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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 > 2009 > May
May 2009
A lost weekend in Milwaukee
The Cincinnati Reds, faced with their first ultra-important series in years, went to Milwaukee and left a big lump of cheese. The Brewers put more holes in them than a hunk of Swiss.
Three games, three losses, 3 1/2 games out of first place. And dead ahead are four games in St. Louis. Add three or four losses and the road to the top gets about as steep as the Duquesne Incline in Pittsburgh.
You can’t win with the kind of pitching the Reds got in Game 2 and Game 3. In Game 2 Aaron Harang gave up eight runs and 12 hits in 4 2/3 innings. In Game 3 Micah Owings gave up five runs and eight hits in 5 2/3 innings — all five runs and all eight hits coming in the first three innings before the shadows in Miller Park appeared and made hitting extremely difficult.
And you can’t win with your best hitter, Joey Votto, on the DL with a mysterious malady that may or may not be solved after 15 days, when he is eligible to come back.
And you can’t win with your No. 3 hitter, Jay Bruce, going 1 for 13 with six strikeouts in the losses.
After Sunday’s 5-2 defeat, Brandon Phillips stood in front of his locker and said, with a straight face, that the Reds are better than Milwaukee. That’ll play big down on Wisconsin Avenue.
It’s nice that Phillips feels that way, but losing three straight to a team makes that team better than you, much better.
On to St. Louis - and who knows what evil lurks. For sure, it is rescue the season time again.
For me it is lunch at Charlie Gitto’s at least three times and a couple of dinners at Mike Shannon’s. Hey, when things go bad, eating is the best remedy, isn’t it?
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Why don’t you go to Great American Ball Park?
Quick Question: Why are you staying away from Great American Ball Park?
The question hit me this weekend when I saw Milwaukee Brewers fans fill Miller Park three days in a row.
Milwaukee and Cincinnati are similar cities — blue-collar towns with the same employment and economic problems. There are 2.2 million people in the Greater Cincinnati Area and 2 million in the Greater Milwaukee Area.
And yet, the Brewers, who until last year hadn’t made the playoffs since 1982, are averaging 37,089 fans with 12 sellouts, three in a row this weekend. The Reds, without a winning season in eight years or a playoff team since 1995, are averaging 22,031.
I know it isn’t marketing. The Reds are hustling as hard as they can to put posteriors in those many, many empty seats.
Somebody said maybe it is because Miller Park has a roof and fans know there will be a game rain, shine or hurricane. That isn’t the case in Cincinnati, where bad weather prospects scare some away.
I disagree. Shift now to St. Louis, which has no roof. The St. Louis metro area is much like Milwaukee and Cincinnati, same economic crises and a population of about 2.8 million. Yet the Cardinals constantly fill the ballpark, win or lose. Yes, the Cardinals are constant contenders the last 15 years or so, but they draw regardless.
I’ve often said St. Louis is the Baseball Capital of the World. The best fan support. And I’ve also heard that Cincinnati is a baseball town. Once upon a time it was. Now I wonder.
Fans have told me they are still fans — but they don’t go to games. They read about the Reds, they listen on radio and watch on TV. But they don’t go. Why? Why not now when the Reds are fun to watch and competing?
You tell me. Please. Why aren’t you in Great American? And don’t tell me it is because of the cost. Things cost much the same in Miller Park and Busch Stadium, but the seats are filled.
Sometimes in Great American, it is downright embarrassing.
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A cheesey night for the Reds in Cheeseville
Something to distract you from the beer truck crash involving the Cincinnati Reds in Milwaukee:
Have you ever seen three lefthanded-throwing outfielders in a game at the same time? It’s a rarity and the Reds pulled it off Saturday night against Milwaukee — Laynce Nix in LF, Chris Dickerson in CF, Jay Bruce in RF.
Did you realize the Brewers made only four ground ball outs Saturday night?
OK, OK. Time to quit avoiding the issue.
THE REDS were waxed Saturday, 9-5, by the Brewers, their second straight defeat in Cheeseville and, in fact, they played pretty cheesy.
Matters started good when the Reds hit two homers in the first inning (Jerry Hairston Jr, Brandon Phillips) for a 3-0 lead. But it was one of those nights for pitcher Aaron Harang. He gave up a three-run homer in the bottom of the first to Prince Fielder.
The Reds, though, came back for a 5-3 lead, but Harang was ripped apart in the fifth when the Brewers scored six runs. For his 4 1/3 innings, Harang gave up eight runs and 12 hits.
AND, YES, the subject was broached about Harang’s last appearance. Remember the rain delay Monday against the Astros. Harang was one out away from qualifying for a victory when the rains came. The delay was just over two hours. Harang talked manager Dusty Baker into letting him go back out, after the two-hour delay, to get that last out.
It took him two batters and nine more pitches, but he got it.
Any after effects?
“No, nothing,” said Baker. “I didn’t see anything. His velocity was better than it was in that Houston game. There was no carryover. Sometimes you look for reasons when the reason is on the other side of the field.”
Harang, too, said there was no carryover. The problem was he had no control of anything but his fastballs. The Brewers kept going back to their dugout and saying, ‘He’s throwing more fastballs than we’ve ever seen.” And they ran into three of them for home runs.
That was Harang’s excuse, too.
“Velocity? Very good. Location? Bad,” he said. “I had no control of anything but my fastball. And I was pitching from behind when I had no finishing pitch. I had problems locating all my pitches but the fastball. You can’t live with the heater. All good major-league teams are going to hit the fastball, plain and simple.”
So THE REDS are 0-2 on this important seven-game trip to Milwaukee and St. Louis. They’ve already lost this series and need Sunday’s game to salvage one of three before they head to St. Louis for four.
It is looking ugly. Joey Votto is gone for at least 15 days as he battles whatever it is that has him in a mental funk. Jay Bruce is gone, too. Oh, he’s here, but he’s gone away from the batter’s box again. He was 0 for 4 with three strikeouts Saturday after going 0 for 4 Friday.
No Votto, No Bruce, No wins.
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Reds say Votto just needs time away
The mystery continues and mum’s the word on Joey Votto.
Manager Dusty Baker called a pre-game meeting Saturday and cleared the clubhouse to address the Votto issue.
Even the players were not told exactly what the stress-related issue is with Votto that placed him on the disabled list, although Baker told the writers that the inner ear infection was the start of it.
Asked what he could tell us about Votto, Baker said, “Not much. He’s just dealing with a personal issue. He wants us to respect his privacy about that. And he’s dealing with it, trying to deal with it.”
Baker said it doesn’t involve his inner ear infection, “But it started with that.” Votto went back to Cincinnati and when asked if he’ll be back after the 15 days, Baker said, “We hope so. We don’t know.”
Votto went on the bereavement list last August when his father died.
Of the team meeting, Baker said, “They weren’t informed about what’s wrong with Joey. They were just told we have to stick together more than ever. And whatever it is, we have to support him. It’s like a member of your family. Right now he needs support and love. They have to try to understand something that they may not understand.”
Said General Manager Walt Jocketty, “It’s basically something that Joey needs some time to get away and deal with and we gave him that time. It’s not a big deal, but it is something that was affecting his ability to play at the level he wants to play at. So we gave him a little time off.”
Jocketty added, “Yeah, the inner ear thing has been part of that. That’s part of it and we’ll leave it at that.”
“Our guys have been very resilient and they’ll just have to be more resiliant,” said Baker.
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Votto finally placed on disabled list
As I reported in my previous blog what would happen, the Cincinnati Reds announced today that Joey Votto is on the disabled list and the team has recalled Wilkin Castillo from Class AAA Louisville.
After 45 minutes of discussion in manager Dusty Baker’s office Friday after the team’s 3-2 loss to Milwaukee, the Reds announced the move this afternoon
The reason for Votto’s disablement was listed as stress-related issue and not the inner ear infection. Most likely, though, the stress is related to the inner ear infection that knocked Votto out of games three separate times, including after the second inning Friday night.
While suffering the inner ear infection, Votto flew from Cincinnati to Phoenix on May 10 and played on May 11. But the next night he left the game in the fifth inning with dizziness and wooziness. He didn’t play the next game and the team flew to San Diego on May 13. The next day was an off day and Votto played on May 15, then left the game on May 16 after the fourth inning with dizziness and wooziness.
He stayed over in San Diego for tests as the E.W. Scripps Clinic in LaJolla, Calif., then returned to Cincinnati for another battery of tests over the next few days and returned to the lineup a week ago Friday against Cleveland.
He had played every game since, three against Cleveland and three against Houston, then flew to Milwauke Thursday night and started Friday’s game, leaving after the second inning.
Manager Dusty Baker was visibly shaken when he met the media in his office after the 45-minute meeting with Votto, GM Walt Jocketty and trainer Mark Mann.
Castillo begins his second stint with the Reds this season and was on the roster Sunday and Monday but did not play in either game. With Votto out, catcher Ramon Heranandez most likely will handle most duties at first base, with Ryan Hanigan catching and Castillo serving as the emergency back-up catcher.
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Of Votto and to bunt or not to bunt
The intrigue was so thick in the Cincinnati Reds clubhouse after the game I felt as if I should put on a belted trench coach with the collar turned up and wear a message pouch over my shoulder.
Once again, for the third time this season, Joey Votto left a game early with dizziness and wooziness from his inner ear infection.
After the Reds completed their 3-2 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers Friday night, manager Dusty Baker’s office door was shut for 45 minutes. Inside were Baker, Votto, GM Walt Jocketty and trainer Mark Mann.
After 45 minutes, the door opened.
And? And? And?
Nothing. Nothing was done. Votto was not put on the disabled list and nobody was called up. However, the sneaking suspicion here is that they don’t know who to call up, but something has to happen. They have to get Votto right. They can’t keep putting him on an airplane, then lose him the next day when he gets dizzy.
A guess. They’ll put Votto on the DL and call up Wilkin Castillo, who is an infielder-outfielder who can catch. That way Ramon Herandez can play first base - where he does well - Ryan Hanigan can catch - where he does well - and Castillo can be the back-up catcher.
There is no viable first baseman in the system to replace Votto. No, no, no, no. It won’t be Yonder Alonso.
MEANWHILE, it appears Brandon Phillips and his fractured right thumb might be in Saturday’s lineup. Baker liked what he saw of Phillips in batting practice Friday, liked it so much that he sent him up to pinch-hit in the ninth inning against closer Trevor Hoffman. And what did Phillips do? He bunted. He bunted hard right back to Hoffman and was thrown out.
AND I STILL get chills when those damn bells begin bonging to announce the arrival of Hoffman, the introduction to the song, Hell’s Bells. Hoffman has 12 saves in 12 opportunities. Despite throwing 85 miles an hour fastballs and 70 miles an hour change-ups, he has given up no runs and six hits over 14 innings.
Amazing, Incredible. How DOES he do it. He jokingly said this spring that he would like the radar gun operator on the scoreboard to pump a few extra miles an hour onto his fastball.
ANYBODY remember when Hoffman was an infielder in the Reds’ minor-league system and was picked up by the Florida Marlins in the expansion draft? He was a shortstop.
ONE MAJOR question about Friday’s game. The Reds were down, 3-2, when former Cincinnati bullpenner Todd Coffey gave up back-to-back singles in the eighth to Alex Gonzalez and Adam Rosales.
Chris Dickerson was sent up to pinch-hit for starting pitcher Johnny Cueto. A bunt? Put runners on second and third with one out? Nope. No bunt. Dickerson swung away and hit into a double play.
Before he could even be asked, Baker brought it up himself and said, “I suppose you want to know what we didn’t bunt right there?” Yeah, we do. And here is his explanation.
Baker said he never thought about having Dickerson bunt the runners to second and third, “Willy Taveras (the hitter after Dickerson) hasn’t beed hitting too good and Dickerson has. Willy is hitting only .220 over the past few games and Dickerson hadn’t hit into a double play all year.”
Now he has.
Brewers second baseman Craig Counsell made a fantastic play on Dickerson’s chopper. If he threw to second, he wouldn’t have time to throw to second to start a double play. But Rosales was right in front of him and he tagged him, then threw to first.
“I told Rosales that in that situation he can’t get tagged out,” said Baker. “He has to stop or run him over, then we still have first and third with one out. It’s part of the learning process, but it doesn’t make it any easier to accept this loss when you have action going.”
I agree. Rosales gave himself up. He could have prevented the DP. But I believe Dickerson should have been bunting. If Taveras hasn’t been hitting - and he hasn’t - after Dickerson bunted the runners to second and third, send up a pinch-hitter for Taveras. Jonny Gomes wasn’t doing anything.
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Votto leaves another game
It looks as if the Cincinnati Reds are going to have to ship Joey Votto by UPS truck (ground delivery only) or send him on a bus or put him on a horse or hire a limousine to get him from one city to the next.
Obviouisly, right now, Votto can’t fly.
Every time he flies, his inner ear infection acts up and he has to leave a game. It happened again Friday night in Milwaukee. Votto started at first base in poppe3d to short in the first inning, but when the Reds went to the field for the bottom of the second Votto was not with him. Ramon Hernandez took over at first base.
Votto and the Reds rode a charter flight Thursday night from Cincinnati to ilwaukee. On their previous trip, the Reds were on charters from Cincinnati to Phoenix and then from Phoenix to San Diego. Votto left a game in Phoenix and tried to play in San Diego but left the first game there, too.
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Dusty Baker: Take a bow, dude
Midwest Express jumped to the top of my list, for this week anyway, and not just because the flight attendants serve two chocolate chip cookies hot out of the oven on every flight.
My flight from Dayton to Milwaukee left 13 minutes early and arrived 20 minutes early - all 10 of us, including two guys whose names I didn’t catch who stopped me to tell me they were from Troy and Dayton and were flying to Milwaukee just to see the Cincinnati Reds and Brewers.
WATCHING the Brewers take early batting practice and Corey Hart finished a session and flung his bat farther than most balls he had just hit. I’m no hitting coach, but I don’t think that’s good. Former Brewers beat writer Drew Olsen saw it and said he once saw Scott Posednik come into the clubhouse in Pittsburgh’s PNC Park and take his bat to his dressing stall after a soft-toss session in whic a coach stands five feet away and lobs pitches to you and you hit it into a net.
“It was on a Sunday and Podsednik lost it at 10:30 in the morning,” said Olsen.
THERE WERE several Brewers taking extra hitting at 3 o’clock Friday. The Brew Crew has scored 24 runs in their last nine and 12 runs in the last six.
Is that Johnny Cueto, Aaron Harang and Micah Owings licking their chops and rubbing their hands together. Well, if they’re rubbing their hands together it might be because, yes, it is colllllllld again in Milwaukee. One time I asked Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel beat writer Tom Haudricourt if the sun ever shines in Milwaukee and he said, “Oh, yeah. Every year on August 10.”
LOOKS AS if The Brandon Phillips Plan didn’t work. Even though he has a hairline fracture on the tip of his right thumb, he hoped to play tonight against the Brewers in this mammoth series. No go. He isn’t in the lineup.
The lineup: Willy Taveras, CF; Jerry Hairston Jr., 2B; Joey Votto, 1B; Ramon Hernandez, C; Jay Bruce, RF; Laynce Nix, LF; Alex Gonzalez, SS; Adam Rosales, 3B; Johnny Cueto, P.
And here is a dilemma for manager Dusty Baker to figure out. He is platooning Laynce Nix and Jonny Gomes in left field — Nix against righthanded pitchers and Gomes against lefthanded pitchers. And both are hot.
The problem? Milwaukee is throwing three righthanders at the Reds and the Cardinals are throwing two righthanders in the first two games and haven’t announced their pitchers for the third and fourth games.
Other than pinch-hit, how does Gomes get any playing time?
Now isn’t that a nice problem to have, for once? Instead of running players out there who are more likely to strikeout than put the ball in play, Baker has options. And the options are good options.
And I don’t know about many of you, but I’m a bit weary of the whiners who want Baker fired. Gimme a break, guys. If you are going to strut and brag about the Reds being 26-20 right now, you have to aim plenty of the credit to Baker. The players are responding to him. They are hustling, they are having fun, they are confident. We all put a lot of the blame on past managers for the team having no fire and no desire, so now that it has it - take a bow, Dusty Baker.
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Bruce: We’re coming home in first
If Jay Bruce can roll it up, fold it over and tuck it into a corner of his travel bag, the Cincinnati Reds should be ready to roll on one of the most important trips for them over the past decade.
The past decade? This early? You can bet your Johnny Bench rookie card on that. When a team has had losing seasons for eight straight years, usually by June it is only a matter of which spot in the lower half of the standings they’ll finish.
Manager Dusty Baker was taken aback when somebody said, “First big series on the road for the Reds in years and years.” He said, “This early?” Oh, yeah. This early.
The Reds play their next seven on the road against the top two teams in the NL Central, three in Milwaukee and four in St. Louis. Then they come home for three against struggling Chicago, supposedly the pick of the litter when the season began.
Boarding the plane, the Reds are third — 1 1/2 games behind the Cardinals. So where do you think they’ll be after the seven-game trip. First? Second? Third? Not fourth?
And Bruce?
It was only one game, but it came at the right time. Bruce had two home runs and a triple and drove in four runs in the Reds’ 6-1 win over Houston Wednesday, completing a three-game sweep and extending their winning streak to a season’s best four games.
Bruce was on a 0 for 15 slide to oblivion when Baker gave him Monday off. He had one hit Tuesday then exploded Wednesday. Hopefully for the Reds he still has that detonator cap with him when the team starts the trip Friday night in Ol’ Milwaukee. Since 1999, the only fun thing to watch in Milwaukee when the Reds were in town was the Sausage Race. Now things mean something.
And how about Bronson Arroyo, a guy many folks want the Reds to trade? Pshaw and balderdash to that one. He is 7-3 and threw a Hope Diamond Wednesday - a complete game five-hitter in which he threw only 82 pitches and got ‘er done in 2:08.
Remember when Bronson gave up 10 runs and 11 hits in one-plus innings in Toronto last June? Oh, everybody remembers that mess. Since then Arroyo has won 18 games, the most in the majors since that date other than Toronto’s Ray Halladay (20).
So things definitely are on the uptick in Burgerville (is it a coincidence they’re bringing back Waite Hoyt’s Burger Beer?).
Bruce is confident. “We’re coming home in first place,” he said.
How many of you believe him?
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The tarp rules over Phillips, Encarnacion
Former Reds GM Wayne Krivsky, now a scout for the Baltimore Orioles, walked into the pressbox, looked down on the field, then said, “I’ve seen more tarps this year than players.”
Yes, my friend, you have. The tarp covered Great American Ball Park Wednesday when the Reds were supposed to be taking batting practice - spoiling what Brandon Phillips and Edwin Encarnacion were supposed to do.
Phillips was supposed to take batting practice and field grounds ball to test the hairline fracture on his right thumb. And Encarnacion was supposed to take ground balls for the first time.
In fact, Encarnacion had a big smile on his face in the clubhouse before he realized the tarp covered the field. He had a glove on his right hand and said, “This is only the second time I had a glove on since I hurt my wrist (April 27).”
The first time was Tuesday when Encarnacion and Phillips played catched in front of trhe dugout and got a bit carried away, playing burnout. They kept get closer to each other and throwing hard, seeing who would cry, “Uncle.” Neither did.
Manager Dusty Baker hoped Phillips could take batting practice and ground balls and pass that test so he could play Friday in Milwaukee. Now it’s a wait-and-see thing.
EDINSON VOLQUEZ threw either 78 or 87 pitches, depending upon who is dyslexic, in the bullpen Wednesday and pronounced himself ready to pitch Monday in St. Louis in the opener of a four-game series.
Volquez says he threw 78 or pitching coach Dick Pole said he threw 87 and Baker said, “Volquez probably was counting in Spanish.”
The most important thing is that Volquez felt no pain in his back and said, “I am definitely ready to go and I’ll pitch Monday in St. Louis. Today was like a full game, except I didn’t rest like it was between innings. I threw 78 pitches (or 87) and I just kept throwing fast, like crazy. I’m tired of being on the DL, tired of being in the swimming pool 30 minutes every day and lifting weights. I’m tired of that. Real tired.”
CATHCER RAMON HERNANDEZ was not in Wednesday’s lineup, but it was a routine day of rest and Baker said, “I think he needs it. He’s beat up pretty good. He has played more than he wanted but he has been so hot you hate to take him out. But by giving him Wednesday off, with Thursday an off day and Friday a night game, it is almost like giving him three days off.”
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A coming-out party for Gomes
Jonny Gomes. Any questions? Three hits, three RBIs, a fabulous catch from a guy of whom it has been said could use his glove more reliably as a frying pan than a baseball defensive weapon.
Not so on Memorial Day when Gomes and Aaron Harang led the Reds to an 8-5 victory over the Houston Astros.
I thought Gomes should have made the team out of spring training. Said so many times. And, in fact, a high-ranking club official told me at mid-spring that Gomes would make it.
Me and my big mouth. I told Gomes that, to ease his mind. Then he quit hitting. And manager Dusty Baker was enamored with the defensive skills of outfielder Darnell McDonald.
To my shock, to the shock of many - and to my dismay - the top-ranking official said he was out-talked about Gomes. I felt embarrassed and distraught that I had told Gomes he had the team made and the next thing he knows he is riding buses at Triple-A.
But all’s well that end’s well - except it is justing starting for Gomes. He is the righthanded hitter the team has needed.
The game was started by Harang, who waited out a rain delay, then came back on two hours rest to get the last out that qualified him for a victory — one in which he gave up three runs and 10 hits over his five innings.
Meanwhile, the first eight runs scored by the Reds were unearned because the Astros kicked the ball around like a European soccer team.
Things start shakily for Harang when Lance Berkman hit a two-run home in the top of the first ¬— an occurrence that comes as regularly as a rooster at dawn. It was Berkman’s 21st home run against the Reds, the most of any opponent. In fact, only Brandon Phillips (43) and Joey Votto (23) have more home runs in Great American Ball Park and they’ve played a lot more games in GABP.
That lead stood until the Reds batted, long enough for shortstop Migue Tejada to fumble-finger a ground ball by Willy Taveras for an error. Five singles and a walk later, the Reds led, 5-2.
Gomes led the Reds attack with three singles, two of them that drive in runs and a bases loaded walk for three runs batted in. And he made an outstanding catch in right field.
“Defense is something I work on on my own,” he said. “It helps put the whole sandwich together.”
Gomes had hit safely in all four of his appearances and is hitting .429 (6 for 14) and said, “Your first six hits are the most important. Sometimes it takes you 60 at-bats to get them and sometimes in takes 20, so I’m on a good pace.”
Said manager Dusty Baker, “He is playing like he wants to stay here and be a big part of this. Jonny came up ready and he is hitting those lefthanders well.”
The Reds led, 6-3, with two outs in the fifth when the rains came. Two hours later, Harang came back to record his game-winning out and left the rest of the work day for the bullpen.
“We were going to give him two hitters to get it done,” said Baker. “As hard of luck as Aaron had last year we had to give him a chance to win that game.”
When Harang wasn’t politicking for a return to the mound, he was throwing in the indooer batting cage, “Staying loose by throwing every 15 to 20 minutes. I was back there about three times during the rain, just throwing 60 per cent to keep loose. As it turned out, I threw nine innings, counting those indoor pitches. Just before the rain quit, I went in and told them, ‘Hey, I’m gonna get that last out.’”
Harang also had two singles, one in the first that drive in the last of the five runs in the inning. Gomes also singled in a first-inning run.
“Fun day, long day,” said Gomes. “Just good baseball around — Carlos Fisher coming out of the bullpen and our closer.”
Fisher, making his second major-league appearance, pitched two scoreless innings (one hit, two walks) and Cordero closed it off for his 12th save in 12 opportunities.
“We did a real good job of situational hitting, moving the guys and not leaving guys out there,” said Gomes. “Just good old fashioned baseball.”
The first inning was the epitome of situational hitting — five singles and walk for five runs.
“That’s it, definitely it,” said Gomes. “That just fills out starting pitcher’s balloon right back up after he gave up two runs. If you can score as many as they do (two), that’s awesome. If you can score more, those are bonus runs that early in the game.”
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Baker sends out the Shock Troops
Can’t believe any of you are actually sitting at a computer reading a blog today instead of roasting hot dogs, grilling burgers ort barbecuing.
But there IS a lot happening in the tight little world of the Cincinnati Reds.
At 10 a.m. today, manager Dusty Baker was sitting in his office swivel chair shuffling three lineup cards in his hands. Which one? Which one? Which one?
When a writer said, “I haven’t seen the lineup yet,” Baker laughed and said, “Neither have I.”
When he selected the winner, he said, “Looks like I’m sending the shock troops out there.” But he had no choice.
“No Ryan Hanigan,” said Baker. “No Joey Votto. No Brandon Phillips. No Jay Bruce.”
There is nothing wrong with Bruce other than a sick bat and as Baker said, “His average is down to .230 (.228, actually). We can’t afford to have Bruce out of the lineup, but we can’t afford not to have him out of the lineup for the good of the long haul. He needs a mental day off. And when he tries to hit the ball the other way, he’s late. That’s another reason he needs a day off.”
Votto is still experiencing some lightheadedness and dizziness. Is that ever going to end?
Hanigan is banged up a bit, “The usual catcher’s stuff,” said Baker. “He’s just sore. Catchers are always beat up. I don’t know how they ever hit because something is always wrong with their hands. That’s one position I never ever, ever, ever thought about playing. But I admire the heck out of those guys.”
Phillips, of course, has the hairline fracture in his right thumb, but Baker said, “He swung today off the tee. Just a little sore and swollen. Pretty good, though. So maybe he could be ready by the Milwaukee series (Friday-Sunday) and to that we say, ‘Wow. Wow is right.’”
OH, so what did Baker come up with? Willy Taveras CF, Jerry Hairston Jr. 2B, Chris Dickerson LF, Jonny Gomes RF, Ramon Hernandez C, Alex Gonzalez SS, Adam Rosales 1B, Paul Janish 3B.
Baker’s right. Shock Troops.
SOME UPDATES:
Edwin Encarnacion hit off a tee in the indoor batting cage today and if there are no repercussions he’ll take batting practice Tuesday. “I feel a lot better, very strong. Seems like a long time, the first time in my career for this.”
Edinson Volquez threw on the side today, “A little bit and I threw long toss yesterday. I’m much better and I feel like I’m ready now. I’ll take my next turnn” He is eligible to come off the DL Monday when the Reds begin a four-game series in St. Louis and he’ll probably pitch that first game.
Bill Bray, his surgically repaired left arm held in place by a metal brace, walked through the clubhouse and pitching coach Dick Pole said, “You got a little hardware going on there, Bill. Take it slow, but take it fast.”
Huh? What’s that mean? “That means don’t rush back, but work hard,” said Pole.
Bray underwent Tommy John elbow ligament replacement surgery and is shooting for a return by next April 1.
“What I did here, the surgery, is better than the alternative. It was this or never play again,” said Bray. And, hey, maybe I’ll come back throwing 100.”
Bray said he was trying to come back from elbow inflammation and felt fine throwing hard at 120 feet, “Felt nothing, no pain. Nothing hurt at all. Then I got on the mound and threw fives pitches and each one hurt more. The more I think about this the more I am thankful to the doctor (Tim Kremchek) and the trainers (Mark Mann, Steve Bauman. Thirty years ago I would be done right now. They didn’t have this surgery.”
Now, everybody, go back to the chaise lounge and have one for me.
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Alex Gonzalez: No longer the whipping post
Now we’ll all have to find another goat to beat with a rattlesnake whip, another fall guy to accuse of slowing the progress of the Cincinnati Reds.
Alex Gonzalez is back. At least he was back in this week that was for him.
His double in the 11th inning Sunday afternoon gave the Reds a walk-off win over the Cleveland Indians, a 4-3 win. Gonzalez also singled home a run in the fourth and singled home a run in the sixth, driving in three of the Reds four runs.
Gonzalez is 9 for his last 20 (.450) and finally looks as if the bat in his hands is for something other than swatting cicadas.
HAVE NO IDEA what umpire Rob Drake was looking at in the seventh inning when his call permitted the Indians to tie the game, 3-3. It should have been 3-2 and NO extra innings.
The Tribe trailed, 3-1, in the seventh and had a runner on second with two outs. Grady Sizemore hit one into the right field corner, easily scoring the runner from second. 3-2. Right fielder Jay Bruce had difficulty chasing down the ball and Sizemore motored to third.
Bruce threw to relay man Jerry Hairston Jr. and his throw skipped past third baseman Adam Rosales. Sizemore leaped to his feet and headed home. But left fielder Jonny Gomes had sprinted about a mile-and-a-half from left field to back up third base in front of the Cleveland dugout and fielded the errant throw.
His throw home beat Sizemore and umpire Mark Wegner called him out. End of inning. Reds lead, 3-2.
Nope. Not so fast, rosin baggers. Third base umpire Rob Drake said third baseman Rosales obstructed Sizemore’s path home and ruled that Sizemore be awarded home plate. Tie game, 3-3.
Replays showed that Rosales never touched Sizemore. Rosales was never in the basepath. Never in Sizemore’s way. Whatever Drake saw didn’t happen.
Said Gomes, “My best play of the year and I get nothing for it. I’m chewing rocks.”
But it gets better. Replays also showed that when Sizemore slid home, catcher Ryan Hanigan missed the tag. So Sizemore was safe anyway. If Wegner gets that call right and there is no obstruction call on Rosales, it’s still 3-3.
All in a day’s 11-inning work.
DURING DAVE MILEY’S dying days as manager of the Cincinnati Reds, both Marty Brennaman and I kept telling Miley, “Manage your way. You can’t manage the way you think somebody wants you to manage. You are going to get fired eventually anyway, so get fired doing it your way, not somebody else’s way.”
But he didn’t change. He kept managing with one eye on the field and one eye on the GM’s office. Miley was a popular choice to manage the Reds. He had worked in the Reds minor league system for more than 20 years, winning at every level and winning consistency.
Then the man who hired Miley, GM Jim Bowden, was fired and Dan O’Brien was hired. Miley wasn’t O’Brien’s man and the two never were on the same page. But that’s when Miley started trying to manage the way he thought O’Brien wanted him to manage, not the way Miley managed his entire life. And he was afraid to say anything to the media.
One of his favorite sayings, though, through the bad times (and he said it kiddingly): “What do you want me to do? I’m only one man?” That didn’t sit well with the front office and he was asked to quit saying it.
I bring all this up because after all this time, Miley finally talked about it to somebody: former Cincinnati TV anchor Dan Hoard, now play-by-play announcer for the Pawtucket Red Sox. Miley manages the Yankees AAA affiliate in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.
Hoard asked Miley if he would do anything differently if he had the chance to manage the Reds again and he said:
“This is probably the first time I will answer that. I’ve been asked that question by John Fay (Cincinnati Enquirer) and Hal McCoy (Dayton Daily News) over the years. I think I would have done it more my way. It was a situation where I was a first and second-year manager with a new G.M. and different things. There’s no finger pointing or anything like that. I just think that if I had done it my way, things may have been different - maybe not, who knows - but I think if that opportunity ever comes again that’s what I will try to do.”
If only he had listened to Marty and me back at the time.
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Phillips: “I have a hairline fracture”
One day before Memorial Day is not a memorable day for the Cincinnati Reds.
Brandon Phillips has a hairline fracture of his right thumb, he said, sustained fielding a ground ball with that thumb instead of his glove Saturday on a Grady Sizemore ground ball. He doesn’t want to go on the DL - hopes they’ll let him sit for a couple of days to let the sweling go down, then wrap it up and play.
Phillips was subdued Sunday morning. He hadn’t seen the doctor, but he had seen the X-rays and he could see the fracture, from the bottom of the finger-nail to the tip of his right thumb.
“It’s broke, man. Just broke. I saw the X-ray,” he said. “I told ‘em I don’t want to go on the DL, that I want to take a couple of days off to let the swelling go down, then play through it.”
Joey Votto, after hitting home runs Saturday in his first two at-bat after coming back from his inner ear infection misery, was not in Sunday’s lineup.
“We had to scratch Joey,” said manager Dusty Baker. “He’s still feeling a little after effect. He’s a little woozy. We knew it would not go away right away.”
AS EXPECTED, Homer Bailey was optioned back to Louisville and infielder Wilkin Castillo was called up. Bailey wasn’t being punished for giving up six runs on three hits and six walks Saturday in 4 1/3 innings. In fact, Baker thought he threw well.
“Not unexpected,” said Bailey. “I thought it would be only one game (because Edinson Volquez is expected back to make his next start). And about Saturday, Bailey said, “I just didn’t throw my game. That’s not the way I pitch or throw. I was trying to throw to their weaknesses instead of to my strengths, if that makes any sense. I probably threw more two-seamers than I have all year.”
It looked as if Bailey was constantly shaking off the catcher’s signs and said, “He (Ramon Hernandez) had never caught me before and didn’t know me. That’s hard for a catcher.”
CASTILLO PLAYS infield, outfield and catcher, which is why he was summoned from Louisville. “Hernandez and Ryan Hanigan both have a little soreness. We can use Castillo in a lot of different ways. With our needs for bodies he gives you a lot of players in one.”
Baker shook his head and said, “This is not exaclty how we planned it. We just have to get through this period and we’ll be great. We just have to hang around. We can’t feel sorry for ourselves because nobody on the other side feels sorry for you.”
HOW ABOUT a dose of good news?
Relief pitcher Nick Masset is ready to come off the DL when he is eligible Tuesday. He is needed in the worst way - or in his best way. He pitched live batting practice before Sunday’s game and was in great spirits as he left his clubhouse chair to go onto the field.
“I know what’s going to happen,” he said with a laugh. “I’m going to go out there and get my own team out. Oh, I’ll let ‘em hit a few to keep their confidence up.”
Hey, he was kidding. Having fun.
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Gomes starts with Big Bang Theory
All together now and shout it loud, “I TOLD YOU SO.”
All those clamoring for the appearance of Jonny Gomes - and I was leading the hallelujah chorus, can stand up and cheer.
Gomes turned a boring evening against a pathetic Cleveland Indians team into something special, providing early fireworks on a night when they set off a ton of explosives behind Great American Ball Park after the game.
The Reds and Indians were stumbling and tripping over their feet and tongues and shoelaces and long baggy pants for seven innings, locked in a 1-1 death struggle that had the excitement of a dog sniffing a fire hydrant.
THEN: Jonny Gomes time.
He was called up Friday to replace befuddled outfielder Darnell McDonald. He didn’t start Friday, but with lefthanders starting the next three days look for him standing in left field.
On Friday, when the Indians brought in lefthander Aaron Laffey, Gomes sensed a possible pinch-hitting assignment. So he got loose and did some quick homework, discovering that Laffey was 5-for-5 on first pitch strikes.
So when he batted for Laynce Nix to open the eighth, he was determined to whack at the first pitch. And that’s what he did, sending a screamer over third base and into the left field corner for a double. Adam Rosales then doubled him home for a 2-1 lead and the Reds won, 3-1.
“The situation called for aggressiveness,” said Gomes. “I hit that ball so hard I thought the third baseman would duck. Instead he jumped up and almost caught it.” But once it eluded Jamey Carroll’s glove, it was into the left field corner in a blur.
“That ball was a missile,” said manager Dusty Baker. “They were guarding the lines, but that ball was hit so hard they still couldn’t stop it from being a double. That’s how you pinch-hit. Look for a good pitch and put fire into it.”
For Gomes, it was an emotional uplift after getting his game together for a month-and-a-half at Louisville and his feelings showed with his hard pop-up slide into second base.
“Guys in uniform can tell you about the inner feelings, how it really is,” he said. “It was much more to me than a double after grinding away down there in Triple-A and finally getting and helping the team win. For that to work out was pretty exciting for me.”
OTHEER NOTEWORTHIES:
Adam Rosales, 0 for 14 at the time, followed Gomes’ double with a double of his own to drive home Gomes to break a 1-1 tie.
Alex Gonzalez followed Rosales’ double with a run-scoring single, his third hit of the night. In addition, his defensive was provocatively good. He started two double plays and roamed deep behind second on another play and used his strong arm to throw out the runner at first. Shall we not be too hasty and riding Gonzalez out of town on one of those Ohio riverboats?
Bronson Arroyo, 1-2 at home and 4-1 on the road when the night began, held the Indians to one run and five hits over eight innings and said, “It isn’t often you leave a tie game in the eighth inning and still get the win.”
THEY HAD the Ohio Cup sitting on a table covered with a black cloth in front of the Cincinnati Reds dugout Friday night.
If you lined up all 25 Reds and all 25 Cleveland Indians, right in front of the cup, and asked them what it was, they wouldn’t know. Nor care.
Every year, the winner of the six games played between the Reds and Indians gets one-year possession of the silver bowl.
It used to be presented to the winner of a spring training game, usually played in Columbus, the last exhibition game before Opening Day.
One year Reds pitcher Tim Birtsas was the pitcher against the Indians and he was asked, “Are you excited pitching for the Ohio Cup?” Said Birtsas, “The Ohio Cup? What’s that, a boat race?”
The only person who really cared, God bless her little heart, was former owner Marge Schott, who once took possession of the Ohio Cup and put it in here house. To keep. It was suspected she liked to fill it with cheap vodka - but that’s cruel.
On e year in Columbus it was about 24 degrees, the snow was flying, and the players just wanted to get the game over and get to Cincinnati for Opening Day. So they rushed through the game in less than two hours and the Reds lost, 1-0. Marge Schott was deeply angered over the loss. It’s a wonder the manager didn’t get fired.
AFTER TWO games with the Phillies, free lance writer Mark Schmetzer mentioned to manager Dusty Baker that Phills leadoff hitter Jimmy Rollins wasn’t hurting the Reds: 1 for 8 in two games. Said Baker, “Oh, man. You had to say that, didn’t you? Why’d you say that? You’re gonna wake him up.”
Next day. Sunday. Rollins 4 for 6, two runs scored, one RBI. After the game Baker looked at Schmetzer and said, “It’s your fault. See what happens?”
BEFORE FRIDAY’S game, Schmetzer said to me, “I’m not going to say a word about Cleveland’s Grady Sizemore (.213).” And he didn’t. But Sizemore came up in twhe first inning and cranked a home run into the right field seats against Bronson Arroyo.
Let’s see now: The Reds are 16-2 when they score first. When the other team scdores first they are 5-17. But here’s one for you. The Indians have lost six games this year on the other team’s final at-bat, when the Tribe either was tied or ahead in the game.
THEN CAME AN amazing bottom of the first inning. Cleveland pitcher Anthony Reyes started the inning by throwing balls out of the strike zone 12 of his first 13 pitches. He loaded the bases on a walk, hit batter and walk. Then he went 3-and-0 on Brandon Phillips.
On 3-and-1 Phillips flied to left, a sacrifice fly. So Reyes at that point had faced fouer batters without an official at-bat. Stupidly, Laynce Nix then swung at the first pitch and flew to left. Ramond Hernandez walked to re-load the bases. Adam Rosales fouled to first base.
One run out of all that. One freakin’ run.
So all you Reds fans can say, “Thank you Jonny Gomes. Thank you Adam Rosales.” And of course, thank the Cleveland Indians for being, well, the Cleveland Indians.
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Gomes called up, McDonald sent down
What fans have been howling for (some of us media, too) has come to pass - the Cincinnati Reds have recalled outfielder Jonny Gomes from Class AAA Louisville and designated for assignment outfielder Darnell McDonald to Louisville.
Also, as espected, the Reds played pitcher Edinson Volquez on the DL and called up Homer Bailey to take his place temporarily in the rotation, beginning with a start Saturday against the Cleveland Indians.
The Reds also called up RHP Carlos Fisher, a No. 11 draft pick in 2005. Fisher, 26, spent the 2006 season with the Class A Dayton Dragons and was 12-5 with a 2.76 ERA over 27 starts, but was shifted to the bullpen at Class AA Chattanooga last year, then was called up to Louisville and was 5-0 in 14 appearances with a 1.04 ERA.
To make room for Gomes on the roster, the Reds designated for assignment McDonald and optioned RHP Ramon Ramirez back to Louisville.
Bailey made eight starts at Class AAA Louisville and went 3-5, 4.57 (45.1 innings, 46 hits, 17 walks, 43 strikeouts, 9 homersh).
Fisher made 13 apparances for the Bats, all in relief, and went 2-0, 2.00 and when he pitches he will be making his Major League debut.
In 37 games at Louisville Gomes hit .282 and leads the team in homers (9) and RBIs (27) Many thought Gomes should have come north with the team out of spring training, but he was a non-roster player and reassigned to Louisville the day before Opening Day.
Rob Butcher
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Homer Bailey faces the Tribe Saturday
The less said about the game, the better. The Philadelphia Phillies vs. the Cincinnati Reds Thursday was a blood-letting, and the Reds donated all the blood, losing 12-5, their fifth loss in six games.
Micah Owings lasted only three innings and gave up five runs and six hits and the bullpen let the hits just keep on coming. The Phillies had 14 hits, nine for extra bases that included four homers.
It was the ugly duckling and the ugly stepsister rolled into one mess.
THERE IS NEWS, THOUGH.
Homer Bailey is coming Saturday to pitch against the Cleveland Indians and Edinson Volquez has landed on the DL with a stiff back.
And as revealed early this morning, Joey Votto has nothing more than an inner ear infection and could return to the lineup in a couple of days.
Bailey is coming to town and he’ll walk to the mound Saturday night in Great American Ball Park and pitch against the Cleveland Indians.
Volquez was placed on the 15-day disabled list Thursday after an MRI and will be skipped at least one turn with stiffness is his back.
Cincinnati Reds manager Dusty Bakewr said Volquez’s MRI showed no structural damage, but the team thought caution is the right course.
“It’s muscular and nothing in his vertebrae, so that’s positive news,” said Baker. “We decided that instead of sending him out there at 75 or 80 per cent, we’ll skip one start, get him well and back to 100 per cent.”
Bailey, 22, battled for the No. 5 spot this spring and pitched well enough to win it, but the club decided to keep Micah Owings, who gave up five runs and six hits in three innings Thursday in a 12-5 loss to Philadelphia.
“Hopefully Homer can up here and do the same thing he has been doing at Louisville — good except for a couple of outings,” said Baker. “We need him and he needs it and wants it.”
Bailey’s numbers are not glossy at Louiisville: 3-5 in eight starts, 4.57 ERA, nine homers in 45 1/3 innings, 17 walks, 43 strikeouts.
The Reds’ No. 1 draft pick in 1994 and a native of La Grange, Tex., was 0-6 with a 7.93 ERA in eight starts for the Reds last year and was 4-7 with a 4.77 ERA in 19 starts at Louisville last year.
THE INNER EAR infection is mostly gone, replaced by a broad smile that was missing for most of the last 10 days from the face of Cincinnati Reds first baseman Joey Votto.
The inner ear infection hurt, but Votto is thankful it was only that — just an inner ear infection that made him dizzy, nauseous and made him lose focus.
“With all the tests I went through, it was a pretty scary few days,” he said. “A lot of the tests were pretty imposing, tests I’d never experienced before. But to get them all back negative is a big relief. None of the tests were fun and I feel like a pin cushion.”
But he is a smiling pin cushion who hopes to be back in the lineup by Sunday — maybe Saturday —after he does all the pre-game work tonight before a game against the Cleveland Indians.
“Scared? Of course,” he said. “That’s everybody’s instinct going through different tests and it was such a shock, staying overnight in a hospital (the Scripps Clinic in LaJolla, Calif.). Finally getting the results back gave me not only peace of mind, but a sense of confidence.”
Votto said he won’t predict his return, that trainer Mark Mann and manager Dusty Baker will let him know, “Although sitting on the bench and seeing the game today (Thursday) — I wanted to get in there, but Mann’s common sense kept me out.”
Baker plans to let Votto settle in gradually and said, “Hopefully we will have him back in a couple of days. We’ll get him some reps (hitting and fielding), get some baseball work in.”
Votto left two games on the last six-game trip, once in Arizona and once in San Diego and said, “Up until yesterday (Wednesday) I wasn’t feeling very well, but it was a combination of getting over what I had and dealing with the anxieties of the unknown. Being with the club and hanging out with the guys helped, because this is what I love to do.”
Asked about reactions from people on the street when he saw them, Votto laughed and said, “While I was sick, I didn’t leave my place or I was in the hospital. I didn’t spend much time interacting with people because, frankly, I wasn’t in the mood.”
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Votto diagnosis: inner ear infection
And the Joey Votto diagnosis is: INNER EAR INFECTION.
After two weeks of testing for everything imaginable it came down to the simplest of the simple. Inner ear infection.
First, Votto had an upper respiratory infection that caused him to miss four games and it is believed that when the team flew to Phoenix from Cincinnati that brought on the inner ear infection and caused his dizziness and loss of focus. Then when he flew to San Diego from Phoenix it happened again.
Votto has not had any of the symptoms since he returned from San Diego to Cincinnati and took indoor batting practice today. Manager Dusty Baker said he’ll do all the pre-game activities with the team Friday and see where he is.
“I’m glad they found out what it was, that’s No. 1,” said Baker. “Thankful and grateful. There was a lot of stuff floating around out there from a lot of neighborhood doctors. He told me last night he was feeling good, but we’ll give him a couple of days to let him get his feet under him.”
Trainer Mark Mann met with the media to reveal Votto’s problem. Mann said Votto told them he had an inner infection two or three times in his left ear as a kid and the current infection was in his left ear.
“After doing a battery of tests over the last four days, (internist) Dr. Steve Cleves has come to the diagnosis of an inner ear infections that causes the dizziness,” said Mann. “All the tests were normal and the only thing that came back irregular was the audiology test, indicating the inner ear infection that was secondary to the upper respiratory infection he had 10 days ago.
“Dr. Cleves said that’s a common occurrence,” said Mann. “It’s a day-to-day thing and he has felt much better over the last four days, no more symptoms. He is on medication to reduce infection and inflammation. He went through a light workout yesterday before the game, no symptoms. Same thing this morning, hit in the cage, and we’ll go from there.”
Votto is on an anti-inflammatory to reduce the infection in the ear and has also been on antibiotics for the upper respiratory infection.
Why wasn’t it detected sooner?
“When you talk about the inner ear there is a lot of testing in greater depth that has to be done by an audiologist to look at his balance and inner ear fluids,” said Mann. “It’s a completely different battery of test than what you typically do.”
Mann said flying brought on the symptoms after the upper respiratory infection. And Dr. Cleves told Mann that recovery time is different with everybody, “But over the course of not flying during this homestand and getting on proper medication it should be something that resolves itself in the next few days.”
Mann said they’ll have him running, doing physical work in the weight room and ease him back into baseball activity, with full pre-game activity Friday, “And we’ll go from there. It’s a day-by-day process.”
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Reds win, Votto tests all negative
UPDATE CITY:
All the tests of Joey Votto are over and manager Dusty Baker said they all turned out negative. The Reds were saying nothing until Thursday morning, when results will be revealed.
“All the reports that I’ve heard is that everything has come back negative, so that’s a good sign,” said Baker. “We’ll see. Knock on wood and hope we get him back soon.”
That’s good news and bad news - good being the negative tests, but the bad is, “What in the hell is wrong with him? Why is he getting dizzy? Why is he having focus problems.” Maybe the Reds can tell us Thursday.
One story I heard from inside the clubhouse is that as a kid Votto had a bad ear infection and that the flu he had a couple of weeks ago caused the infection-like symptoms to return - dizziness, lack of focus. Just somebody talking - not officials. Yet.
BAKER ALSO said Edinson Volquez was premature in telling writers he would skip a turn in the rotation due to his stiff back.
“He jumped the gun a little,” said Baker. “We don’t know for sure. He is having an MRI Thursday and we’ll go from there.” Volquez, though, couldn’t throw more than two pitches in the bullpen Wednesday before shutting it down. Most likely he won’t pitch and Baker doesn’t want the Cleveland Indians to know that.
As one wise guy said, “Why do they care? They can’t even win when the other team doesn’t use a DH?” That reference was to the Tampa Bay lineup card listing two third basemen and no DH for a game last week.
Early game Thursday, so here’s a full report on the game, some of it written for the paper, most of it that never made it.
If it meant beating up on a Senior Citizen, then that’s what the Cincinnati Reds would do to shed the entrapment of a four-game losing streak.
In baseball years, 46-year-old Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Jamie Moyer is practically an octogenarian.
Before his Geritol kicked in, the Reds scored a run in each of the first three innings and Aaron Harang made them during a 5-1 victory in Great American Ball Park.
Harang held the world champions to one run and four hits over seven innings, striking out nine while walking two to level his record at 4-4 and turn the Good Ship Cincinnati back into comfortable winning waters.
“I was able to keep them off balance,” said Harang. “They have a quality lineup and you can’t be too consistent with your spots and location. They have a good hitting team with a lot of power, guys who can change the game really quick.”
After winning three straight in Arizona, Harang believes the trip to San Diego became a vacation instead of business and they lost three straight to the Padres.
“Maybe we got a little complacent after Arizona, thought we’d go into San Diego and cruise through those three games because we hadn’t been doing well.”
Harang did well — thoroughly impressing Sarge Matthews, a teammate of manager Dusty Baker and now a Phillies broadcaster.
“Man, he was something else,” said Matthews. “When you face him, you better strap it on.”
Before the game, manager Dusty Baker talked about the four-game skid that had dropped his Reds into fourth place in the National League Central.
“The thing about this losing streak is that one pitch, one play, one hit — we easily could have won three of the last four we lost,” he said. “We have to do more of the little things right. We haven’t been bunting well, we have to cut down on giving up walks. We haven’t been getting hits with runners in scoring position When you’re going good you get ‘em, when you’re not going good you’re not getting ‘em.”
And Baker was specific on how his team should approach Moyer and is soft as cotton candy pitches.
“You have to wait him out. You have to be ready for a strike because he’ll throw you a lot of near strikes. He is the ultimate teaser. You have to be patient and when you get a pitch to hit you can’t miss it.”
As far as hitting with runners in scoring position, the Reds were superb on this night, getting three hits for four runs with runners in scoring position.
“That’s the big difference,” said Baker. “The team that crossed the plate the most wins, so hits with runners in scoring position are musts.”
The Reds didn’t wait long to puncture Moyer after Willy Taveras ended a 0 for 19 slide with a bloop single to center to open the first.
He took second on a ground ball and scored on a single to right by Brandon Phillips.
Catcher Ryan Hanigan made it 2-0 in the second with his first home run of the year, a 375-foot drive into the left field seats.
The Reds continued their run-an-inning methodology in the third when Jerry Hairston Jr. led with a double, took third on a bunt and scored on Jay Bruce’s bloop single to right for a 3-0 lead.
The Phillies finally opened fire on Harang in the fourth when 35-year-old left fielder Raul Ibanez crushed a 415-foot home run to dead center, his 14th. Ryan Howard followed with a double and Harang issued a one-out walk before he was bailed out by a 6-4-3 double play.
The Reds added two in the seventh on a triple by Phillips, flourishing in the No. 3 spot in the order against lefthanders. He drove in three of the five runs, but called it Aaron Harang Night.
“’Ranger didn’t need those extra two runs, but they’re important to get them,” said Phillips. “Today was all about ‘Ranger and he did his job. All we had to do is play defense behind him. He is our best pitcher, our workhorse, and if ‘Ranger is going right then everybody else follows that. We just go out there to try to be The Pitcher’s Best Friend (defense).”
Phillips agreed with Harang’s assessment on the 3-3 trip that started 3-0 until they ran into the San Diego surf. “I thought we were going to be 6-0 on that trip,” said Phillips. “We knew we had to go out there and do it, but we didn’t do it. It woke us up and we said, ‘Hey, we’re losing too many games.’”
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Volquez to skip a rotation turn
When he said it, manager Dusty Baker didn’t know what was ahead, just a few minutes ahead, as he talked to the beat writers before tonight’s game.
“Baseball is a game of adjustments,” he said. “You have to adjust. Before the season you say, ‘I hope nothing bad happens,’ but it always does.”
And it happened a few minutes later. Pitcher Edinson Volquez walked into his office and told Baker he not only couldn’t pitch Saturday, but that he should be skipped a turn.
Baker already had adjusted. To give Volquez’s stiff back an extra day, he moved him from his scheduled Friday start to a Saturday start, moving Bronson Arroyo from Saturday to Friday. A Saturday start would have given Arroyo an extra day of rest, but now he goes on his normal four days of rest.
“I wanted to give Arroyo an extra day and I wanted to give Aaron Harang an extra day. Just didn’t work,” said Baker. Harang was originally scheduled for Thursday and Micah Owings for tonight. But when Owings pitched 5 2/3 innings of relief Saturday in the 16-inning loss to San Diego, he was moved to Thursday and Harang slipped into tonight’s start on his normal rest.
Volquez tried to throw on the side today but after a couple of tosses he knew it was a no-go.
“I tried, but I couldn’t finish it,” said Volquez. “I just threw a couple of pitches and it was stiff on my left side a little bit. I talked to Dusty and told him that for me it would be better to miss a start. I don’t want to go out there at 70 per cent. That’s no good for me and no good for the team.”
WHO STARTS Saturday? That would be Ramon Ramirez, called up Tuesday from Class AAA Louisville, where he was 0-3 with a 5.02 ERA in seven starts.
Amazingly, when Ramirez starts Saturday, it will be the first time one of the five original starters didn’t make his start - 42 games into the season. That’s one short of 1994, when John Roper was the first pitcher to start for the Reds who wasn’t in the rotation at the start of the season (43rd game).
WHAT’S UP with JOEY Votto. Same ol,’ same ol. He had tests in the morning and tests in the afternoon. Still nothing conclusive about his dizziness and lack of focus. Asked if there was chance Votto could land on the DL, Baker said, “We haven’t found out what it is. Hopefully they’ll find it out soon. We won’t use him as a pinch-hitter because what if he gets dizzy in the batter’s box? And we don’t want to use him that way if we do have to put him on the DL and make that day the backdate day.”
BAKER MADE a slight adjustment in Wednesday’s lineup. Ramon Hernandez was at first base and Ryan Hanigan was catching. Adam Rosales was out of the lineup and Darnell McDonald was still in left field.
Still in the lineup, too, were slump-ridden Alex Gonzalez and slump-ridden Willy Taveras. Why, why, why?
“Gonzo is one of the few guys who has hit Jamie Moyer a little bit,” said Baker. “He is 4 for 6 with a homer and two doubles. And Willy is 2 for 5. Of course, I know it is also about how they were hitting at the time.”
BAKER ON his lineup decisions:
“With Joey out, I mix and match who I think has the best chance of doing something against who’s pitching,” he said. “I try to match a highball hitter against a highball pitcher, an offspeed hitter against an offspeed pitcher, a fastball hitter against a fastball pitcher. It may look unorthodox at times, but it’s my opinion and my personnel against their personnel.
“Sometimes my opinion may not agree with theirs, but that’s part of the job,” Baker added.
So there.
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No Votto? How about Gomes?
Life without Joey Votto isn’t fun for the Cincinnati Reds. It is the Phillies without Ryan Howard. It is the Indianapolis Colts without Peyton Manning. It is Abbott without Costello. It is Adam without Eve (well, that one might have worked out better if they stayed apart).
Who knows when Votto will be back. He has undergone more tests than a law student at Harvard as the Reds try to discover why he gets dizzy and can’t focus.
ANOTHER QUESTION. Can the Reds win with Alex Gonzalez at shortstop? He is 2 for 12 since coming back from his side injury and one was an infield hit in the ninth inning Tuesday of the team’s 4-3 loss to the Phillies.
And they certainly can’t win with leadoff hitter Willy Taveras on a 0 for 18 slide to oblivion - this after a 14-game hitting streak in which he was hotter than a pot-bellied stove on a farm in the winter time.
“How do you explain it? You can’t,” said manager Dusty Baker. Taveras came up on the ninth against Phillies closer Brad Lidge with the tying and winning runs on base. He flailed miserably at two, maybe three, sliders out of the strike zone. He struck out on a 3-and-2 ball four and as Baker said, “He walked at least twice on that at-bat, maybe three times.”
THEY WASTED another excellent performance by young Johnny Cueto. He was 4-1 coming in and in his last four starts, all wins, he had gone seven or more innings and never given up more than one run. But he gave up a home run to Ryan Howard and was touched for three runs in the sixth. He still went seven innings.
“When you hold that team to four runs in this ball park, that’s pretty good pitching,” said Baker. “They send some big bats up there, one after another.”
AND WHY IS Darnell McDonald still on this team? Nice kid. But there is a reason he has played only 42 major-league games (half of them with the Reds this season) after he was a No. 1 draft pick by the Orioles 12 years ago. TWELVE!!!
Because the Phillies started lefthander Cole Hamels, the right-handed hitting McDonald was in left field and he went 0 for 4 and is now hitting .189. McDonald played well this spring and is outstanding on defense.
But what the Reds need now - especially facing four lefthanders in a six-game period, is a solid power hitter from the right side.
Do I hear the name Jonny Gomes? He has hit safely in 13 of his last 16 games at Class AAA Louisville, raising his average from .238 to .280. And he has 9 homers and 27 RBIs, plus 11 walks.
Hey, Jonny, come on down (or up).
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Votto: still nothing but tests, tests, tests
Tests, tests, tests and more tests. That’s the life of Joey Votto these days - probed, punctured and peered at.
And still nothing.
The Cincinnati Reds first baseman underwent tests Monday at the E.W. Scripps Clinic in LaJolla, Calif. And more tests Tuesday in Cincinnati.
And there are more to come to see if it can be determined why Votto is suffering dizziness and an inability to focus
Said Reds trainer Mark Mann, “Joey has undergone a series of tests at the Scripps Clinic in San Diego and here in Cincinnati, and we have more tests scheduled over the next few days. After those additional tests, we will be more prepared to discuss the cause of his dizziness.”
Votto was in the clubhouse just prior to Tuesday’s game and said, “I can’t tell you anything right now, I just can’t say. They (the Reds) will tell you what you need to know at some point.”
Votto missed four starts May 7-10 with flu-like symptoms, then returned to the lineup in Arizona on May 11. The next day he left the game in the fourth inning, citing dizziness and a lack of focus. He returned to the lineup last Friday in San Diego, then left the game Saturday in the fourth inning.
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Votto still ill, examination Tuesday
The mysterious case of Joey Votto continues. It’s sad to see his face these days, so sad because he is unable to play due to continued dizziness and an inability to focus.
Votto twice left games on the six-day trip to Arizona and San Diego, both times when he became dizzy and reported an inability to maintain his focus.
He left last Tuesday’s game in the fourth inning in Arizona and didn’t play Wednesday. He underwent a battery of tests and nothing was found. He returned to the lineup Friday in San Diego and hit a long home run. On Saturday he hit two long fly balls to deep center field his first two at-bats, then again left in the fourth inning.
He didn’t play Sunday and was supposed to return to Cincinnati Sunday night with the team, but when he experienced light-headedness and was taken to the E.W. Scripps Clinic in La Jolla, Calif., for overnight observation. He was to return to Cincinnati Monday and be examined by an internist Tuesday.
His case reminds me of Nick Esasky, a former Reds first baseman who later played for Atlanta, but not for long. He contracted Lyme disease and was quickly out of baseball. Votto’s symptoms are not the symptoms of Lyme disease, so thankfully that’s probably not his problem.
Votto is an extremely important player for the Reds, maybe THE most important. He is missed greatly when he is out of the lineup. More importantly, though, is his health and well-being. Let’s hope they find the problem, it is minor, they treat it and he gets back on the field, where he wants to be.
MEANWHILE, the Reds will make their expected roster move Tuesday when, as expected, relief pitcher Nick Masset goes on the DL - only the second roster move the Reds have had to make in their first 37 games - an extraordinary feat. The other move was when Edwin Encarnacion (cracked wrist) was placed on the DL.
The Reds are expected to recall pitcher Ramon Ramirez. While Masset is a relief pitcher, Ramirez was a starter for Class AAA Lousiville and was 0-3 with a 5.08 ERA in seven starts. Masset was lights out for the Reds - 1-0 with a 1.23 ERA in 11 appearances. In his last five, he had given up no runs and only one hit.
FOR SURE, RHP Edinson Volquez will take stairs one step at a time from now on. Volquez was moving quickly up some steps before the Reds went on their last trip and took them two steps at a time and felt something in his back. He left his start Saturday in the sixth inning with minor back spasms.
He received treatment Monday and reported no pain and is expected to take his regular turn Friday against the Cleveland Indians.
AND THE problems continue for lefthanded relief pitcher Bill Bray, who has had nothing but injury problems since the Reds obtained him July 13, 2006, in a massive trade with the Washington Nationals. Bray will undergo elbow surgery Tuesday from Dr. Tim Krermchek.
And that was some trade, eh? The Reds traded OF Austin Kearns (a No. 1 draft pick), RHP Ryan Wagner (a No. 1 draft pick) and SS Felipe Lopez (a No. 1 draft pick) for SS Royce Clayton, INF Brendan Harris, RHP Gary Majewski, RHP Daryl Thompson and Bray.
Kearns is still a Nationals regular. Wagner has spent most of his time on the DL. Lopez is now playing for the Diamondbacks.
And the Reds … Clayton played one year and was gone. Harris was briefly with the Reds in ‘06 and was quickly gone. Majewski was thought to be damaged goods when the Reds got him and never amounted to anything helpful and is gone. Bray is injury-prone and Thompson was up briefly with the Reds last year and is struggling this year at Louisville.
OK, I’M WRITING THIS blog at 11 p.m. Monday - because I JUST GOT HOME. Thanks again, Delta.
Here’s the latest odyssey - and that’s it. No more. Fool me once, your fault. Fool me a half dozen times and I’m the fool. Stealing a line from the movie “Network,” I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it any more. I’m telling my travel agent, “No more Delta. Never. Ever.” I’d rather take another airline and make three connecting flights than take one Delta non-stop because even making connecting flights I’d probably still beat the Delta non-stop.
I started Monday morning in San Diego at 7:45 for a flight to Atlanta. We were late arriving in Atlanta. No problem. I had plenty of time to make my connecting flight to Dayton.
When I got to the gate, there was a long line at the podium. I asked a guy who had just left the podium, “What’s up?” He said they were kicking 20 people off the flight because they changed equipment from a 70-seater to a 50-seater. Guess who was one of the lucky 20?
How in the world can they sell 70 tickets and wheel up a 50-seat plane? Delta, all the way.
They put me on an 8:17 flight - a mere four-hour wait - but told me to hang around the gate in case something opened. About 45 minutes later, they called me to the podium and I was one of the lucky two to get on the flight originally scheduled for 4:15. Whoopie!
But the whoopie was premature. We didn’t leave at 4:15. They said they were waiting on the aircraft, but anybody who looked out the window of Gate C-50 could see a plane sitting there. Now it’s 4:45. Then they announced they were waiting for one member of the crew. They changed the time to 5:05. Then 5:30. Then 6 p.m. Then 6:30.
At 6:30 they announced, “There has been a gate change for Dayton. All Dayton passengers should go to Gate D-33.” They needed more than two hours to discover this?
Going from terminal C to terminal D in Atlanta means boarding a shuttle train. In the meantime I paid $10 for a ham and cheese sandwich that could have doubled for home plate in Great American Ball Park.
Finally, we boarded and left at 6:30, a mere 2 hours and 15 minutes late. And the weather was superb. Who I really felt sorry for were the three people in wheelchairs. They sat in those chairs at Gate C-50 for more than two hours. Then they had to be wheeled over to D-33, where they were forgotten. Everybody else was boarded before them.
Call me cranky. Call me curmudgeonly. But don’t ever call me for a Delta flight again. I’d rather ride an Overland Lines stagecoach.
LHP Bill Bray was examined today by Reds medical director Timothy Kremchek, who tomorrow will perform surgery on Bray’s left elbow. Bray has been on Louisville’s disabled list since April 16 with a strained left elbow.
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Votto will be examined Tuesday; Volquez is OK
Medical news just in from the Reds:
Reds 1B Joey Votto became light-headed following yesterday’s game at San Diego. Instead of flying home with the team, as a precautionary measure he was admitted for tests at Scripps Clinic at San Diego. He will be examined again in Cincinnati tomorrow. Votto missed 5 games last week with the flu and twice more left games with dizziness.
RHP Edinson Volquez today received treatment on his back without complaint. Volquez left Saturday’s start with mild spasms in his mid-back. He is not expected to miss a start.
LHP Bill Bray was examined today by Reds medical director Timothy Kremchek, who tomorrow will perform surgery on Bray’s left elbow. Bray has been on Louisville’s disabled list since April 16 with a strained left elbow.
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Live by the broom, die by the broom
When Joe Garagiola wrote his book, “Baseball is a Funny Game,” he didn’t mean it as funny ha-ha - although there are some funny lines and stories in it. Baseball is a funny game because you never know what will happen.
In 37 years of covering major-league ball, not a week goes by that I don’t see something I never saw before.
So how do you explain the Cincinnati Reds winning three straight in Arizona, then going to San Diego and losing three straight?
All together now: “Baseball is a funny game.”
It wasn’t funny what Jake Peavy did to the Reds Sunday in a 3-1 San Diego win. He held the Reds to four hits and was never in a smidge of trouble. No embarrassment there. Peavy is one of baseball’s best and the cash-strapped Padres are trying to dump him. He will only cost whoever gets him $52 million over the next three years - starting in 2010.
He might be worth that to a contending team, but not the Padres.
“He has good control of his slider and fastball, throws them for strikes in any count,” said Jerry Hairston Jr., whose two-out ninth-inning single was the Reds’ fourth hit. “He does a good job of hiding the ball, too. He’s their ace for a reason.”
Hairston and Peavy had an on field playground skirmish in the sixth inning. Hairston grounded to first baseman Adrian Gonzalez. Peavy covered first and they got Hairston, who angrily slammed his helmet to the ground. It bounced precariously close to Peavy, who shouted out, “Hey, man, watch it.”
More words were spoken and they were kept apart.
“One of my strengths is fire and emotions,” said Hairston. “That’s also one of my weaknesses. My brother (Scott Hairston of the Padres) told me that Peavy and I are alike in the fire and emotions department. It has been a tough 24 hours for us (losing twice, including Saturday’s 6-5 16-inning mess) and I was just frustrated. I apologized. I said I was sorry and that’s that.”
AFTER THE ARIZONA sweep, the Reds were tied for first. After the San Diego sweep, the Reds are two games out of first place - and you could say they are second, but they are also fourth because there is a three-way tie for first with Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Louis.
And now the Reds go home to begin a three-game series Tuesday with World Series champion Philadelphia, fresh from sweeping four games from the Washington Nationals.
“Just a bump in the road,” said Reds manager Dusty Baker. “It’s no disgrace losing to Peavy. But I wasn’t happy about losing the previous two to those guys (in games started by Kevin Correia (0-2, 5.34) and Josh Greer (0-1, 5.14). “We just need to get back to work. But it sure makes it tough without Joey Votto. That’s a tough loss.”
For the second time in a week, Votto left a game with dizziness - Saturday in San Diego and Tuesday in Arizona. He’ll be checked Monday by an internist. Votto says he gets dizzy and loses focus, is unable to concentrate on anything.
And Edinson Volquez left Saturday’s game with back spasms, something he sustained at home in Cincinnati running up steps. “We old people go up steps one at a time, but young people take them two at a time,” said Baker. “That’s what Volquez did and when he landed after takingt two at a time he felt something in his back.”
He isn’t scheduled to pitch until Friday when the Cleveland Indians come to town and Baker said, “We’re working on a treatment for him.”
IT IS 8 o’clock eastern, only 5 p.m. in San Diego as I finish this. The sun is shining but it is cold enough in the pressbox for a jacket. The hot pizza the Padres left for us helps. Now it is decision time. Back to the hotel to finish Harlan Coben’s “Long Lost” and early to bed to get up for my 7:45 flight home? Or do I venture into Gaslight for a nice dinner?
Decisions, decisions, decisions.
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Just another long, long day in San Diego
I can’t believe I’m actually still here, sitting in the Petco Park pressbox at 4 a.m. Eastern time. Just over the left field wall is my Marriott hotel and it’s bed beckons. Please excuse any and all typos, errors of fact, errors of omission. I just watched a long, long, long, long baseball game that left me bleary-eyed and bewildered.
But, no, here I am rehashing 5 hours and 14 minutes worth of baseball, 16 long, tedious innings - tedious because the Cincinnati Reds lost to the San Diego Padres, 6-5, Saturday-Sunday after losing to them Friday, 5-3.
“Damn, they play us tougher than anybody,” said manager Dusty Baker. “And we had the same kind of game with them last year, similar circumstances, and lost that one, too.
That one went 18 innings and end on a three-run home run by San Diego first baseman Adrian Gonzalez.
This one fizzled in the morning hours when San Diego catcher Nick Hundler homered off Micah Owings, the Reds’ seventh pitcher. He was working in his sixth inning and Hundley blasted his 81st pitch. It was obvious Owings was, as the song goes, “Runnin’ on Empty.”
Said Baker, “We had no choice. We had nobody left but Coco Cordero and he was coming in to pitch if it went to the 17th.”
Baker’s moves were further strapped because long/middle relief pitcher Nick Masset has a sore side and was unavailable and won’t be available Sunday. He’ll probably go on the DL, but there isn’t time to get help from Class AAA Louisville by game time Sunday (1:05 on the coast).
In addition, Owings was supposed to pitch Wednesday against the Phillies, but that can’t happen now. What the Reds most likely will do is call up a starter to take that start - lefthander Matt Maloney or righthander Homer Bailey.
The loss to San Diego dropped the Reds deeper into fourth place, two games behind division-leading Milwaukee.
Oh, the other big news. Starter Edinson Volquez, experiencing on-and-off back problems, left in the sixth inning with what was termed, “Mild back spasms.” We’ll see how mild and see if he can make his next start.
And once again first baseman Joey Votto left a game with dizziness. He returned to Cincinnati to be checked out by an internist. He left a game Tuesday in Arizona with dizziness and was unable to play Wednesday.
“That’s a big blow, losing Joey,” said Baker. “We have to get him checked out to see what is causing this dizziness.” At first it was thought it was due to the flu he had little more than a week ago that caused him to miss four starts.
SOME TIDBITS FROM SATURDAY:
Cincinnati’s 1-2 spot in the lineup, Willy Taveras and Jerry Hairston Jr., combined to go 1 for 14. They were 0 for 8 in Friday’s loss. Taveras is 0 for 14.
San Diego’s winning pitcher (and last available pitcher) was Luis Perdomo, a Rule 5 pick from the San Francisco Giants. “We were told he couldn’t find home plate,” said Baker. Perdomo pitched three innings and gave up no runs and no hits, walking one. Go figure.
The Reds managed to not only walk San Diego third baseman Kevin Kousmanoff, they managed to achieve the impossible and walk him twice in a row. The first walk was his first since May 1 and he had only six walks all season.
From the seventh inning to the 16th inning, the Reds had only three hits, which is why they stranded only nine. The Padres left the bases loaded three times from the ninth to the end and they stranded 17.
The Reds blew a 5-2 lead in the eighth, their first blown save of the year and the last team in the majors to blow a save.
With the bases loaded and the Reds leading, 5-4, David Weathers faced pinch-hitter Chase Headley. He appeared to throw a 2-and-2 strike that would have ended the inning. Umpire Jim Joyce called it ball three. Then Weathers threw ball four to force home the tying run, 5-5 - which is the way it stood until the 16th.
Weathers was taken out at that point and yapped at Joyce about the ball three call as he walked to the dugout and Joyce yelled at him, “Bull——.” Weathers continued to yell at him from the dugout.
Oh, yeah, just one of those nights. Now it is 4:30 a.m. eastern and with the day game coming up it’s time to head for the barn. Hope I can wake up.
Only one time in my career did I miss the start of a game and it was in St. Louis. I’ve told this story before but it is apropos now. We stayed in a hotel right across the street from Busch Stadium. I was out late Saturday night and there was a Sunday day game.
My hotel room was stuffy (probably from cigar smoke) so I left the window open. I awoke to this sound: “Now batting for the Cardinals, No. 23, Ted Simmons.” It was the bottom of the first inning. I made it by the bottom of the second - no shower, lots of cologne, no close companions in the pressbox.
Let’s hope I make it this time -showered, shaved and somewhat alert.
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Hey, c’mon, I was distracted
All ye who pointed out my gaffe after Friday’s game: Yes, the Reds led, 3-2, didn’t trail 3-2 when Dusty Baker permitted pitcher Aaron Harang to bat with two on and two out.
That must have been when that sea gull flew over and left a memory on my keyboard. Or was it when that female streaker ran through the pressbox. Or maybe it was when Baker called my cellphone and asked what he should do.
Ah, shoot. None of that happened. I just whiffed. But I still think I would have pinch-hit for Harang.
SATURDAY’S LINEUP: Same as Friday’s, except Edinson Volque3z is pitching. Same battin order, too - Willy Taveras cf, Jerry Hairston Jr. 3B, Joey Votto 1B, Brandon Phillips 2B, Jay Bruce RF, Ramon Hernandez 2, Laynce Nix LF, Alex Gonzalez SS.
Adam Rosales did himself no favor by striking out on a bad pitch with two outs in the ninth on a bad pitch with the tying runs on base.
SO WHAT does a manager do when his 10-year-old kid is with him. Well, for one thing, you go into the hotel swimming pool. I was out by the pool this morning, just so I could smoke a cigar in a far corner while I read a book, wearing a jacket and long pants because, folks, it was chilly.
Suddenly Baker’s 10-year-old son, Darren, appeared and stuck his foot into the water. Baker was close behind and when Darren balked a bit, Baker said, “You wanted to go into the pool, so let’s go.” Baker went in, too, and when he later came to the side of the pool to chat I asked, “Isn’t that water cold?” Said Baker, “Freezing.”
But he was doing his daddy duties.
FOR THOSE who keep calling for the promotion of outfielder Jonny Gomes: He is hitting .267 with 30 strikeouts in 116 at-bats at Class AAA Louisville.
AND FOR somebody who asked: I love mystery novels and my favorite authors are James Patterson, James Lee Burke, Lee Child and Harlan Coben. Any of you know any authors of similar genre I should check out? Lots of down time in the mornings and early afternoons on the road and I can only drink so many Starbuck’s vente nonfat lattes.
TIME OUT while I watch the Preakness - and I don’t think the filly will win the race because she runs like a girl (no I’m not anti-feminist), but the last time I cashed a ticket at a horse race Secretariat wasn’t even born.
Now I’ll post this before the race so you won’t accuse me of, uh, past-posting???
Then we’ll turn our attent back to the ballfield and the Reds attempt to beat this bad Padres team.
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This one turned on one decision
There are predictions that at some point California will separate from the continental U.S. and disappear under the Pacific Ocean. The Cincinnati Reds hope it happens soon - as long as all the people flee east and escape.
The Reds would like to flee east right now and escape.
It’s the West Coast Curse - baseball’s version of the Swine Flu for the Reds. When the Reds arrived at Petco Park in San Diego Friday, all the signs pointed in their favor:
The Padres had lost six straight. The Padres had lost 19 of 23. The Padres were the second worst hitting team in the NL. A San Diego starting pitcher hadn’t won over the team’s last 25 starts.
All that changed Friday night, to the dismay of the Reds, who could have pulled into a three-way tie with Milwaukee and St. Louis for first place. Instead, they lost, 5-3, and fell all the way to fourth place - but only one game out of first.
No First Place Appreciation Day this time.
There was one decision manager Dusty Baker could have made that might have made the difference. Who knows, though? You never know what is right and what is wrong when a manager makes a decision.
The scenario:
The Reds trailed, 3-2, in the seventh inning. They had two on and two out with starting pitcher Aaron Harang due up. Doesn’t that call for a pinch-hitter? Try to at least tie the game and maybe with a double they score two or a home run to score three?
Baker decided to permit Harang to bat and he hit into a fielder’s choice and the Reds didn’t score again.
“He’s my ace,” said Baker. “He doesn’t like to come out and we don’t like to take him out. He was on a roll at the time (one run, four hits over five innings). That’s why we let him bat and go back out there.”
After he made the out to snuff the rally, he “went back out there” and gave up three runs and three hits - with relief pitcher Arthur Rhodes facing one batter and giving up a four-pitch walk to Adrian Gonzalez, then David Weathers gave up a tie-breaking single on his first pitch and a sacrifice fly.
Hindsight. Ain’t it great? It’s 20/20. You’re never wrong. But who’s to say a pinch-hitter would get a hit - although it would have saved Harang from pitching in the seventh and the bullpen would have started with a one-run lead and nobody on base.
Personally, I would have pinch-hit for Harang, but that’s why I’m sitting in the pressbox second-guessing instead of sitting in the dugout making the crucial on the spot decisions that must be made immediately and without benefit of hindsight.
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It was the ol’ hidden bag trick
I’m freezing to death. It’s 65 degrees in San Diego. After 102 in Phoenix I should have brought a parka. Walked along the water near Seaport Village today and hardly anybody was out there, except the vendors.
Had a couple of embarrasing senior moments in Phoenix. I missed my second inning gig with Marty Brennaman. With the three-hour time difference and Dusty Baker making his pre-game briefings with us later and later, I was banging away on my laptop in the bottom of the second. Two outs nobody on.
That’s when I realized I was supposed to be yapping with Marty. He won’t let me forget it.
Then the next night I was supposed to be on Sports Talk with Lance McAlister at 8:05 (5:05 in Phoenix). Again I was tapping the keys when I realized it was 9:30 in Cincinnati. I checked my cellphone because they were supposed to call me. Somehow the phone got turned off.
Lance was gracious enough to have me on tonight. It’s hell getting old.
By the way, McAlister is the best sports talk guy around. Has been for a long time and it’s great they’ve put him on WLW.
AS YOU CAN tell, and as you know, this is an off day before the Cincinnati Reds start a three-game series tomorrow night against the Padres — a team nearly as pitiful as the Diamondbacks. A sweep is not impossible. They face Jake Peavy Sunday, but he is 2-5 with a 4 1/2 ERA.
First place was short-lived, but it wasn’t the Reds’ fault. The schedulemaker made them do it - take a day off. Milwaukee played and won so the Brewers slipped a half-game ahead of the Reds. And the Cubs won so they moved into a second-place tie with the Reds.
Fret not. Not since 1999 have I been around a team as confident as this one. They are fun to watch, win or lose, but the wins are the most fun. The music in the post-game clubhouse is so loud your ear drums vibrate.
RIGHT NOW I’m sitting in the lobby lounge because the wireless wouldn’t work in my room. An off day? I wrote a column about Goodyear, a Reds notebook, an on-line report for something called The Sports Xchange (no E in Xchange) and now this meandering blog.
Samuel Adams is sitting next to me. No Yuengling’s in California and no LaBatt Blue in this establishment.
Arthur Rhodes has walked back and forth in the lobby looking confused and baffled for some reason - sort of like Inspector Clousseau. Fortunately, he doesn’t look that way on the mound. He looks like the Texax Chainsaw guy.
HOW LOOSE is this team. What a difference a year makes. Last year in San Diego Brandon Phillips was angry with me for something I wrote about him. We hashed it out, but our relationships was chilly.
Well, today when I flew in from Phoenix to check into the San Diego hotel, I left my suitcase just behid me. It took 10 minutes or so, then I turned to grab my suitcase. Gone. Disappeared. Nowhere in sight.
I wandered around looking for it. It’s bright red, as big as a body bag. How could I misplace it? I looked and looked and looked. Finally, around a corner and behind a pillar, there it was. How’d it get there? I didn’t put it there.
So I bent down to grab the handle and somebody behind me grabbed me by the hips and screamed in my ear, “Gotcha.”
It was Phillips pulling the ol’ hidden bag trick on me.
Yeah, this team is loose.
Time to leave. Dinner time. And the hostess, Crystal from Boston, will be back any minute to ask if Samuel Adams is OK. He’s empty - both of him.
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Say it out loud: FIRST PLACE (tie)
One team is on a natural high, so high it has taken them (the Cincinnati Reds) into a three-way tie for first place in the National League Central.
The other team is so low it is obvious they have already quit, just 35 games into the season. The Arizona Diamondbacks fired manager Bob Melvin last week, an unpopular decision in their clubhouse, and replaced him with A.J. Finch, who was the team’s 34-year-old farm director and that decision was even more unpopular.
So the D-Backs are heartless, playing with no zing, no verve, no purpose.
AMAZINGLY, after the Reds completed a three-game sweep of the Diamondbacks, the phone in Reds manager Dusty Baker’s office rang during his meeting with the media. It was Hinch and Baker said, “Yeah, I told Rollie Hemond (D-Backs executive) that I would talk to you. Give me your number and I’ll call in the next couple of days.”
Baker hopes he can help Hinch over the jagged rough spots he is encountering. Then Baker rushed from the clubhouse to fly to Sacramento for today’s off day to visit his gravely ill father, Johnny Baker Sr. Asked how his father was doing, Baker said, “Not good.”
WITH THE REDS pitching, a team like the D-Backs, 16th and last in hitting in the National League, has no chance. And will it be the same starting Friday in San Diego? The Padres are 15th and next-to-last in hitting.
OK, SO WHAT’S this all about, Alphie?
The Reds, St. Louis and Milwaukee are tied for first place in the National League Central at 20-14.
“Our swagger is real nice right now and our team chemistry is gorgeous,” said Brandon Phillips. “This is the best team I’ve ever played on.”
Gorgeous? Did he say gorgeous. When’s the last time you heard an athlete use that word to describe teammates. It’s a first for me.
And first place?
“This is just the beginning,” he said. “It’s just like getting to the major leagues — the hardest thing is to stay there. Anybody can get there, but it is all about staying there. But it does feel good.
“Plus our pitching is gorgeous,” he added. “It makes us play defense because they are not wasting time and not walking anybody.”
It is a positive numbers game for the Reds: They’ve won six of seven, are 6-2 on travel days, 7-2 in game three of series and 9-4 in May. They are six over .500, the team’s best since it was 12 over at 36-25 in 2006.
The Reds swept three games in Arizona for the first time in 10 years, back when Chase Field was Bank One Ballpark and the D-Backs wore green and purple uniforms.
They should wear black and blue these days with their 13-22 record, tied with Cleveland for most defeats in the majors.
“First place? I like the sound of that a lot,” said manager Dusty Baker. “And I like the sound of a sweep. We broke it open with five runs (in the seventh) with a whole lot of singles and doubles.
“Brandon got hot for this series and Willy Taveras got extremely hot for this series and Jerry Hairston is swinging better,” Baker added. “It was a great series overall.”
Phillips was 7 for 14 with eight RBIs and three runs scored. Taveras was 9 for 19 with six runs scored and two RBI. Hairston was 5 for 12 with five runs scored and two RBIs.
So, from three of the top four spots in the order the Reds got 21 hits in 40 at bats (.525) with 14 runs scored and 12 driven in — all in three games.
OK, I’VE PUT this in the middle of the post to see who is paying attention. I’m declaring a cease and desist order for today and today only. It is an off day. The Reds are in first place. Nothing negative today, OK? No squabbling, no hassling, no name-calling. Lay off Baker, lay of E.E., lay off Gonzo, lay off each other. This is First Place Appreciation Day, OK? OK. Anybody who doesn’t heed this is admitting they aren’t reading the blog, just putting their negative ideas on board.
ONE OF THE neat things about being around the Reds’ clubhouse is that nearly every day Baker has visitors - mostly blasts from the past, some of his ex-big league teammates or some of his former players from his managing days.
It’s a little bit of a hindrance to the beat writers and broadcaster Marty Brennaman because there are some days when we are delayed for our pre-game briefing session with Baker and Brennaman’s taping of his pre-game show with Dusty.
But it’s great to see and talk with some of the players from my younger days - and I don’t mean the 1890s.
The last couple of days were good examples when Chili Davis and Matt Williams stopped in to see Baker. And it was an example of how young Jay Bruce is.
When one watches Bruce and his accomplished, stylish baseball demeanor, it is easy to forget he is only 22 years old and when asked that very question, Bruce smiled and said, “Yeah, sometimes they do.”
Baker called Bruce into his office on separate days to meet Davis and Williams.
“Jay didn’t know Chili, didn’t know who he played for,” said Baker. “When I told him Chili hit 350 home runs, he said, ‘Really, wow.’ And he asked me if Matt Williams could hit a little bit and I said, ‘Not a little bit, a whole lot.’”
Davis played 19 years for five teams, mostly the San Francisco Giants and drove in 1,377 runs. Williams played 17 years, mostly with the Giants and Arizona Diamondbacks and hit 378 home runs with 1,218 RBIs.
“Oh, I’d heard the names,” said Bruce. “I just didn’t know who they played for. l’ll tell you one thing, I talked with Davis and he told me a lot of good things about hitting.”
OVERHEARD IN my hotel lobby Wednesday morning.
GUEST: How did you get to BOB? I’m going to see Obama.
CLERK: Well, first of all, it isn’t BOB any more. It isn’t Bank One Ballpark. It’s Chase Field. Secondly, Obama is in Tempe tonight at Arizona State University. If you go to Chase Field, you won’t see Obama, but you’ll see a bunch of Obumas. The D-Backs are terrible.
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A trip to the outback (Goodyear, Ariz.)
The first thing I noticed is that there are five exits off I-10 for Goodyear, Ariz. However, most of it that I saw was sand and sagebrush and cacti.
Goodyear is 20 minutes from downtown Phoenix and 357 miles from Los Angeles and in the frontier days they would call it an outpost — and next spring it will be the spring training home of the Cincinnati Reds.
The first thing I saw after exiting I10 to head for the complex was a very large sign that said, “Have An Ass-Kickin’ Day Gift Shop.” Now that’s original. It was also about the last business establishment I saw before we hit the complex.
Oh, about two miles from the complex, at the corner of Van Buren and Estrella Parkway is a Walgreen’s.
OK, so I went with a tainted attitude. I loved Sarasota. Loved Siesta Key. Even loved Ed Smith Stadium. And I didn’t buy it for one minute when Jerry Hairston Jr. said, “Arizona beats Florida. Spring training here is much better.” Mr. Hairston is biased - he lives in North Scottsdale, about 1 1/2 hours from Goodyear.
AND I ALMOST didn’t take the tour. They handed me a hard hat construction helmet. A pink hard hat construciton helmet. A VERY PINK hard hat construction helmet. I only wore it because most of the other visitors wore the same color.
The stadium, which is completed and was used last spring by the Cleveland Indians and will be shared with the Indians next spring, is OK. Not bad. It is not even close to Philadelphia’s Clearwater, Fla. facility or New York’s Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, Fla., but it is antiseptically functional.
It seats 8,000 with enough room for 2,000 on grassy knolls beyond the outfield walls. Some older folks are not going to be happy. Most seats are out in the sun, no cover. The roof is short and covers only a few seats between third base and first base. There is one covered pavilion down the left field line, covering one section, but most of the seats are designed for sun stroke.
HAD TO LAUGH as we walked through the stands with construction manager Ted Stately. He pointed to the seats and said, “Cup holders. They have cup holders. The Dodgers and White Sox don’t have cup holders in Glendale (another new facility just a few miles away).”
And the view over the right field fence is, uh, a bit different. It’s a graveyard or storage site for out of service commercial airliners, mothballed in the dry Arizona heat to help preserve them. There must be 100 of them, including 747s. I think some of my luggae might still be in the holds of a couple of ‘em.
The Indians complex of clubhouse, offices and practice fields is to the right of the stadium. Farther down the road, about a half-mile, is the Reds complex, 75 percent completed and Stately said it should be finished, “By August, although they’ll come back to us and want this ripped out and this added. Always happens.”
OUR TOUR guide, the personable always-smiling Vice President/Assistant General Manager Bob Miller, said the Reds have received tremendous cooperation from the Indians.
“The Indians have helped us immensely,” said Miller. “They told us what they would have done differently and what they really like.”
The Reds’ complex is more than state-of-the-art - spacious with offices, training rooms, the wet room (for swimming pool rehabilitation, mammoth weight room, large players’ dining room - a bunch of neat stuff.
The media workroom, though, has no windows. In Sarasota, I used to like to stare out a window at a particular palm tree, my Inspiration Tree. Now I’ll have to stare at a wall.
GOODYEAR HOPED for vast development around the site, but the economy wrecked that. Fans aren’t going to find much to do - or anything to do - close to the stadium and complex.
OK, OK. I’ll admit it. It was darn nice. Just isolated - for now.
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Another fun night in the desert
Admittedly, the Arizona Diamondbacks are bad, bad, bad — maybe worse than the Washington Nationals. But so what? In the past, the Cincinnati Reds would lose to teams like this.
This year? So far, so good. Like Bachman Turner Overdrive, they are taking care of business. Bad team? We’ll whip up on you and feel no sorrow about it.
On Tuesday night, Micah Owings made his former teammates look helpless (they are). He held them to one run (which Arthur Rhodes actually permitted to score) on four hits over seven-plus innings. He said he was not extra-pumped because Arizona traded him, but it was his most aggressive outing of the year.
The D-Backs were hopeless and helpless and Owings was even better than three starts ago when he beat the Atlanta Braves, holding them to one run and six hits. He walked three that day and didn’t walk any Tuesday.
And there was stunning defense. Jerry Hairston Jr., playing shortstop in place of injured Alex Gonzalez, made at least three above-and-beyond plays. And just think, Gonzalez is coming back Friday and Hairston will be displaced.
Hey, put me in coach … someplace.
Speaking of displaced persons, catcher Ramon Hernandez made two stupendous plays at first base after he took over for Joey Votto, who got dizzy (nothing to fret about, all is well, all tests were negative) in the fourth inning.
Said Hernandez, “For me, playing first base instead of catching is like taking a day off.”
Offense? Mostly Brandon Phillips. He singled home a run in the first, went from first to third on a shallow single, and scored a run when the Reds scored twice in the fourth inning off Dan Haren.
And how about Haren? It is almost spooky how close his name is to Aaron Harang. Haren. Harang. Both are misfortunates as to getting offensive help from their teammates. Incredibly, Haren is 3-4 with a 2.06 ERA. How do you do that?
Anyway, Cincinnati’s third run came on a Phillips home run that traveled so far it probably would be a flat rate for a cab ride — 452 feet.
So the Reds are five games over .500 and tied with Milwaukee for second place, only one game behind the Cardinals. And they face somebody named Bryan Augenstein Wednesday night — a kid making his major-league debut.
“We don’t know anything about him,” said manager Dusty Baker. “We’ll have to do our homework, call around and try to find somebody who has seen him before.”
BIG SCARE of the night — first baseman Joey Votto was protecting first base in the fourth inning when a foul ball hit by Miguel Montero whizzed past him. It didn’t hit him, not even close. But Votto signaled for help and used manager Dusty Baker’s shoulder to hobble off the field.
Nothing serious. Dizziness. Probably the residue of the flu that cost Votto four starts last week and he’ll probably be OK for Wednesday’s game. If not, he’ll be back Friday in San Diego. All tests were negative — which reminds me of the Yogi Berra story. He reportedly had his head X-rayed and told teammates, “The X-rays showed nothing.”
But I digress.
MEDIOCRE MASCOT? D. Baxter of the Diamondbacks. D. Bax. Get it? But Chase Field does have a Fatburger concession stand. Not as good as Five Guys (there’s one open now in Cincinnati by the UC campus) or the West Coast-based In ‘n Out Burger, but pretty good.
D-BACKS FANS are getting hostile. They booed a lot in the latter innings of Monday’s 13-5 loss to the Reds. Rightfully so. They were awful. And Tuesday, after about the fifth inning when their team was doing zip, nada, nothing against Micah Owings, they loudly booed every out the D-Backs made.
MANAGER DUSTY BAKER has a friend, Joe Babich of Sacramento who comes to the park with him and sits in his office during the game. He looks like Tony La Russa and I asked him, “Anybody ever tell you that you look like Tony La Russa?” And he said, “No, but because of my nose, I guess, they think I look like one of the Rolling Stones — can’t remember which one.” I said, “Keith Richards,” and he said, “Yeah, that’s the guy.”
I still think he looks more like Tony La Russa — but you are more likely to find a lion and a zebra sitting quietly in the same room as Baker and La Russa.
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Baseball writing takes a sad turn
It was 105 today and service was lousy at P.F. Chang’s. I have a stiff neck from sleeping on it wrong and my cigars are coming unraveled in the desert heat.
But I’m not going to complain. Not even Delta can get my heart rate up today.
I have a job. When other baseball writers ask me, “How you doing?” I say, “Great. I have a job.”
A lot of my pals don’t any more, a lot of talented people victimized by the economy and newspaper cutbacks. One of the best is Tony Jackson, who covered the Cincinnati Reds for the now-defunct Cincinnati Post. He was covering the Dodgers for the Los Angeles Daily News until a week ago. He was laid off. So long, farewell, thanks for coming.
Hall of Fame writer Tracy Ringolsby and Jack Etkin, two of the best beat writers in the country, were without jobs when the Rocky Mountain News in Denver published its last edition this year.
Another good friend, Jack Magruder, was covering the Arizona Diamondbacks for the East Valley Tribune — until the EVT decided to no longer print a newspaper and Jack was swept out the door. Saw him today and he is hanging in there by doing freelance work.
And how heartless was this? A backup beat writer and a columnist with the Baltimore Sun were in the press box at Camden Yards. They received phone calls. In the press box as they worked. Their services were no longer needed and please leave your laptop computers before you walk out the door. Don’t forget the power units, too.
More sad news today, which is what prompted this. Tom Krasovic has covered the San Diego Padres for at least 10 years, maybe longer, for the San Diego Union-Tribune. He is from Dayton, a Carroll High School graduate, and worked as a copy boy at the old Dayton Journal Herald. He was part of 150 jobs eliminated by the Union-Tribune this week and has a job only until July 31.
So go ahead, Delta, crush my luggage. Lose it. And if P.F. Chang’s wants to serve my chicken with bean sauce ice cold, I’ll use my lighter to heat it up. Malaria? I’ll take it. Stiff neck? Bring it on.
I have a job.
FOR THOSE who like what Jerry Hairston Jr. has done at shortstop and batting second in the order while the Reds have won 11 of their last 15, well, enjoy it now. Alex Gonzalez is coming back Friday in San Diego and he IS going to be at shortstop.
“Everybody knows there is nobody like Alex Gonzalez,” said Baker.
Looks as if Hairston is headed back into a platoon situation, playing left field against lefthanded pitchers. At least Laynce Nix remains in left field against righthanded pitchers and somebody in the clubhouse wanted to know, “Has Chris Dickerson ever heard of Wally Pipp?”
Know what I like about Adam Rosales, other than his all-out hustle? He isn’t the most talented guy in the world and knows it. And he isn’t afraid to admit it. Nor is he afraid to take responsibility and talk about it when he comes up short — as he has recently on defense.
Rosales knows he should be fielding all those rockets and missiles that have been thundering past him at third base and he knows he should field cleanly some of those balls he is bobbling on routine grounders.
“Those are definitely playable balls, plays I should make,” he said. “I need to make them. It’s a matter of slowing things down. I’m pretty tense and I need to trust my hands.”
Nobody is more concerned about it than Rosales himself.
“I know I will, but I’m kind of hyped up, in case people can’t tell,” he added. “I have to be patient. What’s frustrating is that pitching and defense is so important and that’s why I’m putting too much pressure on myself.
“So it snowballs on me,” he said. “The pitcher is battling his behind off and I need to step up for him. I’m not fielding as well as I should be. I’ll start fielding them cleaner and make the double plays and the routine plays I’m supposed to make.”
Manager Dusty Baker said his fielding is the main reason Rosales was sent to Class AAA Louisville after spring training.
“The one thing we told him to get across to him was to slow the game down defensively,” said Baker. “It’s easier said than done, but it is something he has to do. Just relax and slow the game down.
“He had a couple of those plays (Monday) and it gets in your head,” Baker added. “That’s what we didn’t want to happen. Things compound similar to what happened to Edwin Encarnacion since he’s been here.”
And I still have a job (I think). I’m holding my breath to find out who among my baseball writing brethren are no longer employed. So sad, so sad.
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Kicking sand in the D-Backs’ faces
Some staggering stuff:
A fabulous, fantastic start for the Cincinnati Reds deep in the Sonoran Desert, a 13-5 sandblasting of the very feeble Arizona Diamondbacks.
And where are the Willy Taveras naysayers now? Yeah, I was guilty, too - afraid of last year’s low on-base percentage that this season keeps going up, up and up. He began Monday’s game at .355, then got on base five straight times, all on hits, and scored four runs. And now his on-base average is .381 - just what they want from a leadoff guy.
For those who are not fans of hitting coach Brook Jacoby, well, here is another case of him working clandestinely with a player outside the spotlight where nobody can see. Manager Dusty Baker said Jacoby has worked tirelessly with Taveras to get him to drive the ball instead of hitting fly balls and ground balls. And it is showing.
Typically, Jacoby keeps a low-pro and said, “Willy is a good athlete and he is just starting to do what he has done before. We worked hard on those things in spring training and he is putting them into play.”
For the Reds:
13 runs. Most this season. 18 hits. Most this season. Eight extra base hits. Most this season.
When are teams going to learn that Jay Bruce does more with his left arm than cut steaks and sign checks? He threw out Arizona’s Eric Byrnes trying to stretch and single into a double, his sixth assist this season, No. 1 for outfielders in the National League. As far as the Reds are concerned - hey, keep on running, knuckleheads.
When Laynce Nix and Adam Rosales hit back-to-back home runs in the fourth inning Monday, it was the first back-to-backers of the season for the Reds. Nix and Rosales? What are the odds it wouldn’t be Votto/Phillips or Phillips/Bruce? Rosales circled the bases so fast that it seemed he was back sitting in the dugout when his home run landed in the left field seats.
Is there any other pitcher in baseball who is 5-2 with a 7.02 ERA. Those are Bronson Arroyo’s numbers, a guy who obviously knows on what day to pitch. Meanwhile, Aaron Harang has to be sitting in the dugout wondering, “Hey, guys, where are my runs?”
Four of Aroryo’s five wins are on the road and he shrugs as if mystified and says, “It has been a funn year for me up to this point. I have a high ERA but I have more wins at this point than I have at any time in my career, other than ‘06 (Boston). I’ll take what they give and I’ll take the wins if they want to keep giving them to me. I’ve had two of the four years here where I’ve been lights out up to this point and beedn 2-4. I’ll take wins all day long.”
Love Rosales and his racehorse hustle, but does he EVER field a ground ball cleanly. A bobblehead for him would be appropriate. Fortunately, his very strong arm makes up for his current pandemic of dropped grounders.
Going to take a tour Wednesday of Goodyear and the emerging spring training facilities of the Reds for next spring. In the words of Bill Cunningham, “I’ll give you a full report.”
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Notes, Quotes from the Arizona desert
I’ll give credit where credit is due: thank you, Delta, for getting me quickly and safely from Dayton to Phoenix today - on time, no incidents. But boring. No excitement, unless you count me pouring water in my lap when I dropped my book and tried to catch it. Fortunately, it happened early in a four-hour flight, time to dry.
And when I got to Phoenix I discovered it was 102 degrees (in May?). And it will be over 100 all three days the Cincinnati Reds are here. Yeah, I know, dry heat. But tell that to me right hand which nearly suffered third-degree burns when I touched the iron railing on the balcony of my hotel room.
SO WHAT’S it like in the clubhouse of a team on a roll, a team having fun, a team winning? Well, fun.
Every day, four of the Latin players sit at a table in the middle of the room playing cards. “Casino,” said Edinson Volquez. “You know, 21?” Participants include Coco Cordero, Ramon Hernandez, Willy Taveras, Edwin Encarnacion, Volquez and Johnny Cueto. All I know is there is a lot of laughing and insults shouted in Spanish. And, of course, Latin music punctuates the air from a large black box in Taveras’ locker.
AND THEY watch TV as they dress and prepare. On Monday in Arizona, Deal or No Deal was on and Jerry Hairston Jr. watched as he pulled on his green t-shirt from the Mexican team in the WBC. “I don’t understand some people,” he said. “They have a change of a lifetime, a chance to win $1 million. And some of them stop in the game at $22,000, which means $14,000 after taxes. What’s the matter with those people.”
JAY BRUCE tried a practical joke on Joey Votto Monday. Didn’t work. Bruce put up a bogus lineup card that had himself batting third and Votto batting fifth. The usual lineup has Votto third and Bruce fifth.
As I stood looking at the card, wondering if manager Dusty Baker had wigged out, Bruce tapped me on the shoulder and said, “That’s not the real lineup.”
So, I went to Votto and said, “You like batting fifth?” And he said, “What do you mean? I’m not batting fifth.”
Somebody had replaced the bogus card with the real one and that’s the one Votto saw. When told about the other card, an attempt by Bruce to make Votto mad, Votto laughed and said, “That’s a bad joke right there. It didn’t work. I didn’t even see it. I wish I had. It would have been funny. But it misfired.
THEY PUT out an interesting note today. It said that the pinch-hit home run that pitcher Micah Owings hit Sunday was the second pinch-hit home run of his career and both tied games. The note continued that the only other pitcher to do it even once (tie a game with a pinch-hit home run) over the last 50 years was Brooks Kieschnick of the Milwaukee Brewers in 2003 and 2004.
One problem with that: it isn’t fair to Owings. Here’s the difference. Owing is a pitcher, always has been - a pitcher who happens to be able to hit. Kieschnick was an outfielder throughout his career and the Brewers had him do some relief pitching. He still played the outfield and first base, too.
So in my book, what Owings has done is more impressive.
REMEMBER Kevin Jarivs. He pitched in the mid-90s for the Reds and is now a scout for the Arizona Diamondbacks. He was in Great American Ball Park Sunday and happened to look at the scoreboard where it said: “On this date in baseball, Pat Jarvis pitched a two-hitter in 1995 against the Mets.”
Kevin Jarvis stared at it a few moments, then thought, “Hey, I pitched a shutout that day. That’s me, not Pat Jarvis.” There was another Jarvis, named Pat, who pitched in the majors. “How ironic that I was in Cincinnati’s ballpark when they put that up,” said Jarvis (Kevin, not Pat).
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From Mother’s Day to Father’s Day
That’s it. I’m out of business. Chapter Whatever. Put my crystal ball and tea leaves up for auction. Thrown in my turban and my robe with the moons on it.
No more predictions. (Well, we’ll see about that).
I went oh-for-the-weekend. I predicted the Reds would lose the first two and win Sunday. Well, all ye of no faith in me ever again, the Reds won the first two and lost the last one.
So, I missed all three.
But how about that 10-inning Sunday game. Awesome, just awesome. My driver arrived to take me home at 5, I jumped in the seat to go home shortly after seven.
After winning the first two games of the series, the Cincinnati Reds went down stubbornly in the finale, using everything but hand-to-hand combat and machetes befor losing in 10 innings, 8-7 to the St. Louis Cardinals — and as manager Dusty Baker would call it, “A big-time loss, one I really, really wanted.”
What’s the difference? A two-game swing in the standings, that’s what. Had the Reds won Sunday and swept the series, they would today stand tall, only a half-game out of first place.
Instead they fell back by 2 ½ games as they embark on a six-game western swing, beginning tonight in the Arizona desert against the Diamondbacks.
Baker knew what was coming and said before the game, “This will be a tough one. The Cardinals ain’t going to go down easy today.”
More prophetic words were never spoken.
Down 7-5 in the ninth, the Reds got a leadoff home from Jerry Hairston Jr. on a 3-and-2 pitch. Then pitcher/pinch-hitter Micah Owings, with two outs and the Reds down by a run, ran the count to 3-and-2, fouled off three, then crushed one into the seats to dramtically tie it.
Alas, closer Coco Cordero, unreliable in tie games, gave up a walk and a game-winning double to Colby Ramus.
And still the Reds stuck out their tongues at the Cardinals, filling the bases with one out in the bottom of the 10th before pinch-hitter Paul Janish popped out to end it.
“They didn’t win, they escaped and they know they know escaped,” said Baker. “Damn, I wanted that one.”
Brandon Phillips said the team badly wanted the sweep, but said, “We showed the Cards we’re hungry and that we’re here. They know they got away with one today.”
It wasn’t a good day for Reds starter Edinson Volquez — seven runs in 6 2/3 innings.
And during the 4-hour, 23-minute game that started on Mother’s Day and threatened to end on Father’s Day, the Reds smashed five home runs against a team that had given up 11 all year when they hit town Friday. And there were 401 pitches thrown, most of them bad.
In addition to the 10th, the Reds trashed chances in the seventh and eighth. Pinch-hitter Darnell McDonald struck out on three pitches with two on in the seventh and Willy Taveras struck out on three pitches with two on in the eighth.
The five homers were a two-run shot by Jay Bruce (his 10th) in the third and solo rips by Adam Rosales (his first in the majors) in the fourth, Joey Votto in the seventh then Hairston and Owings in the 10th.
“Owings home run was like what you do in your backyard and your imagination — two outs, bottom of the ninth, 3-and-2,” said Bruce. “It’s crazy.
“That game was a blast,” Bruce added. “We could have won, but we played a good baseball game. It was great series. We’re having a blast. I think we sent a message to the Cardinals, although I don’t know if they got it. We can beat anybody in this league and we’ve shown that and I’m just glad to be a part of it.”
Said Baker, “That was a tough one to lose, but it gives you something to keep fighting for and let’s you know what you can do — that you’re never out of a game.”
Albert Pujols broke a 4-4 tie in the fifth, snapping an 0 for 10 in the series, with a home run, but he isn’t the guy who did in the Reds.
“The guy who hurt us was Chris Duncan — he came through in the clutch twice,” said Baker. “He got a big hit against Daniel Ray Herrera, a run-scoring single in seventh (that made it 6-4) and that double off Volquez in the third (for two runs). He’s a clutch guy, along with Pujols, and they clutched us.”
Now the Reds are Westward, Ho, for a six-game series in Phoenix and San Diego — and going west has not been good for the Reds in the past, young man.
Said Baker, “I never worried about going west because that’s where I live and I look forward to going there. There are a lot of distractions out west, especially in San Diego. We have to urge the team we’re on a business trip and not a pleasure trip and to take care of business.”
St. Louis manager Tony LaRussa, who used eight pitchers, seven to get the final 12 outs.
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Fun at the ol’ ballyard (for some)
St. Louis radio broadcaster Mike Shannon, one of my favorite people, invited me on his pre-game show today and, believe me, he is a converted Cincinnati Reds admirer.
“Pitching,” he said. “It’s all about pitching. And the Reds have it.”
Had to laugh. When he talked about the Injuries and illnesses of the Reds infielders, he referred to Encarnacion as Concepcion. And wouldn’t it be nifty for the Reds to actually have Concepcion at his prime right now.
For my appearance, I received a $100 gift certificate to Mike Shannon’s Steakhouse, a great establishment within a block of Busch Stadium III. Prime rib and steaks are excellent - and I’d say that without the gift certificate because I actually have spent money in there.
Stopped in to see St. Louis manager Tony La Russa before today’s game. He’s not happy. Grumpy might be the operative word. But you would be, too, if you see your team permitting first place to go slip-sliding away without the help of Paul Simon.
ALSO saw former Reds outfielder Hal McRae, now a St. Louis coach. He was traded by the Reds after the 1972 season. I began covering the Reds in 1973. For the first couple of months on the road, when I stayed at the team hotel, I kept getting phone calls. Sexy voices would say, “Hell-o, Hal.” And I’d say, “Who is this?” And they’d say, “Is this Hal McRae?” And I’d say, “No, this is Hal McCoy.” Click.
AS MUCH as I love to relate travel stories, here is one of my favorites and it involves Hall of Fame manager Tommy Lasorda. He once went to the counter of an airline and told the agent, “I want a ticket to Pittsburgh and send my luggage to Philadelphia.” Said the clerk, “Sir, we can’t do that.” Said Lasoda, “I want a ticket to Pittsburgh and send my luggage to Philadelphia.” Again, the clerk said, “Sir, we can’t do that.”
Said Lasorda without hesitation, “Why not? You did it last time.”
MANAGER DUSTY Baker sent the same lineup on the field Sunday as he sent Saturday: Taveras, Hairston, Bruce, Phillips, Nix, Hernandez, Rosales, Hanigan. The pitcher is Edinson Volquez.
That means no Joey Votto for the fourth straight game. And the Reds won the first three.
Votto figures to be ready for Monday’s game in Arizona, his flu all but gone. But he asked Baker Sunday, “What if we win again Sunday, our fourth straight?” Said Baker, “If we were not playing so well, you’d play today. But we’ll let you get some strength back. But if we win today, you’re still playing tomorrow.”
Wise move, ol’ sage manager.
BAKER SAID he wants to put .500 behind the team, go as many games over .500 as possible. “And we want to stay in the rear view mirror of the Cardinals.” Somebody added, “Yeah, objects may be closer than they appear.”
Baker liked that one. Laughed and said, ‘That’s a good one.” And he bumped fists with the guy.
Ah, isn’t it fun to win?
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Two wrongs and now maybe a right
OK, all ye haters and detractors, flog away. I was wrong. I was brave enough to publicly express my opinion and I’m 0 for 2. Now let’s hope I’m right on my other prediction - that Edinson Volquez would win Sunday.
When I made the predictions, I asked not to be chastised if I was wrong, but some folks just can’t help it. But I’ll keep on keeping for those who do enjoy the blog.
And, oh, pardon me for taking a day off after a road trip to have dinner with my wife. Flog me again. Thank you, sir, may I have another.
I’m laughing as I write this. Some folks just take things seriously, but I’ll keep on having fun.
And Saturday night was fun, fun, fun — and daddy DIDN’T take the T-bird away.
Is it too early to call them the Cincinnati For Real Reds?
Probably so, but taking two straight from division-leading St. Louis gives it the feel of for real and it certainly roused a crowd of 40,651 in Great American Ball Park.
On Joey Votto Bobblehead Night, with Votto incapacitated with the flu bug, the Reds unraveled the Cardinals, 8-3.
“We should have bobbleheads every night,” said second baseman Brandon Phillips. “And it felt like Field of Dreams out there — if we win, they will come.”
Phillips came out of the infirmaruy, missing two games with the flu, and contributed two hits, including a double in the sixth that helped torch a deciding five-run inning.
“The Cardinals are a great team, but we went out there and played Reds baseball,” said Phillips. “We really need to beat these guys to show them what the Reds are this year. We’re hungry and we’re out to win the whole thing. That’s what it’s about it.”
Aaron Harang celebrated his 31st birthday by giving up two earned runs over seven innings and then getting those two runs back himself with a two-run single during that five-run sixth inning that broke a 2-2 tie.
OK, Aaron, pitching or hitting?
“I liked my pitching, especially with their lineup,” he said. “The base hit got a couple more runs for us, but I was really pleased with how I pitched. I got out of some jams early and only made one mistake (a home run to Ryan Ludwick).”
Maybe what he did best, though, was to handle St. Louis icon Albert Pujols, retiring him in the first with two on, retiring him in the third with a runner on second and retiring him in the seventh with two on.
“I tried to be aggressive, go right after him,” said Harang. “Great hitters feed off timidness of somebody trying to pitch around them.”
The Reds struck first in the first when Jay Bruce launched one 411 feet, a two-run home run, his ninth. And the Reds had St. Louis starter Kyle Lohse in dire straits when he walked two after Bruce’s homer, but Adam Rosales popped out.
The Cardinals had Harang dangling on the precipice, too, when th first two Cardinals singled to open the game. Harang retired the next three.
He gave up a leadoff single in the second, but escaped that, too. Escapism was over in the third, even though he retired Pujols with one out and a runner on second.
He then went to 3-and-2 on Ludwick and the next pitch left the premises, tying the game, 2-2.
The Reds put Lohse to a survival test in the first, making him throw 30 pitches, then they relented and made him throw only 10, eight, eight and nine over the next four innings and the Reds had only one hit.
That changed quickly in the sixth when Jerry Hairston Jr. led with a single. After Bruce whiffed, Phillips doubled, then Laynce Nix broke the tie with a single and Ramon Hernandez made it 4-2 with another single.
And they didn’t stop. They filled the bases and Harang, victimized so often by lack of run support, supported himself by ripping Lohse’s first pitch to left field for a two-run single and a 6-2 lead.
“I was just trying to make contact, put something in play,” he said.
Willy Taveras provided another run with a single to make it 7-2 — five runs on five singles and a double. As manager Dusty Baker likes to call it, “The merry-go-round offense. That’s contact. The merry-go-round and keep that line moving.”
Hairston put the trim on the paint job in the seventh with his second homer of the season off the second pitch thrown by former Cincinnati pitcher Dennis “Big Sweat” Reyes.
For the Reds, it was no sweat.
“That was a great birthday for Aaron,” said Baker. I’m just glad we got him some runs. The guys are playing hard and it is fun and exciting to manage this bunch. And it was fun in front of a packed house. It is indicative of the fact people are believing in us, especially with 9,000 peopple walking up to buy tickets. That’s a lot. That means there is some buzz in town.
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Of Fraternizing and looking not-so-sharp
When Jason LaRue was with the Cincinnati Reds, he hated it, loathed it, when he saw a teammate talking around the batting cage with an opposing player. And he hated it more when an opposing player walked into the Reds clubhuse to talk to a teammate.
It’s called fraternizing and it used to be frowned upon. The league would fine players caught talking to each other before games, no matter where it was. An umpire used to arrive early and sit in the stands and make notes as to who was talking to whom. And then U.S. Grants would gber lifted from offending players’ wallets.
No more. It’s open gab season.
LaRue was on the field Saturday before the game while the Reds took batting practice, but he was not in his St. Louis Cardinals uniform and he stood behind a rope near the backstop. He talked to Reds media relations direction Rob Butcher, Marty Brennaman and me.
As we talked, a Cardinals player approached a Reds player at the batting cage and LaRue shook his head in disgust. Then he noticed the way the Reds player was wearing his cap and said, “That’s a disgrace. That’s a disgrace to baseball right there.”
No, it wasn’t Brandon Phillips, who wears his hat off-kilter, the bill off center. It was a Reds player who was wearing the bill flat, not rounded as is the accepted manner. And it was sitting atop his head.
We won’t mention names, but I agree with LaRue on two counts: the fraternizing stinks and wearing the cap in that manner is ugly - almost as ugly as nearly ALL the players wearing their pants over the tops of their shoes.
The Fraternizing Rule is no longer enforced because what’s $50 or a $100 or even $500 to these guys? But, as a fan, don’t you hate seeing your favorite player high-fiving and hugging and bumping fists and laughing with somebody with the other team - somebody they are supposed to later go out on the field and knock senseless on a play at second base or run over at home plate to win a game?
Albert Pujols was hanging around the Reds’ batting cage and Reds GM Walt Jockeltty was guilty of fraternizing. He gave Pujols a hand shake and a hug. While he had him, he should have kicked him in the groin. But Jocketty had a slight excuse. He did used to be to be Pujols’ boss as GM of the Cardinals.
But LaRue talking about how somebody else looks is kind of funny. I told him, “Every time I see you, you look different.” And he said, “That’s because I’m getting old.” No, it isn’t. It’s because his hair is down to his shoulders and his facial hair makes him look like - and pardon me for saying this, Jason - but he looks like Charles Manson, without the swastika on the forehead.
While he isn’t the regular catcher, LaRue likes playing for manager Tony LaRussa, “Because it is all about baseball, it’s down-to-businesss stuff, not much horsing around,” said LaRue.
BRANDON PHILLIPS was back in the lineup Saturday after misisng two games with the flu, but Joey Votto was still absent with the same flu and manager Dusty Baker said he may not be bgack until Monday when the team starts a six-game trip in S=Phoenix against the Arizona Diamondbacks.
And Alex Gonzalez believes he might be back Monday, too. He made 150 long toss throws Saturday, took some infield and some batting practice.
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Showdown time at Great American Ball Park
I’m convinced that Delta checks it manifests to see if I’m on one of its flights and says, “Let’s mess with him again.”
My flight from Fort Lauderdale to Atlanta this week was a good one, until we landed. The pilot came on the intercom and said, “Good news, we’re here 20 minutes early.”
Forty-five minutes later, we’re still wandering the runways of Hartsfield/Atlanta International Airport. I’m convinced I saw every inch of every runway. We stopped and we started and we stopped and we started. Five times. Finally, we get into the gate area and the pilot comes on again and says, “Well, we’re within a few feet of the gate. But the bad news is that two aircraft are blocking our entrance.” That took another 15 minutes.
So, once again, after believing I had plenty of time to make my connection, I was dashing through hordes of people, going from Terminal B to Terminal A. When I got there I was just in time to hear, “You aircraft is now at the gate, but some maintenance has to be done.”
I settled into a chair and finished a book I was reading. I no longer get stressed about it. I expect it.
WHILE AIR TRAVEL is predictable these days, the Cincinnati Reds aren’t. And it is statement time with a three-game home series against the St. Louis Cardinals.
If the games were on the road, I’d say the Reds would win two of three. At home, I’m saying they lose two of three.
Just my guess. If the Reds sweep or get swept, don’t come back jabbing at me. Just my gut feeling. And here’s why.
They lose tonight. Johnny Cueto is 0-2 lifetime against the Cardinals in two starts last year with a 16.20 ERA. I figure tonight he’ll be pumped up, too pumped up, and wildness will creep back in. And Joel Pineiro (4-1, 3.24) probably will silence the Reds bats.
They lose Saturday, too. Aaron Harang probably will pitch a good one, but they won’t score runs against former Reds failure Kyle Lohse (3-1, 3.23).
They’ll win Sunday with Edinson Volquez, who seems to have finally determined he doesn’t have to strike out everybody and that first-pitch strikes are a good thing. Even though Adam Wainwright is 3-1 with a 4.08 ERA, the Reds should get their hits and runs against him.
All three St. Louis starters are righthanded and let’s see who Dusty Baker puts in left field - Laynce Nix or Chris Dickerson. It should be Nix, but what do I know?
And as of this post, tonight’s lineup hasn’t been determined. Will Brandon Phillips and Joey Votto be recovered enough from the flu to play. If not, I’d say the Reds are doomed - but I thought the same thing Thursday when they didn’t play and the Reds beat the Brewers, 6-5.
Should be a fun weekend, regardless.
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Reds: as resilient as my underwear
Did I not tell you just the other day? This may be the most enigmatic Cincinnati Reds team I’ve seen in my 37 years. Up one day, down the next. But they are as resilient as the elastic band on my underwear (when the underwear is new).
I mean, c’mon. They get slaughtered 15-3 by the Milwaukee Brewers on Wednesday. Then on Thursday, with third baseman Edwin Encarnacion and shortstop Alex Gonzalez already out of the lineup, first baseman Joey Votto reports flu-like symptoms.
Manager Dusty Baker tears up his lineup card and starts over.
No sooner does he do that than second baseman Brandon Phillips reports flu-like symptoms.
Baker tears up another lineup card. Now his entire starting infield is incapacitated. What to do? What can he do? A fast shuffle. Quick adjustments. And, oh yeah, order some more blank lineup cards.
Adam Rosales at third, Paul Janish at short, Jerry Hairston Jr. at second, Ramon Hernandez at first.
That means Baker has both of his catchers in the game. What happens if one gets hurt or one gets thrown out of the game? Who catches?
“Janish,” said Baker. “After he pitched the ninth inning for us Wednesday (giving up five runs in the 15-3 loss), he told me he’d be the emergency catcher.” Heck, Janish would be the emergency bus driver or the emergency batboy or the emergency owner - whatever it takes to stay in the majors.
The batting order was different, too. Hernandez took Phillips’ spot at clean-up and was on base three times in the 6-5 win.
Jay Bruce took Votto’s No. 3 spot in the order and homered in the first inning.
Janish was not supposed to play because his arm was a bit stiff from the 35 pitches he threw Wednesday. But he had to hits, a walk, scored a run and started two early-game double plays? There was Tinkers to Ever to Chance, but this was Janish to Hairston to Hernandez.
At least it wasn’t the way famous sports columnist Jim Murray once described the double play combination of the early expansionist Los Angeles Angels - “Aspromonte to Fregosi to Avalon Boulevard.”
Fregosi, now a scout with the Atlanta Braves, was at tonight’s game.
But I digress.
The other star was Micah Owiings - on the mound and in the batter’s box. He struggled at bit, but lasted six innings and gave up five runs (four earned) and seven hits, then Nick Masset, Arthur Rhodes and Coco Cordero closed it off, Cordero’s eighth save in eight opportunities.
In the batter’s box, after the Reds gave him a 3-0 lead, Owings gave up three in the fourth, but remedied that with his bat. After Janish singled, Owings drilled a triple to break the tie, then scored on a wild pitch for a 5-3 lead the Reds didn’t relinquish.
Now the division-leading St. Louis Cardinals pop in to town for three and, well, let’s see what the boys in red really can do.
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Arroyo opens up about Manny Ramirez
What is it with these guys that they are willing to throw it all away - throw away their chances at the Hall of Fame, throw away their reputations, throw away all they have accomplished?
Now it’s Manny Ramirez - caught using some banned substance that is a female estrogen that supposedly tells your body to manufacture testosterone.
And this time it can’t be tossed aside with the favorite phrase everybody uses in regards to Ramirez, “It’s just Manny being Manny.”
This time it is Manny just being plain stupid.
Bronson Arroyo is more likely to miss a start than duck an issue when asked - and he hasn’t missed a start in more than a year.
So when he was approached about the 50-day suspension of former teammate Ramirez for using a banned substance, Arroyo never flinched.
“It’s pretty scary when you can go to the mall and you can buy something over the counter that ends up costing you one-third of your salary,” he said. “We just have to be careful what we put in our mouths.”
Arroyo and Ramirez were teammates with the Boston Red Sox and Arroyo didn’t hesitate to describe those bizarre days.
“At this point in his career and from what has gone on with testing and stuff since 2004, I’m surprised Manny got caught up in this,” he said. “Manny likes to act pretty stupid, but he is a pretty bright guy who is definitely aware of a lot of things. He tried to act like he is completely oblivious, but he isn’t.
“The years I played with Manny, he was such an introverted guy,” Arroyo added. “I’ve always said he was one of the strangest guys I ever played with. Everything you get from him outwardly is like an act. Everything. You could ask Manny if he likes hamburgers and he’d say yeah and he probably doesn’t like hamburgers. That’s the way he was and is. You could have somebody see him somewhere and then somebody would say, ‘Hey, somebody saw you at Appleby’s today,’ and he’d say, ‘I never left my room today.’ And you’d say, ‘What, it is kind of hard to miss Manny with his dreads.’
“You never know and honestly I think he’ll probably disappear for the next 50 days, probably won’t say a word about it, then come back to the clubhouse and won’t even acknowledge that anything happened. That’s the type of guy he is.”
Arroyo, though, says he is guessing. He is basing what he says on personal experience, “But trust me, nobody knows how Manny really is. Nobody knows anything about his personal life. Maybe one guy on each team. In Boston, it was our batting practice pitcher. Not even David Ortiz. Nobody ever really knows the guy. Everything he does at the park is all ha-ha, hee-hee, it’s all a joke. When he goes home, nobody really knows what he does.”
“It’s a sad thing because the Dodgers are playing good and he is a big part of that team,” Arroyo added.
Reds manager Dusty Baker just shook his head and said, “Fifty days is a long time and that’s really going to hurt the Dodgers and it is going to hurt his reputation. I just hate it that another star goes down. We sure can’t afford to have any more heroes go down.”
Added Arroyo: “This is just affirmation over and over again that steroids and human performance drugs are rampant in the game. What are you going to do? People tend to think when we in baseball go home in the off-season, the Cincinnati Reds are watching us every day, watching us individually over what we do and what we put in our body and how we workout. Everybody has their own program and their own life and do their own things. And honestly, in the locker room, guys who are best friends have no idea what goes on in the other guys’ personal lives. By the time you get to this level, everybody has learned to hide what they don’t want people to know about.”
Scary. Very scary.
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Edinson Volquez: the electric slide
This Cincinnati Reds team is going to gladden your heart on one night and break your heart on the next. It’s like the ol’ box of chocolates: You never know what you’re going to get. If it’s me and there’s a cherry in it, I don’t want it.
And it’s going to be that way all year long. Sensationally good one night and sensationally bad the next. They lose in 14 innings Monday by 3-2 and leave enough baserunners to populate a small Polynesian island. Then they come back the next night with a stunning pitching performance by Electric Volquez. He’s electric when he plugs in and doesn’t walk people, but when he leaves the plug out of the socket his pitches are all over the place.
He was plugged in Tuesday in Miami and the Reds played as constructed.
On a hot muggy night in south Florida, the Reds displayed what manager Dusty Baker and general manager Walt Jocketty talked about all winter as the team’s driving mechanism.
It has nothing to do with a Big Red Machine and everything to do with a Little Red Wagon.
And here is where it came from during a 7-0 victory over the Florida Marlins.
Pitching: Edinson Volquez.
Manufactured runs: Two stolen bases set up the first two runs.
Defense: Chris Dickerson, Jerry Hairston Jr. and Ramon Hernandez made textbook defensive plays.
After all these components constructed a 4-0 lead, Brandon Phillips applied the exclamation point in the seventh with a three-run home run, giving him six RBIs in the game.
“That’s the way you win,” said Baker. “Then throw in a long ball to break the game open.”
Joey Votto was on base five times and Phillips drove him home twice, plus they walked Votto intentionally in front of Phillips before his home run.
“It makes you think when they walk a guy in front of you,” said Phillips. “I would have done that same thing, but I wanted to show them, ‘Don’t do that again, please.’ It opened up my eyes and I said, ‘Wow.’”
Of Phillips’ big night, Baker said, “We’ve been waiting on Brandon and he’s been waiting on Brandon.”
Phillips knows that the way they won Tuesday is the way the team is supposed to win and said, “There is a reason this team is put together the way it is. We have speed, defense and guys who can put the ball in play.”
Volquez did his part with quickness and dominating force — eight innings, no runs, three hits, four walks, seven strikeouts, victory No. 4. He is working on a string of 16 1/3 straight scoreless innings and has given up five hits.
And Reds pitchers have four shutouts in the last six games and Phillips said, “I believe in our rotation and our pitchers. We have future All-Stars.”
Florida pitching coach Mark Wiley wasn’t impressed, he was overwhelmed.
“This guy is like Pedro Martinez in those couple of years when he was outstanding and you couldn’t touch him,” said Wiley. “He made career .300 hitters look like they’d never swung a bat before and this guy did that tonight against us.”
Volquez says he has backed off on his fastball enough to make certain he throws strikes to cut down walks.
“I’m just trying to go deeper in games and go deeper into games,” said Volquez. “I’m just trying to be more aggressive in the zone — first pitches for strikes, attack the hitter.”
And he believes in his peers and said, “We have one of the best rotations in the league and if we stay together we’ll keep winning.”
Offensively, it began in the first inning when Hairston walked, stole second and scored on a single by Votto.
It surfaced again in the third with another walk, this one to Votto, who also stole second and continued to third on a throwing error, from where he scored on a Phillips single.
Defensively, left fielder Dickerson made a picture-book diving catch of a line drive in the second. And with John Baker on first in the fourth, Hanley Ramirez doubled to deep left center. Baker tried to score, but was out when Hairston took center fielder Willy Taveras’ relay throw and fired home, where Hernandez made a diving tag.
More smallball surfaced for the Reds in the fifth — single by Taveras, infield hit by Hairston, walked to Votto and a two-run single by Phillips.
And the Reds did their damage with no extra-base hits against Marlins righthander Chris Volstad, owner of a 2-0 record and a 2.67 ERA when festivities began.
It enabled the Reds to return home with a 3-2 road trip for a five-game homestand — two against Milwaukee beginning tonight and three this weekend against division-leading St. Louis.
“Another getaway win (the Reds are 5-1 on days they are leaving town) and another winning road trip,” said Baker. “This win united us. If you are going to be a good team you have to bounce back from tough losses (3-2 in 14 innings Tuesday) and certainly Tuesday was a tough loss. But you wouldn’t know it by the way the guys played tonight.”
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Jack McKeon still wants to manage
It was an unexpected pleasure, a royal treat with a smoky environment.
Former Cincinnati Reds manager Jack McKeon, now Special Assistant to the Owner (not the GM, the Marlins OWNER - Jeff Loria), was on the field before Tuesday’s game. When he spotted me, we immediately retreated to a far corner of the Florida Marlins dugout.
McKeon lit up a cigar and handed me one. “We can smoke here?” I asked. “I’m the special assistant to the owner, I can do what I what to do,” he said.
He was right. Security people walked past and said nothing. Marlins players and coaches walked by and said nothing.
So we puffed and reminisced. McKeon is the last manager with a winning record in Cincinnati (2000) and the last to come close to the playoffs (1999), when the Reds lost a one-game playoff game to the New York Mets for the National League wild card.
“From what I’ve seen, my record is in jeopardy,” said McKeon. “That’s some pretty good pitching the Reds have.”
When McKeon managed, we used to smoke cigars in his Riverfront Stadium office and he’d say, “Keep puffing. (General manager) Jim Bowden hates cigar smoke and won’t come in here while we’re smoking.” So we puffed and puffed and puffed and Bowden stayed away.
In my humble opinion and, yes, I’m prejudiced: Jack McKeon belongs in the Hall of Fame. He is the only manager in history to win 1,000 games as a minor-league manager and 1,000 games as a major-league manager.
And everywhere he went, he turned teams from losers into winners — San Diego, Cincinnati, Florida. And even though he is in his late 70s, he remains trim and sharp and alert and he wants to manage in the majors again.
He should.
FUNNY STORY. McKeon ALWAYS has a lit cigar when he is outside. When the Reds were on the road, he went to Mass every day, no matter where we were. One time in Milwaukee, he approached a church with a newly lit cigar he didn’t want to discard. So he put it on a window ledge outside the door so he could retrieve it after Mass.
When he emerged, the cigar was gone. He looked everywhere. No cigar. Then he walked across the street and sitting on a park bench was a bedraggled street person, contentedly puffing on an expensive cigar.
Another time, also in Milwaukee, McKeon was smoking in his room and set off the smoke detector, which set off the fire alarm. Because it was a hotel, half the Milwaukee fire department showed up. McKeon, still puffing his cigar, was running up and down the hallways asking, “What happened? What’s going on?”
Oh, he KNEW what was going on.
ADAM ROSALES was given a reprieve Wednesday. He wasn’t supposed to play and Jerry Hairston Jr. was supposed to play third base. But when Alex Gonzalez hurt his left oblique Tuesday and returned to Cincinnati, manager Dusty Baker shuffled the deck again and put Hairston at shortstop and put Rosales back at third.
Rosales is happy with the second chance. In the 11th inning of Monday’s 3-2 loss in 14 innings to the Marlins, Rosales came to bat with two on and two out. He struck out on three pitches, flailing at all three and the last two were out of the strike zone.
“I came out of my zone,” said Rosales. “I wanted to do something so much that in the last half of that game I completely came out of my zone. You just have to stay within yourself. If you don’t, that’s when you get in trouble. You stay in your zone and the pitcher is in trouble.”
About getting a reprieve Tuesday, Rosales said, “I read a book by Mike Schmidt once and he said, ‘When I have a bad game, I can’t wait to get back on the field the next day.’ That’s me.”
SOME THOUGHT that Florida’s Hanley Ramirez slid way out of the basepath to disrupt shortstop Paul Janish’s throw to first in the 14th inning. Janish had to double-pump his throw, waiting for pitcher Daniel Ray Herrera to cover first, then he said, “I babied the throw a little bit.” It hit the dirt and skipped past Herrera as the winning run scored.
Did Ramirez do something wrong?
“If you can do it and get away with it, do it,” said manager Dusty Baker. “That’s how you play the game. Everybody wants you to play the game softly and win. I believe in hard baseball, not dirty baseball.”
Janish said he hadn’t looked at the tape, but he saw nothing dirty or illegal about Ramirez’s slide.
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Icky finish to a long, long night
It was just what John Fay of the Cincinnati Enquirer and I did NOT need. We both got up at 4 a.m. Monday to catch our planes to Fort Lauderdale. Then we sit in the pressbox, hoping for a quick game so we can hop quickly into our beds and catch up on sleep.
So the Cincinnati Reds and Florida Marlins play 14 innings - 14 long, strenuous, diabolical, excruciating innings.
I didn’t fall asleep. Could have. But didn’t.
It was Reds pitcher Daniel Ray Herrera who fell asleep, failing to get to first base on his coverage responsibilities to take a throw from shortstop Paul Janish. The ball whizzed past Herrera and the error was charged to Janish.
“He was just late getting over there,” said manager Dusty Baker. “It’s something we work on and work on. You hate to lose a game that way.”
The Reds weren’t certain which they were going to get — the Florida Marlins who started the season 11-1 or the Florida Marlins who then lost seven straight.
What they got was their first dose of extra innings this season and a large dose it was — 14 innings. And it tasted like oily sludge, a 3-2 defeat in cavernous and nearly empty Dolphin Stadium.
It ended in bizarre fashion when sure-handed shortstop Janish was charged with a throwing error trying to complete a double play, enabling the winning run to cross the plate.
In actuality, it wasn’t Janish’s fault on the play — a ground ball to first baseman Joey Votto with runners on first and second with no outs.
Votto threw to Janish for a force out, but pitcher Daniel Ray Herrera, the Reds seventh pitcher, was late covering first and couldn’t snare Janish’s throw.
As the ball crashed into the Marlins dugout, Ronny Paulino scored from second (Herrera walked him on a full count) to end the game.
“That one was the toughest one so far,” said manager Dusty Baker. “In my managerial career (San Francisco, Chicago Cubs, Cincinnati) I’ve had more late losses here than anywhere.”
For the 17th time in 25 games, the Reds fell behind — this time when Hanley Ramirez reversed the first pitch he saw from Cincinnati starter Aaron Harang in the first inning deep into the left field seats.
Harang kept it right there until he had two outs and Ramirez on second after he singled in the sixth. Jeremy Heredia jam-jobbed a bloop single down the left field line to score Ramirez for a 2-0 Marlins lead.
The Reds finally reached Jason Johnson for two runs in the seventh on three straight singles by Brandon Phillips (an infield hit), Jay Bruce and Ramon Hernandez for one run and the second scored while Adam Rosales rolled into a double play.
Harang, though, left after seven innings, expending 117 pitches to get there while giving up seven hits, three walks and striking out nine — all for a no decision.
“Harang pitched great,” said Baker. “It was a real pitcher’s duel and, unfortunately, that’s the way extra innings games usually end — some kind of error or miscue. You just hate to lose on a mistake.”
The Reds placed two on with one out in the eighth, but Joey Votto flied to center and Brandon Phillips was burglarized when shortstop Ramirez went high to snag a line drive.
Bruce walked to open the ninth and Hernandez bunted him to second, but Rosales popped to the catcher and Alex Gonzalez lined softly to shortstop.
The Reds escaped sudden death evaporation in the bottom of the ninth when Arthur Rhodes had his first rotten performance of the year, giving up two singles.
Nick Masset replaced him with two outs and walked Ramirez to fill the bases before Jorge Cantu flied to right, sending the game into extra innings.
The Reds put two on with one out in the 11th, only to watch Hernandez fly to left and Rosales strike out swinging at three pitches, two of them level with his sideburns.
The futility factor struck again in the 12th when Janish led with an infield single, but pinch-hitter Darnell McDonald hit into a double play.
Meanwhile, closer Coco Cordero warmed up five different times, in case the Reds ever got the lead, but never got in.
“We had a lot of chances, but they had more than we had,” said Baker. The Reds stranded 10, but the Marlins left 15. “We had some opportunities, just like they did. We hit some line drives, but we couldn’t stay away from (shortstop) Hanley Ramirez with our line drives — a couple of which could have won the game. You just hate to lose a game like that.”
Shortstop Alex Gonzalez left in the ninth inning with a strained left oblique and returned to Cincinnati for an examination by Dr. Tim Kremchek and that’s why Janish was in the game.
“I did it batting in the ninth,” said Gonzalez. “I just can’t believe this stuff keeps happening. Unbelievable.”
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Baker Nixes talk about Nix starting
For those of us (yeah, me, too) who would like to see Laynce Nix in the lineup, well, you (we) are not going to like what Cincinnati Reds manager Dusty Baker said before Monday’s game with the Florida Marlins.
Somebody mentioned about the fans clamoring for Nix and he said, “The fans don’t make out the lineup card. The fans didn’t even know who he was until we gave him an opportunity to make this team.”
Just before the beat writers met with Baker Monday afternoon, he called Nix into his office for a closed-door session.
“I talk to all of my players,” he said. “I told Nix to just stay ready. I told him I still thought some day he would be an everyday player. But right now he is valuable coming off the bench. It is why we got him - to be our fourth outfielder.”
About Nix playing, Baker said, “Is he going to take Jay Bruce’s place? No. Is he going to take Willy Taveras’s place? No. That leaves Chris Dickerson in left field. Who has more talent than Chris Dickerson? Hey, last year the fans were clamoring for Chris Dickerson and he was the fair-haired boy.”
What the fans see is Dickerson’s .204 batting average and Nix’s .333 average.
“I let a guy play his way out of the lineup before I let a guy play his way into the lineup,” said Baker. “I ain’t no front-runner.”
Fans aren’t going to like this one, either.
Baker called Jerry Hairston Jr. (.159) into his office Monday to tell him he would be playing third base Tuesday and Wednesday instead of Adam Rosales (.417), “And I called Rosales into my office, too, to tell him,” said Baker.
MEANWHILE, tonight’s lineup is the basic one against the Marlins: Taveras, Dickerson, Joey Votto, Brandon Phillips, Jay Bruce, Ramon Hernandez, Rosales, Alex Gonzalez, Aaron Harang.
AIRTRAN CONTINUES to be my favorite airline. Not only did we arrive in Fort Lauderdale on time, we arrived 20 minutes EARLY. Unheard of. And my luggage almost beat me to the carousel.
THE REDS (and me) stay at the Trump International Resort Hotel in Sunny Isles, Fla., and the place is outstanding. Marble floors everywhere - including nothing but marble floors in the rooms, along with a washing machine (not that I’d ever use it). And because Donald Trump enjoys a cigar now and then, there are smoking rooms, which I was glad to accept, and there is a balcony attached on which to sit and watch the waves roll in on the Atlantic.
Baseball? Who needs it?
I do.
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Reds pitching: a march of zeroes
Yank the chain and turn out the lights kind of pitching is, as Cincinnati Reds manager Dusty Baker likes to say, “a beautiful thing.”
When the other team can’t score, it takes all the pressure off the anemic offense that takes the field for the Reds.
So that’s what the pitching staff is providing.
For the third time in four games, the Reds pitching staff came up with a shutout, beating the Pittsburgh Pirates, 5-0, Sunday. Johnny Cueto went eight innings and gave up no runs and four hits. Arthur Rhodes pitched a 1-2-3 ninth.
On Friday, Bronson Arroyo pitched eight scoreless innings against the Pirates, giving up four hits. Coco Cordero gave up a leadoff hit in the ninth, then went 1-2-3.
On Wednesday, Edinson Volquez pitched eight scoreless innings against the Houston Astros, giving up one hit, then Cordero pitched a 1-2-3 ninth.
Indeed, what a beautiful thing. Of course, the Pirates have been shut out in three of their last four games and have scored in only four of their last 40 innings.
For Cueto, is was his third straight sensational outing, pitching far and above the experience of a 23-year-old who understands and speaks English but refuses to do interviews in English. He uses catcher Ramon Hernandez to interpret.
He is afraid he’ll make a faux pas. But if he concentrates on his English the way he has concentrated on the mound he should be able to teach an English Lit class by Friday.
It was Cueto’s third straight above-and-beyond start since an embarrassment in Houston April 17.
With two outs and nobody on in the fifth inning of a scoreless game, Cueto walked pitcher Roy Oswalt. Then he gave up another walk and an infield single to fill the bases. When he walked Lance Berkman, forcing in a run, Baker removed him.
Asked if that was a message and if Cueto learned from it, Baker said, “That’s not what we’re trying to do, but if he learned a lesson from it then so be it. That wasn’t the reason.”
Cueto was asked about that incident and said, “It made me want to work harder and have better starts. I wanted to go deeper into games and I’ve worked harder to do that.”
After Houston, Cueto pitched seven in Chicago, giving up no runs and four hits in a victory. Then he faced Houston at home and gave up one run and seven hits in seven innings, getting no decision.
Then came Sunday.
“I wanted to pitch the ninth, too, but they said, ‘No, too many pitches,’” said Cueto after throwing 110.
Said Baker, “He wanted to go back out there but we thought that was enough, especially when we need him sharp for his next start, which will be the St. Louis Cardinals.”
Baker was more than upbeat by what her saw from Cueto.
“Great job by Johnny,” he said. “He was locating the fastball and he had a good tempo. Whenever he got behind he’d back off and concentrate harder and relax and throw strikes.
“He walked one and had a number of three-ball counts where he would come back and throw strikes — a matter of concentration and desire right there. He is pitching great, boy.”
Jay Bruce gave Cueto the only run he needed with his sixth home run of the year in the second and catcher Ramon Hernandez provided a comfort zone with a three-run single in the third on which he was thrown out at second.
Hernandez was upset early Sunday morning, still seething from striking out in the eighth inning Saturday night with two on and nobody out in a game the Reds lost, 8-6.
“I just lost it, no good after that at-bat,” said Hernandez. “That was terrible.”
But he made up for it and said, “Last night was a terrible game for me and I wanted to bounce back and help my team,” he said.
Of Cueto, Hernandez added, “The last three games for Cueto has been all about fastball-control, down on both sides of the plate with a four-seamer and a two-seamer,” said Hernandez. “He has been getting ahead of hitters
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Rosales No. 2 in the order? Not yet
There were some grumpy folks walking into the Cincinnati Reds clubhouse Sunday morning. There was marathon that wound its way through downtown Pittsburgh and cabs outside the Omni hotel were scarce.
“And if you could find one, I saw some parts of Pittsburgh I’d never seen before,” said manager Dusty Baker.
For the third straight day, it was overcast with the threat of rain and Baker said, “Typical Pittsburgh gray.” When I said, “Maybe that’s why the old Pittsburgh Negro League team called itself the Homestead Grays, Baker said, “That could be right.”
Speaking of marathons, Reds media relations director ran the Flying Pig Marathon in Cincinnati Sunday, his first marathon. His goal was to do it in less than 3 1/2 hours. He made it by one minute - 3:29. And he’s still breathing.
SUNDAY’S LINEUP is very familiar - same-ol’, same-oh:
Willy Taveras, Chris Dickerson, Joey Votto, Jay Bruce, Ramon Hernandez, Adam Rosales, Alex Gonzalez, Johnny Cueto.
It was different late Saturday night - Rosales was batting sixth, ahead of Hernandez. But after Baker slept on it, he changed it so that Hernandez was sixth and Rosales seventh.
Actually, Baker was asked if he considered moving Rosales up to second in the order.
“It’s very important where he is now,” said Baker. “He can turn the lineup over, get us to the top of the order. And he can get us some important two-out knocks with runners on base. Number two? There are a lot of things to do there, a lot of responsibilitiesl. Rosales is not a taker yet and we need that with Taveras ahead of him. I like speed up there - Chris Dickerson and Jerry Hairston Jr. And Rosales is just learning the pitching. I thought about putting him up there, but then decided - not yet. Let’s let him chill and marinate down there for a while.”
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A mad cap night with Matt Capps
Pittsburgh Pirates closer Matt Capps should change his name to Mad Cap - at least when he pitches against the Cincinnati Reds.
He came into a game Saturday night with an 8-4 lead and pitched as if he were more interested in the post-game fireworks than getting the Reds out. The gave up five hits and two runs and had the bases loaded weith a two-run lead before he struck out Alex Gonzalez on three pitches to end it.
Pinch-hitter Laynce Nix had a single during the mad-cap ninth and do I need to say about perhaps inserting his heavy-duty bat into the lineup for a while? What more does the guy have to do - a .333 average. And it isn’t as if Chris Dickerson (.213) and Jerry Hairston Jr. (.159) are shining lighthouses out there in left field.
Game stuff:
The Futility Factor of the two teams engaging in this weekend series in PNC Park was emphasized by a factoid excavated by the Elias Sports Bureau:
This is the latest in a season since 1999 that both the Pittsburgh Pirates and Cincinnati Reds are over .500.
Latest? May 3?
All that does is emphasize that the Pirates are working with 16 straight losing seasons and the Reds are on a streak of eight straight losing seasons.
The Pirates (12-11) outstaggered the Reds (12-11) Saturday, 8-6, and matters were decided quickly when Cincinnati starter Micah Owings put the game’s first four runniners on base and all four scored.
It was the 16th time in 23 games that the Reds have been behind and the eighth time they were touched for runs in the first inning.
“We have to figure out a way to get Owings past the early innings,” said manager Dusty Baker. “Once he gets past the first or second inning he is locked in. I don’t see anything. Maybe it takes him a while to get loose.”
Owings isn’t aware of any First-Inning Blues.
“I felt like I was making pretty good pitches,” said Owings. “But if there is something I can learn from talking to (pitching coach) Dick Pole and Dusty, well, I’ll see if they have any advice for me. If somebody finds out, let me know. I was loose and felt good when I warmed up.”
He gave up one run in the first inning of his first start, none in the first inning of his next two, then four Saturday.
Nyjer Morgan and Freddy Garcia both singled to right field to open the first, the same thing they did in Friday night. But on Friday Bronson Arroyo threw a double play ball and escaped cleanly. Owings didn’t.
Nate McLouth also singled to right, scoring a run. It was the first run scored by the Pirates after 22 straight scoreless innings and the first run giving up by the Reds after 19 straight scoreless innings.
And the Pirates didn’t stop. Adam LaRoche walked, filling the bases. With one out, Owings hit Andy LaRoche, forcing in a rjun, then Ramon Vazquez poked a two-run single to right for a 4-0 lead.
Pittsburgh added a run in the third before the Reds scored three in the fourth on an Alex Gonzalez three-run homer that hit the left field foul pole.
Joey Votto doubled to open the fifth, but didn’t score. Willy Taveras opened the seventh with a single, but didn’t score — nor even try to steal second before Votto grounded into a double play.
Then the Pirates filled the bases in the seventh with one out. Andy LaRoche hit a double play grounder to third baseman Rosales. He bobbled it briefly, then double-clutched the throw. He still had time for a force at second, but Brandon Phillips dropped the throw and two runs scored for a 7-3 Pirates lead.
Asked if Phillips was late covering the bag, Baker said, “The ball was bobbled and that messed up the timing, messed up everything. Brandon was trying to avoid getting killed (from the fast-closing runner).”
The Reds put runners on first and third with no outs in the eighth, but scored only one run.
As a finishing touch, the first four Reds in the ninth hit safely against closer Matt Capps for two runs, then with the tying runs on base and no outs and the bases loaded with two outs, but Gonzalez struck out on three pitches.
“We had a lot of action on winning that game,” said Baker. “At least our hitting came around (14 hits) and we scored runs. Both teams left a lot of men on base (Reds 11, Pirates 7).
The ninth was wild and woolly against Capps, who had an 8-4 lead when he arrived and only an 8-6 lead with the bases loaded when it ended.
It began with a Taveras infield single. Pinch-hitter Laynce Nix grounded a single to right and Votto second hit of the night drove home Taveras to make it 8-5.
Phillips, 7 for 12 with two homers against Capps when he stepped into the box, grounded a single to left and it was 8-6 with two on and nobody out.
Jay Bruce then crushed one to deep left center that Morgan somehow tracked down for the first out.
“Bruce hit that ball really hard, but they were playing him over that way,” said Baker. “I thought it was in the gap for a hit, but Morgan ran it down.”
Ramon Hernandez took a called third strike for the second out and Rosales stroked an infield hit to deep short, his third hit, loading the bases.
Gonzalez took two strikes, then swung and missed.
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The Derby, Black and Gold, the lineup
My Kentucky Derby picks (three hours before the race):
Friesan Fire (because he loves the slop, is a good mudder). Dunkirk (love the name and love gray horse).
The Kentucky Derby is probably the only major sporting event in America I have not attended and plan to do so at some point. As my friend Bob Hertzel, an official scorer in Pittsburgh who covered the Big Red Machine for the Cincinnati Enquirer, said to me today, “You always did like slow horses, slow dogs and fast women.” Well, he is partly right, but I won’t say which one(s).
QUESTION: Is there any other city in America where all of its pro sports franchises haave the same colors. That’s the case in Pittsburgh. The Pirates? Black and gold. The Steelers? Black and gold. The Penquins? Black and gold.
My hotel is full of Penguins fans, here for tonight’s NHL playoff game against the Washington Capitals. The lobby was stuffed with fans wearing Penguins jerseys. Not one Pirates jersey. In fact, I spotted a group of school kids touring PNC Park Friday, most of them wearing Steelers jerseys. Strange.
But my good friend, Chris Weller, is the Aramark guy for the Pirates and is only in his second year here and I’m sure he’ll get the market straightened out. And he is a closet Reds fan.
THE REDS lineup tonight: Willy Taveras, Chris Dickerson, Joey Votto, Brandon Phillips, Jay Bruce, Ramon Hernandez, Adam Rosales, Alex Gonzalez, Micah Owings.
I’m not sure that I wouldn’t continue to play Ryan Hanigan. Manager Dusty Baker says he likes to ride a player while he is hot. How hot is .412? And in my mind, as feeble as it may be, Hanigan may be a better defensive catcher. And if Dusty likes to get ‘em while they’re hot, how about Paul Janish at shortstop. He is hitting .357 (to .177 for Gonzalez) and while Gonzalez IS a defensive specialist, I see a diminished range with that repaired knee.
And if he wants to play Gonzalez, why not bat him ninth and pitcher/hitter Micah Owings eighth? Owings was 2 for 3 with a double in his last start. But I’m OK with Baker’s explanation: “It’s not bad to have a hitter batting ninth to get on for the top of the order.”
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‘Pitching, pitching, pitching, pitching, pitching’
A question or two:
Is it the chicken or the egg? Is it that the Cincinnati Reds pitching is so good or is it that the Pittsburgh Pirates hitting is so bad? Is it left or is it right? Is it real or is it Memorex.
Oh, who cares. It’s fun, isn’t it - this pitching staff.
Here’s what there is to ponder: The Reds now have pitched 19 straight scoreless innings and given up six hits. The Pirates now have gone 22 straight scoreless innings at the plate had had only seven hits.
Is it Cincinnati pitcher prowess or is it Pittsburgh batting ineptness.
Tune in Saturday and Sunday for chapters two and three of this series for more analytical information.
Me? I believe it is the pitching. The Pirates usually hit pretty good, especially in their home PNC Park, the prettiest new park in baseball. Too bad it is a football town and fans would rather go to spartan Heinz Field for the Pittsburgh Steelers than come to see the Pirates.
But I digress. Even the man who slinked out of baseball disgraced by charges to skimmed bonus money from young Latin players, former Reds manager Jim Bowden knew what is not a secret about how to win baseball games. Behind his desk when he had an office in Great American Ball Park was a sign: “Pitching, pitching. Pitching.” He could have added two more, “Pitching, pitching,” because that would be a five-man rotation. And that’s what the Reds could have going for them.
Bronson Arroyo believes it after shutting out the Pirates on four hits over eight innings Friday night.
Arroyo and his stiff-legged delivery never blinked, holding the Pirates scoreless on four hits over eight innings and the Reds prevailed, 4-0.
It is a series of polar opposites: The Reds have not given up a run in 19 innings and only six hits. The Pirates have gone 22 innings without a run and managed seven hits.
“I feel like this like this is definitely the best staff since I’ve been here and if we continue to do things like this, it breeds conficdence,” said Arroyo. “From top to bottom, everybody throws good. Hopefully we can keep holding ‘em down until we start scoring eight or nine a night and not sweat it so much.”
Arroyo sweated it most of the way and Duke finally broke down in the sixth, but it was a minor breakdown.
Willy Taveras doubled to the 410 sign in left center, the deepest part of the park, then took third on Jerry Hairston Jr.’s sacrifice bunt and scored on Joey Votto’s sharp single.
It stayed 1-0 until Duke left after seven and John Grabow replaced him. Brandon Phillips had hit the ball excruciatingly hard three straight times against Duke with zero to show for it.
But he lit into Grabow’s first pitch and hit it where only a fan could catch it, into the right field bleachers for his third home run and a 2-0 Reds lead.
The Reds added two more in the ninth with Phillips driving in another run with a sacrifice fly.
“Two shutouts in a row? A beautiful thing,” said manager Dusty Baker. Edinson Volquez held Houston to no runs and one hit over eight innings in the previous game. “Man, I love that. And tacking on those runs late was sweet. Those guys (the Pirates) are capable of scoring runs, so going from 1-0 to 4-0 was great,” said Baker.
“Bronson (4-1, 4.91) was masterful and had everything working for him, including a couple of key double plays.”
The biggest was in the first when the first two Pirates (Nyjer Morgan, Freddy Garcia) singled. But the Reds turned a 6-4-3 double play on Nate McLouth and the Pirates didn’t get another hit until the seventh.
“I had those two guys on in the first, but I knew my command was good and I thought, ‘If I can get through this inning without giving up a run I’ll be all right,’” said Arroyo. “Luckily I got the double play and got out of that inning and it worked out like I thought and it doesn’t always happen like that.”
Pittsburgh catcher Jason Jaramillo was perplexed by Arroyo’s assortment of pitches that arriveing between 65 and 88 miles an hour.
“You can see the ball, we all saw the ball,” said Jaramillo. “But it’s moving around so much it is not easy to hit.”
.
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All in another day’s work
While some of you absurdly used the blog the last couple of days to express racial concerns in all aspects of the Cincinnati Reds (Can’t we all just get along?), I took Thursday’s off day to go back to baseball’s roots.
And I refuse to say anything further about the racial stuff because it is so far out there — I mean, it doesn’t exist except in some of your demented minds.
Anyway, my grandson, Eric McCoy, is a catcher for Centerville High School and the Elks play Springboro Thursday at Fifth Third Field, home of the Dayton Dragons. The Elks won, 7-6, with Eric scoring the walk-off run in the bottom of the last inning. He was on base all four times he batted. Was grandpa proud? I busted four buttons on my shirt.
My grandson is named after Eric Davis, my all-time favorite Red, and this spring Davis signed a baseball for my grandson.
I’D LIKE TO thank Delta Airlines for starting my trip by providing me with angst and trepidation today.
First of all, there are no direct flights from Dayton to Pittsburgh. Can you believe that. There used to be about six flights a day. That meant I had to fly Delta from Dayton to Cincinnati and then fly from Cincinnati to Pittsburgh.
My flight was scheduled for 7:15 and it’s only a 20-minute flight - wheels up to wheels down. Somebody once told me that Delta is an anachronym for Don’t Even Leave The Airport. Well, we almost didn’t leave Friday. The plane was at the airport and they had to wheel it to the gate. They wheeled it in at 7:20. By the time we boarded, it was 7:45. Then we sat and sat and sat.
Finally, the pilot says over the p.a. system: “We have to take on some more fuel.” What? First of all, how much fuel does it take from Dayton to Cincinnati? Second, didn’t jsome think of this overnight as the plane sat on the tarmac?
Well, we didn’t leave until after 8, nearly an hour late. I could have hitchhiked and made it quicker and it wouldn’t have cost the company hundreds of dollars.
And, of course, there was the usual upset baby exercising his tonsils at the gate. Now who do you think sat right behind me on the flight. It wasn’t Tanya Banks. It was the poor infant, still angry at the world - or at least his mommy and daddy. But he did quit crying once we were airborne.
Now the kicker. My flight from Cincinnati to Pittsburgh was 9:10 a.m. We were still i the air over Blue Ball or Red Lion or somewhere when the flight attendant was telling everybody their fate. To me, she said. “We’re using gate B8 and your flight leaves from A28. You probably can’t make it. It’s like a half-mile away.”
I was so upset I almost ate the barf bag. Resigned that I wouldn’t make it, I looked up as the plane pulled into the gate and it was - ta-dum - A26 - right next door to my departing flight. I made it with five minutes to spare.
AS ALWAYS, it was pouring rain when the plane landed in Pittsburgh and continued to pour during the cab ride from Pittsburgh International to downtown Pittsburgh, a trip longer by distance and time than by air from Dayton to Cincinnati.
But by early afternoon, just before I ate lunch at Primanti Brothers, the sun was checking us out. Primanti’s, by the way, is a must stop in Pittsburgh. All their sandwiches are served with french fries right on the sandwich between the bread. Supposedly, Primanti’s used to be a stop for truck driver’s, who grabbed sandwiches on the run so Primanti’s began putting the fries on the sandwich so the truck driver could eat everything at once with one hand.
THE REDS lineup for Friday was as expected: Willy Taveras, Jerry Hairston Jr. (left field), Joey Votto, Brandon Phillips, Jay Bruce, Adam Rosales (third base), Alex Gonzaales, Ryan Hanigan (catcher) and Bronson Arroyo.
Hairston started in place of Chris Dickerson because the Pirates started lefthander Zach Duke. Hanigan started because he is Arroyo’s personal catcher, having started all five of Arroyo’s starts.
