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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 > 21
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Reds to Dodgers: Ease up, guys
Los Angeles Dodgers 12, Cincinnati Redfaces 3. Homer Bailey - 2 2/2 innings, 9 runs (six earned) 8 eights, two walks, two wild pitches, a hit batsman. He threw 81 pitches and the Dodgers swung and missed only twice.
Do we need any more on this debacle? The Reds have lost 11 straight in Dodger Stadium and would have a better time here if they just circled the team bus around an In ‘n Out Burger for three hours.
Brandon Phillips didn’t play - mostly because the game got away in a hurry and Manager Dusty Baker didn’t have to use him a pinch-hitter or as part of a double switch. Phillips probably was happy he didn’t have to participate in this piece of baseball garbage.
BAKER SAYS isn’t a believer in sending messages, but I think differently in this case.
I believe there is a distinct reason he played Adam Rosales at second base Tuesday against the LA Dodgers. Baker benched Brandon Phillips for not hustling Monday and put Rosales at second base.
Of course, he had few options. But Rosales is a guy who runs everywhere - a guy who runs off tghe field after an inning as if he has had to go to the bathroom since Sunday. To me, it meant, “Hey, Brandon. Check this out.”
I’M NOT DEFENDING Phillips, because even he admits he was wrong for not running hard on the fly ball he hit to right that was lost in the sun and fell for a hit. But as I told him, I’ve covered baseball for 37 years and I’ve seen it hundreds and hundreds of time. Watch for yourself. When a major-league player hits a routine fly ball to the outfield, most of the time they trot out of the batter’s box. It’s human nature.
It just happened to be Phillips jogging when that ball fell in. If he had stopped at first, not much would have been made of it. But he compounded his mistake, he tried to make up for it by trying to take second and was thrown out.
Caught. Nabbed. And because of some other instances where Phillips didn’t go full-bore, it stood out.
ROSALES START at second base was his first there this season, third of his career. Hairston’s start in right field was his first there this season.
FOR THOSE ASKING: I had two Dodger Dogs Monday night. And the pre-game meal tonight looked so bad I passed. So tonight might be, uh, three Dodger Dogs?
And somebody asked how many cheesesteaks I had when I was in Philly for four days on the last trip. Just three. Then during the two-hour rain delay in Cincinnati last Saturday I wandered down to the Penn Station concession stand in Great American and had their version of a Philly cheesesteak. Actually? Not bad. Not Philly, but not bad.
SOME SADNESS: The Baltimore Orioles are moving into Sarasota, taking the place of the Reds. The city and county in Sarasota could have done the same thing for the Reds, come up with $31 million, to keep them. But they thought the Reds wouldn’t leave.
Now the Reds are headed to Arizona. I’d rather be in Sarasota, on Siesta Key, where my condo was on the beach. Out the door, left turn, 20 feet, on the beach.
OH, THERE was a piece of humor in this game. Catcher Craig Tatum pinch-hit and grounded out to third on the first pitch of his major-league debut. He stayed in to catch and when David Weathers threw strike two to the first batter, Tatum whipped a throw to third base. He thought it was strike three.
They showed him close-up on TV and his face was as red as his helmet.
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TweetPhillips apologizes and sits
Just before game time tonight, the latest on Brandon Phillips is that he is not in the starting lineup. And Phillips took it in the right spirit, understanding that it was necessary because he messed this one up.
When manager Dusty Baker posted his lineup card for a game in Dodger Stadium Tuesday, Brandon Phillips was not on it.
And Baker had a 20-minute open door conversation in his office with Phillips to discuss the situation.
Baker didn’t say much but when asked if Phillips might be used as a pinch-hitter or part of a double-switch late in the game he said, “I’m not going to sacrifice a game for principles.”
The play that caused the furor was a routine fly ball in the first inning Monday, a play on which most major-leaguers trot to first base, assuming the ball will be caught.
“Brandon told me he thought the ball would be caught,” said Baker. “In this game you assume nothing, you never assume a ball is going to be caught.”
The ball was not caught. Right fielder Andre Ethier lost it in the sun and the ball plopped to the grass. That’s when Phillips ran hard, but his mistake was in trying to make second base and he was thrown out.
A run scored on the Phillips play to give the Reds a 3-0 lead in the top of the first. Had Phillips made second (or first), the Reds would have had a 3-0 lead with no outs and a runner on. Instead they had a 3-0 lead with one out and nobody on.
They lost, 7-5.
“I’m not mad or anything,” Phillips said after his meeting with Baker. “I really messed up the game and that’s why I’m not playing. I deserve to be sitting on the bench. I have to learn my lesson and it won’t happen again.
“When I came into the dugout after the play I told everybody, ‘Hey, my bad. I just messed up royally. I hope it doesn’t bite us in the butt. If it goes down and we lose the game, my fault.’”
Phillips said he said something to the team after the game in the clubhouse, too.
“I said to them, ‘Damn, I messed it up and it won’t happen again,’” he said. “One of those negative things that happened. I’ve been consistent lately about running and next thing you know, I messed up. One time I don’t hustle and it just bit me.”
Said Baker, when asked if it is a one-game thing, “At this point, yeah. I don’t send messages. If I want to say something, I say it or do it. One of the easiest things to do is hustle.”
When Baker was told Phillips said he wouldn’t do it again, the Reds manager looked askance and said, “I remember telling me daddy when he was whipping my butt, ‘I’ll never do it again, daddy, I’ll never do it again.’”
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TweetBaker benches Phillips for not hustling
For all you Dusty Baker detractors, well, the Cincinnati Reds manager climbed a step on my respect ladder today.
Even though the Reds are facing a tough lefthander in Randy Wolf and need all the offensive help they can get, Brandon Phillips is NOT in tonight’s lineup.
It is obvious punishment for another incident where he didn’t hustle, a play Monday night on which he hit a fly ball to right field and trotted to first, believing he had hit a sacrifice fly. When the ball was lost in the sun and plopped to the Dodger Stadium grass, Phillips then turned it on.
He should have stopped at first, but he compounded his lack of effort by trying to make second base and was easily thrown out. Instead of three runs in, no outs, a runner on second (if he had hustled from the start), the Reds had three runs in, one out, nobody on.
“That was a rally-killer right there,” said Baker.
One wonders right now, before the media can talk to Dusty, if Phillips said the same thing to him as he said to the media.
“I was just happy to just get that RBI, to finally do something with runners in scoring position (a run scored from third on the play),” he said. “I was happy to hit a fly ball to get the run in. I hit the fly ball to right and said, ‘Damn, I missed it.’ I put my head down and when I looked up I saw that he had dropped it. I didn’t know he messed it until I looked up. Then I tried to get to second.”
Then Phillips realized his explanation was a bit lame and said, “I know I screwed up. When it happened, I was glad I got the run in. I could have done worse and not got the run in at all. But I messed up and that’s my second time not hustling this year. I won’t happen again. I screwed up.”
Said Baker, “Hey, man, we’ve all talked to him until we are blue in the face. Evidently, this must have started long before I got here. All you can ask is for a guy to hustle.”
CAUGHT UP ON my sleep today. Awoke at noon (3 p.m. Eastern). Then a cab driver nearly put me back to sleep. First of all, they don’t seem to believe in air conditioning in the taxi industry in LA. Probably saving gas money, but it’s nearly 100 today and I was sitting in the back seat waiting for somebody to baste me and stick a thermometer in me.
And the driver I had was a nice Asian fellow, but spoke nearly no English. He knew how to get to Dodger Stadium, but once there I had to tell him how to get to the media entrance. Every time I said, “Right,” he turned left. Every time I said, “Left,” he turned right. Once we finally made it I gave him money and said, “Keep the change, but need a receipt.” He kept trying to give me the change and ignored the receipt. After several gestures, we made a connection. He got his tip, I got my receipt.
And I bounded out of the cab, leaving a puddle of sweat in the back seat. I started to mention something about the air conditioning, but it would have been useless. He probably would have popped the trunk for me.
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