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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 > August
August 2010
Arroyo’s take on throwing ‘105’
Shortly after the Cincinnati Reds left the clubhouse for batting practice, the shrill fire alarm siren went off all over the stadium and somebody wondered why?
It was clear to me - Aroldis Chapman must be warming up his fastball in the bullpen.
Bronson Arroryo was asked when was the last time he threw a pitch 105 miles an hour and he smiled and said, “When I was 9 years old, pitching Little League in Key West and parents had to push their crying kids into the batter’s box because they didn’t want to face me. I threw so much harder than the other kids. It was ridiculous and my pitches looked 105.”
Arroyo laughed and said he had a friend who saw him pitch in Little League, “But I moved from Key West when I was 10 and didn’t see him again until I was pitching in the minors. He said, ‘What are you throwing now, about 100?’ He remembered me from Little League and thought it would transfer. He laughed when he saw how hard I wasn’t throwing.”
Arroyo shook his head when asked about Chapman’s triple-digit fastball and said, “Only about 10 guys ever walked the earth who threw 102 miles an hour. Isn’t Nolan Ryan in the Guinness Book of World Records for throwing 102? Well, there you go. Chapman will replace him.”
Arroyo, though, put it all in perfect perspective when he says speed doesn’t always burn major-league baseball hitters.
“Manny Ramirez is not intimidated by a 100 miles an hour fastball,” he said. “It is all about location. Zeroes on the scoreboard is what is impressive. Radar on the board means nothing. Zeroes mean everything. Fifteen zeroes on the board between now and the end of the season is more impressive than 105.”
Arroyo admits that throwing 100+ is advantageous, if the thrower throws strikes.
“It is a huge advantage,” he said. “When you throw a heater that hard you can get away with more mistakes, get away with more pitches in the zone. A hitter doesn’t have as much time to react.”
AND HE BELIEVES the Reds are doing the right way by pitching Chapman out of the bullpen, probably for one hitter or one inning.
“Throwing that hard with an adrenaline spike out of the bullpen is huge,” he said. “You can’t maintain that over seven innings.”
Asked if he believes Chapman threw two pitches at 105 last week for Class AAA Louisville, Arroyo shrugged and said, “Depends on the gun. We’ll see how hard he throws here. But what’s the difference when he throws that hard - 102, 103, 105? I did hear that a scout clocked him with his speed gun at 105 and thought something was wrong with his gun. So he changed the batteries and the next pitch was 105.”
Arroyo said the Reds aren’t all that excited about seeing Chapman’s fire and smoke, “Because we saw it this spring. And when you’re watching you don’t notice the difference between 95 and 100. Hey, I batted against Stephen Strasburg and he was throwing 98 to 100 and I felt like I had a chance to hit him.”
When asked what he thought was the limit of human being throwing a fastball might be, Arroyo smiled and said, “I guess it’s 105.”
AND WHEN WAS the last time a home crowd rooted hard for their starting pitcher to get knocked out of the box early. That was the strange situation facing Aaron Harang Tuesday. A large walk-up sale of tickets spiked attendance a bit, most them showing up in hopes of seeing Chapman walk out of the bullpen.
“You can get by with ‘over the speed limit’ if you have good location,” said Manager Dusty Baker. “Because you have to commit so early. Over the speed limit guys don’t have to be as sharp. As a hitter facing ‘over the speed’ limit pitchers, you want to swing, but you don’t have time. You want to swing, but you don’t. You say, ‘I wanted to, but I just couldn’t.”
Baker said Chapman probably will be eased into his baptism, if possible.
“We’re going to try to break him in a lesser situation, a low-pressure situation if we can help it,” he said. “You don’t know how it will end up. We’ll try to put him in a situation, in the beginning, to get his feet wet. It helps us tonight because we don’t have Arthur Rhodes available. But…if I’ve used Bill Bray already and Prince Fielder is up there, it might be, ‘Hey, good luck. Go get ‘em, Aroldis.’”
Baker, though, doesn’t expect pressure to cause Chapman to collapse like a cheap beach chair.
“I think he can handle it because if you can handle pitching for food - which is what he was doing in Cuba, pitching for food - then you can handle pitching here,” said Baker.
Chapman, 22, is 6-foot-4 and all legs - his legs seemingly sprouting out from under his arm pits. That gives him a tremendously long stride so that he seems to be pitching from 52 feet instead of 60 feet, 6 inches.
MLB’s Bob Watson was carrying around some photos on his cell phone earlier this year after Chapman pitched in a Triple-A game. The grass in front of the mound was chopped and chewed, looking as if somebody took a pick-axe to the grass.
“That’s from Chapman’s stride,” said Watson. “He lands so far in front of mound he digs up the grass. We’re going to have to watch this, maybe make the dirt area in front of mound bigger.”
TO MAKE ROOM for Chapman (called up from Class AAA Louisville) and Harang (lifted off the DL), the Reds placed outfielder Laynce Nix (sprained ankle) on the disabled list and optioned Edinson Volquez to Class A Dayton, hoping he’ll make two starts before the Dragons end their season.
Volquez will pitch Wednesday night and if all goes well he’ll pitch again for the Dragons next Monday, Dayton’s final game.
“Volquez was in the bullpen because he wasn’t pitching effectively lately as a starter,” said Baker. “This guy is in our plans as a starter, not a reliever. (Pitching coach) Bryan Price made some mechanical changes and we’d rather have him experiment with those changes there rather than here. If we sent him to Louisville, he couldn’t come back until their playoffs are over, but he can come back when Dayton’s season ends.
“We’re looking at him to get his stuff together because he is a quality starter when he has act together,” Baker added. “In case a couple guys are not doing well, or somebody looks fatigued or tired, we can insert him back in there. It gives another strong arm because there is nothing wrong with his arm. It is extremely strong. It is just a matter of mechanics and location at this time. It gives us viable options into September and hopefully into the playoffs. We can pick our roster from a nice pool of guys.”
TO REPEAT, some dirty, rotten scoundrel hacked into my e-mail account and changed my password. So now I have a new account - halmccoy1@hotmail.com. Please send those great Ask Hal questions for Sunday to that address - halmccoy1@hotmail.com.
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TweetChapman joining Reds tomorrow
Aroldis Chapman, c’mon down.
The Cuban Missile, the $30 million man, will join the Cincinnati Reds Tuesday and be in the bullpen. That means, for sure, he will be eligible for the post-season if the Reds make it and he pitches well enough to warrant a seat in the bullpen.
Chapman has been nearly unhittable in recent bullpen appearances for the Class AAA Louisville Bats, including an inning last week during which he struck out the side on 10 pitches, throwing six over 100 miles an hour and two at 105.
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TweetIs LeCure a ‘cure’ for the bullpen?
Sam LeCure laughed when he mentioned how important it is for a pitcher to throw first-pitch strikes and get ahead of hitters and said, “We all know that and it sounds easy.”
It was mentioned how fans become apoplectic when pitchers fall behind in the count and he said, “Let them go out there and try to throw strikes when somebody is trying to hit one back off your forehead.”
What LeCure did Sunday was lost in the barrage of contributors to the 7-5 victory the Cincinnati Reds recorded over the Chicago Cubs. LeCure followed starter Travis Wood, arriving in the sixth inning with the score tied, 3-3, and pitched two perfect innings, striking out two.
The significance? LeCure is in his sixth professional season and until his recent call-up he had never - not once - never - not even one-third of an inning - pitched a game in relief. He had made 113 straight starts, including six earlier this season with the Reds, without ever taking a walk from the bullpen.
“It’s fun,” he said of the bullpen. “It’s a little different coming out of the bullpen. It’s exciting because you never know when you are going to get to pitch. And it’s frustrating because when you are out there you do want to be involved in the game. It’s a different mind-set and I’m trying to pick some guys brains.”
LeCure talks to guys in the Reds’ bullpen and also to Jay Howell of the Tampa Bay Rays and while he was seated in the clubhouse today he was text messaging with Houston Stree, “Guys I know who have had success at the big-league level,” he said.
“Hopefully I can establish myself as a starter, because that’s what I’ve always wanted,” said the 25-year-old right-hander from Austin, Tex., a fourth-round pick in 2005. “For right now, I’ll do the best I can with this, whatever allows me to stay in the big leagues for as long as possible.”
LeCure thought he might get into Sunday’s game because Nick Masset needed a day off, “And that’s one of the exciting things about it. The phone rings and you’re not sure if it is going to be you, then it is you and that adrenaline jumps up real quick and you start rocking and rolling. The difference, I’ve noticed, is when you come out of the ‘pen you know right away what the stakes are. You want to be aggressive in the strike zone and that’s something I struggled with earlier this year when I was starting.”
FOR THE FOURTH straight game second baseman Brandon Phillips was out of the lineup and for the fourth straight day he ducked the media - frustrated that he isn’t in the lineup.
Manager Dusty Baker put Jay Bruce back into the leadoff spot, where he hit three home runs Friday against the Cubs. Drew Stubbs batted leadoff Sunday and had three hits and scored three runs, but Baker had him back down in the seven-hole Monday.
Asked if Phillips could pinch-hit, Baker turned coy again and said, “I said it would be a few days and he is getting better. We feel it’s fortunate that it isn’t any worse than it is. Can he swing the bat? I’d rather not say. Because you don’t want the other team to know. But he’s close.
“Baseball is different than football because they divulge everything in football,” Baker added. “I remember Bruce Smith’s knee was hurting one day and they made it known that Bruce Smith’s right knee was bad. So what did the other team do? They went after his right knee all day.”
MIGUEL CAIRO tested his tight hamstring early in the afternoon, running about half-sped, then ran the bases during batting practice, but not at full speed.
Cairo felt the tightness last week in San Francisco running out a double Wednesday in the Reds 12-11 12-inning victory. And he hasn’t played since.
“I’m being careful,” he said. “I gotta finish strong, be ready for the final four weeks of the season,” said Cairo.
“He is getting better every day,” said Baker. “He told me he felt better yesterday than the day before and the day before that. If we don’t need to use him, so he can get better, we won’t. He is getting better every day. I heard him talking out there (in the clubhouse) so he sounds like he felt better. If he ain’t talking, THEN something is wrong.”
SOME WONDER if 40-year-old Arthur Rhodes is wearing down after he gave up two runs and four hits in one-third of an inning Sunday. And some wonder if his foot is bothering him again.
“He hasn’t pitch much lately, only twice in seven days, so it isn’t that he’s pitched too much lately,” said Baker. “The thing with Arthur is that he is human. His foot? He’s OK. It’s a matter of not locating the ball Sunday, that’s all. He hasn’t said anything about his foot in quite a while. He just walks bad.”
BRANDON PHILLIPS did play Sunday - he pinch-ran, replacing Ramon Hernandez at third base in the eighth inning and scored the seventh run in the 7-5 win over the Cubs. But he was able to trot home because Paul Janish singled.
“Easiest thing I ever did in baseball,” Phillips told Baker. Albert Pujols lead the NL in runs scored with 92, while Phillips and Joey Votto are tied for second with 91. So, that easiet run Phillips ever scored might be big when it comes to who scores the most runs in the NL - or on the Reds.
HELP, HELP: Some scoundrel hacked into my e-mail account and changed my password and I can’t get into my old Hotmail account for now - until I fill out a form. Until then, my NEW e-mail address is halmccoh1@hotmail.com. And all my leftover Ask Hal questions are gone so please, please, please send them over the next couple of days so i’ll have enough for Sunday - halmccoy1@hotmail.com
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TweetChapman hits ‘105’ on the speed gun
It was mentioned to Cincinnati Reds manager Dusty Baker that Aroldis Chapman threw two pitches 105 miles an hour in a one-inning appearance Friday for the Louisville Bats.
Baker held up a finger and said, “But…”
Before Baker could finish, he was told, “And they were strikes.”
“All right, that’s the key,” said Baker. “Were they strikes?”
And he he struck out the side on 10 pitches, six at 100 or more miles an hour.
Baker smiled and said, “Well, it said 105 on the screen (scoreboard).”
I told Baker that a witness in Louisville e-mailed me to say she saw Chapman’s two 105 miles an hour pitches and I e-mailed her back and said, “You didn’t see them. You heard them.”
Baker smiled again and said, “I don’t think the batters saw them, either.”
THE THING ABOUT Chapman throwining 100+ is that he is 6-foot-4 and all legs, meaning after his stride he is about 52 feet from the plate instead of 60 feet.
“That’s a key, too,” Baker added. “That’s why we hated facing J.R. (James Rodney Richard, 6-foot-7 Houston pitcher) in my day. He was throwing at about 50 feet. That’s where tall guys with leverage have such an advantage. You don’t have much time to react, make up your mind. A lot of guys came down with some mysterious injuries on the night J.R. pitched.
“Some guys would come down with J.R.-itis,” he said. “But Hank Aaron once told me that no matter what, no matter who is pitching, you have to limp out there and take your whipping. It gives a psychological edge to him if he thinks you’re ducking him. So you have to go take your beating. I limped up there against J.R. many a time.”
The Chapman Era most likely begins Wednesday when he is one of the September call-ups and he’ll probably be eased into non-pressure situations in September - if there are any.
BRANDON PHILLIPS was out of the lineup for the third straight game and Baker said he is getting close. But Phillips was observed taking infield practice early Sunday and several times shook his injured right hand after fielding balls or after throwing balls. And he hasn’t been around his locker to talk with the media for the past three days.
“He’s getting better, still not there, but getting better,” said Baker. “The swelling has gone down. He squeezes putty the entire game to get his strength back, get his grip. As a hitter, something you take for granted is your grip. No grip, no hit.”
Baker actually is playing three men short - Phillips (hand), Laynce Nix (ankle), Miguel Cairo (tight hamstring).
“Miguel came in early to get treatment and we don’t want to make it worse,” said Baker. “It’s not pulled, yet. Just tight.” Cairo felt his hamstring tighten when he ran out a key double late in the 12-inning 12-11 win over San Francisco last week.
“Nix is getting better, too,” Baker added. “He’s walking better and hopefully we’ll have him within a couple of days. Hopefully.”
SO BAKER’S Mix-and-Match lineup Sunday had Drew Stubbes back in the leadoff spot and Chris Heisey in left field in place of Jonny Gomes.
“Stubbs is swinging better and, again, without Brandon or Orlando Cabrera, this is the best lineup for the day,” said Baker. “I need somebody behind Rolen or they won’t pitch to Votto or Rolen if somebody is not swinging pretty good behind Rolen. I thought about Ramon Hernandez because he is swinging good, but late in the game I’d have to pinch-run for him and I don’t want a hole in my lineup.”
That was Bakerer’s way of saying why slump-ridden Gomes was out of the lineup and out of the No. 5 spot behind Votto and Rolen, replaced by Jay Bruce, suddenly swinging a torrid bat when he batted leadoff the last two games.
BRONSON ARROYO and several Reds are wearing gray t-shirts that say: Property of Waffle House Athletic Department.
Huh?
“I was eating in a Waffle House in Covington, Ky. one day when the CEO of Waffle House happened to walk in and see me,” said Arroyo. “Turns out that even though he is from Arizona he is a big Reds fan. So he sent me a box of these t-shirts.”
HOMER BAILEY is the latest clubhouse member to be carrying an iPad and he was showing its dynamics to Mike Leake Saturday.
“The more I have it, the more I like it,” said Bailey. “Lot of cool things. Lot of games. I play a sniper game and I’m wearing people out.”
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TweetVolquez to the ‘pen, Harang to start
It is, so to speak, audition time - something like America’s Got Talent.
For sure, the Cincinnati Reds have talent, especially in the pitching department, but some tinkering needs to be made immediately, preparations for the stretch run, and that’s exactly what they are doing.
The move today was to remove Edinson Volquez out of his scheduled start against the Chicago Cubs Sunday and replace him with Travis Wood. And Volquez? He goes to the bullpen for now, mostly to work on his mechanics with pitching coach Bryan Price.
And while it isn’t etched in cement, it is pretty clear that Aaron Harang comes off the disabled list to face Milwaukee Tuesday. What the team is trying to determine is whether Volquez or Harang will be part of the rotation when playoff time rolls around.
“Volky goes to ‘pen for now so he can do some mechanical work on the side with Bryan Price,” said manager Dusty Baker. “Hopefully, he can get everything back together. Velocity is there, everything is there, but he is working on command and most of that is mechanical.”
Volquez didn’t get out of the first inning in his last start in San Francisco, giving up five runs and five hits in less than an inning.
“How long in the ‘pen? I don’t know,” said Baker. “It depends on how he looks and when Harang comes back it’ll depend on who’s pitching to help us the most down the stretch. They’re both strong, so that helps big-time.”
Baker hasn’t officially announced Harang as Tuesday’s starter, but he will be. “We have to make a move when Harang is activated and we don’t know what or who the move is yet.”
Even though he has never worked out of the bullpen, not even in the minors, Volquez is at peace with the move and said, “I’m OK with it. They have Harang coming back and they want to put him in the rotation for now.”
Volquez, who isn’t long off the DL himself after a year’s absence due to Tommy John surgery, insists he is close to 100 per cent - physically.
“I’m real close to where I was,” he said. “My arm and whole body feels fine. It is just a matter of finding my release point and being more consistent in the strike zone. I’ll work with Bryan in the bullpen and they told me if things work out they’ll put me back in the rotation in September. I’m like normal, no pain, no problems. I’m good with it. Don’t know when I’ll pitch - probably when a starter has a tough start. And I’ll work on stuff.
“I was talking yesterday with Chicago’s Ryan Dempster, who had Tommy John surgery, and he told me, ‘Don’t worry about what you’re going through right now because I went through the same thing when I came back.’ He said I’ll feel really, really good next year - that I have to wait until next year.”
SHORTSTOP ORLANDO Cabrera continues fighting a little twinge in his side from a sore left oblique, but is shooting for a return next weekend for the Cardinals series in St. Louis.
“How am I doing? This thing is bleeping slow,” he said. “Unbelievable. I can run and I can hit, but when I throw I can feel a little catch there. Two weeks ago I was on a great pace to return, but I’ve hit a plateau and stay in the same place. I don’t want to aggravate it. I think I can play, but I can only make it worse. I’m not going to do anything for five days, give it time to heal, so I can play in St. Louis. It is an important series and we can put them away.”
Of his absence, with stand-in Paul Janish doing so well, Cabrera said, “If I go out there and play now I’m being selfish. Playing hurt is selfish. Paul Janish - you can’t ask more from him. He is a good player, getting important hits for us and playing great defense. There is no reason for me to push it.”
BRANDON PHILLIPS and his sore hand were out of the lineup for the second straight night and once again right-fielder Jay Bruce batted in Phillips’ leadoff spot and rookie Chris Valaika played second base in Phillips’ spot.
“Brandon is getting a lot of treatment,” said Baker. “We’re lucky we have guys who can fill in. Valaika did a good job Friday (home run, double, made all the plays defensively). Brandon is still Brandon, but you need capable guys to fill-in. Like we said in spring training, we’re going to need everybody and so far we have. You have to have depth. You look at the teams that are in it perennially, they always have depth - the Yankees, Boston, St. Louis, Atlanta - year in and year out. They have good players.”
FOR THOSE WHO are led to believe that the Reds are skipping Johnny Cueto’s turn in St. Loius next weekend to avoid conflict, it isn’t so.
No, Cueto isn’t going to face the Cardinals after he was suspended seven days for kicking a couple of Cardinals during the fight in Great American Ball Park. But he isn’t pitching because his turn doesn’t fall on any of those three days. Figure it out. He pitched Friday against the Cubs. With four days rest, he pitches Wednesday against Milwaukee. With four days rest he pitches next Monday in Denver - no St. Louis over the weekend.
WHEN JONNY GOMES hit his 100th career home run in San Francisco, after nearly five weeks of trying, the fan who got the ball threw it back on the field. Well, they thought it was the ball and retrieved it for Gomes.
“That wasn’t the ball I hit,” said Gomes. “The ball they threw on the field you would have thought Willie McCovey hit that home run. It was all blackd and dirty and scuffed, something the sea gulls would have eaten. So we knew right away. Fortunately, the ball landed a row in front of one of my real good friends, so we were able to find the guy. I gave him a bat and signed it, ‘To Brett, nice catch, thanks, 100th home run.’
“I got THE ball and my agent (Aces Management) gave me a bottle of Dom Perignon, vintage 2000,” said Gomes. And while 100 home runs may not seem like much, they are to Gomes. “I know A-Rod recently got 600 and Jim Thome hit the 500 club, so that gets people’s heads in the clouds. But for me? 100 home runs from where I came from and where I am? And I’m still counting, so I feel just as lucky as those guys.”
ON TUESDAY they’ll announce that Reds broadcaster and former Reds closer Jeff Brantley will be inducted into the State of Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame, where NFL star Jerry Rice already is enshrined. Said Brantley, “At least I beat Brett Favre because he’s still playing.”
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TweetWood replaces Volquez for Sunday
Some quick news (more later):
Edinson Volquez will not make his scheduled start Sunday against the Cubs and Johnny Cueto won’t pitch in St. Louis.
Volquez, who gave up five runs in less than an inning in his last start in San Francisco, is being replaced by Travis Wood.
Cueto, who was suspended seven days for kicking St. Louis catcher Jason LaRue and pitcher Chris Carpenter, will pitch Wednesday against Milwaukee, his regular turn and with four days of rest, wouldn’t reach his next turn until next Monday in Colorado.
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TweetPreliminary plan: Harang to pitch Wednesday
THE TV CAMERA lights clicked on in Cincinnati Reds manager Dusty Baker’s office and he said, “Wait a minute.” And he emptied his mouth of smokeless tobacco. “Let me get this out of my mouth before my momma sees it,” he said.
Baker was asked if his mom gets on him about the tobacco and he said, “Hell, yes. You still got your momma? You know she is always going to be on you about something. ‘Get that mess off your face.’”
BAKER DROPPED a bit of a bombshell when he said the team has disabled pitcher Aaron Harang on a program aimed at getting him a start Tuesday (August 31) against Milwaukee in Great American Ball Park (Get your tickets now).
“That makes him eligible for the playoffs and this is our ‘preliminary’ plan,” said Baker. “We’re not exactly sure. A lot of people are going to say, ‘Hey, he didn’t pitch well at Triple-A (on rehab in two starts for Louisville).’ Well, I don’t know any big-league veterans who do. I used to watch Don Sutton and Big Daddy (Rick) Reuschel and they hated pitching against those kids. They tend to swing a lot and they don’t know when they’re being set up for a pitch. It’s hard to set up a guy who doesn’t know he is being set up.”
Harang agrees. He said he wasn’t looking for results, he was looking to build arm strength and make certain he is healthy.
“You can’t worry about numbers,” he said. “You can’t go down and pound the strike zone. They all know you are going to be around the strike zone with every pitch, so they’re up there hacking at anything in the strike zone. And I didn’t have a scouting report on any of those guys - just word of mouth from the night before. You go down to find the feel for your pitches, get your repetition and not worry about results.”
It’s a good thing results don’t matter. In two starts for the Louisville Bats, Harang was 0-2, giving up 11 runs and 14 hits in two starts over 11 innings, walking two and striking out 10.
MIKE LEAKE, as expected, was placed on the disabled list before the game and the club recalled third baseman Juan Francisco.
“This is better for Leake and he can still be eligible to help us down the stretch and in the playoffs,” said Baker. “He is not throwing the ball where he wants, even though he has good velocity. He has shoulder fatigue. Now is the time for him to get on a strengthening program and not worry about pitching. He’ll be eligible to come back Sept. 9. That’s why we’re doing it now, so he can pitch again this year. It has been a matter of location. He lives off location and deception. And his breaking ball is not sharp, just rolling, not breaking.”
Why Francisco and not a pitcher? “We need another bat, especially with Laynce Nix ailing (sprained ankle) so Francisco is to off-set that loss.”
ALTHOUGH X-RAYS on his hand were negative, Brandon Phillips was not in Friday’s lineup, replaced by rookie Chris Valaika. When asked if Phillips was available to pinch-hit, Baker said, “Ah, I don’t know. I care not to say anything because they don’t need to know over there (in the Cubs clubhouse). One good thing - it’s not broken. He’ll be back in a day or two.”
Jay Bruce was in Phillips lead-off spot Friday and some folks thought it strange - the way Bruce struggles against left-handed pitchers and that fact the Cubs started left-hander Tom Gorzelanny.
“Jay has had good success against this guy and Jay has had pretty good success in the past in the lead-off spot,” said Baker. Bruce led off 22 times in his rookie season with the Reds. “Gorzelanny gets right-handers out better than left-handers. Every day, since Orland Cabrera has been out, I’ve had to mix and match. Now I have to mix and match with Cabrera and Brandon out. I thought Jay was the best guy for that spot today.”
Said Bruce, “Nothing new or big. I did it for more than 140 at-bats my rookie year. It’s no different. My goal is to always try for a quality at-bat and that’s not going to change just because I’m hitting lead-off. The only time you really lead-off is the first inning. No matter where I’ve batted I’ve led off a lot of times in the other innings. I lead off innings all the time. Everyone does. All we’re doing is trying to win - that’s what I’m focused on and what the whole team is focused on. We trust our manager and front office, so whatever line-up is put up there, we expect to win with it.”
IN ADDITION to Bruce batting lead-off, Baker had rookie Chris Valaika playing second base and batting second in his major-league debut as a starter. He pinch-hit in San Francisco and singled on the first major-league pitch he saw.
“It was exciting getting to the ballpark today and seeing I was in the line-up and talking to Dusty,” said Valaika. “Dusty asked where I hit in the line-up in Louisville and where I feel comfortable. I feel I can go anywhere - wherever there is a need, I can fill.”
Of his first big-league AB and first-pitch hit, Valaika said, “I sat in the dugout watching the pitcher warm up and I read up on him. I didn’t want to get to any of his ‘out’ pitches so I jumped on the first one. I got the ball and the line-up card. A pretty special day.”
THE CUBS ARE without manager Lou Piniella, who quit the team last week to be with his ailing mother after announcing he would retire AFTER this season.
“Gonna be weird not to see Lou, not to be able to wave across the field at Lou,” said Baker. A Chicago writer wanted Baker to give advice to any manager taking over in Chicago and its different and its tough environment. He wouldn’t bite.
“I can’t give them any advice, I’m trying to beat ‘em,” said Baker. “As long as I’m in this division, I’m not going to give anybody in Chicago any advice. We’re trying to go places here. If I do give ‘em advice, they still have to go out and see for themselves anyway.”
Of the Cubs problems this year, Baker said, “I was looking at some notes and saw where they have used 10 rookie pitchers this year, the most since 2006 when they used 16 rookie pitchers. Then I said, ‘Dang, that’s when I was there.’”
Even though the Cubs are downtrodden, Baker knows the supreme following the team gets and knows what will happen this weekend.
“One thing for sure, the Cub fans are going to be here, regardless” he said. “There probably will be more Cubs fans than Reds fans and we welcome them because we need the attendance. We need the attendance so we can sustain what we have and get some more players.”
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TweetStupefied, flabbergasted and, uh, Holy Smoke!
UNSOLICITED OBSERVATIONS while getting cushion sores on my posterior watching the Cincinnati Reds and San Francisco Giants play a slow-pitch softball game for 12 excruciating innings.
I am stupefied. I am flabbergasted. I am at a loss for descriptive words to write about the Reds 12-inning victory Wednesday afternoon-evening.
After losing to the Giants in the first two games by 11-2 and 16-5, the Reds figured they had to score in double figures to win a game in AT&T Park. And they did just that.
In fact, after the top of the fifth inning they had a 10-1 lead. And on TV they were laughing at the Atlanta Braves, who had a 10-1 lead over the Colorado Rockies Wednesday and lost, 12-10.
So what happens? The Reds blew the 10-1 lead. In fact, the Giants scored six runs off Logan Andrusek and Arthur Rhodes in the eighth inning to take an 11-10 lead. Fortunately for the Reds, Giants third baseman Pablo Sandoval made a throwing error in the top of the ninth. It was on a ground ball by Drew Stubbs that would have been the second out, with nobody on.
Instead, Paul Janish singled Stubbs home to tie it, 11-11 and the game rumbled into the 12th inning when Joey Votto took command - and guess what the ‘V’ stands for in MVP? Votto, right? Well, St. Louis fans believe the ‘P’ in MVP stands for Pujols. But the ‘V’ comes first.
In the 12th, Janish led with a single and Miguel Cairo doubled. With two outs Votto rolled a single between first and second to plate the winning run - his fourth hit.
Votto also homered twice, 30 and 31, including a two-run shot in the first inning when the Reds constructed a 4-0 lead. Another Votto homer helped the Reds build the 10-1 lead for starting pitcher Homer Bailey, who left in the sixth with a 10-3 lead.
Coco Cordero pitched the last two innings to get the win, but, of course, it was heart-stopping at the end. The Giants had runners on first and third with two outs in the bottom of the 12th before Cordero retired Andres Torres on a grounder to second.
So, we can give the Reds an ‘A’ for perseverance and an ‘F’ to style.
For the three games in San Francisco, the Reds gave up 38 runs and 51 hits and managed to salvage the last game. For the west coast trip, they finished 6-3 and fortunately they don’t give style points.
Question. Can we REALLY say the Reds were 6-3 on this ‘west coast’ trip? They won the first three in Arizona and there is tons more sand in Phoenix than there is gallons of ocean water. Technically, they were 3-3 on the west coast (Los Angeles 2-1, San Francisco 1-2), but let’s not split hairs.
For those who tossed in their towels after the first two losses in San Francisco, it is time to call Economy Linen and order some more because the Reds are far from dead.
RIGHT NOW, the pitching staff looks like the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, but after flying home Wednesday night, they get to spend Thursday off in their home port, where repairs can be made.
Then they play a weekend series against the Chicago Cubs and three next week against the Milwaukee Brewers - teams the Reds SHOULD manhandle. But who knows any more? The St. Louis Cardinals can’t even handle the Pittsburgh Pirates.
The Reds hit three home runs in the first inning Wednesday - Votto, Jonny Gomes and Ryan Hanigan. It was the 100th career home run for Gomes, his first home run since July 19.
Lost in the splurge and deluge of runs was, well, many things - but there was Brandon Phillips getting hit by a pitch on the hand and leaving the game. The day off should help that situation. But, of course, Miguel Cairo stepped right in and it was his double in the 12th that put runners on second and third, setting up Votto’s fourth hit, the game-winner.
Sports Illustrated cover jinx? The SI issue with Votto on the cover came out Wednesday and, well, they can rip off that cover and burn it. Votto doesn’t believe in jinxes. He just keeps on lifting his batting average, lifting his home run total, lifting his RBI total and lifting his run scored total.
How about MVP and Triple Crown? Votto would be the first Triple Crown winner since 1978, when Affirmed won the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes. And before you can say, ‘Hey, that’s horse racing,’ well, if you can find a better horse to ride than Joey Votto, saddle him up.
Anyway, it was the first time the Reds blew a nine-run lead since they led the Brewers in Milwaukee, 9-0, on April 28, 2004. But they lost that one, 10-9.
A CHALLENGE: If the Reds make the playoffs - and I’m saying they will and they’ll do it by winning the NL Central by four or five games (I said that back in June), who will be the occupants of the five-man rotation?
My choices (right now) in order: Bronson Arroyo, Homer Bailey, Johnny Cueto, Travis Wood, Edinson Volquez. What’s yours?
AND IT IS time for those nifty questions you send every week for Ask Hal. Need them by tomorrow for inclusion in Sunday’s Dayton Daily News. Send them to halmccoy@hotmail.com and, again, thanks for the great, great participation this year. Wish I could use them all, but I get 50 to 100 every week and can’t use ‘em all. And keep ‘em brief.
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TweetAnother lost night in San Francisco
UNSOLICITED OBSERVATIONS from The Man Cave while wondering if the Cincinnati Reds can skip the first inning in San Francisco and start games in the second inning. On second thought, just skip San Francisco.
The Reds lost Monday, 11-2, and gave up 17 hits. On Tuesday, it was 16-5 on 18 hits. For the mathematically challenged, that’s 27 runs and 35 hits in two games as some earned run averages ballooned as if filled with helium.
Edinson Volquez gave up five runs in the first inning Monday and Travis Wood nearly matched him Tuesday, giving up three in the first and the West Coast Relays began.
USED TO BE that the only guy who could hit the ball out of San Francisco’s AT&T Park with regularity was Barry Bonds - and they weren’t wind-aided. They were aided by something else, as we all know.
But on Tuesday night, AT&T became Great American Ball Park-West as home runs flew out of the place like fleeing sea gulls.
The Reds hit three home runs, two by Brandon Phillips and one by Scott Rolen, but the Reds still lost by 11 runs. The Giants hit four home runs, two in one inning against relief pitcher Mike Leake.
The Reds knew before their game began that they had a chance to push their lead in the NL Central back to 3 ½ games because the St. Louis Cardinals lost in Pittsburgh. T’wasn’t to be.
Freddy Sanchez, who won a batting title in Pittsburgh, is batting eighth in San Francisco’s order. In the first two games he has eight hits.
MANAGER DUSTY BAKER piggy-backed his two young rookie pitchers, Travis Wood and Mike Leake, and they both pitched as if they used the wrong arms - left-hander Wood throwing right-handed and right-handed Leake throwing left-handed.
Wood lasted only four innings and gave up seven runs. Leake replaced him in the fifth and didn’t make it to the sixth, retiring only one batter while giving up six runs and six hits that included a two-run homer Juan Uribe and a three-run blast by rookie Buster Posey.
ONE POSITIVE out of the entire mess came when Chris Valaika, called up from Class AAA Louisville Tuesday, pinch-hit in the sixth inning and singled in his first major-league at-bat.
LORI’S DINER is one of my favorite lunch stops in San Francisco - a 1950s diner complete with old-style jukeboxes and thick milkshakes served in the metal containers that come right off the mixer.
And I continued going to the place despite the fact Reds first baseman Nick Esasky lost a tooth when he bit into a burger and came away with a tong from a fork. They didn’t charge him extra for the metal.
And for the first two nights in San Francisco, the Reds had entire forks stuck into them.
But they still lead the Cardinals by 2 ½ are are 5-3 on this west coast trip with the finale this afternoon in San Francisco.
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TweetVolquez leaves his ‘start’ in San Francisco
UNSOLICITED OBSERVATIONS from The Man Cave while wondering how those garlic fries smell in the AT&T press box because they fry them right next door. It is irrrestible that writers have to sneak out the side door and buy some, then spend the rest of the night hoping the grease doesn’t foul up the laptop keys.
For those who retired to their Serta Perfect Sleepers after the first inning Monday night, it didn’t get any better for the Cincinnati Reds.
Edinson Volquez threw 38 pitches to get two outs and his night was prematurely finished. He pitched as if the object was to squarely hit the opposition’s bat. In that respect he was hugely successful.
The San Francisco Giants raked him for five runs and five hits and he mixed in two walks and a wild pitch before manager Dusty Baker walked to the mound and said something like, “Why don’t you hop a cable car and ride on back to the hotel.”
That jump-start was all San Francisco pitcher Matt Cain needed to pitch his way to an 11-2 victory and the Reds lead in the NL Central shrunk to 2 ½ games.
Eleven runs by the Giants? Is this the same team that was shut out the night before, 9-0, by Jaime Garcia of the Cardinals and held to one run the night before by Chris Carpenter?
And the Reds didn’t just lose a game, they lost two outfielders. Laynce Nix twisted his left ankle running the bases and Jim Edmonds strained his right oblique while batting. Both had to leave the game and it is likely that Edmonds will land on the DL. Oblique injuries are slow healing - just ask Orlando Cabrera.
THE REDS actually had first chance to draw blood, but spilled it all over themselves in the top of the first against a very tough Cain. They put two on with one out, but Scott Rolen struck out and Jim Edmonds flied to deep center.
Rolen made up for it in the third when the Reds struck for two runs after they had two outs and nobody on. Laynce Nix had an infield hit, Joey Votto bounced a ground rule double into the left center seats and Rolen mashed a two-run triple to center, cutting it to 5-2.
The Giants quickly retrieved the two runs with a two-run home run by Angel Torres off relief pitcher Jordan Smith.
And the Reds spent the rest of the night spinning their wheels.
Cain pitched eight innings and retired the last 14 Reds he faced and he struck out the side in the seventh inning. He held the Reds to five hits.
It was a Night to Forget, too, for relief pitcher Logan Ondrusek. He pitched the eighth and gave up four runs and four hits, including a down-range home run by Aubrey Huff that needed clearance for landing from San Francisco International Airport.
WHY OH WHY do they do it now? For the first time in a decade a member of the Cincinnati Reds will be on the cover of Sport Illustrated. Joey Votto will be this week’s coverboy. And we all know about the SI cover jinx, don’t we? Everybodoy in Reds country should go to the newsstands and rip off the cover.
SAN FRANCISCO leads the nation in street beggars - seemingly one or two on every block. So it is easy to tell a guy in the middle of a block, “I gave to the last guy.”
I seldom contribute, unless the guy has a dog with him (many do) and then I become a sucker. But there was a guy begging on Fisherman’s Wharf one year with a sign that read: “Why lie, I need money for beer.” I gave him $5.
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TweetArroyo, Votto put a lid on LA
UNSOLICITED OBSERVATIONS from The Man Cave, a hot spot today because the garage door has to be down to cut glare off the TV screen, which also blocks any breeze.
If anything, the Cincinnati Reds’ 5-2 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers Sunday was a microcosm of the season — not counting the last series against the St. Louis Cardinals.
They were up against the other team’s best pitcher and that pitcher, left-hander Clayton Kershaw, was on his game.
He struck out 11 in his seven innings and gave up only three runs and seven hits. But the Reds, as they have done over and over and over in this season of bliss, found a way to win.
AT THE TOP of the list was Reds pitcher Bronson Arroyo, who was on top of his game even higher than Kershaw.
By holding the Dodgers to two runs and seven hits over seven innings, he recorded his 100th career victory and 14th this season, enabling the Reds to maintain their 3½-game lead in the NL Central over the Cardinals.
Kershaw’s only problem was in the first inning and the opportunistic Reds took major advantage, scoring two runs — and of course the two runs came with two outs.
Brandon Phillips, who had three hits and a walk, opened the game with a single, then Kershaw walked Joey Votto and Jonny Gomes with one out. But he stuck out Chris Heisey on three pitches for the second out.
Catcher Ryan Hanigan didn’t wait. He swung at the first pitch he saw from Kershaw and shot a two-run single up the middle as the Reds two-pronged catching RH factor (Ryan Hanigan, Ramon Hernandez) continues to produce.
THE DODGERS scraped together a couple of runs to tie it, 2-2, after the fifth.
Then it was Joey Votto time, presenting his MVP credentials in some way nearly every day. He gave the Reds a 3-2 lead in the sixth, a lead-off home run to the opposite field, Votto’s 29th home run.
Votto struck again in the ninth because the Dodgers are having more problems with their closer, Jonathan Broxton, than Cincinnati’s Coco Cordero ever thought of having. Broxton, in fact, lost his closer’s role briefly this season.
With his team down by only one run, LA manager Joe Torre opted to bring in his problem-child to protect that one-run lead in the ninth.
Didn’t work.
With one out, he walked Paul Janish and Jay Bruce, entering the game as part of a double-switch, singled. Broxton walked Phillips to fill the bases.
He struck out pinch-hitter Scott Rolen, two outs, and fired two fastballs to get ahead of Votto 0-and-2. Votto battled and battled and battled before working the count to 3-and-2 and then unleashing some more two-out lightning, a two-run single to left field turning the 3-2 lead into 5-2.
That meant nobody in the Reds’ dugout had to hold their breaths when Cordero came on in the bottom of the ninth to close it out.
He immediately went to 3-and-2 on Matt Kemp, who then grounded out to third. James Loney fouled to third. Casey Blake popped to short and, shazam and ala-kazam, Cordero had his 34th save in 40 opportunities - and only the eighth time this year in the 40 opportunities that Cordero pitched a 1-2-3 inning.
The Reds had lost 12 straight games in Dodger Stadium before this season, but took two of three this weekend and have won five of their first six on this nine-game West Coast trip — meaning the Reds will have a winning trip regardless of what happens in the final three games of the trip in San Francisco on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.
WITH MY travel limited these days most of my culinary visits are local, so permit me to rank my Top Three hamburger joints in Dayton — places that feature hamburgers, thus eliminating the scrumptious burgers at Tank’s, a bar on Wayne Avenue in Dayton that also serves a breakfast omelet that is so big a NASCAR pit crew could mount it on Kyle Busch’s Chevrolet.
My top three: Five Guys & Fries, Smashburger, Extraordinary Burgers (at The Green in Kettering).
Five Guys is all over the country and the quality of its burgers and fries never varies — a bun above all the rest.
Smashburger, also a chain, has extremely good burgers but can’t compete with the Five Guys fries.
Extraordinary is just ordinary. My burger was overcooked and while the fries were good I needed a toothpick to stab them because the biggest fry in the order was about half-an-inch long.
McDonald’s, Wendy’s and Burger King don’t make my list.
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TweetCueto should have gone sightseeing
UNSOLICITED OBSERVATIONS from The Man Cave while thinking about a great steak at LA’s downtown Pacific Dining Car restaurant, a steak that costs about as much as a live cow.
T’was not a fun evening for the the Cincinnati Reds in Chavez Ravine, unless they count seeing Harrison Ford seated behind home plate during their 8-5 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
It was a night in which Reds pitcher Johnny Cueto might better have spent at the Improv Comedy Club in LA instead of appearing at Dodger Stadium because that was a real comedy act he performed on the mound.
A pitcher’s two worst enemies are walks and home runs and Cueto mixed in a bunch of both in only three innings of work Friday night.
In the first inning he had two outs and one on after striking out Manny Ramirez. Then he walked three straight batters to force in a run.
Then it got real ugly in the second and third. He gave up four home runs in a span of five hitters - back-to-back two-out blasts in the second to Ryan Theriot and Andre Ethier, then back-to-back homers to the first two hitters in the third to Jay Gibbons and Matt Kemp.
It was evident Cueto was in a supreme struggle mode in the first when it took him 30 pitches to get through it, fortunate that he gave up only one run.
Coming off his seven-day suspension for his role in the fight with the St. Louis Cardinals, Cueto was about as sharp as a year-old razor used every day.
SPEAKING OF razors, the defeat shaved a game off the Reds lead because the Cardinals ended their five-game losing streak and now trail by 3 ½ games.
It was the Reds’ first loss on the nine-game west coast trip, ending their seven-game winning streak and their eight-game road winning streak.
MIKE LEAKE made his major-league debut out of the bullpen and pitched a 1-2-3 fourth, but gave up two runs and three hits in the fifth and two more hits in the sixth and left with one out - 2 ½ innings, two runs, five hits.
It was 7-1 when Leake left and in typical 2010 fashion, the Reds didn’t raise their hands and surrender. They came back to 7-5 by the seventh, but could do no further damage.
It was a night that gave pitching coach Bryan Price an Excedrin headache.
THE REDS stay at a hotel in Century City, a long haul to Dodger Stadium and a particularly eventful cab ride during rush hour on LA’s parking lot they call a freeway system.
The veterans like to advise the rookies to take cabs from the hotel to the ball park. During their rookie years, Adam Dunn and Austin Kearns took a cab on their first trip to LA and got caught in a traffic snarl. The fare was $70 and Dunn said, “I just wanted to ride in the cab, not buy it.” And now he can buy a fleet of cabs.
SPEAKING OF The Improv earlier, I went there one night after a day game to see a cast of no-name comedians, guys nobody ever heard of. Late in the evening, the M.C. said, “We have a special guest who dropped in tonight and would like to take the stage.” It was Robin Williams and he did 45 minutes of stand-up and did it without getting paid.
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TweetThe Dirty Dozen (losses) ends in LA
UNSOLICITED OBSERVATIONS from The Man Cave while swatting moths and remembering the night when Hugh Hefner walked into Dodger Stadium with six of his buxom beauties that distracted the entire male populations of Los Angeles County.
IN EARLY JULY, during a pre-game appearance on Reds Live with Jim Day and Jeff Piecoro I boldly, and probably stupidly, stared into the camera and said, “I think the Reds will win the division by four or five games.”
I could hear Day gasp and Piecoro looked at me as if I’d lost my head and it was rolling around on the desk.
How am I looking now?
By beating the Los Angeles Dodgers Friday night, 3-1, the Reds own a 4½ game lead over the St. Louis Cardinals.
The Reds have won seven in a row and the Cardinals have lost five in a row - and my oh my how the high and mighty have fallen.
The Reds have won eight straight road games and maybe it’s time to roll out the nickname I slapped on the 1999 Reds - The Big Road Machine.
Going into Friday’s game, the Reds had lost 12 straight games in Dodger Stadium, three each in the last four years.
THE DODGERS have fallen on hard times and the Reds took advantage of it, thanks to Homer Bailey, who appears to be right back where he was at this point last year when he finished the season with a 6-1 record and an ERA below two.
What a heavenly lift that would be if Bailey matches that streak. On Friday he held the Dodgers to one run and four hits over seven innings, walking two and striking out five.
The offense was all Brandon Phillips - three hits in his first three at-bats, driving in all three runs as the Reds won their fourth straight on this nine-game west coast trip. Catcher Ryan Hanigan had two hits and scored twice.
While sweeping three games in Arizona, the Reds piled on runs late to put all three games out of reach and make closer Coco Cordero a non-factor.
He was a factor Friday. First Arthur Rhodes took over for Bailey in the eighth and Mr. Automatic breezed through a 1-2-3 inning.
Then it was Cordero time and although nobody in the Reds dugout will admit it, nerve-wracking time.
Cordero struck out James Loney, but Matt Kemp blooped a 0-and-2 pitch into right field for a single and Casey Blake came to the plate representing the tying run.
But Cordero coaxed a 6-4-3 double play for his 33rd save in 39 opportunities.
SO SAD TO see Dodger Stadium half empty on a Friday night, one of baseball’s finest venues, a park built in 1962 and remains an outstanding facility that is so clean you can see your reflection in the concrete floors.
But they’re still doing The Wave, which is about as outdated as leisure suits and platform shoes.
AND YOU never know who is going to show up at Dodger Stadium. One night I was hard at work on deadline when somebody sat down next to me in an empty press box seat.
He began asking me questions about the Reds, Barry Larkin in particular. Because I was busy I gave him short, cryptic answers and he finally said, “Would you like a cup coffee?” To get rid of this annoying dolt, I said, “Yeah, two Sweet ‘n Lows, please.”
The guy left to fetch the coffee and a guy seated two chair down leaned over and said, “Do you know who you are ignoring? That’s Charley Sheen.”
My face was as red as the Reds’ caps.
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TweetReds hotter than the Sonoran Desert
UNSOLICITED OBSERVATIONS from The Man Cave while enjoying a Padron 1964 Anniversary, one of two provided by friend John Robison, who frightened the bejabbers out of me Tuesday night when he walked in the open back door (to facilitate a breeze) in the middle of the game:
One of many things manager Dusty Baker has done this season is to show faith in all of his players, regardless of perceived negative situations.
Take Wednesday night as an example, as the Reds rocked the Arizona Diamondbacks, 9-5, to complete a three-game sweep. It gives the Reds a 3 ½ game lead over the St. Louis Cardinals - the Reds’ biggest lead since May of 2002.
With left-hander Joe Saunders pitching for Arizona and the way Jay Bruce struggles against southpaws, wouldn’t right-hander Chris Heisey be the choice for right field? Not this night. Baker stayed with Bruce and he homered for the second straight night.
Baker dropped Bruce to seventh in the batting order and he had four hits Tuesday and two Wednesday.
And how about left field? Jonny Gomes was 0 for 16, so wouldn’t Heisey be a better option for left field?
Not this night. Baker stayed with Gomes and he singled during a four-run third inning.
And he always has the choice at catcher - Ramon Hernandez or The People’s Choice, Ryan Hanigan. On this night he chose Hernandez who then provided a three-run homer in that four-run third.
Oh, yeah. He could have played Heisey in center field in place of strikeout-prone Drew Stubbs. But he didn’t. And Stubbs had two hits and two RBIs. The man(ager) has had The Magic Touch this year.
AND HOW about Travis Wood? There hasn’t been this good of a pitcher named Wood since Wilbur Wood - and not even Wilbur started his career with this kind of success.
Wood was 0-7 in his first FIVE major-league seasons and 1-8 aftrer six years, but won 163 games in his his 17 seasons.
Wood already is 4-1 after 11 major-league starts and the Reds are 9-2 in his starts.
On Wednesday, he held the Diamondbacks to one run and four hits in 6 1/3 innings, walking two and striking out six. He threw first-pitch strikes to 20 of the 24 hitters he faced.
AND HOW OPPORTUNISTIC are the Reds? They have two outs and nobody on in the eighth when Arizona left fielder Rusty Ryal dropped a routine fly ball that would have been the third out. The Reds then scored five unearned runs - the mark of a champion. Laynce Nix and Joey Votto (seven-game hitting streak) each produced two-run hits.
SO THE REDS are 3-0 on this crucial nine-game west coast trip, with three this weekend in Los Angeles, where in recent seasons the Reds would have been better off painting the Hollywood sign than showing up at Dodger Stadium. They’ve lost 12 straight in Chavez Ravine.
But the Dodgers are a major disappointment this season, far down in the NL West standings and there is no reason why the Reds can’t sweep through Tinseltown like a movie star’s limousine.
SO THE REDS have won six straight since the three-game fiasco at home against the St. Louis Cardinals and the infamous quotes from Brandon Phillips.
So much for those Phillips comments upsetting the harmony in the clubhouse. And Phillips is on a 53-game streak without an error and he continues to make defensive plays that can be described with words and are so good on videoptape that they seemed staged. Gold Glove. They need to create a new category for him: Platinum Glove.
THE REDS are destined to win the World Series because of new head trainer Paul Lessard. Why?
“I’m working on alphabetical World Series championships rings,” said Lessard. He won his first ring as trainer for the Arizona Diamondbacks (A), then won his second as trainer for the Boston Red Sox (B) and now he is with the Cincinnati Reds (C). If the Reds win it, the Detroit Tigers should make him an offer he can’t refuse.
IT IS A necessity that Arizona has an air-conditioned retractable dome. It was close to 110 degrees all three days in Phoenix, but the games were played in air-cooled comfort.
But they don’t have a heart for the poor baseball beat writers. As soon as games end, the air conditioned is switched off and the press box becomes a sauna as the writers toil at their laptops in soaked shirts and soggy underwear.
Back when the Houston franchise was born in the early 1960s, they were known as the Colt 45s. They played in Colt Stadium, a minor-league park, until the air-conditioned Astrodome was completed.
It was so hot one night that Earl Lawson of the Cincinnati Post & Times Star, a mentor of mine, stripped down to his underwear to cover a game there. That beat the heat, but it didn’t beat the helicopter-sized mosquitoes.
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TweetReds’ suicide squeeze opens run vault
UNSOLICITED OBSERVATIONS from The Man Cave while wondering if there EVER has been a bullpen as awful as Arizona’s:
While Dusty Baker was serving his two-game suspension over the weekend, the Reds pulled off a suicide squeeze called by stand-in manager Chris Speier.
Many of Baker’s legion of critics said haughtily, “Dusty never would have called a play like that.”
Wrong.
On Tuesday night, with the game tied, 7-7, in the ninth, Baker flashed the suicide squeeze sign to Chris Heisey. He dropped a perfect bunt and Jim Edmonds scored from third to break the tie.
From there, the door to the run vault opened wide and the Reds scored an 11-7 victory that gave them a three-game lead in the NL Central over the St. Louis Cardinals.
Matters looked bleak entering that eighth inning. The Reds trailed, 7-3, but they scored eight runs in the last two innings, annihilating the worst bullpen in baseball.
It was the Reds’ 35th come-from-behind victory, second to Atlanta in the NL, and their 16th victory recorded in their last at-bat.
JOEY VOTTO was a late scratch with a bad back and Edmonds replaced him. He furnished his first home run as a member of the Reds and doubled to lead the eighth, enabling him to score on Heisey’s bunt.
Heiser was a pinch-hitter. In the eighth, pinch-hitter Miguel Cairo started a four-run rally with a double as the Reds Bench Brigade continues to provide daily doses of huge contributions.
The Reds gave starter Edinson Volquez a 3-1 lead in the fourth, but he couldn’t protect it. He gave up four runs in the fifth, including a two-run homer to Chris Young to fall behind, 5-3.
It looked desperate in the seventh when Adam LaRoche blasted a two-run homer off Jordan Smith for a 7-3 Diamondbacks lead.
Then it was Comeback Time, as Baker would say, “Big-time.”
CAIRO STARTED it in the eighth with his one-out double. Jay Bruce, who bunted for a single and homered in his second at-bat, doubled Cairo home. 7-4. Ramon Hernandez doubles. 7-5. Paul Janish, continuing his excellence as shortstop Orlando Cabrera’s stand-in, singled for his second hit. Laynce Nix hit a sacrifice fly on right-fielder Justin Upton’s overthrow (the Arizona defense is as awful as the bullpen). 7-6. Brandon Phillips doubled. 7-7.
Now it’s the ninth.
Edmonds doubled and took third on Rolen’s grounder to the right side - giving himself up to move the runner, proving once again how professional he is. Heisey suicide bunted and was safe at first. 8-7. Bruce singled and Hernandez was hit by a pitch, loading the bases. Janish hit a sacrifice fly to left that was a foot short of a grand slam homer. 9-7. Nix doubled for two runs. 11-7.
So the Reds are 2-0 after two games of this nine-game west coast swing.
The Reds had 18 hits - nine in the last two innings. And they did it with their best hitter, Votto, watching from the dugout.
In-cred-i-ble.
YES, IN head-to-head (or fist-to-fist) confrontations this year, the St. Louis Cardinals own the Reds like a rich landlord, winning 10 of 15 games between them so far this season.
But here is why the Reds are ahead of the Cardinals in the NL Central standings: The Cardinals are 15-18 against division rivals Milwaukee, Houston and Chicago. Against those same three teams, the Reds are 21-5 - a plus-nine games in the standings for the Reds.
PRONUNCIATION CHALLENGE: Anybody know how to pronounce these three names of American League players? Matt Tuiasosopo of Seattle, Kila Ka’aihue of Kansas City and Marc Rzepczynski of Toronto? And don’t say Matt, Kila and Marc.
IT’S ASK HAL question day. Fans have been fantastic with questions and comments so far this year and let’s keep it flowing. Need some questions quickly for this Sunday’s paper, so send them now to halmccoy@hotmail.com.
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TweetJanish to the rescue (again)
Unsolicited observations from the lonely Man Cave - all by myself because it is too late for my friends, too late for my wife (who gets up at 4 a.m. to run on the treadmill before going to her teaching job) and too late for my puppies, Cooper and Paige - sound asleep in their crate.
Say what you want about Brandon Phillips, whether he should have or should not have made public his feelings about the St. Louis Cardinals, he is a man of honor. He is paying for pitcher Johnny Cueto’s fine for Cueto’s part in the last Tuesday’s game when the Reds and Cardinals went Mike Tyson-Muhammad Ali on the baseball field.
PROBABLY THE best thing to happen Tuesday was that the Cincinnati Reds scored three runs in the top of the ninth, giving them a four-run lead over the Arizona Diamondbacks instead of a one-run lead.
That took away all the drama of Coco Cordero pitching the ninth inning - a four-run lead instead of a one-run lead, eliminating the necessity for the Reds to hold their breaths. It wasn’t a save situation. He has 32 saves this season, but only seven times in save situations has he pitched a 1-2-3 ninth inning.
With the four-run lead Tuesday, he pitched a 1-2-3 ninth as the Reds increased their NL Central lead to two games over the Cardinals.
BRONSON ARROYO recorded his 13th win, despite a shaky start. The first hitter he faced, Chris Young, doubled. The second hitter he faced, Kelly Johnson, homered and the D-Backs led, 2-0, before Arroyo recorded his first out.
Arroyo buckled it up after that, going 7 1/3 innings, giving up just the two runs on six hits.
With the Reds leading, 3-2, in the eighth, the D-Backs had a runner on second with one out. With two left-handers due up, manager Dusty Baker brought in lefty Arthur Rhodes and he struck out Adam LaRoche and Miguel Montero.
It didn’t look good for the Reds in the first three innings against Arizona pitcher Daniel Hudson. Of the first nine outs, eight Reds struck out.
But the Reds put together three straight hits in the sixth to tie it, 2-2. Then came the big blow - another key hit by a stand-in player. Paul Janish, subbing at shortstop for disabled Orlando Cabrera, broke the 2-2 tie in the seventh with a home run.
SO WHERE would the Reds be without Janish, Miguel Cairo and Laynce Nix, guys who come off the bench when needed and play not only like regulars, but like stars. And, of course, Sir Arthur Rhodes.
THERE WERE A couple of blemishes, though. Drew Stubbs apparently scored from first base on a Janish double in the Reds fifth. But the Diamondbacks appealed and Stubbs was called out for missing third base - a Little League-type blunder.
And Jay Bruce hit into not one, not two, but three double plays. Three.
THE REDS made an adjustment in their overcrowded pitching rotation. Homer Bailey, back from the disabled list with an excellent outing Sunday, stays in the rotation and Travis Wood returns to the rotation Thursday in Arizona.
Odd man out? It’s Mike Leake. He is being moved to the bullpen, an expected move because he is fast approaching the innings limit the team placed on the rookie right-hander. Manager Dusty Baker said, “His last three or four starts shows he may be a little spent. He warms up quickly and this gives us more depth in the bullpen.”
SO WHAT am I going to do with this $100 gift certificate to Donovan’s Steakhouse in Phoenix? I enjoyed dinner at Donovan’s twice in one week during spring training and devoured two of the best steaks I ever had. I sat in a booth with a gold nameplate on the wall that said ‘McCoy.’ Wasn’t for me, though. It was for Al McCoy, a legendary Phoenix sports broadcaster.
HAS ANY team ever had three players who have brothers on other major-league teams, as do the Diamondbacks? They have Justin Upton, brother to Tampa Bay’s B.J. Upton, they have Adam LaRoche, brother to Pittsburgh’s Andy LaRoche and they have Stephen Drew, brother to Boston’s J.D. Drew.
SOME INTERESTING news about footwear, as relayed by Reds pitcher Aaron Harang.
“The economy has hit the athletic shoe industry, too,” he said. “Reebok cut back their free shoes to 90 per cent of the players who wore their shoes. Coco Cordero was an All-Star the year before and he got cut. Adidas cut their list by 50 per cent, including me, and I’m wearing Nike now, as do most players.”
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TweetBaker: From ‘exile’ to Cuba, Costa Rica
Dusty Baker and his family are planning a one-week trip to Cuba and a one-week trip to Costa Rica after the season, as part of a Jewish organization’s good-will trip.
Former Cuban dictator Fidel Castro is an acknowledged baseball aficionado, a lover of the game. Said Baker, “He’ll know I’m there. Hank Aaron once told me he was in the country and didn’t think Castro knew he was there, but he got a call at his hotel the first morning he was there and was invited to visit Castro that afternoon. He’ll know I’m there.”
Speaking of Cuba, Baker was in his office Sunday morning after his two-game suspension, after spending the last two games sitting in GM Walt Jocketty’s private box watching the game from on-high.
Asked if he knew about any famous exiles other than Napolean Bonaparte’s Elba exile and Baker smiled and said, “My favorite comes from one of my favorite albums, a Van Morrison album, ‘Too Long in Exile.’ I broke it out and that’s what I’ve been playing the last two days.”
Baker said his two days above the playing field were productive, “Because you can see a couple of things from the players that I can help with - batting, fielding, positioning, catching - stuff I wouldn’t see up close. I got to see replays and pitches and I’m going to have some meetings with guys today. I already had a couple. You use all your time to be as productive as possible.”
ONE TALK Baker didn’t want to have was with infielder Juan Francisco, a chat in which he had to tell him of his demotion back to Class AAA Louisville to make room on the 25-man roster for Sunday’s pitcher, Homer Bailey.
“It is getting tougher to make these moves and it is going to get tougher,” said Baker. “The good thing is that we only have two weeks before September 1 when he can expand our roster to as many as 40. So if we can make it to then, then we can make all the moves we want to make. This shows us we have good players, good personnel.”
Baker realizes that the Francisco move leaves him short of infielders, with a surplus of outfielders, but he quickly said, “All our outfielders are playing pretty good, so we do, theoretically, have too many outfielders.”
To remedy that, Baker is having outfielder Chris Heisey working out at second base as an emergency infielder, but it isn’t a stretch. Heisey was a shortstop his entire baseball career, including in college. And he’s willing to be play infield in an emergency situation.
HEISER, OF COURSE, relishes the opportunity, should it arise.
“I’m taking ground balls, just in case of an emergency,” he said. “I played shortstop my whole life and in college the second half of my junior year I spent at shortstop. Not that I would feel comfortable now in a big-league infield, but I wouldn’t feel like a stranger, like I never played there. I trust my hand-to-eye and reflexive co-ordination that I can knock the ball down and throw it across the infield. I’ve watched enough second baseman to know all the movements. Actually it would be kind of fun, do something different. It makes me more versatile and valuable.”
Baker said it would only be a ‘911’ call for Heisey, a one-game or one-inning situation until the Reds could summon help from Louisville or elsewhere.
“Mostly he would be at second base in an emergency because I can move Brandon Phillips to shortstop and Miguel Cairo to third and Scott Rolen can play first if something would happen to Joey Vott,” Baker added. “It would be just a stopgap situation until we got somebody in here.”
When it was mentioned that Cairo can play every infield positions, Baker smiled and said, “Yeah, but he can’t play everywhere at the same time.”
ON FRANCISCO, Baker said, “He did an outstanding job and we didn’t want to send him out. We don’t really want to send anybody out. But we needed the spot for Homer Bailey today. There are some more spots we’re going to need at some point in time - Travis Wood, Miguel Cabrera, Russ Springer, Aaron Harang - so we just have to do what’s best for the club at the time and try to explain the best we can until September 1. One thing we’ll be - as honest as we can be with them and that’s all they can ask from us.”
ON FRIDAY, Jonny Gomes approached me with some journalistic advice: “You should talk with (Florida Marlins interim manager) Edwin Rodriguez and ask him about me. He was my first manager and is the best manager I ever had.”
As an editor, Gomes is straight-on. I asked Rodriguez about Gomes and he broke into a broad smile.
“It was 2001 and it was at Class A Princeton (W.Va.),” Rodriguez began. “Like every organization, they give you a lineup they want you to use. These are the guys who have to play. And he wasn’t there. He wasn’t even close. They told me, ‘You know, we got this guy in the 19th round (Tampa Bay) and you play him when you get a chance.’
“Then I saw him take his first batting practice,” Rodriguez continued. “Then I saw him the second day taking batting practice and I thought, ‘This guy has something.’ I explained to him the whole situation. I told him, ‘You will play when I get the opportunity, but you will get your chance.’”
So what happened?
“Well, “Rodriguez said with a broad smile. “He got his chance and he was MVP of the league (Appalachian). The rest is history. He started hitting seventh, then sixth and he quicly became my No. 3 hitter for the rest of the season. The first he played he went 3 for 4, so I didn’t hear from the organization. If he had gone 0 for 4 with three strikeouts, I’m sure they would have called me and said, ‘What are you doing?’
“The other thing was that when he wasn’t playing, he was getting to the park early and working on everything, like he was an every-day guy,” Rodriguez said. “As a manager you noticed things like that. This guy wants to do it, he wants to make it. He is all-out on every pitch, like our guy Dan Uggla. He’s great and I’ve been following his career and I’m glad he is doing well.”
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TweetSunday’s pitcher: He’s tall and he’s slender
Dusty Baker didn’t want to reveal who his pitcher would be Sunday to stand in for suspended Johnny Cueto and he said, “We have an idea, but we don’t want to say yet.”
What Baker didn’t know is that a certain pitcher was sitting in the clubhouse and told the media, “Yeah, I’ve been told I’m starting Sunday.”
When Baker was told that the pitcher made his own announcement, Baker smiled said said, “Oh, really. Is he tall? Kind of thin? From Texas? You guys are getting hot, man.”
Yes, Sunday’s starter is Homer Bailey, finally off a long rehabilitation assignment. When asked what was new, Bailey said, “I have a new hunting bow. And, oh, I’m starting Sunday.”
CUETO COULD have appealed his seven-game suspension, but decided against it.
“We discussed it - Johnny and his agent and (general manager) Walt Jocketty,” said Baker. “With our pitching situation, this works best, the way things are lined up. He’ll miss one start and then he’ll have one extra day of rest than ordinary. Maybe this will make him better and stronger. He can train, train and more train.”
The other problem is that while Cueto is suspended the Reds cannot replace him on the roster, so they’ll be a man short for seven games.
Baker is not permitted in the dugout, in the clubhouse or in the press box during his two-game suspension and when he was asked what he would do, he said, “Watch the game. Probably from Walt’s private box. They have a new rule now that you are not allowed to stay in the clubhouse or in my office. There was a manager wh was suspended who tried to manage from the tunnel behind the dugout and got busted - which I wouldn’t do.
“My choices are to go watch it in the stands, which is impossible. I’ll either go to Walt’s box or go home, which is impossible, too, or I’ll help Marty (Brennaman),” said Baker.
To that, Brennaman said, “C’mon up. You’re a former broadcaster.”
Said Baker, “You said the right word. Former.” Baker, though, isn’t allowed in the press box or the broadcast booths, either.
BAKER WAS asked, “Were you told why you are suspended?”
“Not really, just that they didn’t like the way me and Tony La Russa (the St. Louis manager who also was suspended two games) handled the situation,” said Baker. “That what was said, in so many words. All I know is that every time I get thrown out of a game most of the time I get suspended. I never even got suspended in school. I’ve been suspended three or four times for the same thing. I got suspended in Chicago for inciting the crowd because they were throwing everything on the field.”
Baker was in his swivel chair in his office doing his normal pre-game work. He was in uniform and he watched batting practice, then had to vacate the premises.
Before he left and turned things over to bench coach Chris Speier, he said, “I made out the lineup, did my normal work, then I can follow the next two games and be ready for Sunday. I’ve been watching this club (the Marlins) and they’ve been hitting, really hitting. They have so many young hitters they don’t have a track record so that you know how to pitch them and play them.”
ROOKIE OUTFIELDER Mike Stanton is the hottest of the hot, scorchingest of the scorching. The 20-year-old rookie was 8 for 12 with two homers, three walks and six RBIs during a three-game sweep of the Washington Nationals.
On Wednesday, he was 5 for 5 with four RBIs, the second youngest player in history with five hits and four RBIs in a game. Oh, so you want to know the youngest? It was before World War II and it was Phil Cavaretta of the Chicago Cubs in 1935.
The Marlins have Baker squirming.
“They are back over .500 and they’re hungry again,” he said. “And we get to see Josh Johnson (Friday’s pitcher), one of the best around. “So this isn’t an easy three days here.” Stanton is no relation to former Reds pitcher of the same name, Mike Stanton, but he is 6-5 1/2 and 240 pounds and was recruited for football by USC. Last spring training, now-fired manager Fredi Gonzalez invited NFL coaching legend Bill Parcells, “Stop in and take a look at this kid.” Parcells, accustomed to football players much bigger than Stanton, said to Gonzalez, “Ah, he looks a little wormy to me.” And a nickname was born. Stanton is called The Big Worm.
WHILE CUETO isn’t appealing his suspension, Brandon Phillips plans to appeal his fine.
“They did what they did by fining me, did what they thought best,” said Phillips. “All you can do is respect what they did. It is in the past and it is over. It is time to go out there and start winning. Nothing wrong with appealing, the prices can do down . Of course I’m appealing, why not?”
During Thursday’s off day, Phillips went home to Atlanta, “Just to chill and get away from baseball for a day. We don’t really get that many days off. We were happy to get a day off. Now it’s time to get back to work and get as many wins as possible.”
After talking with Phillips, I was later standing in the middle of the clubhouse when he walked by carrying his bat. As he passed me, he tapped me twice gently on the shins (what started the fight with St. Louis when he tapped catcher Yadier Molina on the shin guards). And he smiled broadly.
BAILEY IS ready, willing and he hopes able for Sunday’s start. He last rehab appearance in Class AAA Louisville was only one inning because it was thought he might have to work out of the bullpen upon his return. Then came Cueto’s suspension.
“I’m starting and that’s cool,” said Bailey. “I’ve been throwing well and this is just another start. They said they didn’t know what day I would be starting and when I did come back I’d be used in the ‘pen. So at least I’d have one go at it (relief pitching) to kind of feel it out, a little dabble in it.
“What do I know? I’m healthy, that’s all I know,” he said. “Whatever they want me to do, I’m doing it and as long as I’m feeling good, that’s the most important thing. Now I’ll do whatever they say.”
Although Bailey says he’ll do whatever they say, as an accomplished starter one knows he would prefer starting and he was asked about that. “It’s a role I’m more comfortable with, but it is not about me, it is about what we’re doing as a team. I haven’t pitched in relief since ‘05.”
And here’s an interesting perspective for fans who think the three losses to the St. Louis Cardinals this week spelled gloom and doom for the Reds. This is what Bailey said when asked about pitching Sunday in the middle of a pennant race. “Just another start. If you’re thinking about the pennant race, then you are going to end up not being in it. The pennant race hasn’t really started,” he said. “It won’t start for another two or three weeks.”
A GREAT LINE from a National League scout whose team is struggling: “We can’t surrender. We have to finish it out. They don’t let you surrender. There is no crying and no surrendering in baseball.”
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TweetOK, OK - so I’m to blame???
UNSOLICITED OBSERVATIONS from The Man Cave as I dodge bricks from some fans. But I’m wearing a helmet, chest protector and shin guards — just like Yadier Molina.
From reading my blog, I see that some people blame me as much as they do Brandon Phillips, maybe more, for Tuesday Night at the Fights and the Reds losing three straight to the St. Louis Cardinals.
They blame me for “creating” controversy and a couple said I should resign immediately, turn in my computer and my pen. Well, I own the pen.
Perhaps I should explain the entire situation as it unfolded. I’ve done it time and again these past few days on TV and radio, but haven’t put it down in words in this space, where Phillips said he hates the St. Louis Cardinals and called them complaining, whiny little bitches.
I did NOT ask him if he loved or hated or was indifferent to the Cardinals. I asked him nothing.
Before Game One of the series, I walked into the clubhouse and was passing his locker, with no intent to stop. But he said, “I don’t know if I’m even in the lineup. I haven’t seen the card.”
Phillips didn’t play the day before in Chicago because of a sore shin.
I said, “I’ve seen the card, you’re in there. You’d play in this series on one leg.” And he said, “Yeah, I’d play on one leg. We need to win. We need to beat these guys. I hate the Cardinals.”
Then I asked the one question I asked the entire time, “Why do you hate the Cardinals?” And that’s when he gave his honest answer, the way he feels, the way a lot of people feel. He was brave and bold enough to express it, right or wrong. He saw me taking notes. He obviously wanted it out there.
As a journalist, I report news. That was news — big news as it turned out. It was my duty to report it.
Somebody on the blog said I probably had heard worse things said in the clubhouse and never reported it. Not true. I never had heard any player be so honest about his feelings for an opponent — an opponent that stands in the way of a championship, an opponent with which a competitive team should not have a lovefest. Some said I shouldn’t have reported it because a Reds fan would never do that.
I’m NOT a fan. I’m a journalist. I’m objective. Sure, I’m with the Reds every day and it is nice when they win because fans like to read about winners, not losers. But there is a reason there is no cheering in the pressbox. You keep feelings inside and report what you see and hear.
Phillips clammed up after his initial salvo, but to his credit, he never backed down on his comments, never said he was misquoted or thought it was off the record. I believe he thought it might fire up his teammates because he was tired of the Cardinals dominating the Reds. And I loved it when he said he was only saying what a whole bunch of people around the league thought about the Cardinals.
What Phillips said created a major stir. But words have NEVER won or lost a game on the baseball field. The Reds lost three games because they had three-pronged pitching superiority crammed down their throats.
If the Reds had swept the Cardinals, everybody would have praised Phillips (and me) for firing up the Reds. But they played miserably. As manager Dusty Baker said, “We were outplayed, outpitched, outhit and outdefensed.”
After the fight, I approached Phillips when nobody was around and said, “I’m sorry, man, I never thought it would come to this.” And he said, “What’d you do? You didn’t do anything. I did it.”
Now that’s a stand-up guy.
If you want to be angry with me, so be it. For those who have followed me for 37 years, you know I always try to tell is like it is. And on that day, with Brandon Phillips, I was telling it like it is.
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TweetReds mantra: ‘It’s not over yet’
The Cincinnati Reds were swept - not by a whisk broom, or a dust broom, or a push broom, but with broom about as big as Fountain Square.
Three games at home against the St. Louis Cardinals, three big losses. A two-game lead over the Cardinals evaporated to a one-game deficit and uncomfortable lodging in second place.
Some fans are calling it a season. Put away the Reds great and dust off the Bengals helmets. Put away the bats and bring out the kicking tees.
BUT BOTH manager Dusty Baker and Brandon Phillips, The Mouth That Roared, warned everybody not to toss in your Reds towels yet.
Yes, the Reds were outscored, 21-8. Yes, the Reds had nine hits in 19 2/3 innings against three St. Louis starters (Chris Carpenter, Jaime Garcia, Adam Wainwright). Yes, the Cardinals had 22 hits in nine innings against the Reds three starters (Mike Leake, Johnny Cueto, Bronson Arroyo).
But keep those tents pitched. No folding yet, OK.
“We don’t have to do anything in here and we can’t control what is out of here (fans),” said Baker. “Nobody wants to get swept by your No. 1 rival at home, but we’re still in a real good position, a very good position. We’d won six series in a row, so we have to get back on our win the series program.”
Phillips, the man who spoke the inflammatory words that enraged the Cardinals, torching an on-the-field wrestling match Tuesday night, didn’t back down.
“Any time you lose, it’s real tough,” said Phillips. “It just stinks that we lost, regardless of who we play. We’ve been swept before and we have a month-and-a-half left. We just have to get it going again.
“The Cardinals have good pitching - that’s one thing they do have,” Phillips added. “I didn’t get on base enough for the team to drive me in. I got on base in the eighth and scored the run and that shows that if I get on base many things can happen.”
Asked if he was sorry he spoke out, Phillips didn’t back down and said, “A lot people are going to panic but we won’t. We’ve doing it so far so why change. We’re straight, we’re OK.
“They did their job, we didn’t do our job,” he added. “Let me tell you this, they’ve been to the playoffs so many times, but I feel we’re a great team right now and we’ll go from here.”
BAKER WAS confident before Wednesday’s game, even with 16-game winner (now 17) Wainwright on the mound.
“Hey, man, they’ve outhit us and outpitched us this series,” said Baker. “We can’t bring those two games back, but we still have 40-some games left and we still have three games left over there. So it is not completely the end of the world. It was a bad two days. Everybody says it is because we’re young and there is a lot of pressure. Ain’t got nothing to do with that.
“The cats they threw out there pitching (Chris Carpenter, Jaime Garcia, Adam Wainwright), have you seen their combined record? Ain’t it something stupid, like .700 or something? Combined, before Wainwright faced the Reds Wednesday, that terrific triumverate was 29-14.
“We’ve made some mistakes, played some bad defense, done some things wrong we don’t ordinarily do,” he added. “Sometimes you just don’t play well. It could have been against the Pirates or it could have been against the Cubs, but it just happened to be against the Cardinals.”
Yeah, the Pirates and Cubs aren’t the Cardinals. The Pirates and Cubs are buried beyond retrieval in the NL Central. The Cardinals are the team the Reds have to beat, a team against which it can’t make errors, can’t make mental blunders, can’t play poorly no matter how many games remain. And as for those three pitchers with the ‘stupid’ record? They’ll probably have to face ‘em again in St. Louis, on their home turf, where Brandon Phillips can expect an extra-special reception.
“Hey, nobody likes it,” he said. “I don’t like it, the fans don’t like it, but it’s in the past.”
BAKER USUALLY is in his game uniform for post-game interviews, but after Tuesday night’s game the Cincinnati Reds manager was in street clothes, a blue polo shirt and shorts. He was able to get comfortable in his office in the first inning after he and St. Louis manager Tony LaRussa were ejected in the aftermath of the fisticuffs that broke out on the field.
“I don’t know how (Atlanta manager) Bobby Cox does it,” said Baker. “I love Bobby Cox, but he gets thrown out and watched many a game in his office. It is very difficult because you can’t even sit close, but out the way, to help manage. You can’t see what’s going on, so you just come into your office and watch on TV and it makes for a long day. In the old stadiums, you could stand in the tunnels behind the dugouts and see everything. Can’t see anything now.”
There could be some suspensions coming, maybe Johnny Cueto for his kicking incidents, one kick that allegedly injured St. Louis catcher Jason LaRue. But Baker prefers not to speculate on it.
“It’s too early,” he said. “Hey, man, it is not fair to speculate or anticipate or say anything about losing guys because that’s like setting a sentence before anybody goes to trial. It’s like, ‘How many years are you going to go to jail,’ when you might not even go to jail.”
Baker says there is a lot more to the fight than shows up on videotape, a fight that germinated when Cincinnati second baseman Brandon Phillips talked smack about the Cardinals, and how he hates them, before the series began.
“I hope the guys up there (in the MLB offices) realize the tension and the pressure and the background of what went on. You can’t just go by what you see on the video. You don’t know what was said or what was done (out of video range). You have to beware of the first man’s testimony until the second man comes forward. The first man always sounds innocent until the second man talks.
“Sometimes, even when they claim they didn’t throw punches, there are some words that created why punches were thrown,” Baker added. “Not that what happened was right on our side, or what was said was right, but there is always a cause and effect on everything and every situation. In our hearts, that thing was over - until some people (on the Cardinals) started talking.”
Baker was referring to some trash talk from St. Louis coach Jose Oquendo and Baker said when he told him to be quiet, “Tony La Russa told me not to talk to his coaches. Then we exchanged some words, there was a commotion behind me and everything broke loose.”
Only the managers were ejected and when asked why that was, Baker said, “Who were they going to eject. They can’t eject everybody. They knew this was an important game for both teams. I’d rather have us thrown out than lose some of my players.”
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TweetPhillips doesn’t back down on comments
To his ever-loving credit, Brandon Phillips did not back down. He did not say he was misquoted or taken out of context or that his comments were “off the record.”
After what Phillips told me Monday about his feelings for the St. Louis Cardinals, I expected him to jump my case, scream in my face, punch my face when I walked into the Reds clubhouse Tuesday.
The Cardinals reacted negatively, of course, after Phillips’ comments were all over ESPN. And the media swooped to his locker Tuesday afternoon to see if he really said what was in this blog Monday.
First of all, here’s what he said: “I’d play against these guys with one leg. We have to beat these guys. I hate the Cardinals. All they do is bitch and moan about everything, all of them, they’re little bitches, all of ‘em.
“I really hate the Cardinals. Compared to the Cardinals, I love the Chicago Cubs. Let me make this clear: I hate the Cardinals.”
WHEN I ARRIVED at the clubhouse he spotted me right away and headed my way, a large smile on his face. He gave me a friendly fist-punch and said, “Great. It was just great. I have to keep you working.”
He liked it when I told him that response on the blog from Reds fans was mostly positive and supportive — that it was about time somebody from the Reds showed some intestinal fortitude toward the Cardinals.
To the media at his locker, he said, “I said what I said and the Cardinals can say what they said. They can say all they want about what I said, I don’t care. I’ve said all I’ve got to say. All I want to do is win, beat those guys and win.”
BRONSON ARROYO explained it as, “That’s Brandon being Brandon,” a quote often used about Manny Ramirez (“That’s Manny being Manny”) when Ramirez and Arroyo played together in Boston.
“He’s like Ocho Cinco, man. He just likes to stir the pot,” Arroyo said with a laugh. “Some controversy for the stretch run, but nobody takes it seriously. We play the game to play the game and what Brandon says in the clubhouse isn’t going to affect the outcome of the ballgame — unless he gets drilled leading off and scores a run.”
Asked if that gives the Cardinals ammunition, Arroyo said, “It can work either way. There are guys who can take animosity into a game and it might help them a little bit and there are guys who take it out there and it might hurt them. It is kind of a double-edged sword. Hey, he might get hit by a pitch for the negative things that came out of his mouth and end up scoring the winning run.
“These types of things don’t mean a whole lot,” Arroyo added. “I’m sure for the city and the fans and something to talk about on TV, it probably builds something for the end of the season, because it is probably going to be a close race. I really don’t see anything negative about it. It just fuels the fire — stuff that people want to see and hear anyway.
“These are all just side notes to the game. If you have guys bickering back-and-forth amongst our own team, then that becomes a problem. Us against them, it’s always war and it doesn’t really matter,” said Arroyo, who faces Adam Wainwright on Wednesday afternoon.
MANAGER DUSTY BAKER was unaware of the what Phillips said until he watched ESPN today and, “It was all over ESPN, with some bleeps in there. I was trying to fill in some of the bleeps and couldn’t do it on a couple of ‘em.
“I’d prefer he wouldn’t say that, but you can’t put muzzles on guys. Yeah, you prefer that they don’t say that, but everybody refers to the freedom of speech and then you say things and get in trouble for it. I talked to him about it and it just puts a little more pressure on him to play better personally (Phillips was 0 for 5 Monday and struck out to end the game).
“Historically, the Cardinals have given him a pretty rough time,” Baker added. “But, hey, every man has to answer for himself. He knows what he is saying. That doesn’t make it right, but he knows what he is saying and that’s his opinion.”
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TweetPhillips: “I hate the Cardinals, hate ‘em”
Before we dissect the Chris Dickerson-for-Jim Edmonds trade with Milwaukee, listen to some quick words from Brandon Phillips before the big, Big, BIG three-game Cincinnati-St. Louis series.
Phillips fouled a ball off his shin Saturday in Chicago and missed Sunday’s game. But he was in Monday’s lineup and said, “I’d play against these guys with one leg. We have to beat these guys. I hate the Cardinals. All they do is bitch and moan about everything, all of them, they’re little bitches, all of ‘em.
“I really hate the Cardinals. Compared to the Cardinals, I love the Chicago Cubs. Let me make this clear: I hate the Cardinals.”
Cardinals manager Tony La Russa, of course, volleyed things back at Phillips by saying, “We win the right way and we lose the right way. We’ve received a lot of compliments over the years that when we lose we tip our caps and when we win we keep our mouths shut. That’s my comment.”
But he added more: “I don’t think that will go over well in his own clubhouse. Phillips is ripping his teammates — Scott Rolen, Miguel Cairo, Russ Springer, Jim Edmonds — all the ex-Cardinals over there. He isn’t talking about this year. He is talking about the way we’ve always played and those guys are old Cardinals. Tell him he’s ripping his own teammates because they are all old Cardinals.”
More likely, Phillips was talking about a couple of incidents when La Russa and pitching coach Dave Duncan complained about baseballs in Great American Ball Park being too slick because they weren’t rubbed up properly, or the time they complained about something on pitcher Bronson Arroyo’s hat.
OK, JIM EDMONDS for Chris Dickerson. Why?
“Why the move? We feel that Edmonds will add veteran playoff experience,” Reds GM Walt Jocketty said. “He is a guy who has had a good year with Milwaukee. Actually, we thought about signing him over the winter when he was available, but we didn’t and kind of regretted the fact we didn’t. He didn’t play at all in 2009 and we thought we had enough outfielders, but he showed us he can still play while he was with Milwaukee. You saw him beat us once the last time we were there. He’ll help us in a lot of ways.”
FOLKS WILL QUICKLY say Jocketty is gathering a Cardinals Alumni Chapter in Cincinnati because he has acquired Scott Rolen, Miguel Cairo, Jason Isringhausen and now Jim Edmonds.
Before one makes that an issue, consider that the Cardinals have six former Reds — Jason LaRue, Felipe Lopez, Aaron Miles, Dennys Reyes, Ryan Franklin and Kyle Lohse.
“These are guys who I know and are still good players,” said Jocketty. “They can contribute. Everyone we’ve acquired has done a good job and we think Edmonds will do the same. This is a move to give us a better chance to win now.”
Edmonds is 40 years old and Dickerson is 27, but there is a method to Jocketty’s jockeying.
“Dickerson has been back and forth with us and has had a lot of injuries,” said Jocketty. “We have some younger guys (outfielders Jay Bruce, Drew Stubbs, Chris Heisey) who have moved ahead of him. This is something that in the short term is the best fit for us.”
AND DON’T anybody go into apoplexy because the Reds made room for Edmonds by optioning pitcher Travis Wood to Class AAA Louisville. He’ll be back shortly. Because the Reds have off days Thursday and next Monday, Wood was going to be skipped anyway.
“He will go down (Louisville) and make a start there while missing one here, then if all goes well he’ll be back,” said Jocketty. Manager Dusty Baker said Wood’s next start wouldn’t have been until Aug. 18, but now it will be Aug. 19 in Arizona.
“He has pitched terrific, done a great job, but the way the pitching is set up for the next 10 days he wasn’t going to get a start,” said Jocketty.
Edmonds is battling soreness in his Achilles tendon but played 73 games for the Brewers, hitting .286 with eight homers and 20 RBIs. While he was in Monday’s lineup in center field, he isn’t expecting to play every day, nor is Baker planning to use him every day.
Dickerson tore it up on a rehab assignment at Class AAA Louisville, but folks forget that with the Reds this year he was hitting .205 with a .222 on-base average with 19 strikeouts in 44 at-bats.
“Coming right in here to play the Cardinals, it is going to be a little nuts,” said Edmonds. “I’m looking forward to the challenge and I appreciate the respect I have from the guys on this team. I’ve played against them for so many years and this seems like a real good group of guys that is really talented. I’m just coming here to help out with some veteran leadership, play when I can and help the guys try to win.
“My Achilles tendon is still sore, but I’m dealing with it. I’ve talked to Walt about it and both he and Dusty know about it,” Edmonds added. As far as being accepted in Cincinnati, Edmonds said, “As long as it isn’t as bad as it was in Chicago, I’ll be fine. The media killed me there until I hit my first home run.
“I love hitting in this park, love to play here,” he said. “They have great fans and it’s a good city. I don’t care about playing time. I just want to play when I can and help out — whether it’s pinch-hitting or playing every day or playing two days a week. All I care about is playing a little bit and helping out.”
BAKER IS HAPPY to have the extra leadership body and said, “You have to do what you have to do and I think it’s great for Dickerson and it is good for us to get Edmonds. You see how we mix-and-match everybody here — who I think we need that day, whether it’s more of a defensive outfield, offense and defense, right or left, match-ups against pitchers, who is good against righties or lefties, or if one guy hits one pitcher and another guy doesn’t. Nothing is 100 percent, but you go on numbers and how some guys are swinging.
“Like Laynce (Nix),” said Baker. “He is swinging better than anybody we got, except maybe Joey Votto, so that’s why he’s playing (in left field in place of Jonny Gomes). And it gives me some options late in the game - pinch-hitting or better defense.”
On the brink of playing the biggest series in the history of Great American Ball Park, Baker said he wanted his team to just keep playing the way it has and he was asked if he watches for any changes in his team’s approach in a big series like this.
“I know ‘em when I see ‘em. I don’t look for any changes or signs, I just see ‘em,” he said. “I don’t go looking for them until I do see ‘em and I act accordingly. That’s all. I don’t want to create signs. We’re young, but we have a lot of guys who have been through this before. What do I tell ‘em? Nothing. Just play.”
Baker and I agree thoroughly on what this series means.
“Even after this series we have 6 1/2 weeks left and that’s a lot of ball,” he said. “This is just one of two chances (the Reds and Cardinals meeting for the last time in St. Louis in early September) left to do your own business and not depend upon anybody else. After that, we don’t go head-to-head any more. All I know is that this is great for the players, great for the city, great for the organization, great for everybody. Being in the race like this is what I’ve missed the most the last four years.”
ANOTHER ITEM of interest: Aaron Harang.
Harang, on the DL with a bad back, is scheduled for a simulated game tomorrow. Then he plans a mild bullpen workout Friday and hopes to pitch a rehab game over the weekend in the minors.
And if all goes well, he wants to rejoin the team next week on its West Coast trip. One problem needs to be solved, though: Where does he fit? Certainly not in the already filled up starting rotation that already has a waiting list.
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TweetBring on the Cards and let the fun begin
UNSOLICITED OBSERVATIONS from The Man Cave while marveling at the poise and ability of Cincinnati Reds rookie left-hander Travis Wood, who in two starts against the Chicago Cubs has made the tight confines of Wrigley Field look like the state of Montana:
So all the props are in place at center stage for The Big Showdown between the St. Louis Cardinals and the Cincinnati Reds Monday Tuesday and Wednesday. It is certainly an exciting time for the Reds, an argument for first place in mid-August, something that hasn’t happened on the banks of the Ohio River since 1999.
Remember this, though. It isn’t the end-all. It won’t decide the fate of either team. If the Reds sweep, it doesn’t mean it’s over. If the Reds are swept, it doesn’t mean it’s over. There still will be a month-and-a-half of baseball to be played - tons of time for lots positive and lots negative to unfurl.
But it will be fun. And the pitching match-ups are outstanding, starting Monday with rookie Mike Leake against Chris Carpenter, 7-0 for his career against the Reds. Then it is Johnny Cueto against rookie Jaime Garcia on Tuesday, followed by Bronson Arroyo against Adam Wainwright on Wednesday afternoon.
I was astounded to hear late Sunday afternoon that there are still tickets remaining, even some good tickets. That amazes me, especially when the moribund Chicago Cubs fill up Wrigley every day to watch some gosh-awful baseball. With apologies to Kermit, it ain’t easy being a Cubs fan.
The Reds swept three from the Cubs this weekend after taking two of three in Pittsburgh - losing one game by one run. They did what they needed to do on the trip against two teams who have given up - they didn’t let down and they played hard every out of every inning and were 5-1 on the trip.
CUBS MANAGER Lou Piniella isn’t a quitter, but he has announced his retirement after this season and who could blame him if he walked into his office Sunday night and said, “That’s it. I’m done. No use finishing this thing.”
Clearly, the Cubs have quit. Their body language says it all, “Let’s just get this over with.” They play defense like their gloves have five thumbs. They had chances to turn double plays four times Sunday and didn’t turn one.
THEN YOU look at the other side of the field and you have 25 guys playing as if every game is Game Seven of the World Series.
Manager Dusty Baker’s magic touch with the lineup cards continues to be something David Copperfield would perform.
On Sunday, he gave scorching hot third baseman Scott Rolen the day off, even though two of his regular infielders were absent. Shortstop Orlando Cabrera is on the disabled list. Brandon Phillips fouled a ball off his shin Saturday and took Sunday off, but is supposed to play Monday. After sitting out nearly a week in a 1 for 37 slump, Drew Stubbs played Saturday and had three hits, including a home run and a double. On Sunday he sat.
It didn’t matter one iota.
Third baseman Juan Francisco drove in two runs, one in each at-bat in which he didn’t get a hit. And he made a wild throw that let in two runs during an 11-4 victory. Strikeouts and defense are his shortcomings right now, but it is obvious the guy can hit a baseball a long, long way.
Shortstop Paul Janish, showing the offense he needs to play more often, had two more hits and drove in a run.
Right fielder Jay Bruce, who had one hit in the first five games on the trip, had three hits and drove in two runs, including a two-out, two-run double in the first inning that gave the Reds a 2-0 lead.
Jonny Gomes walked his first four times up and scored all four times, the first time a Cincinnati played has walked four times and scored four runs since Joe Morgan did it in 1977. On his fifth at-bat, Gomes singled.
Joey Votto also scored four runs and cracked a monstrous home run to left field and is now tied with teammate Brandon Phillips for league leadership in runs scored.
Chris Heisey, starting for Stubbs, was hit by pitches twice and scored the game’s first run and added a single.
AND PROBABLY the biggest thing of all, the Reds had a big enough lead that Coco Codero wasn’t needed - and it would have been interesting to see if Baker had used him in a save situation after Cordero was removed in the ninth inning of a save situation Saturday and nearly blowing a save situation Friday.
Then there was Wood. Amazing. Absolutely astounding. Too bad he can’t pitch against the Cardinals.
Wood took a no-hitter into the sixth inning before giving up a solid single with one out to catcher Koyie Hill.
Things sort of fell apart for him in the seventh with Francisco’s error adding to the mayhem. With the Reds leading, 8-0, Jeff Baker led the seventh with a home run. Derek Lee walked and Aramis Ramirez doubled. Marlon Byrd grounded to third for what should have been the first out, but after Francisco fielded it cleanly, took a couple of hop steps to set himself, he threw the ball into the stands and two runs scored.
Alfonso Soriano flied to the wall in left and Xavier Nady doubled to make it 8-4. Baker decided enough was enough and brought in Bill Bray. He struck out Hill and got pinch-hitter Carlos Zambrano to ground out weakly to the mound.
Rookie Jordan Smith pitched the eighth and the ninth and retired the final six Cubs. And where would the Reds be without rookie bullpenners Smith and Logan Ondrusek?
Now it is St. Louis time. Remember, it is a three-game series that should have Great American Ball Park rumbling on its foundation. One fear. With tickets available, rest assured there will be loads of Cardinals fans in the stands, too. That shouldn’t happen.
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TweetReturning to find Cordero still a mess
UNSOLICITED OBSERVATIONS from The Man, sitting here three days ahead of time after cutting short a planned four-day trip to Atlanta to one day:
It was evident things were not going to go well Thursday when Nadine and I checked in at the AirTran counter in Dayton and were told our reservations for two seats in first class were not available, that only one seat was unavailable.
She wouldn’t agree to sit on my lap and I didn’t think it was a good idea for me to take the seat in first class and put her in a center seat in coach - not good for keeping the marriage franchise.
We took two seats in coach.
THEN ON our way through security a female agent confiscated my $100 cigar lighter from my shoulder bag. Apparently, a 99-cent Bic is OK, but an expensive cigar lighter she called, “A blow torch,” was not allowed. She tossed it into a trash can, obviously not a cigar aficianado.
Things in Atlanta were OK for the first day, but on Friday morning we received a call. The baby-sitter for our two puppies, a very close friend, Mary Jo Bailey, fell in her backyard and broke her hip. She was hospitalized and needed three screws in her hip. She won’t be able to put weight on it for 2 ½ months.
She assured us that neither puppy pushed her down or tripped her. They were across the yard with her husband, Dennis, with she stepped in a rut and fell.
AFTER SPENDING less than 24 hours with Chad and his fiancée, Rion, we booked a flight home for a mere $600 and, of course, we sat on the tarmac in Atlanta for 45 minutes awaiting the movement of a storm through the area.
While in Atlanta, we did visit the Atlanta Botanical Garden. Some advice. Do NOT visit the Atlanta Botanical Garden when it is 95 degrees and the humidity is so thick you can slice it with a cheese-cutter and eat it - although with some cinnamon sprinkled on it it doesn’t taste bad.
On our way back to Chad and Rion’s Mid-town condominium - 11 stories up with a magnificent view - we stopped at a restaurant on Piedmont Avenue called The Nook.
Its specialty is Tater Tots. What? Tater Tots? Yeah, I know. Who likes Tater Tots? I hate ‘em. But The Nook serves them many ways, covered in different sauces and cheeses. Trust me, they’re great.
And I had a Piedmont pulled pork BB-Q sandwich with sauce made from Coca-Cola and flavored with jalapeno. T’was the best pork BB-Q sandwich I ever had.
Anyway, by the time we returned to Dayton, the puppies (Cooper and Paige) had been in the hands of about a dozen different people and seemed to thoroughly enjoy their doggie lives. With all the attention, I don’t even think they missed us.
So, I’m back, having missed only one game - Bronson Arroyo’s brilliant shutout Friday of the Chicago Cubs. And wouldn’t it be the right thing to do for the Reds to pick up his option for next season?
MEANWHILE, back in The Man Cave, who is ready to replace Coco Cordero as closer? I must admit, I’m ready to cry, “Uncle?”
I’ve defended him for most of the year while he put more men on base than an Air Force recruiter.
Jason Isringhausen, come on down.
On Friday, Cordero walked two men in the ninth with a three-run lead and escaped by making a fabulous bare-handed play for the last out of the game.
On Saturday, it was just unadulterated awfulness. Again he came in with a three-run lead and promptly walked the first batter. After he struck out Koyie Hill on three pitches, he walked two more, filling by bases by walking Kosuke Fukodome on four pitches.
Then on a 0-and-2 pitch, he hit Starlin Castro to force in a run and make it 4-2. At this point, manager Dusty Baker, clearly one of Cordero’s staunchest advocates, had seen enough and replaced him with Nick Masset.
COULD MASSET be the closer? Maybe. He struck out the first man he faced, Derrek Lee. Maybe. Then he walked Aramis Ramirez, forcing in another run to make it 4-3 with the bases still loaded. Maybe not.
Then he struck out All-Star Marlon Byrd to end it. Maybe he can.
Whatever - something HAS to be done.
BAKER MADE another of his bold decisions that turned to gold. After benching Drew Stubbs for a week, Baker put him back into Saturday’s lineup, even though Stubbs was 1 for 37.
As if by magic, Stubbs was the offensive hero. Stubbes led the third inning with a double and scored on a single by Ramon Hernandez.
The Cubs scored in the third to make it 1-1, where it stayed until Stubbs led the eighth with a home run to make it 2-1. And with two outs, Paul Janish singled home another run.
Then in the Reds ninth, after Laynce Nix reached on an error, Stubbs singled home a fourth run (4-1) - a big, big run, the difference-maker when the Cubs scored two in the ninth.
AND HOW ABOUT rookie Logan Ondrusek, the 6-foot-8 right-hander from Shiner, Tex. When starter Edinson Volquez walked two with two outs in the seventh, Ondrusek arrived to get a one-pitcher fielder’s choice. Then he pitched a scoreless eighth and has 21 straight scoreless innings.
Volquez struggled a big again, but is sneaking up on getting back to his old self. He pitched 6 2/3 innings, giving up only one run and only six hits, but walked four and was behind batter’s all afternoon.
Now, what about Coco
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TweetThe ‘Super Subs’ bust up the Pirates
UNSOLICITED OBSERVATIONS from The Man Cave while lightning cracks so loud and so close that I can’t hear the radio when it hits and the two puppies have dived under a couch but can’t find room because I beat them to the spot:
Now this is exactly the way championships are won. Win each and every series. With Wednesday’s 9-4 total dismantlement of the Pittsburgh Pirates, in the last 12 series the Reds have won 10, lost one and split one.
And this another exact way a team wins championships - no matter who manager Dusty Baker sticks into the lineup that guys comes through, in the words of Baker, “Big-time.”
For the second straight game, with shortstop Orlando Cabrera on the disabled list, Paul Janish was at shortstop and he had three hits, including a three-run home run during a devastating six-run seventh inning. Janish drove in four runs and earned some respect from Pittsburgh manager John Russell - the hard way.
REDS STARTER Johnny Cueto gave up a lead-off home run to Andrew McCutheon in the first inning and the Reds trailed, 1-0.
In the Reds second, they had a runner on third with two outs. Janish, batting eighth, was the hitter, with Cueto on deck. Instead of issuing an intentional walk to Janish and pitching to Cueto, the Pirates pitched to Janish and he lined a single to left field to tie the game, 1-1.
And that, sports fans, with decisions like that is why the Pirates are where they are - so far down in the standings you need a submarine to find them.
The next time Janish came to bat, in the fourth, the Reds again had a runner on third with two outs and Janish up. This time Russell ordered Janish walked and Cueto was retired for the third out.
ALL THAT BECAME immaterial in the seventh when the Reds rocked, rolled and rumbled. In that inning, the Reds hit for the cycle, in order - single by Chris Heisey, doubles by Joey Votto, double by Johnny Gomes, triple by Laynce Nix and the three-run home run by Janish.
Neither slump-shrouded outfielder, Drew Stubbs nor Jay Bruce, were in the starting lineup and their stand-ins were stand-out. Laynce Nix, the hottest hitter in major-league baseball, started in place of Bruce and and had two hits, scored a run and drove in a run. For the fourth straight game, Chris Heisey started for Stubbs and he had two hits and scored two runs.
Joey Votto, off two days with a sore wrist, returned to the lineup and contributed two hits, a run and an RBI.
Scott Rolen took the day off, giving him two straight days off because the Reds are off Thursday before opening a three-game series Friday in Wrigley Field against the Cubs. Juan Francisco, who had 16 homers in 67 games this year at Class AAA Louisville, was Rolen’s fill-in and pitched in with three hits, a run and an RBI.
Bruce did make a pinch-hitting appearance late in the game and struck out on three pitches. So here is a wild, uneducated guess for Friday’s game in Chicago: Heisey in center field, Nix in right field.
ALL THE HITTING overshadowed what Cueto did. The last time he faced the Pirates, he pitched a one-hit shutout. This time McCutcheon, the first hitter, homered. Then Cueto did was he is supposed to do against a gosh-awful team - six innings, one run, three hits. Cueto is 11-2 for the season and 3-0 against the Pirates.
So here is the goal in Chicago - win two of three, which is the modus operandi they Reds have been using to scramble atop the National League Central.
First place? August 4? Who’da thunk it?
YOU ALL ARE on your own for the next few days. Nadine and I are taking a getaway weekend trip to Atlanta, so I won’t be blogging during the Chicago series. I’ll be back in time for the St. Louis series next week in Great American Ball Park, where the Reds will have to be, in order, Chris Carpenter, Jaime Garcia and Adam Wainwright.
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TweetLeake is leaky after skipping a turn
UNSOLICITED OBSERVATIONS from The Man Cave while sweating like an obese man in a sauna, although I wouldn’t be caught dead or alive in nothing but a towel in a public place:
So maybe it wasn’t a good idea to skip Mike Leake’s turn, not a good idea to give him eight days between starts. It is not fair to base something like this on one start, but Leake looked like a lost soul Monday night in Pittsburgh, more like a kid just out of college than an accomplished major leaguer with a 7-2 record.
In five innings, he gave up six runs and seven hits and he had Pittsburgh hitters diving for foxholes all night.
THE PIRATES began the game on a five-game losing streak and had scored five runs, total, in those five games. In one inning Monday, the second, they scored six runs.
As off as Leake was, though, the six-run inning never should have happened. Ultra-reliable third baseman Scott Rolen didn’t make a play on a double play ball and that pried the door wide enough for six runs to pour through.
Leake retired the first hitter, but walked the second hitter. Lastings Milledge (Don’t you love that name and wonder where his mom came up with it?) hit one hard at Rolen. He tried to short-hop it on the backhand side, a play he makes all the time. In fact, he made the same play later in the game.
This time, Old Reliable couldn’t come up with it. Instead of a 5-4-3 inning-ending double play, the ball skipped into left field. It looked like an error, but the official scorer generously ruled it a double.
Catcher Chris Snyder singled for two runs. After getting the second out, Leake gave up a singled to pitcher Paul Maholm, batting .071. Andrew McCutcheon was hit in thee neck with a Leake pitch and helped off the field. xxxTabata singled to make it 3-0 and Neil Walker smashed a three-run double to make it 6-0.
IN YEARS PAST, they could have packed the bats and called the game. The Reds would have been done. Not this edition of the Reds.
THEY BATTLED and battled and battled, eventually falling a run short, losing 7-6. And they had the tying run on base in the ninth with no outs after Rolen singled against hard-throwing Jeff Hanrahan.
Hanrahan hadn’t had a save since May 24, 2009, and was 0 for 2 in save situations this year. But he retired Jonny Gomes on a foul to the third baseman, then struck out woebegotten and totally lost Jay Bruce on a swinging strike three and caught Chris Heisey looking on strike three to end it.
The Reds lead the NL in come-from-behind wins with 32 and the six-run deficit would have been the biggest they’ve overcome this year. Close, but just a loaded cigar.
Besides the ninth, the Reds had several opportunities to score more against this moribund band of Buccos in a nearly empty PNC Park.
—They had two on with one out in the first, but Rolen bounced into a double play.
—They scored a run in the fourth and had two on when Ramon Hernandez bounced into a fielder’s choice.
—They scored two in the sixth and had two on when pinch-hitter Juan Francisco, just called up from Louisville to replace disabled Orlando Cabrera, popped to shallow left field.
—They scored one in the seventh after the first two batters reached base, cutting the lead to 7-4, and had a runner on, but Migeul Cairo grounded out (to score a run), Rolen grounded out and Gomes struck out.
—They scored two in the eight to draw within 7-6 and had two on but Cairo popped up.
Heisey made his third straight start in center in place of Drew Stubbs and once again acquitted himself with aplomb. In addition to making a nifty catch after a long run, he had two hits and two RBI. Cairo, playing for Joey Votto, had a hit, a walk and drove in a run.
Fortunately for the Reds, the St. Louis Cardinals were being annihilated by the Houston Astros, so Cincinnati remained in first place by a half-game.
It isn’t comfortable losing to a last-place team like the Pirates, but on the plus side the Reds didn’t cry uncle when they were down six runs. They gave it a go and nearly came all the way back.
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TweetWood continues to miss the opponent’s wood
UNSOLICITED OBSERVATIONS from The Man Cave after a great dinner at the Oakwood Club, paying off the dinner I owed Dan Driscoll and his wife, Natalie, after he won the Pick the Opening Day Left Fielder contest:
For Travis Wood, it wasn’t Pittsburgh, it was Pitchburgh. Of course, the way Wood is pitching, every city to him is Pitch City.
And did the Reds make a mistake by bringing Mike Leake north instead of Travis Wood as the fifth starter out of spring training? Well, no. Leake pitched better in spring training and who can argue with Leake’s 7-2 record for his 19 starts - and it could easily be 10-2 for not the shoddy work of the bullpen in three of his starts.
And Leake pitches Tuesday.
Wood started the season in Louisville before a call-up to replace Homer Bailey when Bailey went on the DL. And what a replacement part? Better than the original? Maybe.
Wood pitched seven innings Monday night and held the Pirates to no runs, two hits and one walk in a 4-0 victory. Newly arrived Russ Springer gave up one hit in his one-inning debut and Arthur Rhodes closed it out.
The work of Wood enabled manager Dusty Baker to rest bullpenners Nick Masset and Coco Cordero, both of whom should be ready for more duty Tuesday.
BUT HOW about Joey Votto and Orlando Cabrera?
Votto injured his wrist Sunday in Cincinnati and didn’t play Monday. The injury, though, isn’t considered serious and manager Dusty Baker said Votto might return Tuesday or, at the latest, Wednesday.
Cabrera could be a different and more sad story. Cabrera grabbed his lower left side on his back running to first base in the ninth inning and left the game in pain. Baker seemed extremely concerned after the game and the disabled list is a possibility.
That would mean more playing time for Paul Janish, something many fans have been clamoring for - over and over and over.
AND THE AMAZING story of Miguel Cairo continues. Whenever asked, Cairo is ready. And he is ready for wherever. On this night he was placed at first base for Votto.
Pirates starter Russ Ohlendorf (1-9 and certainly doesn’t believe Pittsburgh is Pitchburgh) walked the first two Reds and Cairo singled home a run in the first.
That’s all Wood needed, but the Reds got him more.
Jonny Gomes doubled in the third and scored on a ground ball to make it 2-0. Later, Phillips singled, stole second, moved to third on a ground ball and scored on Cairo’s sacrifice fly.
IT WAS PITCHING and Smallball on this night as the Reds pushed to 13 games over .500. Cairo drove in two runs. Phillips scored two as he continues to lead the league in runs scored and he stole a base.
The night’s final run came on one of baseball’s more exciting players - like French dessert after a fine steak.
Chris Heisey, starting his second game in a row in place of Drew Stubbs, had singled earlier in the game. This time he shot a line drove up the left-center gap and the ball eluded the pursuing outfielders and rolled to a deep crevice in expansive PNC Park. Heisey never stopped running until he crossed home plate, an inside the park home run.
At least he made it to the dugout under his own power. The Reds had an outfielder named Champ Summers who had an inside the park home run. But when he slid across home plate safely, he didn’t get up for quite a while, then was helped off.
After the game he was asked, “Were you out of breath? Is that why you couldn’t get up?” Summers looked the writer who asked straight in the eye and said, “No, when I slid00000 I swallowed by chewing tobacco.”
That would explain why his face was green.
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TweetBaker talks about Stubbs/Heisey situation.
Somebody told Cincinnati Reds manager Dusty Baker that they were at a bank this week and the bank teller criticized Baker for blowing Friday’s game against the Atlanta Braves.
Baker laughed and said, “So it’s my fault at the bank, too? I mean, hey, what did I do? I hear that all the time. Am I throwing, am I hitting, am I pitching? It’s OK, no problem.”
Criticism only humors Baker. You can bank on it.
Criticism rolls off his back like a marble when he stands up, but he loves talking and laughing about it. “People appreciate you more when you’re not here,” he said. “That’s what I hear in Chicago, ‘We want you back, we miss you.’”
THE CRITICISM du jour right now is that Baker keeps playing slump-ridden Drew Stubbs (0 for 10 and 1 for 36) and Jay Bruce (even though he has hit safely in nine of 10 games and is hitting .293 over that span). They wonder why Chris Heisey is anchored on the bench and Laynce Nix isn’t playing more (nine hits in his last 11 at-bats).
Isn’t it amazing? When Baker played Corey Patterson and Willy Taveras, he was ripped for favoring veterans over young players. Now he keeps playing the young players and keeps getting ripped for it.
Well, Baker had Heisey and Nix in Sunday’s lineup - Heisey in center field for Stubbs and Nix in left field for Gomes. It isn’t permanent, so relax.
“The day off for Gomes is a little bit of a blow (rest), but it is mostly to get a hot Nix in there because he is swinging as good as I’ve seen him swing,” said Baker. “And Drew seems a little lost right now. We’ll just let him find himself, go work on things. Right now he is ahead on breaking balls and behind on fastballs. That’s when you know you are in no-man’s land.
“Slumps are more difficult for young players because they don’t have a track record of success to call upon for confidence” said Baker. “They can’t say, ‘Ah, I’ve been through this before and I came out of it smoking.’ When you are a young player, you don’t feel real comfortable yet in the big leagues - and you shouldn’t.”
Baker smiled and said, “There were certain guys prone to striking out before they got here.” Did he mean Stubbs? Yes. But he also meant Heisey and said, “People forget that I’m responsible for getting him here in the first place, even when he was hitting .240 in Louisville.
“He is swinging the bat pretty good and we hope he can swing it good while starting as well as he does coming in late in games,” Baker added. “I know late in the game nobody runs it down in center field like Stubbs does, which is the main reason he is in there. You know how big I am on defense. But you have to bring some offense with you, too. But like I tell the guys, ‘Defense gets you into games and offense keeps you in the game.’”
And Baker said there is a method to his use of Heisey.
“I’ve tried to protect Heisey, like I did last year with Gomes to match ‘em up against certain guys they have a better chance to hit,” Baker said. “I really like Heisey. I know a lot of people are screaming, ‘Heisey, Heisey, Heiser,’ but I’m trying to put him in certain positions to succeed, against pitchers I think he can hit. Right now. He can hit, but he’s still learning, too, and he listens.”
Baker paused for effect and added, “Plus, you know, we always like the back-up quarterback.”
SPEAKING OF Chicago, Baker mentioned that Joey Votty best be prepared next weekend when the Reds are in Chicago after he said he didn’t like Cubs fans. “He’s going to hear about it, big-time,” said Baker. “He’ll probably concentrate more. It’s possible. Like that guy in Milwaukee who threw under his chin and Votto said, ‘OK, buddy,’ and hit the next pitch out of the park.”
ATLANTA MANAGER Bobby Cox, on his farewell tour before retirement while leading his team toward an NL East championship, is impressed with the Reds and said he’d love an Atlanta-Cincinnati playoff series.
“I like that team,” said Cox. “Their pitching seems to be good, they have a nice bullpen and they have Joey Votto and Scott Rolen. Votto is impressive, but even more so is Rolen. He’s the best professional player, just the best. He plays it the way it is supposed to be played and he is playing it at a high calibre right now. You know he is not 100 per cent every day, but he doesn’t show it, especially with his back problems.
“His hamstring is bothering him?” Cox said. “Well, his hamstring may be bothering him but he is still the best baserunner they have. And Votto is a good baserunner, too.”
Cox mentioned the home run Votto hit Friday off relief pitcher Takashi Saito, the only home run Saito has given up in his career. “That came off one of the best relievers in baseball,” he said. “Impressive.”
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