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StumbleuponOwings delivers with his bat once again
Saturday, September 20, 2008
CINCINNATI — When a pitcher can't pitch, for whatever reason, his value to a baseball team usually is the same as a bride at a wedding without a groom.
And there was a wedding in the stands at Great American Ball Park before the Cincinnati Reds-Milwaukee Brewers game Saturday, Sept. 20. Both bride and groom showed up.
Micah Owings does not apply. He is a pitcher who can't pitch right now, but he isn't useless.
Owings, who has put away his slider and changeup for the year due to an injury, still carries a bat — and for a good reason.
The guy can hit.
The Brewers and C.C. Sabathia discovered that Saturday when Reds manager Dusty Baker sent Owings up to pinch-hit.
The bases were loaded with one out and the Reds down a run when Owings fought off a 1-and-2 pitch and lobbed a two-run single down the right-field line that gave the Reds a one-run lead. They held on for a 4-3 victory.
After making life miserable and unbearable for the Brewers in Milwaukee recently, then ruining Arizona's hopes and dashing St. Louis' prayers for a wild card, the Reds are in the process of squashing Milwaukee's wild-card ambitions. The Reds have beaten Milwaukee four of five over less than a two-week period.
It was the second game-winning pinch-hit for Owings since the Reds acquired him from Arizona in the Adam Dunn trade.
"C.C. was throwing a great game, and I'd never faced him before, and I was just trying to put something out there," he said. "I love hitting, and I've been blessed from an early age to be able to hit.
"I just love playing the game," Owings added. "It was a disappointing season as far as pitching goes. I know I'm a lot better than what I showed, then I hurt my arm.
"I feel a lot better now, and they made the decision to shut me down from pitching, but at least they are letting me swing the bat," he said.
Sabathia, 9-1 when the game began and pitching on three days of rest for the first time in his career, gave up three straight hits to start his day, including a run-scoring single by Joey Votto.
Then he settled in and gave up only a bunt single by pitcher Johnny Cueto in the fifth, and the Reds were down 2-1.
The sixth was when things unraveled for the blue Brew Crew.
Votto opened with a single, and Andy Phillips walked. Corey Patterson dropped a sacrifice bunt that first baseman Prince Fielder picked up. Then he dropped it for an error that filled the bases.
After Jolbert Cabrera popped up, Owings delivered for the 3-2 lead. Adam Rosales followed with another single to make it 4-2, a run that was needed because closer Francisco Cordero gave up a leadoff home run to Rickie Weeks in the ninth.
Jason Kendall then singled, and with one out, shortstop Jeff Keppinger bungled a potential game-ending double play ball. Cordero walked Ryan Braun to fill the bases, then recovered by striking out Fielder.
The Reds are 10-7 this year against Milwaukee, and Cordero, who pitched last year for the Brewers, has six saves, something he says, "Is just a coincidence, something that has just happened because of opportunities. I struck out Fielder with a change-up, a pitch that has been good for me recently."
Cueto (9-13) held the Brewers to two runs and six hits over six innings to gain his first victory in his last five starts, although he lost only two of those starts.
The Brewers scored their only two runs off him in the fourth, a run-scoring single by Corey Hart and a run-scoring double to Weeks.
"The only bad pitch Cueto made all day was a hanging slider to Weeks," manager Dusty Baker said.
In the middle of that two-run sixth, Fielder tried to score from second on Hart's single, and center fielder Jerry Hairston Jr. threw him out from the distance between home plate and Newport, Ky.
It was not a prince of a day for Fielder.
He veered inside the baseline and elbowed catch Ryan Hanigan while trying to score, he made the error that kept the Reds' big sixth inning going, and he struck out to end the game.
