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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 > July > 08
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Weathers wasn’t the Lone Ranger
Let’s not pin this one entirely on the 39-year-old body of David Weathers, who trudges up the left side of the mound before every pitch like a sherpa going up the Himalayas.
Yes, he gave up the game-ending, game-winning single to Shane Victorino tonight in the Reds’ 3-2 loss. But it wasn’t an awful pitch. Victorino, an excellent lefthanded hitter, reached out and drove the ball into left-center.
Game over.
The positive of this one was another stellar performance by Homer Bailey. Two in a row. The kid gets it. He looks like a man with a plan who knows how to execute it. For the second straight time, he pitched with aplomb and confidence and vigor.
He was done in by one pitch when he led, 2-1, with two outs and nobody on in the sixth. He wanted to throw a ball inside to Jayson Werth. Then he wanted to get him with a slider. He never got to throw the slider. The fastball for a ball slithered back over the plate and Werth knocked it out of the park.
So poor Mr. Weathers (Stormy is the correct nickname right now) gave up a grand slam last Friday to Albert Pujols after Bailey turned over a 3-0 lead and the Reds lost, 7-4. On this night Bailey turned over a 2-2 tie and Weathers had the misfortune to serve up the game-ender.
But manager Dusty Baker is more concerned with a pokey offense - and rightfully so.
He lamented the stranding of runners in scoring position. The Reds had a chance to bust it open in the fourth when their first four runners reached base and they had a run in with no outs and the bases loaded. The only scored one more run.
“We have to hit with runners in scoring position,” said Baker. “We got one run with no outs and the bases loaded. We just gotta get ‘em in.”
Fundamentals hurt the Reds in that inning. Jay Bruce grounded to second and Chase Utley picked up the ball and tagged Laynce Nix, then threw to first to complete the double play.
“That’s at least three times this year we’ve run right into the second baseman to start a double play,” said Baker. “We can’t let that happen. You either stop so he can’t tag you or you run him over so he can’t throw.”
Baker excused the heavily worked bullpen by saying, “We have to score runs. You can’t expect the bullpen night after night to hold ties and one-run leads.”
So the Reds are back to one-game under .500 at 41-42, with one game left in Philly and three in New York before the All-Star break.
Now excuse me while I go chase a cab and see which way he takes me back to make the meter spin.
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TweetJust call me a sucker for a sob story
Was sitting in front of the hotel late last night, enjoying a cigar and reading, when a gentlemen sat down next to me. Introduced himself. A soldier. Just back from Iraq. We chatted and he saw my Hall of Fame ring and asked about it.
Then came the touch. He needed money for the train to New Jersey, “And a little extra, if you can spare it, for a bite to eat. The train is $13.” I gave him $20. Am I a sucker or what? He probably bought expensive vodka.
But it was worth it when he walked away and I heard him mutter, “Hall of Fame? Damn.”
WHAT I WOULD like to do right now is walk into the media dining room and kick out the plugs on three computers. Fans are voting for the final roster spot for the All-Star game and the Phillies are in an all-out campaign to get Shane Victorino on the team.
The Phillies have three young men in the dining room sitting at laptops punching in Victorino’s name every few seconds. And they are doing it non-stop, nearly around the clock. So when Victorino wins you’ll know it wasn’t a fan vote at all.
Can’t anybody do anything honestly any more? If it were up to me I’d vote for the Phillie Phanatic to be the last player on the NL roster. The guy is hilarious.
HAD MY Five Guys fix today - burger with ketchup, pickle, onion and the bag full of fries - a lunch Valhalla. And tomorrow I’m going to the Reading Terminal to get a Philly cheesesteak at Sparato’s. I’m told it is better than the touristy Pat’s, Geno’s and Jim’s. If it’s better than Jim’s I’ll be stunned, shocked and flattened.
WITH A righthander on the mound tonight (Rodrigo Lopez), Laynce Nix was in left field and Chris Dickerson was in right field, with Jonny Gomes and Willy Taveras on the bench.
“This guy (Lopez) is really tough on righthanders (.217),” said manager Dusty Baker. “Gomes and Taveras will be back in there Thursday (against lefthander Jamie Moyer).”
When Gomes went 0 for 3 Tuesday, it was the first time in his 20 starts that he did not reach base at least once. “When I was 0 for 3 in the ninth and they sent Laynce Nix up to pinch-hit for me, I was thinking, ‘Oh, no, now I can’t get on base,’ ” said Gomes.
Gomes, who fancies himself as Rocky, hasn’t run the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art yet, but says he might do it Thursday instead of running the grandstand steps that he runs four or five times a week.
Hearing that, Jay Bruce said, “I ran up those steps last year. Twice.”
The only step I’ll cover tomorrow is the step up the curb and into Reading Terminal. Load up the onions, please, and don’t spare the Whiz.
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