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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 > 2010 > June
June 2010
Volquez carries the silver bullet
WHEN THE WRITERS walked into manager Dusty Baker’s office this morning, Phillies broadcaster Gary ‘Sarge’ Matthews, Sr. was seated at a table. Matthews, of course, is father to Gary Matthews Jr., with whom the Cincinnati Reds signed a minor-league contract last week.
Baker looked at Sarge and said, “You have to go. I might have some top information I’m distributing.”
Sarge left.
Baker then revealed that left-handed pitcher Travis Wood is joining the team from Class AAA Louisville and will make his major-league debut when he starts Thursday in Wrigley Field against the Chicago Cubs.
When asked what it was like to have so many pitching bullets available to him when needed, Baker said, “Our main bullet is Edinson Volquez. The other guys are unproven. Aroldis Chapman is more name and reputation than it is actutal results. Wood was our organization’s Pitcher of the Year last year. Chapman is all 100 miles an hour and what you’ve heard. Volquez is the real bullet because he was a 17-game winner and former All-Star. That’s the real bullet.”
AMAZINGLY, Baker said all this before he had checked his minor-league reports to know what happened Tuesday in Durham, N.C., so he was informed by the writers.
Volquez started against the Durham Bulls and was extremely good - 90 pitches, three perfect innings before he gave up a home run to lead off the fourth, six innings, three hits, two runs, seven strikeouts, two walks, 55 strikes.
Then somebody told Baker what Chapman did. He threw nine pitches over 100 miles an hour, one at 103. But…
You know the movie Bull Durham, where pitcher Nuke LaLoosh threw pitches over 100 miles an hour, but was so wild he would shatter the wooden bull sign? Uh, meet Chapman. He destroyed the bull - two wild pitches, two hit batsmen, two hits, four runs, 40 pitches (20 strikes) in 1 2/3s innings. Chapman is 5-6 with a 4.35 ERA.
Baker’s face remained blank.
But he did talk about Volquez and his possible return to Cincinnati.
“We’re not definite on if it’s one more rehab start or two for Volquez,” said Baker. “We want him more over-ready than under-ready. How’d he do last night?” When told of Volquez’s outing, he said, “That’s more like it, but as I said, I want him more over-ready than under-ready. That goes for catcher Ryan Hanigan, too, because he hasn’t found his stroke.”
WOOD AND MIKE LEAKE were the last two pitchers standing in spring training for the No. 5 spot and Leake won. Why?
“It was close,” said Baker. “We saw more walks out of Wood than we did from Leake in spring training. That was the difference in Leake’s favor. But Wood has done well at Louisville and deserves the opportunity and we need him.”
With the Philadelphia Phillies loaded with left-handed hitters, somebody asked Baker if he had considered starting Wood today (on his regular turn) and moving Aaron Harang back a day to pitch Thursday in Chicago.
“What kind of message would that send to Harang?” he said. “And it is Wood’s first big-league start. You want him going against the Phillies and Ray Halladay?”
THE QUESTION everybody wanted answered about Tuesday’s game - and Baker was ready for it.
THE SITUATION: It was the fifth inning and the Reds trailed 6-3. Ramon Hernandez was on second base with two outs. Pitcher Mike Leake was due up and Baker already decided to remove him from the mound. But he let Leake hit, then replaced him on the mound.
THE OUTCOME: Leake flied to center field.
THE EXPLANATION: “Two of my best pinch-hitters were already in the game (Miguel Cairo, Chris Heisey). I had Scott Rolen, but I wasn’t going to waste him in the fifth inning. With Hernandez on second and two outs, they wouldn’t let him hit, they would have walked him. Why would I waste Scott in the fifth inning when I might need him in the eighth or ninth. And I wasn’t going to waste Laynce Nix. They would have brought in a left-hander to face him.”
Hernandez had just doubled home two runs and Baker said, “If he had walked to fill the bases, then of course I would have used Rolen because they would have had to pitch to him. But with first base open, they would never let him hit. And, besides, Leake is a good hitter (.379).”
Class dismissed.
REMEMBER KEVIN MITCHELL, the power-hitting outfielder who played left field for the Reds in 1993, 1994 and 1996? Mitchell was a hard-boiled, hardscrabble guy with a tough reputation. But other than the one time he punched out manager Davey Johnson, he was a model citizen and the writers actually voted him the The Good Guy Award one year. When I presented him with the trophy he cried and said, “Nobody has ever given me this kind of award.”
Well, Mitchell is outfielder Jonny Gomes’ hitting guru.
“Mitch called me yesterday and told me to say hi to you,” Gomes told me Saturday. “We first met when Mitch was my hitting coach in 2004 and 2005 when I played for Mexicali in the Mexican Winter League. Mitch would drive in for home games from San Diego. And I won the batting title in 2005.
“He got me right, man, with my hitting,” said Gomes. “Some of the things he showed me I still use every day. So many guys who are successful in the majors are not able to break it down and teach it. They can break it down for themselves, help themselves and break out of slumps. But they can’t do it for others.
“Mitch is one of those guys who can do that, teach it to others, and it is awesome when you can find somebody who can do that,” said Gomes.
IT’S THAT time of the week again, time to fire those Ask Hal questions at me. Need ‘em and need ‘em now. Please send them by noon tomorrow to halmccoy@hotmail.com, so I can use them in Sunday’s paper.
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TweetArroyo says he’d love to drench the carpets
BRONSON ARROYO, unsolicited, stopped me in the clubhouse Tuesday with a question: “Tell me. If you had to bet your life on it, where would you say this will all end for us this season?”
First, I was honored that he would ask my opinion, but as I told him later, “I don’t bet my life on anything.” But I did tell him that last Sunday I predicted on Reds Live that the Cincinnati Reds will win the National League Central, “By four or five games.”
So I later turned it around on Arroyo and asked him his thoughts, asked him where this team stands against the 2004 Boston Red Sox, the World Series champions for whom he pitched and won 10 games, then won 14 for them the next season.
“Ah, man, that’s hard, man,” he said. “That team was so ridiculous. You had a batting champion hitting in the No. 8 hole in Bill Mueller. Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz were as good as they came at the time, real clutch hitters. Then we had pitchers Pedro Martinez, Curt Schilling, Derrick Lowe, Tim Wakefield. I was just scraping along on that roster.”
OK, SO THE 2010 Cincinnati Reds aren’t the 2004 Boston Red Sox. Nobody said they are. But Arroyo likes this team better than any Reds team in the recent past.
“What I like, versus teams in the past, is that I feel like we can get it done now,” he said. “We have veteran guys from whom you know what you are going to get out of them, like Scott Rolen and Orlando Cabrera. You always knew what you were going to get out of that Red Sox team out of almost everybody on the team before the season even started. On this team, it was always up on the air - would Edwin Encarnacion hit .275, would Jay Bruce hit .275?
“Now, we have Scott and Orlando and all the pieces of the puzzle, the young guys who we need to do good things are doing good things,” Arroyo added. “Drew Stubbs is pulling his weight, you have Joey Votto and Bruce, both catchers (Ryan Hanigan, Ramon Hernandez) are hitting and we haven’t had offense there in the past. Just all the way around we are more consistent and that’s what you need.
“We are able to come back from one or two losses and win, in order not to see the losing streak hit four or five,” he said. “That’s because we have guys who grind it out every day. When other teams come to the ballpark and see consistently a Mike Leake, a Johnny Cueto, an Aaron Harang (and Arroyo), every guy we throw out there, the other team knows they are going to have to play a good game to beat us.
“In the past, we always had two or three guys in the rotation where the other team says, ‘OK, beautiful, tonight we’re going to score ten,” Arroyo said with a laugh. “No more. When you have all those pieces that are consistent, consistent, consistent, that’s what keeps you going and that’s what keeps you in it. It never seems like that much of a big deal when you are on a loser. You look at the board and see you’re 12 1/2 games back and you can’t understand why because you feel you are playing OK baseball.
“But you don’t realize all the little times when you get that one little extra win here and that one little extra win there makes such a difference and the only way you can do that is to have a team full of guys who can get the job done,” Arroyo said. “It is basically the talent on the team as whole.”
I told Arroyo that for the last decade I never came to every game thinking the Reds have a chance to win. There were days I knew they had no chance. This is the first time I come to a game, every game, and think, “The Reds can win this game.”
Arroyo agrees. “No doubt about. Across the board we don’t have any glaring weaknesses. We can play good defense on any given night, we hit the ball almost every night, good pitching from front to the back end of the bullpen. In years past we didn’t have enough to get over the top. And you talk about the intangibles, the gel of a team, all those things stem from having guy who can get the job done and are winners. If that happens, the rest of it falls into place. We have enough here to get over the hump.”
THE CLUBHOUSE was empty except for Arroyo and me and batting practice had begun. He tugged his hat over those long, flowing blond locks and said, “It sure would be nice to win and spill champagne over all this nice clubhouse carpet so (clubhouse manager) Rick Stowe will have to clean it up.”
THE PHILADELDPHIA PHILLIES have taken a huge blow, losing infielders Placido Polanco and Chase Utley to the DL. Utley severely injured his thumb Monday sliding into second base.
“That’s one of the perils of the game and I’ve been there,” said Reds manager Dusty Baker. “You don’t wish that on anybody.”
BOTH SCOTT Rolen and Drew Stubbs were given Tuesday off, but there was method to the maneuver. Rolen will play Wednesday, the first of five straight days games (four in Chicago).
And Rolen volunteered to take Tuesday instead of Wednesday, when Phillies ace Ray Halladay pitches.
“Migeul Cairo (Rolen’s replacement) would have drawn two straight tough pitches on day games,” said Baker, referring to Cairo’s start against Kansas City’s Zack Greinke. “Rolen pointed that out and we discussed it. We decided it wouldn’t be right for Cairo, a guy who doesn’t play regularly.
“And this way we can get Rolen on a day, day, day, day, day schedule,” said Baker.
BAKER WAS ASKED if Arthur Rhodes should be on the All-Star team and he said, “Yeah. For sure. He probably would have made it by now but they seem to go with starters or closers for the All-Star team. He is well-deserving. The guys has been right there and we’re in first place and where would we be without Arthur Rhodes?
“He throws strikes and he is fearless,” said Rhodes. “Some of it is how he prepares himself. He’s a quiet, very determined, very confident warrior. He has gone through a lot of adversity, which he doesn’t talk about and we don’t ask him much. We stay away from that.”
Rhodes has undergone Tommy John surgery, but more importantly was the loss of his son at the age of 5, which he doesn’t much talk about. But he honors his son before he throws his first warm-up pitch when he comes into games by drawing his initials, JR for Jordan Rhodes, on the back of the pitching mound.
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TweetBailey passes test, Gomes supports Longoria
HOMER BAILEY DID his due diligence Monday in the early afternoon sun, throwing a baseball 30 times at 60 feet to test his once-achy shoulder. For what he did, all came out OK.
“I threw two sets of 15, just played toss,” he said. “It was a bit awkward and felt funny for a while, but the last 15 felt good and everything was good.”
What’s next?
“Well, my schedule is over there in my locker,” he said with a laugh. I politely told him I could lose my credentials for rummaging in his locker, but nice try.
“I’m not going to Chicago with the team because, well, you know the size of the clubhouse and the training room in Wrigley,” he said. The Wrigley Field visitors clubhouse is about the size of a 737 coach cabin and extra bodies don’t fit.
“I’ll stay home, then join the team next week in New York and throw off flat ground,” he said. “And then I’ll tell you how it was after I have my butt in an inner tube going down the rapids.”
SO THERE WAS another dugout confrontation between teammates Sunday, following up on last week’s Chicago Cubs conflagration between Carlos Zambrano and Derek Lee. This time it was in Tampa Bay and involved Evan Longoria and B.J. Upton.
Jonny Gomes, formerly of the T-B Rays sent a text to Longoria and said, “You’re a good man.” The Tampa Bay eruption came after center fielder Upton didn’t hustle to cut off a ball in the gap that rolled to the wall and Longoria called him on it.
“Sometimes I think B.J. forgets he is in the big leagues,” said Gomes. “And I don’t blame Evan for getting on him because he signed about a nine-year deal and he isn’t going anywhere. That’s his team.” Gomes shook his head when he heard that Upton said during a press conference that he “probably should have run after the ball.”
Said Gomes, “Probably? Probably should have run after the ball? Probably doesn’t fit in that sentence.”
IT HAS COME to this for Chris Dickerson and his broken hand: last Thursday, on an off-day, he tried acupuncture. Yes, acupuncture. He also had cortisone shots on two separate days last week. Ouch and double ouch.
Dickerson, residing on the 60-day disabled list, had what he called, “Two really good days of batting practice last week and it was time to really turn it on, give it the final test. But it got real sore and I couldn’t do it.” That’s when he turned to acupuncture and said, “I’m trying every resource to get it right. It’s the tendons in my hand and the acupuncturist told me they were like violin strings.”
Maybe he could play us some Bach or Mendelssohn.
COUNTING MONDAY night’s game, seven of the next 14 Reds games are against the defending National League champion Phillies.
Said manager Dusty Baker, “We have to respect them for what they’ve accomplished. We can respect them as long as we don’t fear them and we don’t fear them. This team is not fearable. Fearable? Is that a word? Well, it is now. It sounds good.”
After this three-game series at home, the Reds hit the road for four games in Chicago, three games in New York and four games in Philadelphia. Then comes the four-day All-Star break. That means the Reds go 15 days without a home game.
“I don’t mind the four days off during the All-Star break,” said Baker. “We’ll have a work out on that fourth off day to get us out of vacation mode.”
By the end of this Phillies home series, the Reds will have played 46 of their 81 scheduled home games and they will be three games short of the season’s half-way mark.
“We have no choice but to be road warriors the second half,” said Baker. “Bill Walsh (former Bengals and 49ers coach) used to tell me, you have to convince your teams that trips are business trips, not pleasure trips. And with us going to Chicago and New York, two cities that never sleep, our next trip could be pleasure trips. Sometimes players forget that these are business trips - that the reason they can eat in fancy resaurants is because they are there are on business. It is our job to make sure they remember that.”
Asked if he plans to give his players any advice about the upcoming trip, Baker said, “Yeah, take enough underwear.”
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TweetBray is more than OK with quick call
Bill Bray was speechless, “Didn’t know what to say,” when Class AAA Louisville pitching coach Ted Power told Bray Saturday, “You’re going to the bigs.”
His flight from Norfolk, Va. to Cincinnati left at 5:45 a.m. Sunday, “So I was up at 3:30, not long after I went to bed.”
So the 27-year-old left-handed relief pitcher is back with the Cincinnati Reds, 13 months after Tommy John surgery and three months after a spring training setback.
Starting pitcher Sam LeCure was sent back to Louisville, not as punishment, “But because with Philadelphia coming to town with all those left-handed hitters we felt three left-handers in the bullpen would be good,” said manager Dusty Baker.
For Bray, it has been a long and winding path back.
“COMING BACK is a wonderful surprise - I was very surprised,” he said. “I think this is better than when I was called up to the majors for the first time. Things have been going good for me, I feel good. I’ve been bouncing back good, been able to go back-to-back days, pitch three times in four days, so I can do what is expected of me here.”
Those are the nuts and bolts stuff, it is his psyche that needed assurance.
“It has been 13 months since surgery, a long road back, and I’m thankful it’s over,” said Bray. “A long, long year. I went through the roughest patch after I’d thrown a few games in spring training and re-injured the elbow and it swelled up on me. I couldn’t get over the hump. I’d throw one bullpen then try to throw a second bullpen a little harder and couldn’t get over that hump.
“At that point it became a little difficult, but I had wonderful support from my family - my wife was in Arizona, my dad came down, my baby (7-months-old Laurel) was a big help, even though she slept through a couple of my extended spring games - a little hot out there for her.
“I can’t explain this, I’m speechless and awe-struck, totally surprised and I wasn’t expecting it all,” he said. “When Ted told me, I didn’t know what to say, still don’t. I just have this big smile on my face.”
Bray was acquired from the Washington Nationals on July 13, 2006 in a multiple-player deal that also brought Gary Majewski, Brendan Harris and Daryl Thompson from the Nationals for Austin Kearns, Felipe Lopez and Ryan Wagner.
MANAGER DUSTY Baker quickly pointed out that LeCure’s demotion had nothing to do with his pitching, that it was a matter of need - a relief pitcher over a starter for the next few days.
“He has pitched pretty well and Saturday (against the Indians) was the worst he’s pitched, but that’s not why we sent him back,” said Baker. “We don’t need his spot for another four days and with the Phillies coming in with all those lefties it is not a bad idea to have three lefties in the bullpen.
“When LeCure’s turn in the rotation pops up (Thursday) in Chicago) we’ll see what our next move is,” Baker added. “Sometimes when you are trying to win a pennant you have to make these temporary, auxiliary moves.
“LeCure can pitch here in the big leagues, but he needs to go down there and perfect his stuff more and there is a good chance he’ll back back,” said Baker. “You learn from whatever experience you had here. There should be a spot for him - start, middle relief, long relief - because he can pitch.”
Baker has had to use Micah Owings two straight nights and he was not available Sunday, so Baker said, “We need some help. You can’t be upside down facing the Phillies, then 11 more straight on the road against the Cubs, Mets and the Phillies again - that’s 15 in a row before the All-Star break. You can get upside down in a hurry. You want your bullpen and your pitching staff to be strong, or relatively strong.”
THEY CHEER Arthur Rhodes, they boo Francisco Cordero and they were booing Nick Masset until his recent success. Fans? Oh, so fickle.
“It’s tough when you’re giving it up and you come into the game and you are booed when you come into the game,” said Baker, referring to Masset and Cordero. “That makes it even tougher. You hope to get support and love at the house. It makes it worse. It doesn’t make it any better, just worse. But what are you going to do about human nature?”
And the love for Rhodes? “That’s human nature, too. We all have been on both sides.”
Rhodes has a 33-appearance scoreless streak that ties the Major League record shared by Mark Guthrie and Mike Myers. And his 30-inning scoreless streak is the longest by a reliever in the Major Leagues this season and the longest by a Reds reliever since submariner Ted Abernathy threw 30 straight scoreless innings in 1967.
Don’t try to talk to Rhodes about his amazing run of no runs. He believes in karma. It was early last season when I learned that the hard way. He was going good early last season, too, and I approached him in the Wrigley Field visitor’s clubhouse. He spotted my pen, notebook and recorder and leaped to his feet. As he fled for the safety of the training room, he said, “Oh, no. Not me. You aren’t going to mess up my karma.”
And that’s the way he is now. He’s affable. He’ll talk about fishing or NASCAR or his son, but don’t mention ‘The Streak.’ Baker wants to give Rhodes Saturday’s lineup card after he tied the major-league record, “But I won’t give it to him now. It’s like a pitcher with a no-hitter. You don’t mention it while it is still going on. I’ll give him the card later.”
WHILE MIGUEL CAIRO was watching World Cup soccer and singing, “Don’t Cry For Me, Argentina,” many of the Reds were discussing the controversial call that ended Saturday’s Atlanta-Detroit game.
Atlanta led, 4-3, with two outs in the ninth and the bases filled with Tigers. Pitcher Pete Moylan went to 3-and-2 on Johnny Damon and appeared to throw ball four, about four inches outside. Umpire Gary Cedarstrom called it strike three, game over.
Pitcher Aaron Harang laughed and said he remembers when his grandfather was an umpire in San Diego and he had a friend who also was an umpire.
“We had this kid in high school, Jaime Jones, who was going to be a high draft pick,” said Harang. “My grandfather’s friend was umping his game behind the plate and before the game he asked him to autograph a ball. The kid said, ‘Ah, I don’t do that.’
“So the game began and he came up to bat and the first pitch to him was a foot outside and the ump called it strike one,” said Harang. “The kid looked at the ump and the ump said, ‘Sign my ball?’ The kid shook his head no.
“The next pitch was in the dirt and the ump called it strike two,” said Harang with a laugh. “The kid looked at my grandfather’s friend and said, ‘OK, OK, I’ll sign the ball.’” Jones was drafted No. 1 by the Florida Marlins in 1995, never to be heard from againj.
So, did Damon refuse to sign a ball for Cedarstrom, or what?
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TweetPhillips-Cabrera do the ol’ flip-flop
In Dusty Baker’s baseball world, there is no absolutes - nothing is forever, everything is temporary. Adjustment always must be made.
“Everything about our lineup is temporary, except maybe Joey Votto batting third. That’s probably not temporary, but then again it might be.”
That’s because Baker turned a flip-flop on his lineup card Friday night against the Cleveland Indians, dropping Orlando Cabrera from first to second and lifting Brandon Phillips from second to first.
Asked if that was a temporary thing, Baker said, “Everybody sees how Cabrera is not going very good (0 for 18). You see at-bats piling up on Cabrera. Maybe batting seocnd he’ll get some none at-bats with some sacrifice bunts, some hit-and-runs and walks. Take the pressure off him. It’s just like when Drew Stubbs batted lead-off early in the year - when you’re batting lead-off and you’re not going good, you’re 0 for 4 and everybody else has batted fourth.”
It was mentioned the Cabrera has a good track record against Cleveland starter Aaron Laffey and Baker said, “When you’re not going good, a track record doesn’t mean anything. He had a good track record against some of the pitchers we faced on the road, too, but it didn’t matter.”
Cabrera has complained of a sore ankle, “But it doesn’t appear to affect him in the field and he refuses to say his ankle affects him at the plate, but I can see it on some swings,” said Baker.
So Phillips batted lead-off for the third time this season. He also has batted second (41 times), third (seven times) and fourth (22 times). He didn’t realize he was batting lead-off when he arrived at the park Friday and when told he said, “Really? I don’t know nothin these days. I just know that we’re winning.”
And he says it matters not where he swings his bat in the order.
“Wow? Leading off? Glad you told me, man,” he said. “He must be just trying something different. I’m just trying to get on base for the big dogs. That’s my job and that’s the way I was supposed to be playing. I’m not a No. 4 hitter (as he was last year and early this season). I just feel like batting first, second or third, I’m the type of player to get the team going. That’s how I’ve always seen myself.
“I tried to be the best No. 4 hitter I could be and I did that,” he added. “I learned from my mistakes in 2008, my first time hitting fourth. I took it into ‘09 and did a good job, learning how to drive guys in. This year, I’ve hit all over the lineup and Dusty is seeing the type of player I can really be at the top of the lineup. And it has been paying off.”
JUST ANNOUNCED tonight by the Louisville Bats, who are in Durham: Aroldis Chapman will work the rest of the season out of the bullpen, because that’s the biggest need the Reds have and it isn’t likely relief help will be available at the trade deadline. Chapman started 13 games, then appeared in relief earlier this week - two innings in relief of Edinson Volquez, who was pitching on rehab for the Bats.
HOMER BAILEY SAID before Friday’s game that he is scheduled to start throwing again on Monday and added, “I feel like I could start throwing now because I feel pretty good, but we have a plan and it seems to be going pretty well, so we’ll take our time and stick with it. I’ve had pretty good shoulder-strengthening workouts and the last couple of days and on Monday we’ll just start tossing. It seems years since I throw, but it has only been about a week-and-a-half since my rehab start (for Class AAA Louisville). We’ll start light and build into it.”
PITCHER MIKE LINCOLN has been eligible to come off the DL for 10 days, but he has yet to throw a baseball and doesn’t know when that will happen.
“All I’m doing is rehab work, trying to get myself happy,” he said, referring to his sore right lat. “Throwing? Naw, not yet. I’m hoping to throw starting next week, but I don’t know yet. I feel pretty good, but it is a situation where we don’t want to start it up and aggravate something. I know how I am. I know I’ll have a tough time stopping once I get going.”
THE REDS signed Gary Matthews Jr. to a minor-league contract Thursday and he has experience leading off. Is he an option, a quick fix?
“Lead-off is the toughest position to fill in baseball,” said Baker. “When didn’t make the World Series in San Francisco until we got Kenny Lofton as our lead-off man. And when I went to Chicago we had trouble at lead-off until we got Kenny Lofton.
“As for Matthews, he has to get his act together first. How do you do that without getting your act together. He is going to Triple-A to get his act together,” said Baker. “If he had his act together he would have been playing somewhere and probably leading off.”
IT WAS IRISH Heritage Night in the Great American Ball Park Friday and the Reds wore green hats, the same as they do on St. Patrick’s Day during spring training. As Brandon Phillips pulled on his green hat, he said, “You didn’t know I’m part Irish, did you? Just call me Brandon O’Phillips.
Question: When are they going to have Scotch Heritage Night, or German Heritage Night or Polish Heritage Night or Hungarian Heritage Night or Jewish Heritage Night?
WHAT DO PLAYERS do in the clubhouse during their down time between getting dressed and batting practice? Lots of things. Interviews, TV gazing, treatment from the trainers and in the case of pitchers Sam LeCure and Logan Ondrusek - a game of cribbage.
And several players were filling out a ballot for the players’ All-Star team. Mike Lincoln and Daniel Ray Herrera were discussing their ballots and Herrera was asked if players are permitted to vote for teammates, he smiled and said, “I’ve already voted for myself four times.”
LAYNCE NIX received some good news Thursday when his brother, Jayson, called to tell him he would see him in Cincinnati this weekend - and not for just a visit. Jayson Nix was designated for assignment by the Chic ago White Sox and the Cleveland Indians picked him up.
So there was the possibility the Brothers Nix could face each other sometime this weekend, which is fine with Laynce. “We’ve never had the opportunity to play against each other in the majors, other than last year during The Civil Rights Game here in Cincinnati,” he said. “I haven’t yet been able to hit a hot shot at him and I’m looking forward to doing that. I’m happy for him. He didn’t get much of an opportunity to play in Chicago.”
SEVERAL WRITERS saw a disturbance in the Chicago Cubs dugout during their televised game against the Chicago White Sox, with flamboyant pitcher Carlos Zambrano in the center of it all. Somebody said they thought they saw Zambrano and Derek Lee exchange heated words and Baker, who managed both players, laughed and said, “Zambrano and D-Lee? Man, I’d like to have a seat for that one. A seat and some popcorn. That would be a good one.”
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TweetBronson was Reds’ ‘Mr. Majestyk’
UNSOLICITED OBSERVATIONS from The Man Cave while reading a hilarious book between innings, Sh*t My Dad Says, by Justin Halpern.
Bronson Arroyo is named after Charles Bronson, Arroyo’s mother’s favorite movie actor, a tough-guy actor who starred in Mr. Majestyk.
And Arroyo certainly was ‘majestyk’ for the Cincinnati Reds Tuesday night against the Oakland Athletics, pitching a dandy in a 4-2 win that kept the Reds one full step behind the St. Louis Cardinals in the National League Central.
Arroyo, 7-1 over his last eight decisions, held the A’s to two runs and five hits over eight innings and had only one blip as he forced the A’s to pound the ball regularly into the ground.
He gave up a two-out, nobody-on single to No. 9 hitter Cliff Pennington in the third and Coco Crisp, a breakfast cereal disguised as a baseball player, hit a home run.
The Reds already were up, 3-0, at the time, so that made it 3-2.
Arroyo is a winner, a flat-out winner. If there is a game that the Reds need to win, manager Dusty Bakers surely must want Arroyo on the mound confusing hitters with a mixed bag of pitches that is confounding. Broadcaster Chris Welsh said it best: “Sometimes Arroyo even makes up a pitch on the mound.”
THE REDS gave Arroyo a 2-0 lead in the second when it looked as if they might not score after Johnny Gomes and Jay Bruce opened the inning with back-to-back singles. Drew Stubbs bunted the runners to second and third, but Chris Heisey took a called strike three.
With two outs, catcher Corky Miller, batting .143 at the time and batting ninth, lobbed a two-run single to left field. This guy doesn’t hit much, but he is a team player, a professional. In the eighth inning, Heiser was on second with no outs. Miller had two strikes on him, but purposely pushed the ball to the right side, to the first baseman, enabling Heisey to take third.
Unfortunately, with one out, the Reds couldn’t get Heisey home because Orlando Cabrera and Brandon Phillips both grounded out. But that was a prime example of giving yourself up for the team, to heck with the batting average. And Miller’s work behind the plate is exemplary, which is why Arroyo prefers pitching to him.
The Reds moved the score from 3-2 to 4-2 in the fifth when Scott Rolen singled and scored on Jay Bruce’s two-run double.
PHILLIPS AND BRUCE both had three hits and Joey Votto doubled home the Reds’ third run in the third. Votto has been on base in 31 straight games.
Of course, there was the usual ninth-inning adventure with closer Coco Cordero. With the Reds leading 4-2, he gave up singles to two of the first three A’s hitters, putting runners on first and third with one out.
Another Coco meltdown? Not this time. He thumb-tacked the save by getting Ryan Sweeney to roll into a game-ending double play - another breath-holder, but mission accomplished.
So after taking the first two in this series, the Reds hustled back to their San Francisco hotel for a quick night’s sleep before playing the final game of this six-game west coast trip Wednesday afternoon.
THERE IS A nifty subway system (BART) between Oakland and San Francisco that I took to and from games when the Reds played in Oakland and I traveled. After one night game, as I was getting onto the extremely crowded subway. With my legal blindness I didn’t see the the foot of this behemoth sitting in a seat sticking out in the aisle.
I stepped on it. Crunched it. Crushed it. The guy jumped from his seat, fist upraised. I quickly apologized and explained, “I’m sorry, sir, I’m legally blind.” His demeanor did a 180. He smiled and offered me his seat. I wasn’t certain what my stop was so I asked him, “What stop do I get off to get to the Westin St. Francis?”
“I’ll show you,” he said. “It’s the stop before mine, but I’ll get off and show you.” I told him I didn’t need his assistance, but he did it anyway and guided me up the escalator to the foot of Powell Street. I didn’t argue. That fist looked awfully big.
DON’T FORGET those great Ask Hal questions that you keep providing. Need ‘em by Thursday morning for them to appear in Sunday’s Dayton Daily News. Send ‘em to halmccoy@hotmail.com.
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TweetSometimes the Reds just drive you Coco
UNSOLICITED OBSERVATIONS from The Man Cave while puffing through four cigars and wondering why I had a headache after the Cincinnati Reds-Oakland Athletis game. I thought it was the cigars, but it might have been caused by closer Coco Cordero.
It was like pulling a molar with tweezers, but the Reds won one Monday night against the Oakland Athletics in spite of themselves.
They won in 10 innings, 6-4, but it wasn’t easy and it was a ‘10’ on the difficulty scale.
—They struck out 14 times.
—They scored one unearned run in the first eight innings.
—They took a 2-1 lead in the ninth inning, but Cordero blew the save in the bottom of the ninth when Kevin Kousmanoff hit Coco’s first pitch over the right field wall.
—They hit three home runs in the top of the 10th to take a 6-2 lead, but Cordero walked the first two in the bottom of the 10th and the A’s scored two runs before rookie Jordan Smith recorded a strikeout for his first major-league save.
Gasp. Make that two gasps and a deep sigh.
MIKE LEAKE CRANKED up another good one, giving up one run and five hits over six innings while walking four and striking out two. But Oakland left-hander Gio Gonzalez was even better, giving up one run and four hits over seven innings, walking one and striking out nine.
After scoring one run in three games over the weekend in Seattle, the Reds scored a run Monday in the first inning - an unearned run. Brandon Phillips, batting lead-off because shortstop Orlando Cabrera took the night off, reached on an error and scored on Joey Votto’s one out double off the wall.
And that was it for the Reds for a long, long, long time.
The A’s reached Leake for a run in the fifth after he issued a one-out walk to Cliff Pennington. Daric Burton single to right, putting runners on first and third. Leake had Connor Jackson 0-and-2 before giving up a run-scoring single to tie it, 1-1.
THAT’s THE WAY it stood until the Cincinnati ninth when the Reds started a rally with two outs and nobody on. Drew Stubbs walked and stole second. Manager Dusty Baker sent up Jay Bruce to pinch-hit for Chris Heisey, who started in right field in place of Bruce.
Bruce, much-maligned this season for failing to produce with runners in scoring position, fouled off two 0-and-2 pitches before dropping a single into right field to score Stubbs for a 2-1 lead.
All that was needed was for closer Cordero to do his job. He didn’t. His first-pitch fastball to Kouzmanoff landed over the right field fence, Kouzmanoff’s eight career home run against the Reds.
Then in the 10th, the Reds finally unsheathed their bats. Ramon Hernandez led the inning with a home run off the left field foul pole. Phillips singled to center and Paul Janish, playing shortstop, bunted him to second. Votto homered and Scott Rolen homered and it was 6-2.
BAKER SENT Cordero back out for the 10th, a major mistake, as it turned out. Cordero walked the first two A’s. Baker replaced Cordero with Daniel Ray Herrera and he quickly gave up a single to Kurt Suzuki, filling the bases with no outs.
Now the A’s had the tying run at the plate, with no outs. Herrera got a ground ball out, as a run scored. Baker brought in Smith, called up last week from Class AA Carolina. Smith also got a ground ball as another run scored to make it 6-4. Then he struck out Jack Cust to end it.
It became the Reds 13th victory in their final at-bat - and on this night they had to do it twice.
The most absurd thing of all was that Cordero was the winning pitcher. He blew the save, but was still in the game when the Reds scored four runs in the 10th, so he received the victory. It was the second time this year he blew a save, only to get the victory.
This one belonged to Mike Leake, no ifs, ands or rebuttals.
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TweetSleepy time for the Reds in Seattle
UNSOLICITED OBSERVATIONS while sitting in The Man Cave sweating my eyebrows off as broadcaster Jeff Piecoro stands in front of a camera in Seattle wearing a fur-lined jacket:
The only thing I can figure out is that while the Cincinnati Reds were in Seattle they spent the weekend Messin’ With Sasquatch, only they got more than their beef jerky yanked away from them.
Sleepless in Seattle? For the Reds, it was sleepy time in Seattle.
The National League’s best hitting team in nearly every category went to Seattle and scored one run - o-n-e - in three games while not only getting swept, they were run out of town on a rail with tar and feathers covering their bodies.
One run. O-N-E. In three games.
It was almost excusable when they were shut out, 1-0, Friday by Cliff Lee. And it was almost excusable when they lost Saturday, 5-1, by Felix Hernandez. Those are two top-shelf, top-quality, top-of-the-heap pitchers.
But Ryan Roland-Smith? He was 0-6 going into Sunday’s game and the Reds figured to knock the hyphen out of his last name. Instead, they got beat again by 1-0, getting only three hits off R-S and five walks in six innings, and no hits off the Mariners bullpen the last three innings.
DID ANYBODY tell the Reds that Seattle is buried deeply in the cellar in the American League West? In interleague games against the Mariners, the Reds are now 1-8.
Aaron Harang cranked up a good one Sunday, too, giving up one run and only three hits in his six innings with one walk - a better line than Roland-Smith. And all it got him was another loss.
One run. O-N-E. In three games.
Seattle, too, collected only three hits the entire game, but they scored the only run they needed in the fourth inning. Chone Figgins started the inning with a hard-hit ball toward second baseman Brandon Phillips. Instead of planting his body in front of the ball, Phillips tried to give it the bullfighter matador treatment - a sweeping backhand. The ball kissed off his glove and rolled into right field for a hit.
Another hit sent Figgins to third and he scored on a sacrifice fly by Franklin Gutierrez.
The Reds, leading the NL in hitting with runners in scoring position, three times on Sunday had two on base with one out and didn’t score. For the series the Reds were 1 for 12 with runners in scoring position, a single for a run on Saturday by Jonny Gomes in the 5-1 defeat.
One run. O-N-E. For three games.
And for the three-game series they had only 14 hits.
Their biggest opportunity came in the seventh when Roland-Smith walked both Drew Stubbs and Chris Heisey to open the inning. That was the end of R-S and Seattle brought in Brandon League. He was clearly out of Cincinnati’s league.
Corky Miller bunt the runners to third and second. One out. League, blazing 97 and 98 miles an hour fastballs. struck out Orlando Cabrera. Brandon Phillips engaged in an eight-pitch argument with League and twice fouled off 97 miles an hour pitches on 3-and-2. Then he struck out swinging on a bad pitch, low and away. Then the final six Reds went down in order in the eighth and ninth.
Amazingly, Seattle scored only seven runs in the three games - six more than the Reds.
THE SOLE POSITIVE note was another scoreless inning by lefty Arthur Rhodes, stretching his streak to 28 2/3 innings, longest in the league this year. It’s the longest for a Cincinnati pitcher since Ted Abernathy, a submariner, went 30 straight scoreless innings in 1966. Rhodes has given up only one run all season, a home run to Chicago’s Jeff Baker during Rhodes’ second appearance of the season, costing him the only defeat on his record.
SO NOW THE Reds matriculate down the left coast to Oakland, the team immediately above the Mariners (next-to-last) in the AL Central.
And while the St. Louis Cardinals keep waiting and waiting for the Reds, losing almost as often, the Reds don’t take advantage and remain 1 1/2 games out of first place.
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TweetCincinnati’s sad song: ‘The West Coast Woes’
UNSOLICITED OBSERVATIONS from The Man Cave after an excellent meal at Brio’s (shrimp and scallops, which will play havoc with my diet - but I have lost 29 pounds since spring training):
THE WEST COAST HORRORS continue for the Cincinnati Reds, another game in the far outback and another loss, this time by 5-1 to the Seattle Mariners.
The high-octane offense suddenly has had sugar thrown in the tank by a pair of Seattle pitchers, Cliff Lee on Friday and King Felix Rodriguez Saturday night. Both guys pitched complete games, holding the Reds to one run over 18 innings.
And they displayed something Cincinnati pitcher hopefully observed - pitch efficiency and pin-point control. The Reds drew one walk in the two games and struck out 16 times. The National League’s most potent offense hit .177 (11-62) in the two games.
ONE CERTAINLY has to feel the pain of rookie Sam LeCure, now 1-4 as the stand-in for disabled pitcher Homer Bailey. In his four defeats, LeCure has faced the best of the best as pitching opponents - Chris Carpenter of St. Louis, Matt Cain of San Francisco, Zack Greinke of Kansas City and Hernandez.
Carpenter was last year’s National League Cy Young runnerup to San Francisco’s Tim Linceum, Greinke won the American League Cy Young, Hernandez was AL runnerup and Cain was 14-8 with a 2.68 ERA for the Giants.
LECURE HELD HIS own against King Felix for five innings, matching him pitch-for-pitch.
The Mariners scored a run in the third when Ichiro Suzuki homered. The Reds held him to 0-for-4 Friday, snapping his 20-game interleague hitting streak. But you can’t hold this guy down long. And isn’t it amazing that Ichiro has nearly 300 more hits than Pete Rose at the same stages of their careers.
The Reds manufactured a run in the fourth after Joey Votto walked, the only walk issued by the two Seattle pitchers in these first two games. Scott Rolen flied to deep center and instead of going halfway to second, Votto returned to first to tag up. He then sprinted to second, an alert baserunning maneuver. And he then scored on a single to left by Jonny Gomes to tie it 1-1.
LeCure unraveled a bit in the sixth, an inning that began when Jose Lopez singled to right on a 0-2 pitch. Franklin Gutierrez then doubled to left. Joey Votto speared a line drive by Josh Wilson. It was decided to walk Casey Kotchman intentionally to fill the bases with one out.
IT APPEARED LITTLE damage would be done when Rob Johnson lobbed a sacrifice fly to center to make it 2-1, but the Reds had two outs with two on and No. 9 hitter Michael Saunders coming to the plate, a batter the Reds had handled both nights.
But LeCure left a fastball up on the first pitch and Saunders ripped it into the right field seats, a three-run home run and a 5-1 Seattle lead.
“LeCure usually has good location but for this one inning it got away from him and it doesn’t take long when that happens in the big leagues,” said Reds manager Dusty Baker.
Giving Hernandez a four-run lead after six innings is like giving Brazil a 3-0 lead midway through the second half of a World Cup soccer match. Game over.
AND KING FELIX knew exactly what to do with it. He retired nine of the final 10 Reds, three innings of ‘no chance’ for the Reds as he pitched a five-hitter, striking out nine and walking one, needing only 116 pitches to do it. It’s the first time the Reds have seen pitchers throw back-to-back complete games against them since 2003.
So the Reds, suddenly lost in the great northwest, have lost five of six and eight of their last 10, dropping 1 1/2 games behind the St. Louis Cardinals in the National League Central.
They turn their problems over to their major enigma, pitcher Aaron Harang, to stop the bleeding Sunday in Safeco Field, which is unsafe at any speed for the Reds.
There was on pleasantry Saturday - rookie pitcher Jordan Smith, called up early last week from Class AA Carolina. He pitched two scoreless innings, coaxing an inning-ending double play in the seventh and striking out the first two hitters in the eight.
Maybe there is some hope for the disaster that has been middle relief recently for the Reds.
R
e
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TweetMr. Lee, Mr. Lee, oh, Mr. Lee
UNSOLICITED OBSERATIONS from The Man Cave after appearing for five innings on TV at a Dayton Dragons game (more than a baseball game, it’s a happening at Fifth Third Field):
There is a Starbuck’s on nearly every corner in Seattle, including the original store, but it appears the Cincinnati Reds didn’t frequent any because they had no extra oomph Friday night against the Mariners.
Cliff Lee can, and will, do that to a baseball team. Lee held the Reds to six hits during a complete-game 1-0 shutout. And that’s no way to start a six-game west coast trip. The Reds are now 9-22 on the west coast against American League West teams since interleague play commenced.
A FEW YEARS ago, there was a report that the Cleveland Indians offered Lee to the Reds when Wayne Krivsky was general manager. But the report said the price was Joey Votto. Krivsky said recently he never talked to the Tribe about Lee. Too bad a deal wasn’t made - except the cost of Votto would be too steep.
Johnny Cueto was the victim Friday and he didn’t deserve to be a victim, giving up only one run and four hits over 5 2/3 innings. But his old bugaboo did him in - too many pitches. Seattle forced him to go to 3-and-2 time and time again and his pitch count soared to 115 in the sixth inning.
His downfall began in the sixth after he had two outs and nobody on. He hit Jose Lopez with a pitch, just grazing Lopez’s uniform. Then center fielder Chris Heisey, stearting in place of Drew Stubbs, got a bad jump on a shallow popper by Franklin Guitierrez and it fell for a single. Josh Wilson then rolled a seeing-eye single up the middle and Lopez scored the game’s only run. barely dodging a lunging tag by catcher Corky Miller.
Regular catcher Ramon Hernandez was a late scratch with back spasms, leaving the Reds with only one catcher.
HAD THIS game been played in Cincinnati’s tinker toy ballpark, they might have won, 6-1 or 7-1 or 8-1. They set an intercontinental record for balls hit to the warning track, balls that would have flown out of Great American Ball Park. But Safeco Field has a vast outfield, a green expanse where deep fly balls go to die in front of the walls.
The game set up perfectly. The Reds have won 12 games in their last at-bat. Seattle has lost 15 in the other team’s last at-bat. And so it was 1-0 going into the ninth.
Lee would have none of it, even though Joey Votto led the ninth with a first-pitch single. But Scott Rolen popped out, Johnny Gomes hit into a force play and Lee finished it off by striking out Heisey with a big-bending curveball, the second time this night he got Heisey with the same pitch.
It was Lee’s third complete game this year and he gave up only six hits, walked none and struck out seven.
There was a minor scare in the eighth with Arthur Rhodes on the mound. With two outs and a 2-2 count on Lopez, Rhodes bent over in what appeared to be pain from his sore right foot. Pitching coach Bryan Price and trainer Paul Lessard ran to the mound, but Rhodes waved them off and completed another scoreless inning.
Question? How long is Rhodes going to be able to continue his dominance with a foot that is barking like a German Shepherd?
And the final piece of disturbing news: The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Oakland Athletics and reclaimed first place in the National League Central by one game over the Reds.
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TweetArroyo takes matters in his own fists
UNSOLICITED OBSERVATIONS from The Man Cave while taking a day off from battling the orange barrels and concrete barricades on I-75:
I’ve traveled I-75 between Dayton and Cincinnati for 38 years and there has not been a single year when there hasn’t been construction somewhere along that stretch of the road. I wish I had the orange barrel concession. I’d be retired in Tahiti.
And now there is the added attraction, the skeletal remains of Touchdown Jesus at the Solid Rock church. All that remains are a couple of blackened poles reaching toward the sky where Touchdown Jesus’s arms once stretched skyward after the lightning strike.
ANYWAY, JUST WHEN the Cincinnati Reds needed it most, Bronson Arroyo provided the most.
If I had to pick one pitcher on the Reds’ staff to win a game for me, when times were desperate, it would be Bronson Arroyo.
And he showed why Thursday afternoon against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
How many pitchers win a game when they walk six batters? That’s what Arroyo did - walk a career-high six batters during his seven innings. Yet, he gave up only one run.
Why? Because the Reds turned three double plays and Arroyo scampered over to first base all three times to record the final out. That’s right, three 3-6-1 double plays (first to short to the pitcher covering first).
And that’s not all. Arroyo was acutely aware that his team had scored only three runs in its last 25 innings, so he took matters into his own hands - a baseball bat.
The first two Dodgers of the game reached base, but Arroyo escaped because of the team’s first 3-6-1 double play.
He recorded the first two outs of the second inning, then walked the No. 7 and No. 8 hitters, then gave up a run-scoring single to opposing pitcher John Ely and he was down 1-0.
In the bottom of the second, Jay Bruce doubled and catcher Corky Miller drew a two-out walk, bringing up Arroyo. He promptly crushed a three-run home run for a 3-1 lead - his fifth career home run. He has five hits this year and six RBIs.
From there, while Arroyo silenced the Dodgers, the Reds built their lead with home runs by Joey Votto and Brandon Phillips. And is Phillips having a career-year, or what? On this homestand he certainly is playing the best baseball of his major-league career - defensively and offensively, hitting nearly .500 on this 10-game homestand.
The win was particularly big because it enabled them to finish 4-6 on a disappointing homestand, which is at least better than 3-7. Had they lost Thursday, they would have taken a four-game losing streak on their west coast American League swing to Seattle and Oakland for six games, starting in Seattle Friday night.
ARTHUR RHODES replaced Arroyo in the eighth and filled the bases, but escaped damage and now owns 27 straight scoreless innings. If he doesn’t make the All-Star game then there is no such thing as an All-Star.
And even though he had a comfortable six-run lead, what closer Coco Cordero did in the ninth is significant - a 1-2-3 inning, his third straight. Maybe his habit of pitching himself into trouble in the ninth is over.
It was not a comfortable return to the area for John Ely, the Dodgers rookie pitcher who pitched collegiately at Miami University in Oxford. He lasted only 4 2/3 innings and gave up all seven runs and eight hits.
SO NOW it is off to the west coast, a graveyard for the Reds in the recent past. But this is a different Reds team, one that doesn’t seem intimidated by ghosts from the past. Didn’t they beat Houston’s Roy Oswalt this year? They certainly did.
The Mariners aren’t a team to cause anybody to break out in a perspiration of terror and Oakland is beatable.
How does five out of six sound? OK, OK, they’ll take four of six and come home whistling.
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TweetWhen in doubt, change the wrist bands
WHAT DOES A MANAGER do after watching his team take a 12-run kick in the groin during which his offense didn’t sniff a run?
There was a half-empty (half-full?) bottle of Tabasco sauce, a large bottle, on the corner of Cincinnati Reds manager Dusty Baker’s desk. He swears on a stack of Baseball Digests that he didn’t drink half the bottle immediately after his team’s 12-0 loss Tuesday to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
And he slept well, once he got into bed, but the alarm went off at 8:30 this morning, “And I was sleeping good, too.” He had promised his son, Darren, that he would speak to a Little League team Wednesday morning.
“I talked to them about attitude, life experiences, play as long as you can play if you love the game and as high as you can play,” said Baker. “It doesn’t matter where or how high if you love the game. Just play as high as you can.”
Baker was asked if any of the kids asked him about his bullpen and he said, “Nope. They didn’t ask me any questions. Kids are kids. That’s why I love being around kids. They say, ‘That’s OK, Dusty, you’ll get ‘em tonight.’ I tell them, ‘Thank you. I’ll talk to you guys every day.’”
Baker was clean-shaven and wearing a pair of black sweat bands instead of red.
“You superstitious?” he was asked.
“That’s why I have on a different pair of wrist bands,” he said. “If we win, I wear the same ones. If we lose, I change sweat bands, even the color. One time when I was on the Giants, we were playing a three-game series with the Cubs and Billy Williams noticed I kept wearing the same wrist bands but they were losing their colors because we’d won five in a row.”
And what else after the big loss? “I shaved,” he said. “Beard’s gone.”
For those who wonder why Baker wears wrist bands when he never plays, he says, “Force of habit. Always wore ‘em when I played so I’ve just kept wearing ‘em.”
Superstition?
“Probably,” he said.
BRANDON PHILLIPS survived playing with his sore right hamstring Tuesday and was back in the lineup Wednesday.
“Yeah, he survived,” said Baker. “He didn’t do much, his 15-game hitting streak ended, and he wasn’t involved in much action. But that’s good in the long run. I’m only worried about him using bursts of speed. I told him to refrain from bursts of speed.” Baker said playing in very hot, humid weather with a sore hamstring “is easier, much easier. Keeps it looser.”
BAKER SAID no further decisions have been made on any re-molding of the bullpen, a subject that wasn’t broached by the Little Leaguers but is always brought up by the writers.
“It’s the same,” he said. “It’s not the bullpen we envisioned when we opened the season when we had Jared Burton and Mike Lincoln penciled in. One thing happened after another and I still believe Nick Masset has the stuff. Sometimes things change. Confidence is a big factor, always.”
Confidence is something missing right now in the arsenal of Masset and Micah Owings, who gave up five runs, five hits and two walks in only 1 1/3 innings - uh, that’s four outs.
So Owings, Baker’s designated long man out of the bullpen, isn’t available tonight, so what’s Baker’s thinking? “C’mon, Mike Leake,” he said with a laugh, referring to his starting pitcher.
ATLANTA SCOUT and former major-league manager and major-league shortstop Jim Fregosi askede me the other day, “You ever eat in the Pacific Dining Car in Los Angeles?”
“Yes,” I said.
“Great food, right?”
“Oh, yeah, great food. But when I left there my wallet was emptier than Mother Hubbard’s cupboard. Ex-pen-sive.”
Fregosi laughed and said, “Didn’t cost me a nickel. We had Billy Scherrer (former Reds pitcher and now a Chicago White Sox scout). He didn’t know about the place and offered to pay. We let him. It only cost the White Sox $450 and there were only three of us.”
Fregosi is part of one of my favorite lines penned by one of my all-time favorite sports writers, Jim Murray. I asked Fregosi if he had heard it and he said no. When The California Angels were in their first year after expansion, Fregosi was the team’s shortstop and Bob Aspromonte was the second baseball. Murray once wrote, “The California double play combination is Fregosi to Aspromonte to Avalon Boulevard.”
Fregois laughed and said, “And that was the truth.”
DON’T FORGET those great Ask Hal questions you send every week. Be the first on your block to have your questions in Sunday’s Dayton Daily News. I need ‘em by noon Thursday and send them to halmccoy@hotmail.com. Post-haste.
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TweetA heavy rain (hits, water) on Cincinnati’s parade
By Hal McCoy FOXSportsOhio.com
On a night like this, baseball should have a surrender rule - just wave a white flag from the dugout and shout, “No mas, no mas.”
The Los Angeles Dodgers pounded the Cincinnati Reds, 12-0, and not only did the Reds have to endure a beating, they mixed in a 2-hour and 21-minute rain delay.
And to make a long night much longer, the Reds fell out of first place in the National League Central, succumbing to the St. Louis Cardinals again.
When Reds starter Aaron Harang (5-6), gave up three runs in the first inning, they could have declared a technical knockout. He needed 42 pitches to cover the inning.
“After that, he settled down, but the damage was already done,” said manager Dusty Baker.
But the beat went on.
While the Dodgers pounded out 19 hits, the Reds had eight. LA starter Hiroki Kuroda held the Reds to no runs and three hits. And he came back to pitch the fifth inning after the rain delay to quality for his sixth win.
The 19 hits given up by Reds’ pitchers were the most this season, one more than the 18 they gave up to the Dodgers on April 18.
Dodgers leadoff hitter Rafael Furcal was a one-man Broadway improvisation. He had five hits, scored two and drove in two. In the field, he made three web gems at shortstop.
Manny Ramirez had three hits and drove in four runs, including a two-run home run and James Loney had four hits and drove in two.
The Dodgers had a 3-0 lead with two on and one out when a thunderstorm invaded Great American Ball Park. When it quit, Harang was replaced by Logan Ondrusek and he gave up three hits to make it 6-0.
“It was a decent ballgame until the rain delay (3-0), but then they just blew us out - hit after hit after hit,” said Baker. “Not much to say. It was a long game and a drubbing.”
LA crushed relief pitcher Micah Owings for five runs in only 1 1/3 innings to turn this game into the sublime as the Reds have lost four of their last seven.
Jordan Smith, called up Monday from Class AA Carolina, made his major-league debut in the ninth inning for the Reds and gave up a two-out double to Russell Martin before getting Andre Ethier on a deep fly to left.
“He threw strikes and had good velocity (94 miles an hour) and movement,” said Baker. “That’s what we remember from spring training and hopefully he can help us.”
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TweetIs a kid named Smith the bullpen savior?
IT WAS CINCINNATI Reds manager Dusty Baker’s 61st birthday Tuesday and he said over the din of his iPod in his office. “It is Tupac Shakur’s birthday, too, so I’m listening to his music.”
But Baker turned it down to talk about his latest bullpen member, Jordan Smith. Is Smith a permanent fixture in the bullpen or is he a temporary fix?
“That’s up to Jordan Smith and how he does,” said Baker, after the Reds called Smith up to Class AA Carolina, bypassing Triple-A Louisville, a level at which Smith has never pitched.
And the 24-year-old 6-4, 220-pound right-hander from Pleasant Grove, Utah only became a relief pitcher this year. The sixth round draft pick in 2006 was a starter for his first four years - 74 straight minor-league starts.
“When I arrived in spring training this year they told me I was now a relief pitcher,” he said. And he closed for Carolina, but will serve as a sixth and seventh-inning guy for the Reds.
“We’re trying to do what we can to get our bullpen together,” said Baker. “We liked Smith in spring training and David Bell (Carolina manager) said he was throwing the ball real well, especially lately. We don’t know if this is temporary or permanent. It depends on how Smith does.”
Baker also revealed that there is talk of some changes in roles on his starting staff and said, “It depends on if we revamp our rotation some to strengthen our bullpen some. We’re still at the drawing board on some of these things. We’re still in a fact-finding mode. We wish we’d have everything perfect and in order, but it’s not.”
BAKER DIDN’T SAY, but a likely switch would be to move Sam LeCure from the rotation to the bullpen.
“We’ll see what happens,” Baker said. “Some of it depends on how Smith fits in. Most of our starters are going six or six-and-a-fraction innings, so the seventh inning is very important. So we’re looking for somebody to close that gap. Logan Ondrusek has done a good job, but he can’t do it by myself. We had to use him last week in five out of six games.”
To make room for Smith, the Reds sent Enerio Del Rosario back to Class AAA Louisville for the second time this season.
“We liked what we’ve seen, he just needs to refine a few things if he is going to be as good as he can be and get big-league hitters out with consistency. He has the stuff,” said Baker. “He has to find his location and refine his secondary stuff.”
Smith said he got the call from Bell at 5 o’clock Monday when Smith was taking a nap. “He left a message and I called him back and he said, ‘I have some good news, but I can’t tell you over the telephone. Only in person.’”
So where did they meet? At a bank near Smith’s apartment, an apropos meeting place for a guy going from Class AA meal money to big-league meal money.
“I got out of the truck and he said, ‘You’re going to the big leagues,” said Smith. “One of the most exciting moments of my life. I was a little surprised. When he called I knew I was going one of two places, either Triple-A or the big leagues and because I’m on the 40-man roster I suspected it was the big leagues. When he said he had to tell me in person, not on the phone, I had a pretty good idea where I was going. Then I couldn’t sit down. I was pacing so much. I couldn’t sleep. I finally fell asleep at 6 in the morning and woke up at 7 to go pack my stuff up in the clubhouse. I’m running on adrenaline right now.”
SMITH FEATURES a sinker that coaxes ground balls and said, “I’m just going to keep doing what I was doing down there, attacking the zone and using my sinker to let ‘em beat it into the ground.”
After a slow start in the bullpen, Smith came on strong in his last six appearances, posting a 1.13 ERA after a slow start. His overall record for 27 appearances is 1-3 with a 5.08 ERA and he converted nine of 12 save situations.
“I had to adjust my pitches, certain pitches at certain times,” he said. “I was a bit bullheaded, trying to be too aggressive with my fastball at certain points. But a couple of weeks ago it started to click and I got into a nice rhythm.”
BRANDON PHILLIPS, sore right hamstring and all, was in Tuesdays lineup after reproting early and running the bases at noon. Then he met with Baker and Baker told him, “Don’t do anything crazy and Phillips said, “Skip, you know I’m naturally crazy. I do do some crazy things at times.’”
Said Phillips, “I’ll go out there and play smart because they need me for the whole season. I hope nothing comes up that I do anything crazy. But I’ll be myself. If things happen, they happen because that’s the only way I know how to play.
“I told Dusty, ‘Hey, I’m in there. I can play through this,’” Phillips added. “I looked him in the eyes and said, ‘I can play.’ We’re in first place, man, so I’m going out there to play for the team. It’s something I feel I can do.”
Of his treatments, Phillips said, “Some things I can’t even pronounce, can’t pronounce half the stuff they did on my leg. They gave me something that made my leg jump and it didn’t feel too good. But it loosened up a little bit. I talked to team Doc Kremchek (team physician) and he told me it is something that will be nagging me for the rest of the year and the only thing to cure it is rest. Ain’t gonna happen.”
Despite the hamstring that has barked for at least two weeks, Phillips has a 15-game hitting streak during which he has hit .463.
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TweetBailey is ‘hunting’ for answers
There are nearly a dozen flat screen HD TVs in the palatial confines of the Cincinnati Reds clubhouse and they all seemed to be tuned in to World Cup soccer early Sunday morning.
Homer Bailey sat at his locker staring at at a TV, the only one NOT displaying soccer. Bailey was watching a show on bow hunting.
“I knew you wouldn’t be watching soccer,” I said. Bailey smiled and said, “No way. Soccer is a communist sport. And I don’t care if you use that.”
Right now Bailey wonders what is going on inside his shoulder. He was scheduled for a throwing session Friday but couldn’t do it. He pitched a rehab game for Class AAA Louisville Wednesday and thought he was on a direct route back to the Reds starting rotation, probably today.
Instead he watched while Sam LeCure took his turn again.
“Wish I knew what was wrong,” he said. “I threw the rehab game and the next day there was some pretty weird soreness going on. Nothing went on during the rehab game - I was throwing 94 to 96 and I felt great. The next day I went to throw a ball and it didn’t feel so good.
“It hurts in places I never hurt before, all in the shoulder area,” he said. “I’ve never had arm or shoulder problems. So we’re trying to figure out what caused it and how to go about healing it. We’re just in that type of process. What makes it tougher is that I’ve never been through anything like this, so I don’t know.”
Bailey said he felt something was a bit amiss a few starts before he went on the disabled list and said, “I knew I wasn’t 100 per cent, but you have those little spurts of pain. It is a part of playing and a part of pitching. The game I pitched in Cleveland, stuff started grabbing at me and I knew something was going on.”
So now all he is doing is trying to strengthen it with three and four-pound weights and when asked if the dreaded word, “surgery,” has been mentioned and he said, “No, no, no. No, no, no.”
BRANDON PHILLIPS was scheduled to play Sunday, but was a late-morning scratch with leg problems.
“I don’t know if anybody else has noticed how Brandon has been stretching and limping the last 10 days to two weeks,” said manager Dusty Baker. “Today it was really bothering him, especially with all the running he has been doing. If you’re not hitting, you just run to first base, turn right, then go sit down. This guy has been running, stealing, going first-to-third, second-to-home, first-to-home.”
Phillips started the first 63 games of the season and is on a 15-day hitting streak during which he has hit .463.
“It’s like a cramp that won’t let go,” Baker said. “It’s not a pull, but like a knot in there. You don’t want it to pull and lose him for 10 days to two weeks.”
Baker said Phillips is available to pinch-hit, but told him, “If you have to run, just trot. If they get on you for not hustling, it doesn’t matter because you have to play in the future.”
“This is the ONLY time I give him permission not to hustle. I’ll go on record saying that one,” Baker said.
BAKER PROMISED a day off for Scott Rolen Sunday, so Miguel Cairo was at third base.
“With Rolen and Orlando Cabrera we try to decide like a week in advance when we might rest them,” said Baker. “I told Scot last Sunday in Washington, ‘Hey, man, we have six night games coming up and you give me all you’ve got for those six games and I’ll give you Sunday off.’ That gives him Sunday and Monday (an off day) off.
“As much ball as we’ve been playing and as hard as we’ve been playing, we still have 99 games left. That’s a long ways. Most people just see today. I have to see today, tomorrow next month and the ensuing months.
“You hate not to have some of your big boys (Phillips, Rolen) against Zack Greinke, but a man has to do what a man has to do.”
SOME FOLKS were incredulous that Baker used Arthur Rhodes and his sore foot and heavily-used arm Saturday in the seventh inning when the Reds led, 11-5.
“I wanted to squash any possible big innings because they (Kansas City Royals) are a big-inning team,” said Baker. “They had their big-inning rally guys coming up there. They had the top of the order and all their lefties coming up.
“You could tell he was still bothered, still hampered (no runs, but three singles). I’m hoping and praying that he can have two days off, too.”
JONNY GOMES pointed to his uniform hanging on a hook in front of his locker, calling attention to his number 31. “Love that number,” he said. “You’d be amazed how many times that number comes up in roulette.”
About that time, long-haired pitchers Bronson Arroyo and Mike Leake walked by and Gomes said, “There they go, Team Hair.”
THERE ARE 14 boxes of Joey Votto figurines in Scott Rolen’s locker and he said, “Not mine. I guess I’m storing them for somebody. Somebody put ‘em on my chair as a gag, I think.” It was Scott Rolen Bobblehead Night Saturday and on Sunday morning there wasn’t a single Rolen bobblehead in his locker. No ego there.
ORLANDO CABRERA, a native Colombian, was watching World Cup soccer Sunday and said, “I hate that sport. Know why? The media and fans are ruthless. I pity that poor English goalie who let the U.S. goal roll past him. I tell our guys in here, ‘We have it easy with the media and the fans.’”
Cabrera said he played soccer as a kid on the streets of Colombia, as every kid did, “But I didn’t like it because that sport takes everything away from every other sport in my country.”
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TweetEating your way to a pennant
THIS IS HOW conversations start in one direction, like left field, and end up in the right field corner.
I asked Cincinnati Reds manager Dusty Baker about Brandon Phillips, who hasn’t had a day off this season and Baker started by saying, “I almost gave Brandon a day off a couple of weeks ago, but that’s when Joey Votto had the sore neck and I couldn’t afford to have them both out of the lineup.”
Then Baker launched into an interesting discourse on Phillips by saying, “Brandon really takes care of himself - he doesn’t drink and he doesn’t eat, so that stuff doesn’t bother him. It helps them, big-time.”
Then Baker said he has to carefully watch slim guys like Phillips and Drew Stubbs, guys who think it is too hot to eat, “And they lose weight over the course of the long, hot season.”
So what does Dusty do?
“I bring ‘em food to keep them strong. I bring ‘em all food because in this heat you don’t feel like eating,” he said. “I bring ‘em soul food, fish that I’ve caught, venison, buffalo - a lot of wild meat. And fortunately we have Latin guys who tend to eat at home more than they do in restaurants. Coco Cordero brings food and Porky Lopez (bullpen coach) cooks food and brings it in.”
AND THEN the conversation turned to how a team like his Reds have to learn how to handle being in first place.
“This is the first time most of our guys have been in a real pennant race,” said Baker. “They’re still learning how to be in the pennant race, how to be in first place. When you’re in first place, nobody overlooks you and everybody plays their best games against you. You elevate everybody else and nobody takes you for granted anymore. You ain’t sneaking up on anybody. This is a big learning curve for a lot of our players - what to do in certain situations.”
Baker listed the guys who have played in the postseason — Scott Rolen, Orlando Cabrera, Jonny Gomes, Miguel Cairo, Arthur Rhodes, Bronson Arroyo, Ramon Hernandez.
“There are certain things you have to learn,” Baker said. “It is up to us to help teach ‘em. The St. Louis Cardinals expect to be in first place.”
BAKER ON Jay Bruce’s approach with runners in scoring position: “He gets anxious. It’s part of the learning process. You have to learn to relax and concentrate and not get overanxious. Jay takes it to heart. He knows how many men he has left on pass. I’ll tell him, ‘Then quit counting. If you don’t, it builds on you. Jay fouls off a lot good pitches to hit and sometimes you only get one good pitch to hit each at-bat. As Roy Campanella once told me, ‘You wait for that pitch, then you take a good pass at it and don’t miss it.”
BAKER ON THE Reds giving away Friday night’s game: “You never think about all the games you snatched away from the other team. You only remember the ones you snatched form them.”
SOMEBODY ASKED me, so I asked Scott Rolen. A fan thought that the batg Rolen uses seems toothpick small. Not the case. “I use a 34-32 - 34 inches long and 32 ounces,” he said. That’s a big bat for a big man.
SOCCER ENTHUSIAST Chris Dickerson was watching the USA-England World Cup match in the clubhouse, wearing a blue USA jersey - No. 17 with Altidore on the back. When England star Rooney showed some anger Dickerson said, “He is the Rashid Wallace of international soccer. He’s a real hothead.”
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Tweet‘Magic’ turns into Magic Marker
UNSOLICITED OBSERVATIONS from The Man Cave while taking a night off from the ballpark after dropping $100 at the Hollywood Casino (it could have been worse. I was down $300 at one point):
This was not one of those magical nights we’ve all become accustomed to seeing out of the Cincinnati Reds. No magic at all. In fact, take a Magic Marker and scribble an ugly ‘L’ for this one, a 6-5 giveaway to the Kansas City Royals in 11 excruciatingly painful innings.
Not much went right after the Reds gave starter Bronson Arroyo a 4-0 lead - three runs in the fifth and a two-run home run in the sixth by Yuniesky Betancourt gave the Royals a 5-4 lead.
THEN ALL KINDS of funky things began to happen.
—The Reds’ sixth inning ended with Scott Rolen inexplicably trying to steal second base with two outs. He was the third out.
—It looked as if the Reds would win their 13th game of the season in their last at-bat as the eighth inning unfolded.
Brandon Phillips extended his hitting streak to 14 games with a single to open the inning. Joey Votto walked.
Scott Rolen hit what may be the longest single in Great American Ball Park history, driving one off the left-center wall. But Phillips had to hold up because it looked as if the ball might be caught. When it banged off the wall, Phillips could only make third, loading the bases with no outs.
The Reds scored only one, a sacrifice fly by Jay Bruce. Jonny Gomes popped to the catcher and Drew Stubbs grounded to first.
Bases loaded, no outs. One run. Tie game, 5-5.
—Pinch-hitter Laynce Nix opened the ninth with a single. Ramon Hernandez, owner of no sacrifice bunts this year, laid down a perfect one to move Nix to second. Orlando Cabrera grounded out and Phillips walked, putting runners on first and third with two outs.
But Joey Votto flied meekly to center to end the threat - and it turned out to be a night Votto wants to obliterate from his mind.
—Rolen and Gomes singled to open the 10th. No outs. Two on. Game over? Nope. Bruce was at-bat and a sacrifice bunt was in order, right? Wrong. Bruce has only one sacrifice bunt in his major-league career, none in the minors, none this year.
Manager Dusty Baker let him swing away and he fouled to the shortstop. Stubbs took a called third strike and pinch-hitter Miguel Cairo grounded into a force play. Two on, no outs. Again, no runs.
—Now came the 11th and when it ended Votto wanted to jump head first into the Ohio River. Relief pitcher Micah Owings, who has pitched twice in a month, issued a one-out walk to Billy Butler after 14 straight Royals had been retired.
Catcher Bryan Pena was the hitter, owner of a .083 batting average, and Owings walked him on four pitches.
With two outs, Betancourt lobbed a shallow single to center field. Stubbs came up throwing toward home plate. Butler was 20 feet from the plate when Votto cut off the throw. Catcher Hernandez stood transfixed at the plate, hands on hips, wondering, “Why, why, why?” So Butler scored the winning run.
—Wasn’t over yet, though. Not with these Reds. Hernandez led the 11th with a single. Cabrera bunted him to second - the tying run in scoring position. Phillips singled to right field, sending Hernandez to third, where he was held up.
The unfortunate Votto swung at the first pitch and fouled out to the third baseman. Rolen, who already had four hits, line to left. Game over. Mercifully.
On the plus side, the bullpen was an emerald until Owings threw in his zircon.
Logan Ondrusek, Coco Cordero and Daniel Ray Herrera each pitched perfect l-2-3 innings. Baker was strapped in the bullpen because Arthur Rhodes, Nick Masset and Enerio Del Rosario were all unavailable after being taxed during the four-game San Francisco series.
This is one that hurts, as Baker would say, “Big-time.”
—
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TweetMasset battles boos, balls and bats
FANS CAN BOO until they are blue in the face and black in the heart, but it won’t wipe the smile off the face of relief pitcher Nick Masset, nor turn his demeanor sour.
Yes, he is going through hard times, walking batters he once struck out. Yes, he hears the boos as he walks off the field, but he smiles and says, “If fans think boos make you do better, so be it. But it doesn’t.”
As he talked, the mild-mannered, always upbeat right-hander handed a pair of baseball spikes to a clubhouse attendant and said, “Here, give these to some kid who needs them.” He didn’t add, “And make sure he never booed me.”
Masset’s record is 3-3, but his earned run average is 7.20 - about as ugly as it gets for a relief pitcher.
“Fans don’t have a clue about what we go through,” he said. “It has been such a roller coaster season for me (he should do a Kings Island commercial), but I keep trying to have a positive outlook. I have a positive outlook on life, no matter what. I have my family, my friends, my teammates, the manager and the coaches - all of them supporting me through all this.
“It’s one of those things where you go through mental issues and it’s the way you deal with them,” he added. “I feel I’ve dealt with them pretty good. I’ve had a hiccup here and there and, well, what’s going on for me out there now isn’t really a hiccup. It’s more a lack of execution, pitching away from my strengths, the way I attack hitters.
“I haven’t been attacking hitters like I used to do,” he said. “I need to get ahead in the count and work off that because I know I’m a deadly pitcher when I’m ahead in the count. Then I can go where I want from there - attack them any which way.”
Easily said, no so easily put into practice.
WITH ORLANDO Cabrera taking a day off Thursday, manager Dusty Baker had Brandon Phillips batting lead-off. And he called him into his office and said, “Be yourself. Just be yourself. Don’t change anything. Not everybody can be Rickey Henderson.”
To the media, Baker said, “I’m sure somewhere along the line Phillips has batted lead-off.” Actually, Phillips batted lead-off in Cincinnati, in 2006 and 2007 when Jerry Narron managed the Reds.
Of more interest, though, is the fact that Phillips is the only player on the Reds roster to start every game this season. He has missed only two innings - one in St. Louis and one at home.
And that’s the way he prefers it.
“I DON’T NEED a day off, just don’t want one,” he said. “I’m here to play. What if today is the last game I’ll ever play and I miss it. The only time I’ll take off is if I’m struggling real bad and I need to clear my head. I’d just rather play every day. Right now, I don’t need my head cleared and I don’t need a day off. Only if I’m really messed up.”
Phillips entered Thursday’s game with a 12-game hitting streak for his 12th career lead-off assignment - the last time was April 13, 2007. Phillips began the season batting clean-up, the same place he batted in the order last season.
He was batting .225 when Baker moved him to second, where he resides nearly every day, and he has lifted his average to .290, batting .331 over his last 39 games.
AN AMERICAN LEAGUE scout who has seen the Reds often this season was amazed at the difference between Logan Ondrusek’s first stint with the Reds (he opened the year on the roster) and Ondrusek’s second stint, which started last week.
“At the beginning of the year, his fastball was 88-89 miles an hour,” said the scout. “This time it is 94-95.”
Ondrusek, a 6-8 right-handed relief pitcher from Shiner, Tex., says the famous beer brewed in his town, Shiner Bock, has nothing to do with his MPH surge.
“I started off the year the same way last year - 88 to 90,” he said. “Then when the season progressed and it got a little warmer I threw a little bit harder. The warm weather has something to do with it.”
BUT THERE also was a mechanical glitch. “When I was here before, after looking at video and talking with the coaches when I got sent down, it was a matter of getting extension. I was cutting everything off.”
And the difference, other than five miles an hour? “That little bit can be the difference. Those little mistakes you made before? Maybe they foul it off instead of hitting it for a double down the line.”
Ondrusek replaced Daniel Ray Herrera in the eighth inning of Wednesday night’s game with a runner on first and one out, the Reds leading, 6-2. He coaxed a double play ground ball out of Pat Burrell.
IF YOU WONDER if Jonny Gomes has any influence in the Reds clubhouse, well, arch-conservative Micah Owings is sporting the Mohawk haircut look worn by Gomes, as is Laynce Nix. I’ll be truly convinced when I see Joey Votto and Scott Rolen do it.
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TweetLeake? All-Star? Rookie of the Year?
JUDGING FROM the way Mike Leake acts on the mound - as if he were born and raised on a hill with a rubber slab on it - he has his head screwed on with all the grooves in the right places.
So he knows talk of him making the All-Star team and talk of him winning Rookie of the Year are two steps on this side of absurd.
But, since I asked…
“No, I haven’t thought about the All-Star team - not yet,” he said with a smile. “It would be awesome, but, nah, it is in the back of my mind right now.”
Leake is 5-0 but with a little bit of luck and a little more help from his friends, he could be 9-0.
“It would be nice, but I have to just keep trying to do what I’ve been doing and then it will all work out,” he said.
And Rookie of the Year?
“That’s another one,” he said with a broad smile. “That’s almost out of mind, because that’s so far away and I’d have to have so many consistent starts. It’s tough.”
Leake, a Southern California native, walks around the pre-game clubhouse every day with a woold ski cap pulled over his ears, even though it is 75 to 80 degrees outside.
“Just wear it to keep my hair out of my eyes when I work out,” he said. “I’m not cold.”
THE SUBJECT of his team’s problems in the bullpen brought a quick reply from manager Dusty Baker - and it had nothing to do with making shifts or personnel changes.
“One thing I’ve thought about is how about us scoring a whole bunch of runs?” he asked. “How about that? How about us scoring a whole bunch of runs until we get everybody together. Score and keep scoring.”
Baker was asked if he might consider shifting Micah Owings to a later role out of the bullpen and he quickly said, “He’s my long man. Who would be my extra-inning long man if I moved him? And he has been throwing the ball well, but sometimes he has command problems, too.
“Do you move everybody around or do you try to fix the guys who are supposed to be in those situations?” he added. “If we you move everybody around you have total chaos.”
As for fixing it with personnel adjustments, Baker said, “We have to pick them up because it is what it is. We can’t just go call up somebody because everybody who is ready is here already, except for Jared Burton, who doesn’t have enough innings.”
HOMER BAILEY was back in the clubhouse Wednesday after his tune-up start Tuesday for the Class AAA Louisville Bats. He gave up five runs, six hits and two walks in 4 1/3 innings (90 pitches) against Syracuse.
“I heard his outing was better than the score indicated,” said Baker. “I heard there were a couple of plays behind him that kind of opened the doors on him. His velocity was good and his breaking ball and command was fair, which is to be expected, because you lose the feel for those when you miss time.”
Baker said a decision hasn’t been made for Sunday, whether Bailey takes that spot or Sam LeCure makes his fourth start in Bailey’s place.
“Homer will throw a bullpen Friday and we’ll go from there,” said Baker. “We haven’t made a decision yet.”
CATCHER RYAN HANIGAN is walking around the clubhouse as if searching for his best friend. He isn’t eligible to come off the DL unti Sunday, but it isn’t likely his fractured right thumb will permit that.
“This not playing is brutal, freaking brutal,” he said. “It is healing, but not fast enough. I’m running, throwing, lifting and stretching to keep in shape. In the last couple of days I’ve swung a bat one-handed, doing it with both hands. I’ll get an X-ray in the next couple of days to see how it’s healing.”
LOVE WHAT Reds Director of Scouting Chris Buckley said about the unstable art of making draft picks.
“Albert Pujols was drafted in the 13th round in 1999 and now we’d all love to have him,” said Buckley. “We all saw him and all of us had 12 shots at drafting him before the Cardinals got him.”
SCOTT ROLEN gave an indication in the clubhouse of what kind of guy he is the other day. A writer was taking an anonymous poll, asking players about umpiring. Rolen said politely, “I’ll pass.”
Later, as he watched the writer poll other players, he approached the guy and said, “Are you paid by the number of players who cooperate?” The writer told him, “No,” so Rolen walked away. But if it meant the writer might have made a couple of more bucks, Rolen would have participated.
WHILE IT hasn’t been a good couple of days for the Reds, it was a red-letter day in the press box Tuesday. Rita Butcher, mother of Media Relations Director Rob Butcher, showed up with her strawberry pies.
I haven’t had dessert since April 1 and so far I’ve lost 27 pounds, but I would eat an entire pie made by Rita and try to sneak two more pieces.
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TweetJocketty-Baker: working it together
The subject was the dynamics between Cincinnati Reds general manager Walt Jocketty and manager Dusty Baker. And it brought a smile to Baker’s face.
“A manager and a general manager are like a marraige,” said Baker. “I spend more time with him than I do with my wife.”
Baker said Jocketty never enforces his will on Baker. That both listen to the other. “We don’t always agree, but we listen,” Baker said. “And I have come to know very well some words Walt always uses, ‘That’s interesting.’”
When asked if those words come from Jocketty’s mouth when Baker suggests a player the Reds should try to acquire, Baker said with a laugh, “Yeah, usually. Most of the time.”
Baker said his relationship with Jocketty didn’t just start when the two hooked up in Cincinnati.
“Me and Walt go way back,” said Baker. “Walt was assistant GM when I was finishing my playing career with the A’s. Then when he was at Colorado me and Walt were always cordial and friendly. When he was with the Cardinals, well, heck, I knew Walt when he didn’t have any kids.
“Walt is very even-mannered,” Baker added. “He has a temper, but he is usually calm, cool and collected. At the same time, he is very competitive. He runs stuff by me and I can run anything by him. We are not always in agreement, but you are not always in agreement with your wife, either.
“He rarely says, ‘I don’t agree or I don’t like that,’” said Baker. “He’ll just tell you, ‘That’s interesting.’ I like that answer and I’ve come to use that myself. But I haven’t used it with an umpire yet.”
Of one thing, Baker and Jocketty are in firm agreement: “He hates to lose and I hate to lose.”
Baker said he remembers when his 30-year-old daughter was young and Baker beat her in everything, board games, “Even jacks,” he said. She would ask him, “Daddy, why do you always have to win?” And his answer was, “Because they don’t let you win in real life.”
Baker said he and Jocketty have discussed some roster tweaks, but making an impact trade right now is not easy.
“You have to have horses and it is Walt’s job to put those horses in the stable,” said Baker. “We still might need a couple more pieces. But where are you going to find them? In modern baseball it is tough to keep your pieces together. But if you don’t, it makes it tough to win because you have to start all over all the time. Most of the good teams keep the core guys together most of the time.”
DREW STUBBS and Jonny Gomes were out of Tuesday’s lineup against rugged right-hander Matt Cain, a fast-baller, replaced by Chris Heisey and Laynce Nix.
“Match-up stuff,” said Baker. “The only guy we have who has hit Cain pretty good is Nix. And Heisey has proven he can hit that fastball.”
BAKER WAS ASKED if he feels a change in the community’s attitude this year, with the team battling for first place, and he gave a curious but honest answer.
“I feel the community embracing the team, but I just haven’t seen it at the stadium,” he said. “If you keep winning, I think they’ll come. School is out now so hopefully we’ll have great attendance. I’ve been spoiled in my career with attendance - Los Angeles, when we moved from Candlestick to the new ballpark that was Pac Bell at the time in San Francisco, then Chicago. I was spoiled with packed houses almost every night. Hope we can keep winning and get some packed houses here.”
It was mentioned that there seemed to be a lot of Reds fans show up all over the country in enemy parks and Baker said, “Yeah, I notice that. I don’t know if it’s because red is a popular color or if we’re a popular team. I’d like to think the latter.”
ARTHUR RHODES and his sore right foot remain a mystery and a problem and Baker is proceeding cautiously.
“It has been with him a couple of weeks now,” said Baker. “I have to monitor the foot and his workload. We try not to go more than a couple of days in a row with him and try to use him no more than an inning at a time. It makes it tough when he is the hottest guy in your bullpen, but you also have to realize he is 40 years old and he is a guy coming off Tommy John surgery a couple of years ago. We have to have him July, August and September, too. And hopefully, October, too. You wear down one of your main horses and then what do you have?”
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TweetPhillips: ‘I’m a showboat, always have been’
BRANDON PHILLIPS flashed that ocean-wide grin and said without malice, “I’m a showboat. Yes, I AM a showboat. Always have been, always will be. That’s me. If people like it, fine. If not, I apologize. But I gotta be me.”
The conversation came up after Phillips knocked over Washington catcher Wil Nieves Saturday, dislodging the ball to score an important run. Then Phillips celebrated - the way he celebrates everything. He danced a little jig, thumped his chest, pointed to the sky and flashed his ultra-whites.
Washington took offense at Phillips’ celebratory nature. On his next at-bat, they plunked him with a pitch on the butt cheek. Phillips smiled, took his base without protest and said later, “That’s fine with me. Just helps my on-base average.”
Of the celebration after cold-cocking Nieves, Phillips said, “If I’m on their team, they love it. But I’m not, so they don’t like me. Yeah, I showboat. But I do it after everything I do. I do it if I get down a sacrifice bunt. I do it if I draw a walk. I do it on a good defensive play. I do it on anything I do, always have. If I change, it’s not me.
“I won’t apologize for it,” he said. “I love the game, I only have one career, and I’m going to do it my way. I’m gonna keep showboating.”
ASKED IF he had it in his head that the Nationals might hit him on his next at bat, he said, “Yeah I thought I might. But Dusty said I did the right thing and there was nothing wrong with what I did. Nobody said anything. Not even anybody on the other team said anything.
“Adam Dunn did say, ‘You bringing back your football days?,’ but he smiled,” said Phillips, a high school football star as a cornerback and wide receiver at Stone Mountain, Ga.
But it was the celebrating that irked the Nats.
“Pitchers celebrate all the time after they strike you out, prance around the mound, and nobody says anything,” said Phillips. “I don’t. I just want that much more to get a hit next time up.”
Some notorious mound celebrants were Jose Lima, Pascual Perez and, of course, Cincinnati’s Brad “The Animal” Lesley (1982-84). When he struck out a batter, he screamed at the top of his voice and pumped his arm the way umpires do to call strike three.
“All I know is that it felt good to touch home plate and score an important run,” said Phillips. Was it like making a good hit in football? No. Was it like three strikes in a row, a turkey, when he is bowling, his favorite pastime. “Naw, man. It was more like six strikes in a row.”
Phillips also pointed out that he takes some heavy hits from guys at second base trying to break up double plays, “And I know the guy is just trying to do his job. I was doing my job. What was I supposed to do, slide in with my feet when he has the plate blocked, let him tag me out, then get up and pat him on the butt and say, ‘Nice job?’ Won’t happen. Won’t ever happen. I’m just being me.”
HOMER BAILEY wanted to take his regular turn Tuesday in Great American Ball Park against the San Francisco Giants. Instead, he’ll throw 80 pitches in Syracuse for the Louisville Bats, “A tuneup,” said manager Dusty Baker.
“We’re anticipating that he will be OK after he threw a couple of real good bullpens,” said Baker. “He’s chomping at the bit to pitch, but we felt it would be better for him to tune up there than to tune up in a game here.”
As of now, Sam LeCure remains scheduled for Sunday’s start against Kansas City, but that could change - and probably will.
Somebody asked if LeCure might go to the bullpen and Baker said, “It depends on how LeCure does (Tuesday) and how Homer is. Sunday is a long way off.”
MANAGER DUSTY BAKER thinks he may have heard the makings of a new team motto. After the Reds beat the Washington Nationals in 10 innings Sunday, as the team ran up the tunnel to the clubhouse Baker heard Laynce Nix say, “We’re some Fightin’ Fools.”
MANY OF YOU misunderstood what I said about Sunday’s game when I said I would have sent Bronson Arroyo back out to pitch the ninth inning Sunday after the Reds took a 4-2 lead. You rightfully pointed out the Scott Rolen pinch-hit for Arroyo and hit the two-run home run, so Arroyo COULDN’T go back out.
That’s not what I meant. What I meant was that after the Reds tied the game, 2-2, it was Arroyo’s turn to bat with a runner on second and two outs in the top of the ninth. That’s when Baker pinch-hit for Arroyo.
I wouldn’t have pinch-hit for him. The Reds had tied the game. Arroyo is a decent hitter. Maybe he might have driven in the run. If not, the game was still tied and Arroyo could have gone back out to pitch.
I know, I know. You don’t play for a tie on the road. Only at home, where you have the last at-bat. But with the way the bullpen has struggled, I’d rather have Arroyo out there protecting that tie.
As it happened, Rolen batted for Arroyo and homered. BUT the bullpen, Coco Cordero, did NOT protect that 4-2 lead.
IN THE EIGHTH inning, the Nationals had a runner on base with two outs and Adam Dunn at the plate. Baker went to the mound to check on Arroyo, who had struck out Dunn three straight times. After chatting with Arroyo, Baker permitted him to stay in the game and Dunn popped out.
“I can trust Arroyo,” said Baker. “If his tank is empty, he tells me. If he thinks he has more in the tank, he’ll tell me that. And I believe him. When he says, ‘I’ve got enough,’ that’s enough for me. When some pitchers tell you they have enough, they don’t.”
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TweetClosers do nothing but open the doors
UNSOLICITED OBSERVATIONS while sitting in The Man Cave wondering how many toothpicks Cincinnati Reds manager Dusty Baker swallows when his bullpen is in the game (other than Arthur Rhodes):
Anybody else tired of the The Closer Syndrome in major-league baseball - the fact that every manager brings in his closer in the ninth inning when there is a save situation, no matter what?
I am.
Both Washington Nationals manager Jim Riggleman and Reds manager Dusty Baker got hammered Sunday by the The Closer Syndrome. Sometimes it is downright annoying.
Yes, the Reds won Sunday, beating the Washington Nationals, 5-4, in 10 innings after both teams saw closer meltdowns.
First, it was Riggleman. The Nationals led the Reds, 2-1, in the ninth inning. Nats relief pitcher Tyler Clippard pitched a scoreless eighth and Riggleman permitted him to start the ninth. He struck out Laynce Nix on three pitches.
Out comes Riggleman, in comes closer Matt Capps, who has a history of monstrous meltdowns against the Reds. Why, Jim, why? But the Reds thank you from the bottom of their batting order.
The first hitter wasn’t Capps’ fault, although Drew Stubbs hit the ball hard. Washington is the worst defensive team in the NL and right fielder Roger Bernadina showed why. He misplayed the Stubbs hit and it sailed over his head for a double.
Pinch-hitter Jonny Gomes, hitting .415 with runners in scoring position, produced again with a game-tying double to left. Then pinch-hitter Scott Rolen ripped a two-run home run for a 4-2 lead, his 14th home run.
NOW IT WAS Baker’s turn. In the eighth inning, Reds starter Bronson Arroyo was still in the game and had a runner on second with two outs. Adam Dunn was due up and Aroryo already had struck him out three times. Baker came to the mound for a discussion and Arroyo talked his way into remaining in the game.
Baker was rewarded as Dunn flied to left.
Then the Reds took the 4-2 lead in the ninth. Arroyo had thrown 114 pitches, not that many for him, and had given up two runs and five hits over his eight innings. Maybe he told Baker he was out of gas, I’m not sure. But I would have talked him into going out for the ninth.
Why not let him go back out? Why not? Because it was a save situation, Coco Cordero Time. The thinking is: “We’re paying this guy $14 million a year to save games.”
So Cordero walks the first hitter in the bottom of the ninth, gives up a one-out single to Ian Desmond and with two outs gives up a two-run double to pinch-hitter Michael Morse.
Tie game. Extra innings. Oh, my.
THE REDS, though, are not your daddy’s Reds. They quickly went to work in the top of the 10th after there were two outs and nobody on. Facing a left-hander, Doug Slaten, left-handers Jay Bruce and Laynce Nix both poked opposite-field singles. Then Drew Stubbs, facing right-handed Miguel Batista, poked an opposite-field single to right for a run and the 5-4 lead.
And where are all the people who wanted batting coach Brook Jacoby fired? Their silence is deafening.
Game over?
Of course not. Nick Masset was assigned to nail this one down and it took him a whole box of nails to do it.
With two outs and nobody on, he gave up a single to Josh Willingham and walked Bernadina, putting the tying runs on base and the winning run at the plate. After going 3-and-2 on Desmond, he finished it on a chopper to second base and a close play at first when Desmond went in head first.
SO THE REDS won their 11th game of the season in their last at-bat and finished 3-3 on the trip, returning home for a four-game series starting Monday against the San Francisco Giants.
And there was an absurdity to this game. Cordero gave up two runs, two hits and two walks in his one inning, blowing the save. Guess who got the win? Right. Cordero. It is one of baseball’s more absurd scoring rules. Blow a save, get a win. Yikes.
Arroyo, who pitched eight innings and gave up only two runs and five hits gets nothing. Just a no-decision and a big ol’ hang with ‘em.
Arroyo, though, the ultimate team guy, will just shrug it off and say, “We won. That’s the important thing.”
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TweetA letdown in our nation’s capital
UNSOLICITED OBSERVATIONS from The Man Cave, needing a Yuengling to get through it and finding the refrigerator bare as I watched the Cincinnati Reds lose to the last place Washington Nationals, 4-2.
This is what so often happens to a contending team after a big series against its chief rival: A letdown. A big, flat, nauseating, ugly letdown.
After playing three outstanding games in St. Louis, even though they lost two, the Reds shuffled off to the nation’s capital to play the last place Nationals and spent most of the night staring at the Capitol Building and/or the Lincoln Memorial, both visible beyond the stadium.
THEY AWOKE briefly and too late in the ninth inning against Nats closer Matt Capp. While Capp leads the National League with 18 saves, his record against the Reds is smudged with grief.
When he pitched for the Pittsburgh Pirates, Capp blew five saves in 13 opportunities against the Reds with a 6.62 ERA. And he had given up seven home runs in 26 innings.
And it looked as if he might blow another one, looked as if the Reds might win their 11th game this season in their last at-bat.
Pinch-hitter Laynce Nix, 0 for 13 at the time, led the inning by poking a single to left field. Capp fell 2-and-0 behind Orlando Cabrera, but instead of taking a pitch, making Capp throw a strike, Cabrera hacked at the next pitch and flied to left.
But Brandon Phillips drove a single to right field - two on one out. Capp, though, blew away Joey Votto on three pitches for a strikeout and Scott Rolen popped to the catcher.
Game over. The Reds fell out of first place, one game behind the Cardinals. The Reds have lost four of their last five.
Not good. Not good at all.
THE REDS took a 1-0 lead in the second against ancient Livan Hernandez when Drew Stubbs singled, stole second and scored on a single by Ramon Hernandez.
Washington, which had lost three straight in Houston before coming home, tied it in the bottom of the second on some shaky pitching by Aaron Harang, who had another shaky outing and was gone after four innings.
Harang gave up a one-out single to Ian Desmond and then wild-pitched him to second. With two outs, Harang walked opposing pitcher Livan Herandez on a full count and Desmond scored on Cristian Guzman’s single.
The Nats took a 2-1 lead in the third when Harang gave up singles to three of the first four Washington hitters. The Reds tied it in the fifth when Cabrera singled, took second on a balk and scored on a Phillips single.
THEN CAME THE fateful seventh - and it was fateful for the Reds.
Josh Willingham opened the seventh with a single off rookie Enerio Del Rosario. Roger Bernadina flied to shallow left center. Center fielder Stubbs drifted toward it. So did left fielder Jonny Gomes.
On this type of play, the center fielder has the right of way - as if he is driving on a main drag. Gomes is supposed to give way, if Stubbs calls him off (and replays showed Stubbs calling for the ball) because Gomes is coming from a side street and does not have the right of way.
Well, the two collided. The ball bounced off Gomes’ glove for an error and the Nats had runners on first and second with no outs. Desmond singled to left field for a run and it was 3-2. Catcher Wil Nieves then flied to shallow center and Stubbs caught it.
The ball was shallow and it didn’t figure Bernadina would try to score from third after the catch. Stubbs even hesitated after he caught the ball. Bernadina was homeward bound. Amazingly, Stubbs’ throw hit the side of the pitcher’s mound and bounced sideways as Bernadina scored standing up for a 4-2 lead.
And that’s how it finished.
Gomes is not having a fitful trip with his glove. He misjudged a fly ball in St. Louis that led to disaster before his mishap Friday.
So once again a burden falls on the shoulders of rookie pitcher Mike Leake. His assignment Saturday night is to be the stopper, be the guy to put The Cincinnati Express back on the rails.
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TweetKen Griffey Jr.: Great player, a greater friend
On that cold February, 2000 night when Ken Griffey Jr. walked into a packed and overstuffed Crosley Room in Riverfront Stadium, one could sense the burden he felt on his shoulders.
Baseball is a team game and a city was putting the burden of winning on one pair of shoulders - very large and broad shoulders - but they thought $116.5 million made it their right to drop the heavy load on The Cincinnati Kid.
NO MATTER the price, baseball games can’t be purchased. Griffey knew this as much as anybody, but said nothing. He knows a baseball team is built on the shoulders of 25 players, not one.
But he watched and he listened quietly as General Manager Jim Bowden, the architect of the trade that brought Griffey home to Cincinnati from Seattle, bubbled over with optimism.
“Baseball is back in Cincinnati,” said Bowden. Where had it been? It has been in Cincinnati since 1969. It went nowhere. And he kept saying, over and over, “Call 421-REDS. Call 421-REDS.” It was the number for the ticket office.
ALL THAT OPTIMISM never materialized during The Griffey Era. They never put a winning team around him. They never came up with the pitching necessary to construct a championship team.
And Griffey bore the brunt. Fans never forgave him. All that money, no championships. But he didn’t complain, didn’t make excuses. He played on through pain, pain and more pain.
NOBODY KNOWS the inside story of Ken Griffey Jr. better than team physician Dr. Tim Kremchek. They were not only doctor-patient on a regular basis, they were doctor-friend forever.
“Nobody knows me inside-and-out better than you, especially inside,” Griffey told Kremchek Wednesday night as he drove from Seattle to Orlando, on his way home after announcing his retirement from baseball.
Here is the litany of what Kremchek did to keep Griffey on the field, when Griffey easily could have called it a career and walked into the Hall of Fame a long time ago: Right shoulder surgery, right knee surgery, left knee surgery, left knee surgery twice, hamstring surgery and five or six drainage procedures after the hamstring surgery.
Yes, the hamstring surgery. What a story.
“Griffey called me one day and told me his hamstring was hurting and not getting better,” said Kremchek. “You don’t do MRI’s for hamstrings because they don’t show anything. But I agreed to do an MRI. And we saw that the hamstring was pulled away from the bone.”
IT WAS A rare thing and Kremchek checked around and found a doctor in North Carolina who said he was familiar with this type of injury. Trainer Mark Mann and Griffey went to see the guy, then flew back.
“Two hours later there was a knock on my door,” said Kremchek. “It was Griffey and he said, ‘I want you to do the surgery.’ I told him, ‘I’ve never done it. I can’t do that.’ And Griffey said, ‘You’re a surgeon, you can do it. I want you to do it.’”
So Kremchek performed the surgery, a rare procedure during which he re-attached the hamstring to the bone, something that is now called, “Ken Griffey Surgery,” sort of like “Tommy John Surgery.”
And Griffey played on, taking heavy hits from fans for not always running hard to first base. Many times there was seepage from the hole in his leg used to drain the fluids.
“I saw Griffey at his lowest points,” said Kremchek. “I only wish people realized what this guy went through to play baseball. I was one of the few guys he let into his inner circle and it was unfortunate that it was because of the injury circumstances. But I’ve known a lot of ballplayers and this is one guy I truly consider my friend.”
ME, TOO, DOC.
I consider him a great baseball player, but a greater person - a guy who cares about others. His contributions to the Make-a-Wish Foundation are legion and he never wanted attention for it.
I saw his 500th home run. I saw his 600th home run. I have the baseball from his 531st home run. All that was wonderful, but his friendship is worth much more than a baseball on a shelf and the baseball memories.
WHEN I WAS voted into the Hall of Fame in 2003, it was five minutes after the announcement as I sat at a table in the media room at the Winter Baseball Meetings in Nashville. My cellphone rang and a voice said, “Hal, do you know who this is?” I said, “Of course I recognize your voice, Junior.” And he said, “I’m not calling for an interview or anything. I’m calling to congratulate you on making the Hall of Fame.”
Only two other players called - Aaron Boone and Sean Casey.
When I announced my retirement as a traveling baseball writer, a few days later my cell phone ran. It was Junior. Again. He knew I was down, knew I didn’t want to stop doing what I was doing, and he talked to me for a half an hour.
No other player called.
When my dog, Barkley, died about a month ago and I wrote about it in this blog, I received a text. From Junior. “So sorry about your loss. Pets are so special.”
AND THE BASEBALL?
Early in 2005, Griffey had only one home run in April and the fans were squealing about it. I wrote a column in which I said, “If Ken Griffey Jr. stays healthy all year, if he doesn’t hit 30 home runs, I’ll eat this column on Courthouse Square. And I’ll furnish the ketchup.”
Griffey never let on that he had read or heard about it.
On August 25, on a sticky, humid night in RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C., Griffey hit his 30th home run. After the game, I was standing outside the clubhouse door, waiting to do post-game interviews, when Griffey walked by nonchalantly. “Hal,” he said and flipped me a baseball.
On it he had written, “To Hal, Thanks for your friendshp. All the best, Ken Griffey Jr., Home Run No. 30, Home Run No. 531, August 25, 2005.
He had read the column and he remembered.
That was the Ken Griffey Jr. that I knew and the Ken Griffey Jr. I will remember. I wasn’t privileged to see most of his 630 home runs or the 13 All-Star seasons or the 11 Gold Glove seasons, all of which will earn him a first-ballot seat on the stage for the Hall of Fame ceremonies in Cooperstown.
But I got to see the real person. And that means more to me than anything. From a grizzled old coot who loves the game of baseball, I say to Junior, “Thanks for the memories, but more importantly, thanks for being my friend.”
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TweetCarpenter nails the Reds once again
UNSOLICITED OBSERVATIONS while watching for a tornado out the back window of the Man Cave (I’m still here, so it never came):
They say to expect the unexpected, but there are times you can expect the expected, too.
That’s the case when the Cincinnati Reds face St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Chris Carpenter. You can expect that he is going to beat them.
And that’s what happened - again - Wednesday night. He held the Reds to one run and four hits over eight innings and the Cardinals won, 4-1.
So Carpenter is 8-0 in his last eight starts against the Reds and the Reds and Cardinals are tied for first place in the NL Central. The Reds haven’t beaten Carpenter in four years - since June of 2006.
Is he a Roy Oswalt clone, or what?
The two teams have met 12 times and St. Louis has won seven. And they won’t meet again until August.
AND THERE was the unexpected. Sam LeCure, making his second major-league start, figured to be a sacrificial lamb chop to the Cardinals, but LeCure was good, very good.
LeCure held the Cardinals to no runs over the first three innings and the run he gave up in the fourth came only because Reds left fielder Jonny Gomes misjudged a line drive that whizzed over his head for a run-scoring triple.
And it stayed 1-0 until the sixth when LeCure gave up two more runs and didn’t finish the inning.
But from what he showed, it appears the Reds have found another quality starting pitcher. He wasn’t afraid to throw the ball inside, he wasn’t afraid of Albert Pujols, he wasn’t afraid of Matt Holliday.
His only problem was that he hit two batters (pitching inside) and he walked four.
With two outs in the first, LeCure gave up a single to Albert Pujols and a walk to Matt Holliday, but retired Colby Rasmus.
In the fourth he gave up two straight one-out hits, but retired Pujols and Holliday and escaped damage.
That’s pitching.
“Hit by pitches and walks started their rallies and kept them going,” said manager Dusty Baker. “Our young LeCure pitched a great game. He just had a little problem with walks.”
THE REDS were a bit unfortunate in this one.
Orlando Cabrera led the first with a double and was on third with one out when Joey Votto drilled one.
Unfortunately for the Reds, shortstop Brendan Ryan speared the ball and doubled Cabrera off third.
In the seventh, the first four Reds reached base, but they scored only once. Brandon Phillips singled and Joey Votto was hit by a pitch. Scott Rolen singled for a run to cut the lead to 3-1.
And the Reds had runners on first and third with no outs. Jay Bruce scorched one toward right field, but the ball hit Rolen. Rolen was out and Bruce was credited with a hit and Votto was forced to stay at third base.
With Carpenter dangling on the precipice, mismatched Jonny Gomes struck out for the second time and Drew Stubbs flied weakly to right.
Endgame.
“Carpenter is one of the best pitchers around,” said Baker. “We had action in the seventh, but he had good fortune (Bruce’s ball striking Rolen). But he’s good. Very good.”
The Cardinals had several bloop hits, but that’s baseball.
There is a positive in all this. The Reds won’t see Carpenter (or the Cardinals) again until August.
DON’T FORGET those Ask Hal questions for Sunday’s paper. Need ‘em today at halmccoy@hotmail.com. Send ‘em now.
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TweetThis one was like a playoff game
UNSOLICITED OBSERVATIONS while puffing through three cigars in the Man Cave watching the Cincinnati Reds and St. Louis Cardinals play a regular season early-June game as if it were a one-game playoff for the National League Central championship:
The Reds won, 9-8, but it was a chore that showed their resiliency and spirit. They led, 3-0, after the top of the first, but Johnny Cueto, who didn’t have it, gave up three in the bottom of the first.
They led, 7-3, only to see the Cardinals barge back to take an 8-7 lead. Then they rescued it, 9-8.
SO HOW important is it to have Joey Votto in the lineup, despite what Miguel Cairo did during his six game stand-in for Votto? Votto swung at the first pitch he saw Tuesday for a single. Votto had four hits - FOUR HITS - including a home run and a triple after sitting out six games.
SO HOW important is it that the Reds acquired third baseman Scott Rolen? He hit a three-run homer in the first and another homer in his second at-bat and then later hit a double.
SO HOW import is it that the Reds re-signed Jonny Gomes early in spring training when nobody else wanted him, including the Reds after last season? Gomes, given a bad rap sheet as a defensive player, threw a runner out a home plate early in the game. Important? One run that early? Well, the Reds won by one, didn’t they? And Gomes drove in the tying run (8-8) in the seventh inning.
SO HOW important is it that the Reds keep putting the ball in the hands of 40-year-old Arthur Rhodes in critical situations? He pitched the seventh and the Cardinals loaded the bases but he struck out right-handed pinch-hitter Nick Stavinoha.
SO HOW important is that GM Walt Jocketty recognized a need for a veteran shortstop with playoff experience and signed Orlando Cabrera? And how important is it that manager Dusty Baker made an early-season switch and moved Cabrera to lead-off? He contributed a two-out, two-run double in the fourth inning.
This game took more twists and turns than a country road in West Virginia, with no rest stops.
IT WAS A two-game shift. Had the Reds lost, they would have fallen a game out of first place. Instead, they reclaimed a one-game lead and can’t leave St. Louis with worse than a tie. It is a toughie Wednesday night - rookie Sam LeCure against Cy Young winner Chris Carpenter.
Cairo hit .429 for the six games Votto sat with a stiff neck, but Votto is Votto is Votto, as he proved Tuesday. With one out in the first, Brandon Phillips singled and Votto lashed a single to right. Rolen then hit his 12th homer for a 3-0 lead.
But Colby Rasmus hit a home run in the bottom of the first to tie it, 3-3.
UNDAUNTED (what’s that mean, anyway?), the Reds took a 5-3 lead in the third when Votto homered and Rolen followed him with a homer, his 13th of the season. For those counting, Rolen has one more home run than Albert Pujols.
Then the Reds made it 7-3 in the fourth when Orlando Cabrera poked a two-out, two-run double.
Cueto, though, wasn’t up to protecting the 7-3 lead, just as he wasn’t up to protecting the 3-0 lead. He walked Matt Holliday on four pitches to open the sixth and paid dearly. Three straight hits later and Cueto was shower-bound.
Rookie Enerio Del Rosario was recalled Tuesday from Indianapolis along with Logan Ondrusek (Carlos Fisher was sent back to Louisville and Mike Lincoln was placed on the DL with a sore shoulder).
Del Rosario recorded two quick outs, but Brendan Ryan, after faking a two-out bunt, pulled a two-run double to left to make it 8-7, Cardinals.
Die? Roll over? Play dead?
Not this year’s Reds. Former Cincinnati relief pitcher Dennys (Big Sweat) Reyes came on in the 7th, a left-handed specialist because the Reds had Votto and Jay Bruce coming up early in the inning. Votto singled to lead the inning. Rolen, a right-hander, amazingly struck out on a pitch in the dirt. Bruce, batting .196 and seemingly helpless against left-handers, poked a single to left.
Gomes tied it with a single to right and Drew Stubbs provided the winning run with a sacrifice fly.
MUCH-MALIGNED Nick Masset and much-more-maligned closer Francisco Cordero finished it off, but they put lumps in Baker’s throat.
Masset recorded the first two outs in the eighth, then put two on with on before striking out Rasmussen.
Cordero gave up a leadoff single in the ninth to David Freese, but Brandon Phillips and Cabrera turned a lightning double play on fleet Jon Jay.
And it ended spectacularly. Chris Heisey was in left field in the ninth and pinch-hitter Ryan Ludwick hit one to him. Heisey broke back. The ball was shallow. He slipped starting in, then made a diving catch to end it.
How else could a game like this end?
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Tweet
