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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 > 18
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Was Harang’s downfall ‘One More Batter?’
WONDER IF Aaron Harang regrets IT. Wonder if Cincinnati Reds manager Dusty Baker regrets IT.
IT?
Rewind your memory back to May 25, Reds versus Houston in Great American Ball Park. With two outs in the bottom of the fifth, Harang owned a 5-3 lead, one out away from the five innings necessary to qualify for a victory
Then came the rain. It rained for two hours and three minutes before play resumed. Harang warmed up under the stands in the indoor batting cage four times. Then he asked Baker to let him go back out after the rain delay and get the last out.
He went back out and gave up a single to Hunter Pence, then struck out Humberto Quintero to qualify for his win and left the game.
What price glory?
Since that day, Harang has made 10 starts with nary a win. Not one. He is 0-6 with a 5.08 ERA in those 10 starts, including Saturday’s 5-1 defeat to the Milwaukee Brewers.
On his next start after the rain-delayed outing, he pitched in Milwaukee and gave up eight runs and 12 hits in 4 2/3 innings. He hasn’t been the same since.
Coincidence? I don’t believe in coincidences. Getting that one out for a victory may have cost Harang his season. And it judging from Harang’s string of 10 straight starts without a win, it is costing the Reds dearly.
WE HAD ANOTHER rain delay Saturday night. What do we do?
Well, there were a dozen major-league scouts from 12 different teams and I asked several about Harang.
Some comments:
“He isn’t throwing with the same velocity.”
“His slider has flattened out. Used to be his out pitch.”
“He is relying much more on his curve than his slider.”
“He can’t put away hitters the way he used to be able to do.”
“He’s a fly ball pitcher, but he isn’t getting that many.”
“His pitches don’t have the moment they once had, they don’t sink the way they used to sink.”
AND FOR those who care, like us who sit and sit and sit and miss our deadlines, Saturday’s delay was the 13th the Reds have endured this season, 10 at Great American Ball Park.
WITNESSED WHAT may have been the worst scoring decision of my 37 years of writing about ball.
Happened in the fourth inning of tonight’s game when Milwaukee’s Prince Fielder scorched one through the box. The ball one-hopped off pitcher Aaron Harang’s glove. A hockey goalie would have been proud to save that one. Harang had zero reaction time and no time to throw up his glove. It just happened to ricochet off his glove toward base.
A run scored and every writer in the pressbox marked hit and an RBI for Fielder in their scorebooks. Came the call from the booth, “Error one, no RBI.”
What? Everybody in the press box was incredulous. Brewers media relations director Mike Still an error that cost Fielder an RBI. Again. Incredulous. Never in my career have I ever seen a pitcher charged with an error on a ball smoked that hard off his personage.
CHATTED WITH TODD Coffey Friday in the Milwaukee clubhouse and he insisted, “Facing Cincinnati is just like any other team. Just give it my best, like I always do.”
Yeah, right? The former Reds bullpenner, booed out of town, looks like the Monster That Ate Boston these days. He’s huge. But the Reds can’t hit him.
On Saturday, he pitched a 1-2-3 seventh inning, then sat through a rain delay of an hour and 59 minutes, then came back to pitch a 1-2-3 eighth, throwing a 97 miles an hour fastball at Joey Votto.
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TweetItching to get the game started
Adam Rosales is making his major-league debut at shortstop tonight and I hope I can cease scratching long enough to watch how he does.
Maybe it is Mississippi Revenge, my punishment for saying that the Mississippi State Bird is the mosquito. Whatever it is, I sat down at my space in the pressbox this afternoon and suddenly my hands and feet began itching. Real bad. I scratched and scratched and scratched. Only got worse.
I have no allergies, so it is perplexing. Happened to me one other time this year and at the same spot, my seat in the pressbox. But that time it was only my hands and it subsided after about 10 or 15 minutes.
Not this time.
Made a trip down to the clubhouse and assistant trainer Steve Baumann gave me some packets of hydrocortisone Cream, Maximum Strength Anti-Itch. Rubbed it in and my hands feel better, but my feet still itch a bit.
I’m sitting at my pressbox seat in my bare feet, hoping nobody sits close to me tonight.
And I apologize to the Mississippi Mosquitoes.
WHY ROSALES at shortstop when he has not played there in the majors?
“Jut the best lineup I can come up with for this game,” said manager Dusty Baker. “I’ve talked to (GM) Walt Jocketty about it and to the Triple-A people. He’s been hitting pretty good, too.”
Jerry Hairston Jr. has been playing shortstop, but he is in left field tonight against Milwaukee lefthander Manny Parra.
“I signed as a shorstop and I like it, but I like any position as long as I’m out there,” said Rosales. “They Reds moved him away from shortstop in the minors after he had elbow surgery in 2006, “My arm is fine now. After that season, I took care of it, strengthened my body more so I could protect my arm and ever since I’ve been taking care of my body, stretching more and strengthening my shoulder muscles, my arm has been fine.”
DISABLED PITCHER Edinson Volquez walked into the clubhouse after a long toss session and found one of the bobbleheads of himself that the Reds were giving away tonight. Both arms were broken off.
“Who did this, broke off both my arms?” said Volquez. I knew. I saw who did it. But I won’t tell, other than to say he is righthanded, sits in the bullpen, is called a closer and his initials are F.C.
Asked if he liked the bobblehead, Volquez said, “Yeah, I do. The nose is better than my nose. Now we’ll have 30,000 people with my bobblehead, mostly my relatives.”
Volquez plans to throw off a bullpen mound in Los Angeles Monday. “I’ll do that three times, every other day, then I’ll be ready next week to go out on rehab to either Louisville or Dayton,” he said.
Volquez laughed and said, “It has been so long since I’ve been out there (May 21) that I don’t know where the mound is.” When Baker was told that, he said, “That’s OK, I’ll direct him. It’s that little hump in the middle of the field.”
BRONSON ARROYO isn’t pitching tonight, so it was a surprise to see Ryan Hanigan catching instead of Ramon Hernandez.
“Ramon’s leg is sore,” said Baker. “That’s why he didn’t slide last night. He isn’t fast, but when he doesn’t slide, you know something is wrong. His knee is barking at him a little bit. Hopefully he’ll be OK tomorrow.”
And hopefully I’ll quit scratching by game time. I mean, I’ve head of the Seven-Year Itch, but this is ludicrous.
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