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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 > 2011 > June > 27
Monday, June 27, 2011
SHOCKER: Reds win interleague opener
UNSOLICITED OBSERVATIONS from The Man Cave while remembering the Reds’ last trip to St. Petersburg in 2003 when they stayed at a hotel reputed to be haunted and pitcher Scott Williamson said he saw a ghost in his room. Somebody asked him if it was Luis Apparition.
A funny thing happened to the Cincinnati Reds Monday night in the dump they call Tropicana Field against the Tampa Bay Rays: they won the first game of an interleague series.
It was their fifth interleague series of the year and the first time they won the first game, thanks to Mike Leake and some potent batwork that produced a 5-0 victory.
Leake held the Rays to no runs and four hits, with two walkd and three strikeouts for his six innings.
Sam LeCure, the man who should replace Edinson Volquez in the starting rotation (my opinion), pitched two scoreless innings and Nick Masset closed it out in the ninth.
AND IF I’M Tampa Bay pitcher Jeremy Hellickson, I’d be changing my deodorant or cologne. The 24-year-old rookie has now lost four straight and in those four games the Rays have scored one run.
On Monday, Hellickson struck out nine Reds in six innings, but all it did was add wear and tear on his young arm.
And the Rays are not a feeble offensive team. In their previous game, they beat the Houston Astros, 14-10. They had won four straight and eight of nine and owned the fourth best record in baseball behind Philadelphia, the New York Yankees and Boston. And the Rays owned the best interleague record this season, 9-3 when the night began to Cincinnati’s 3-9. But Tampa Bay was 0-6 all-time in games against the Reds.
But this was a night during which everything went the Reds’ way, aided by one of the best players in baseball, Tampa Bay third baseman Evan Longoria.
Longoria made a two-out error in the fourth that enabled the Reds to score a run. And the Rays had only one real rally, that coming in the sixth when Ben Zobrist doubled and Longoria walked to open the inning.
Matt Joyce lined one deep to left that looked as if it might fall for extra bases, so Longoria took off from first. Center fielder Drew Stubbs chased down the ball and Longoria ran past Zobrist, who was standing near second base. So Longoria was called out for passing a base runner, a rare big-league occurrence.
AND FOR ONCE it was the Reds scoring in the first inning instead of the opposition.
Freddie Lewis, playing left field and batting leadoff, reached base his first three times up and led the first inning with a single. Brandon Phillips, brandishing a bat as hot as a coke furnace (four hits), doubled to score Lewis and extend his hitting streak to seven games. Jay Bruce, 4 for 34 at the time, singled to right to score Phillips and make it 2-0-.
Lewis had two hits and a walk and should have had three hits, but Tampa Bay left fielder Sam Fuld made a stupendous back-to-the-infield snag of a long drive by Lewis.
Jonny Gomes, the designated hitter, received a loud ovation when he came to bat for the first time because he was hugely popular in Tampa Bay after he was the team’s No. 1 draft pick and played for the (Devil) Rays for six years.
They even cheered him in the fourth when he opened the inning with his 11th home run. The Reds scored another run in the inning on Longoria’s error and back-to-back hits by Lewis and Phillips to make it 4-0.
The fifth run arrived in the seventh when Phillips singled again, Joey Votto singled and second baseman Zobrist permitted a double play ball to roll between his legs and into right field for an error.
AND BECAUSE Milwaukee, St. Louis and Pittsburgh were idle Monday, the Reds picked up a half-game on everybody, leaving them 3 ½ games behind first place Milwaukee and a half-game ahead of fourth-place Pittsburgh.
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