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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 > September > 08
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Reds between a Rock and a hard place
UNSOLICITED OBSERVATIONS from The Man Cave while wondering what it might be like if some of the Cincinnati Reds actually saw more than two pitches per at bat in the early innings.
The Reds finally found a way to knock a starting pitcher out of the box - hit him on the shin with a line drive. That’s what Joey Votto did to Colorado starter Aaron Cook in the sixth inning.
There was a major problem, though. The score already was Colorado 9, Cincinnati 1, and Cook still was the winning pitcher and still hasn’t lost a game to the Reds during his career.
It is Cook’s way of saying, “Hey, I was born and raised in Hamilton, just 20 miles from Cincinnati. Why didn’t you draft me?”
Cook won easily because Cincinnati starter Bronson Arroyo ran head first into the lethal Rockies bats and the Reds lost, 9-2. He gave up three home runs, including a three-run game-crusher by shortstop Troy Tulowitzki in the third to push Colorado’s lead from 2-1 to 5-1.
Tulowitzaki, a defensive dandy, had three hits, including two home runs.
Votto was the night’s only write-home-about Cincinnati player on this night - three hits and a walk. But the Reds hit into four double plays.
If the Reds could stay away from Denver, they’d do it. They’ve lost nine straight in Coors Field and 17 of their last 21. The Rockies always leave them gasping for air and Denver and its thin air isn’t a good place to be gasping.
AND BY the tone of e-mails and comments on this blog, some Reds fans are in full panic, Defcon 1-4.
Relax, Kick back. How would you like to be a St. Louis Cardinals fan and be staring at a six-game deficit, with the magic number at 20?
The Cardinals, given a platinum opportunity to put pressure on the Reds, who have lost five of six on this dastardly trip, lost their last two against Milwaukee and are doing nothing to make the Reds feel any sense of urgency.
THE REDS have run into some stellar pitching on this trip. No, they haven’t played good - way on the far side of bad, actually - but every team, no matter good, runs into dry spells over the course of a 162-game schedule.
As former manager Jerry Narron always said, “A team is never as good as it looks on a long winning streak and is never as bad as it looks on a long losing streak.”
Don’t forget the Reds are somewhat crippled at the moment - outfielders Jay Bruce and Laynce Nix are incapacitated, leaving manager Dusty Baker operating with only three outfielders.
Shortstop Orlando Cabrera’s side is acting up again and it is obvious Brandon Phillips is still suffering after effects from his hand injury. Chris Valaika replaced Phillips in mid-game Wednesday.
SEEING ALL the home runs fly out of Coors Field (mostly by the Rockies) jogs my memory back to the mid-1970s when the Reds trained at old Al Lopez Field in Tampa, grounds now occupied by the football stadium that is home to the Tampa Bay Bucs.
After a workout one day, a few writers stuck around to take some batting practice - making certain all the players were gone and wouldn’t see our ineptitude.
I wish they ALL had stayed. On one of the first pitches from former Dayton Journal Herald sports writer Jim Zofkie I lucked into one - the perfect storm swing - and hit one down the line and over the right field wall. I put the bat down and said, “That’s it. I retire.” And I haven’t swung a bat at a baseball ever since, although I played slow pitch softball until I was 42 and ‘retired’ because I couldn’t swing the bat around my belly and running from first to third required artificial respiration.
LAST CHANCE this week to submit an Ask Hal question and possibly see it in Sunday’s paper. Need them by noon Thursday and send your questions to halmccoy1@hotmail.com.
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TweetReds can’t find a Rocky Mountain high
UNSOLICITED OBSERVATIONS from The Man Cave while wondering why a team of hitters like the Cincinnati Reds plays in Coors Field like the first-year New York Mets (120 losses).
This is why the St. Louis Cardinals will NOT catch the Reds in the National League Central.
On a night when the Reds played as if they can’t breathe in the thin Denver air, losing to the Colorado Rockies, 4-3, the Cardinals can’t take care of business in Milwaukee and lose. So the Reds’ lead stays at 6 games and the schedule is slithering away.
A RUSTY Johnny Cueto gave up hits to the first three Rockies he faced, including a three-run home run to the man they call Cargo (Carlos Gonzalez, a guy who is turning heads away from Joey Votto and Albert Pujols for National League MVP).
After Eric Young and Dexter Fowler each singled to right, Gonzalez hit the first pitch the other way, a home run over the left-field fence.
Cueto was superb after that — but it was too late because the Reds’ offense was as dormant as a sleeping volcano. No eruptions.
THIS IS NOT to point any crooked digits at Reds second baseman Brandon Phillips, but his night represented the frustrations of the Reds, who lost for the fourth time in six games on this seven-game trip, their seventh straight loss in Coors Field.
Phillips struck out twice, grounded into a double play, made the last out of the game with the tying run on base, made his first error in 64 games and was out trying to stretch a single into a double.
Phillips singled with one out in the fifth for the second out, then the Reds had back-to-back hits that would have produced a run. But Scott Rolen grounded out to end that threat.
While Phillips made a rare error, Colorado shortstop Troy Tulowitzki made at least four plays that should be in ESPN’s Top Ten web gems.
AFTER COLORADO’s fast start, the Reds scored two runs in the fourth after two were out. Drew Stubbs drilled a two-out, two-run single, but Stubbs never should have batted. With two outs and runners on second and first, slow-footed Ramon Hernandez grounded to Mora at third, an easy throw across the diamond that would have ended the inning. Inexplicably, he tried to run to third for a force out, but Joey Votto beat him to the bag to fill the bases and set up Stubbs’ double.
But with a chance to score more, Chris Heisey hit a soft liner to second to end the inning.
THE ROCKIES got the run that proved to be the difference in the sixth when Phillips bungled a two-out ground ball by Seth Smith and catcher Miguel Olivo doubled to left-center to make it 4-2.
Jonny Gomes homered with two outs in the eighth, cutting it to 4-3, but that’s all they got.
JAY BRUCE was absent from the lineup again with his side injury and is supposed to take batting practice before Wednesday’s game, but probably won’t be in the lineup before Friday’s game in Great American Ball Park against the Pittsburgh Pirates, who are suddenly world-beaters against the Atlanta Braves.
EDINSON VOLQUEZ, after striking out 10 in five innings for the Class A Dayton Dragons, was recalled Tuesday and the Reds have a choice to make - which shouldn’t be any choice at all. On Saturday, manager Dusty Baker must decided whether to send Volquez against the Pirates or Aaron Harang. Who would you run out there? Me, too.
BROADCASTER JIM KELCH e-mailed me that he took my advice and ate Tuesday at the Rocky Mountain Diner, partaking of the bison meat loaf and mashed potatoes. He gave it a two-forks up and said he planned to return Wednesday.
He asked for another recommendation and I told him to check out a restaurant on the other side of Larimer Square from the team hotel, an old firehouse. If he has the hot chicken wings he’ll need a fire hose to put out the flames in his mouth.
DON’T forget those Ask Hal questions for this week. Need them in the next couple of days for Sunday’s paper. Send them to halmccoy1@hotmail.com and I’ve received a lot of good ones in the past couple of weeks. Keep ‘em coming.
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