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StumbleuponOwings pinch-hits for damage in win against former team
Sunday, September 14, 2008
PHOENIX — Jessica Simpson put on a postgame concert in Chase Field after the Cincinnati Reds-Arizona Diamondbacks game, featuring her first country music album, "Do You Know?"
Yeah, we know.
We know we saw something incredible — a few incredible things — Saturday night in Chase Field.
Most incredibly, we saw pitcher Micah Owings (he plays for the Reds now, you know?) rip a run-scoring pinch-hit double in the 10th inning to lift the Reds to a 3-2 victory over the Diamondbacks.
We know that Owings, formerly with the Diamondbacks, joined the Reds Friday to complete the trade of Adam Dunn to Arizona and we know manager Dusty Baker said, "Owings probably won't pitch the rest of this year, but I might use him as a pinch-hitter."
And so he did. And so the Reds won.
We know that Owings spent nearly a month with a sore shoulder, which is why when Baker was asked, "When will Owings pitch for the Reds," Baker said, "Next year."
So how much has Owings swung a bat in that month? "I took batting practice yesterday and today," said Owings. "They wouldn't let me swing during the treatment for my shoulder."
Nearly a half hour after his hit, Owings said, "I still haven't comprehended what I just did. But it means a lot. I was grateful for the opportunity. I thought it might hook foul, but it stayed fair."
Barely.
"When I told him in the 10th that he might hit, he couldn't wait to hit and he came through big-time," said Baker. "How ironic is that he he came through like that in his first game back here?"
We also know that Baker made an eye-popping decision in a throat-narrowing situation with 25-year-old rookie pitcher Josh Roenicke.
And it nearly led to a 2-1 defeat, a defeat avoided only when the Reds tied it in the ninth, 2-2, to send it into extra innings.
The Diamondbacks had runners on second and third with two outs of a 1-1 game in the seventh when Baker took the baseball from Jeremy Affeldt and handed it to Roenicke for his major-league debut.
Not surprising, Roenicke walked Chris Young on four pitches to fill the bases, then hit Adam Dunn with his second pitch to force in the go-ahead run, what looked like a loss until the Reds rallied.
"I don't think it was baptism by fire," said Baker. "First base was open. I wouldn't have put him in with the bases loaded. Then he loaded them himself. It was a tight situation, but he did have first base open.
"He was a closer (at Louisville) and he has been on the fast track. That's one of the things we have to find out, what he can do in that situation, for next year," Baker added.
Simpson's boyfriend, Dallas quarterback Tony Romo, wasn't there, but 45,075 watched a couple of pretty good throwers of the baseball variety — Arizona's once wondrous and still darn good Randy Johnson against Cincinnati's wondrous and getting-better Edinson Volquez.
Johnson, 45, and the possessor of 294 career victories, walked Jerry Hairston Jr. to open the game and he came around to score on Joey Votto's double for a 1-0 Reds lead.
That's all the Reds got off Johnson before he left after six innings — one run, five hits, two walks, three strikeouts.
Volquez, 25, pitched six-plus innings, giving up two runs on five hits, but he walked six, hit a batter and threw a wild pitch among his 121 pitches as Baker desperately tried to get Volquez his 17th victory.
Instead he stayed at 16-5 and could only start three more games, so 20 victories is gone.
Volquez, 25, had some hat-tugging dilemmas in the first three innings, coming away undamaged each time.
Arizona tied it, 1-1, in the fifth, through no fault of Volquez's.
Justin Upton blooped one down the right field line that first baseman Votto could have caught, that second baseman Adam Rosales could have caught, that right fielder Jay Bruce could have caught.
None did. That ball made a divot-dive into the right field grass for a double, Upton took third on Stephen Drew's bloop single to right and scored on Angie Ojeda's broken-bat squibber to second base, tying it 1-1.
Volquez went back out to start the seventh but didn't get an out, giving up a double to Justin Upton and a walk to Tony Clark.
Jeremy Affeldt took over and with two outs Baker made his decision to toss Roenicke into a pressure cooker with the lid screwed down.
"We tried to stay with Volquez for as long as we could to give a chance for that 17th victory," said Baker. "He was denied, but we'll take the victory. He is still the victim of early high pitch counts. He is going to get better at commanding that strike zone."
The Reds tied it in the ninth when pinch-hitter Danny Richar singled to left and took third on pinch-hitter Javier Valentin's single. Corey Patterson flied to right and Richar tagged at third and started home.
But he stopped. Fortunately for the Reds, D-Backs catcher Miguel Montero bungled the throw home, enabling Richar to score and make it 2-2.
The Reds had two outs and nobody on in the 10th when Chris Dickerson walked. Owings then dropped his double just inside the left field foul line to make it 3-2 and closer Francisco Cordero pitched a 1-2-3 bottom of the 10th with two strikeouts for his 30th save — four hours and one minute after this one game.
All that, Jessica, we know.
