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StumbleuponBucs make it official: No playoffs for Reds
Thursday, September 04, 2008
CINCINNATI — Elimination Day was inevitable, a foregone conclusion for the Cincinnati Reds, and it came on a hot, steamy night Wednesday, Sept. 3, in Great American Ball Park.
A 6-5 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates officially eliminated the Reds from the National League Central title race, but unofficially they eliminated themselves in early May when they first hit double figures in the games-behind column.
Of more immediate significance, Edinson Volquez did not get his 17th win, turning over a 4-4 tie after seven innings. But Jeremy Affeldt and Mike Lincoln gave up two runs in the eighth to leave Volquez at 16-5.
Manager Dusty Baker was mightily disturbed after the game over a missed hit-and-run sign that ended up in a double play and a wild pick-off throw that led to a tie-breaking run.
"Mistakes, man. We just have to quit making mistakes," he said. "You especially can't make 'em in one-run games."
Volquez pitched well enough to be 17-5, but it wasn't to be after he gave up four runs, six hits and one intentional walk and struck out a career-best 13.
Volquez was at his Eliot Ness best for three innings — untouchable (nine up, nine down). He needed only 35 pitches for those three innings.
Then he singled in the bottom of the third and ran the bases and, as he said, "That's never usually a good thing for me."
The economy and efficiency evaporated in the fourth when he needed 27 pitches for that one inning, giving up two runs on three doubles.
The Reds tied it in the fourth with two runs, all the action coming with two outs and nobody on. Joey Votto homered, then Edwin Encarnacion walked, took third on Jay Bruce's double and scored on a passed ball.
Chris Dickerson's sixth home run in his 19th major-league game with two outs in the fifth gave the Reds a 3-2 lead. It was a 425-foot drive the opposite way, to left center.
Pittsburgh retrieved the lead, 4-3, in the sixth when the first four reached base, including run-scoring singles by Ryan Doumit and Adam LaRoche, ending LaRoche's 0-for-16 slide.
The Reds tied it, 4-4, in the sixth when Votto tripled to the right-field corner and scored on Encarnacion's single over third base.
Affeldt replaced Volquez in the eighth, and the Reds resumed their sloppy ways.
Nate McLoth singled, and then came the errant pick-off throw. Affeldt's attempt eluded first baseman Votto, and Baker said, "That ball was just air-mailed (with not enough postage, obviously)."
McLoth ended up on third and scored on another Adam LaRoche single.
"Mike Lincoln made two great pitches on LaRoche, then hung a slider," Baker said. "Another mistake."
Andy LaRoche then poked a one-out single for the 6-4 margin.
The Reds scored once in the eighth on pinch-hitter Ryan Hanigan's bases loaded walk, cutting it to 6-5, but pinch-hitter Andy Phillips struck out.
And there were two incidents in the seventh — a positive one for the Reds and a negative one.
Pinch-hitter Wilkin Castillo led the inning with a single. With one out, the hit-and-run sign was flashed. Castillo missed it, and Jeff Keppinger hit into a 4-6-3 double play.
"Young guys coming up (Castillo) have to learn and get the signs," Baker said. "We were happy for him getting his first major-league hit, but then he missed the hit-and-run sign.
"Keppinger hit that ball right where he was supposed to, right at the second baseman," Baker said.
But Castillo wasn't running on the pitch, so the second baseman didn't rush to cover second. Instead, he fielded Keppinger's ball and started the inning-ending double play, "When we should have had first and third with one out. That was big," Baker said.
As ever, Volquez was smiling and upbeat after the game, claiming that 20 victories was not on his mind.
"If I win two of the next five, or if I get 18 or 19 wins, I'll be happy," he said. "This is my first year, and that's pretty good. That would be great."
Volquez said he was ready to go back out for the eighth inning, when the Pirates scored their two winning runs off Affeldt and Lincoln, but they stopped him.
"I was ready, and I was feeling good, but I had 117 pitches, and they said that was enough," Volquez said.
"He had 107 after six, and normally that would have been enough," Baker said. "But we let him go out for the seventh to give him a chance to win his 17th."
And, yes, the Pirates came to town with a 10-game losing streak before decking the Reds two nights in a row.
