ByJust back from watching the 7-8 year old “Reds” play, and I see that the Cardinals aren’t even beating the grown-up Reds yet.
And Arroyo’s even going!
By| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cardinals (40-27) | 5 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 10 | 10 | 0 |
| Reds (31-36) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 |
The Reds were shutout by Braden Looper, who threw the first complete game of his career. Thanks to Dusty Baker’s “swing at everything” philosophy, Looper was able to complete the game by throwing only 98 pitches.
The Reds looked terrible last night, the exact opposite of the Pujols-less Cardinals. Yet on paper, the talent-level seems the same, if not possibly in the Reds’ favor. What on earth could the difference be?
Seriously, how much longer will the Reds hang with Baker? I know he has a large contract, but it was a terrible signing at the time and grows worse as time goes by. Perhaps I’m overreacting, but it seems to me that Cincinnati always looks terrible against well-managed, competently run teams. Like both games so far against St. Louis.
Of course, Baker wasn’t playing. That was Johnny Cueto, who struggled like an inexperienced rookie often does and allowed two homers and 6 runs in 5 innings.
Looper lead the Cardinals to their 40th win of the year, keeping them 2.5 games behind the Cubs, who also won their game yesterday.
The Cardinals go for the sweep today sending Joel Pineiro out for his first back-from-rehab start, while the Reds counter with Bronson Arroyo at 7:10pm EDT.
By| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brewers (34-31) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 10 | 12 | 0 |
| Astros (33-33) | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 13 | 1 |
The Astros and Brewers teamed up to have a little home run derby yesterday, with 8 balls leaving Minute Maid Park and driving in 11 of the 16 runs.
The Brewers had more, homers and runs, and Manny Parra got the win, his fifth in a row. I remember when Parra started the season and seemed to be doing terribly, but his ERA is back to average levels. Of course, he allowed 5 runs in 5 innings last night, so I wouldn’t call that good. Better lucky than good, I guess.
The teams close out the series this afternoon, and whoever wins the game, wins the series. Ben Sheets goes for the Brewers and Brian Moehler goes for the Astros. Honestly, I’m liking Milwaukee’s chances.
By| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nationals (26-41) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 2 |
| Pirates (32-34) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | - | 3 | 10 | 0 |
The Pirates won thanks to a great start from Ian Snell and a gutsy performance from close Matt Capps. The win brings Pittsburgh back to 2 games below .500.
Capps had been used on three consecutive nights–blowing the save and losing the game the previous day–and was told by manager John Russell that he wouldn’t be pitching. Capps disagreed and requested to be considered.
Whether it was a good decision or not is hard to say. Obviously, the Pirates won, but how will Capps rebound later? Four consecutive appearances rarely turn out as a good thing for pitchers, but then again, Capps was hitting the mid-90s with his fastball. We’ll see. He’s one of the few bright spots on the Pirates team, and I’d hate to see him broken just to get a win here and there. However, since it is the Pirates, maybe that’s worth quite a bit, since they do usually only get a win here and there.
An afternoon game wraps up the series today as Jason Bergmann starts against Tom Gorzelanny at 12:35pm EDT.
