Phillips singled and scored a run in the sixth and pinch-hitter Corey Patterson beat out a bunt single in the eighth.
The victory enabled the Reds to avoid being swept and Baker said, “It was important because they were gaining on us, trying to get out of the cellar. Sure didn’t start out too good, down 5-0.
“What I like is that we executed — a number of bunts and some double plays,” said Baker. “We played a good game.”
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TweetJottings on a quiet day
IT IS SO QUIET in this ball park that I can hear myself think, and that’s scary. And the second scariest part is that it is the first inning and it is so quiet you can hear a pennant drop (for the eighth straight year). I heard a fan whispering sweet nothings into his girlfriend’s ear.
SOMEBODY LOOKED at the lineup cards of both team before Thursday’s Pirates-Reds game and said, “Looks like they could be the lineup cards for the first spring training game in 2009 between the Pirates and Reds (one of about nine each spring).”
Maybe the optimism for this year’s team came from the fact the Reds play the Pirates so many times in spring training.
WHEN A MAJOR League scout heard that manager Dusty Baker was upset that rookie Wilkin Castillo missed a hit-and-run sign during Wednesday’s game, the scout said: “Get used to it. I’m sure that wasn’t the first sign he missed and I KNOW it won’t be the last.”
SAW KENT MERCKER sitting in front of his locker after Wednesday’s game. Dang if I didn’t forget he is on this team.
Reminded me of when Will McEnaney pitched for the Reds. The Springfield native had an identical twin and once in awhile he would have his brother walk into the clubhouse, put on Will’s uniform and have him sit in front of his locker. Not one person ever caught on until Will owned up to it.
THEY TELL ME the three Reds-Cubs games this weekend are nearly sold out. Oh, my. Welcome to Wrigley Southeast. Here’s a suggestion: Have the Reds wear road gray and let the Cubs wear home white.
FOR THE LAST time, Corey Patterson is NOT engaged to Baker’s daughter. They aren’t even dating. They aren’t even talking on the telephone. Put that one to rest.
I’M THINKING about changing my name to Tres Uno (31 was my baseball uniform number most of the time). Actually, that byline would look pretty cool, wouldn’t it: By Tres Uno, Staff Writer. But I don’t think The Real Uno really fits.
INSTEAD OF introducing the starting lineups Thursday, they should have had the players go into the stands and introduce themselves to the few fans who wandered in. And the Reds could have made it Guaranteed Foul Ball Day for fans in the stands.
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TweetMistakes, mistakes and more mistakes
Elimination Day was inevitable, a foregone conclusion for the Cincinnati Reds, and it came on a hot steamy September 3 night in Great American Ball Park.
A 6-5 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates officially eliminated the Reds from the National League Central title race, but unofficially they eliminated themselves in early May when they first hit double figures in the games behind column.
Of more immediate significance, Edinson Volquez did not get his 17th win, turning over a 4-4 tie after seven. But Jeremy Affeldt and Mike Lincoln gave up two runs in the eighth to leave Volquez at 16-5.
Manager Dusty Baker was mightily disturbed after the game over a missed hit-and-run sign that ended up in a double play and a wild pick-off throw that led to a tie-breaking run.
“Mistakes, man. We just have to quit making mistakes,” he said. “You especially can’t make ‘em in one-run games.”
Volquez pitched well enough to be 17-5, but it wasn’t to be after he gave up four runs, six hits, one intentional walk and struck out a career-best 13.
Volquez was at his Eliot Ness best for three innings — untouchable (nine up, nine down). He needed only 35 pitches for those three innings.
Then he singled in the bottom of the third and ran the bases and, as he said, “That’s never usually a good thing for me.”
The economy and efficiency evaporated in the fourth when he needed 27 pitches for that one inning, giving up two runs on three doubles.
The Reds tied it in the fourth with two runs, all the action coming with two outs and nobody on. Joey Votto homered, then Edwin Encarnacion walked, took third on Jay Bruce’s double and scored on a passed ball.
Chris Dickerson’s sixth home run in his 19th major-league game with two outs in the fifth gave the Reds a 3-2 lead. It was a 425-foot drive the opposite way, to left center, and Baker said, “
Pittsburgh retrieved the lead, 4-3, in the sixth when the first four reached base, including run-scoring singles by Ryan Doumit and Adam LaRoche, ending LaRoche’s 0 for 16 slide.
The Reds tied it, 4-4, in the sixth when Votto tripled to the right field corner and scored on Encarnacion’s single over third base.
Affeldt replaced Volquez in the eighth and the Reds resumed their sloppy ways.
Nate McLoth singled and then came the errant pick-off throw. Affeldt’s attempt eluded first baseman Votto and Baker said, “That ball was just air mailed (with not enough postage, obviously).” McLoth ended up on third and scored on another Adam LaRoche single.
“Mike Lincoln made two great pitches on LaRoche, then hung a slider,” said Baker. “Another mistake.”
Andy LaRoche then poked a one-out single for the 6-4 margin.
The Reds scored once in the eighth on pinch-hitter Ryan Hanigan’s bases loaded walk, cutting it to 6-5, but pinch-hitter Andy Phillips struck out.
And there were two incidents in the seventh — a positive one for the Reds and a negative one.
Pinch-hitter Wilkin Castillo led the inning with a single. With one out, the hit-and-run sign was flashed. Castillo missed it and Jeff Keppinger hit into a 4-6-3 double play.
“Young guys coming up (Castillo) have to learn and get the signs,” said Baker. “We were happy for him getting his first major-league hit, but then he missed the hit-and-run sign.
“Keppinger hit that ball right where he was supposed to, right at the second baseman,” said Baker.
But Castillo wasn’t running on the pitch, so the second baseman didn’t rush to cover second. Instead he fielded Keppinger’s ball and started the inning-ending double play, “When we should have had first and third with one out. That was big.”
As ever, Volquez was smiling and upbeat after the game, claiming that 20 victories was not on his mind.
“If I win two of the next five or if I get 18 or 19 wins, I’ll be happy,” hew said. “This is my first year and that’s pretty good. That would be great.”
Volquez said he was ready to go back out for the eighth inning, when the Pirates scored their two winning runs off Affeldt and Lincoln, but they stopped him.
“I was ready and I was feeling good, but I had 117 pitches and they said that was enough,” said Volquez.
“He had 107 after six and normally that would have been enough,” said Baker. “But we let him go out for the seventh to give him a chance to win his 17th.”
And, yes, the Pirates came to town with a 10-game losing streak before decking the Reds two nights in a row.
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TweetIs all this a big joke?
And the travel complications continue - even at home.
Poor Larry Glass, my driver for home games, is as reliable as the morning rooster, usually early, never late. And never a problem.
Except Wednesday. He pulled into my driverway in his truck, accidentally kicked something under his dashboard and the truck quit. Refused to start. Larry called his son, Brian, who works at the paper, and he brought his car and Larry drove me to the park in that car.
I was an hour late, but I caught a break. I didn’t miss manager Dusty Baker’s pre-game media briefing. It was Team Photo Day (the snapping thereof), so he didn’t meet with us until after that.
Now there is a team photo that all Reds fans should want. Three years from now, they can check it out and say, “Who’s this? Who’s that? Who’s this? Who’s that?”
Said team equipment/clubhouse manager Rick Stowe, tongue deeply imbedded in his cheek: “My best team photo ever. Been in ‘em since 1983. My best ever.”
So what’s happening on the team front?
If the Reds lose tonight to the Pirates, or if the Cubs beat the Astros tonight, it’s all over. The Reds will be done - mathematically eliminated from winning the NL Central. On September 3. Thirteen years without a division title, eight years without a winning record.
Remember, though. Be patient. Be very patient. They Reds are not going to lose any more. Who said that? And scanning the empty seats at game time reminds me of a story Bill Veeck once told about when he owned the old St. Louis Browns in the American League. A fan called and asked him, “What times does the game start tonight?” His answer: “What time can you be here?”
SAW CLOTHES in Ken Griffey Jr.’s old locker, the first time anything has been there since he was traded July 31. Was he back? Naw, it’s occupied by rookie Wilkin Castillo. Kinda strange, though. There are many, many empty lockers.
But what the heck? Pitcher Ramon Ramirez is dressing in Adam Dunn’s old spot, complete with the black African masks hanging on the wall.
WE ALL KNOW Edinson Volquez was after his 17th victory Wednesday on a march toward 20. How about this? Aaron Harang is 4-15. With the possibility of five more starts, if he loses the first four, would Baker permit Harang to lose 20?
“I’d try not to let that happen,” said Baker. “But I’d leave it up to him. He’s had a tough enough year. Hey, Steve Carlton lost 20 games in a year and he’s in the Hall of Fame.”
And you know what worries me most? Getting home tonight?
Comedian Mike Birbiglia is going to be in Dayton at the Victoria theatre Thursday September 18. He has invited me to be his guest and I’m going to be there. Birbiglia, not knowing my eye condition, made fun of me at the New York Baseball Writers dinniner in 2003. And he has used the incident in his show, including a show on Comedy Central.
We’ve e-mailed back-and-forth. Looking forward to it. If you’re not busy that night, he’s a funn guy - even though at the New York Baseball Writers dinner I got up and said about him, “Some baseball writers can’t write and some comedians can’t tell jokes.”
He can tell ‘em.
HEY, DONB51. Never once, not once, did I EVER call Adam Dunn a superstar. Or even a star. Not once. I always made fun of his defense - and to his face, too. I said he worked hard on it and did get better, but I NEVER said he was good defensively or that he was a superstar.
Please don’t put words in my mouth. I did say he was valuable offensively and I stick to those words. The Reds will not find a replacment who can hit 40 homers, drive in 100, score 100 and, yes, walk 100. I don’t care how the team is structured, his 100 walks help lead to his 100 runs and last time I check scoring runs was the object of this game.
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TweetCC Sabathia DIDN’T pitch a no-no
Baseball official scoring is a difficult task - one man’s error is another man’s hit.
Baseball official scoring is a difficult task, even if the official scorer pays attention. One time, years ago, I glanced down the press box at the official scorer. He was sleeping. Another time an official scorer was turned around talking to somebody in the second row when a play occurred. He didn’t see it.
Those were before the days of instant replay and television monitors in the press box. The guy had to guess to make his call.
Official scorers now have TV monitors in front of them. That’s the reason it takes several moments, or minutes, for an official scorer to make a call. He is gazing at the replay over and over before he makes his call.
So, shouldn’t he get it right?
The problem is that official scoring rules are not always black and white, and much of the time it comes down to the opinion of the official scorer and, as I said, one man’s error is another man’s hit. Or is it one man’s hit is another man’s error?
I always get a kick out of controversial calls. Players moan. Oh, how they moan. Cincinnati Reds official scorer Glenn Sample used to go into the clubhouse before and after games when he first started. He learned quickly. When players saw him, they moaned and groaned and complained about his calls.
So he quit going in. And I don’t blame him.
I’ve only been an official scorer twice. When I was National President of the Baseball Writers Association of America in 1997, it was my duty to be one of the two official scorers at the All-Star game in Cleveland and at the World Series between Cleveland and Florida. We called an error on Florida third baseman Bobby Bonilla. Most thought it should have been a hit. We didn’t change it. Stubborn.
Some players, managers or coaches even call the official scorer in the press box during the game to complain. Heck, one day I got a call in the press box and I wasn’t even the official scorer. I answered my phone and it was Reds shortstop Davey Concepcion. The scorer had ruled a ball he hit as an error. I answered the phone, and Concepcion said, “Hey, Mack-coy (he always called me Mack-coy), that was a hit.”
Ever diplomatic, I said, “Yeah, I agree. But I’m not the official scorer.”
We bring this up because of the CC Sabathia one-hitter/no-hitter - depending upon your viewpoint.
CC pitched a one-hitter against the Pirates and the one hit was one of those balls that is one man’s hit and another man’s error.
The ball was hit to the right of Sabathia, up the third-base line. He rushed after the ball and picked it up, with his back to first base. Ad he turned to throw, he dropped the ball. The official scorer called it a hit, not realizing it would be the only hit - although that shouldn’t matter. A hit is a hit and an error is an error.
I’ve seen that play dozens and dozens of times. A difficult play. A hurried play. CC had to scramble to get to the ball. He didn’t kick it. He didn’t let it go through his legs. He picked it up, then dropped it.
Nearly every time an official scorer will rule that a hit. It was a hit. I sympathize with CC and the Brewers, who are disputing the call and sending tapes to the Major League Baseball for review.
There is no way MLB can reverse that call. There is no way a guy should be given a no-hitter several days after the game is over and the box score says he pitched a one-hitter.
One problem is that nowhere in the scorer’s manual does it exactly describe that play and tell the scorer what to call. The scorer had to judge degree of difficulty on the play and the distance CC covered to get the ball. It was a difficult play. It was a hit. Get over it, Brewers fans. You won the game, CC got the win. That should be what is important.
Some scoring rules or assumptions are stupid and one happened with the Reds Sunday against the Giants. If a player doesn’t touch a ball (unless it goes through his legs), it is always ruled a hit.
On Sunday with the bases loaded, Cincinnati’s Joey Votto hit a fly ball to left field. A fly ball. Left fielder Fred Lewis started back. Then he came in. He did a 180, such a nifty 180 he should have been wearing a tutu. He stuck up his glove and missed the ball. But didn’t touch it.
The scorer had to rule it a two-run double. It should have been an error. Even Adam Dunn catches that ball. Lewis flummoxed that play from every point of the compass. But Votto gets a two-run double and the poor pitcher who got Votto to hit that fly ball, gets two earned runs tagged onto his record.
That rule/assumption (whatever scorers call it) needs to be changed. If a defensive player screws up a play, he should be charged with an error. These guys are professionals and are supposed to make routine defensive plays.
It’s hilarious. A pitcher always think a ball his fielders mess up should be ruled an error. The fielder thinks it should be a hit. Unless you are a pitcher throwing a no-hitter and you don’t make a difficult play and it is ruled a hit. Then you want the error. But only if it’s the ONLY hit of the game.
Amazing.
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