Reds Versus Cardinals: The Battle for Biggest Disappointment
By
Amanda
Posted at 7:32 pm
At first blush, I think it's hard to look at this Cardinals team and think that a bigger disappointment could exist. I mean, they're coming off the World Series championship, after all. But then again, you saw their off-season moves and you sorta knew this was coming. The Reds have talent coming out of their asses. Also, these Cards are somehow in second place while the Reds reside in the cellar.
Nevertheless, the FSNO pregame guys are acting like things are on the rebound. I believe Jeff Piecoro just used the phrase “things looked bleak.” Looked. As in, past tense. Implying that they no longer look bleak.
Better, though, was what Chris Welsh just said: the bullpen is like castor oil. He continued the metaphor to say that it was OK a little at a time, but failed to say that too much gives you runs. The Crafty Lefty failed to bring it home.
So, Homer Bailey's coming up and will be starting on Friday. Ought to make for some nice Simpsons references in the Smack Talk that day.
Dang. I thought he was going to walk the pitcher for awhile there.
Jeebus. 4 walks and two strike outs.
Now this can hurt.
Oh no! It dropped.
And thanks, George, for making it anyone but Ross’s fault. Chris is setting him straight, though.
Ross, you idiot…
The Aflac trivia question was Which four number 1 draft picks have played for the Reds?
The answers: Tim Belcher, whom I’ve never heard of; Ken Griffey, Jr., which is a duh; Josh Hamilton, the story you couldn’t avoid even if you tried; and Paul Wilson.
I hadn’t realized that Wilson was a number 1 draft pick. Man, what a shame Pauly’s career has been. He should have done so much more.
What the heck is this? The sacrifice puts runners at second and third. Can the Reds just not bear for the other team not to have a lead?
That Eckstein coming up to bat. Just look at his whiskers quiver.
Eckstein is only about a foot taller than Ross in his catchers squat..
Nice to see Phillips aboard to start off the inning. Experience says he’ll finish the inning on first, but hope springs eternal.
Nope. Thanks to failure to get out of the way, Dunn is now on first and Phillips on second.
Hey, Redsfan68, welcome to the party. It does seem like Eckstein has an unfairly small strike zone. You’d think he’d walk more.
EdE GIDP, but it’s a sac GIDP, so he’s got that going for him.
But don’t worry: Hatteberg struck out looking. Whew!
Hatte is known for his good eye, and he argued that one a little, but it looked like a strike to me. Is he getting desperate?
Oh, man. On the way to Walgreens I was listening to Mike Shannon call the game. He said that Gary Bennett had a big hickey on the back of his head. He also said Encarnacion (ours) dove back to first like it was “the last bar of soap at the YMCA”
Colorful.
Oh, I’m going to the next two games. Tomorrow Proxy might be available, but we’re both going on Thursday 🙁
You know that Joe Nuxhall is a beloved icon in the Reds’ franchise, so when the team’s attempt to replace him directly failed, they brought in multiple people, including Thom Brennaman and Jeff Brantley.
The commentary has always been curmudgeonly, but it’s taken a turn for the colorful in more ways than one with these guys. Among them: George Grande’s insistence on calling Brantley only by “Cowboy” when they’re calling the game together.
6 walks and 1 hbp and only two runs…. eek!
I don’t think that going to games is something to frown about! We’ll miss ya, though. Hope you have a good time.
So what made you decide to go to a game with the Reds in town? Admit it: you couldn’t get enough of Arroyo’s hair.
How long till Encarnacion’s curtain call? Any minute now…
HOMERUN ENCARNACION !!!
oh wait, wrong encarnacion…
Dang nice catch, Hopper!
I love to see something worth saying something nice about.
I can’t believe that Chris Duncan is starting 9 material; I thought he was just a coach’s kid.
Of course, I didn’t think I’d be seeing Kelly Stinnett playing again either…
Can someone explain to me how the Cardinals relievers aren’t always exhausted with as many of them as LaRussa uses each game? Narron tried to use a different pitcher per batter there for a while and everyone was just spent.
We’re not giving out many curtain calls this year. Of course, there hasn’t been much reason to.
Duncan is our Dunn. Iffy defense, but serviceable. But he can hit the heck out of the ball.
Ooh, aggressive baserunning. I love it.
Tie game. Blarg. Juan didn’t really hustle to the ball.
Wow. The Blue Jays scored 6 runs in the bottom of the 9th to beat the Rays, 12-11.
And it pays off. Tie game.
Time for a pitching change, isn’t it?
That’s downright Rockies-esque. Or, more appropriately given the company, Danny Graves-esque.
Yes. Yes it is.
Flores is going for the Captain Jack facial hair.
No, stop doing the wave.
Sometimes the wave is all you’ve got, but this is a tie game!
Speaking of facial hair, I’m glad to see that Spiezio’s beardy thing is a more normal color now.
Nifty. I would have gone for the dp. But that’s why I don’t play pro baseball.
Yeah, I think that was news-worthy enough to get an article in the paper.
OMG! I can’t believe they’re actually letting the LLM hit! What if they need him in the ninth? What if he gets hurt? What if the bench floats away without him sitting on it??
(St. Louis is very insular)
Coffey!
Coffey gives up the lead-off double to Eckstein. Smart money says that Narron blames it on Javy, who’s now catching.
Here’s an out. Pujols is coming to the plate and–OMG no–Mike Stanton is warming up.
At least first base is open.
Boooooooooooooo
Yeah, you’re right to boo: Pujols sucks.
I can’t believe that Stanton got out of that crap. Is this competition for the biggest disappointment going to go into extras?
C’mon Agon; don’t do that to me.
We’ve stranded a small army out there today….
George just referred to Moeller as “the lone bullet left in Jerry Narron’s six-shooter” but he then qualified it by saying “unless he uses a pitcher.” If Milton weren’t on the DL…
An army of Ecksteins? Or not quite that small?
Speaking of, the tiny little SS has a tiny little error. Let’s turn it into something, fellas.
This game is long.
That was a nice play.
Since I’ve talked about every other commercial, I have to mention the Alamo electronics spot, which features a lot of very ambiguous pronouns. For example, “To get it bigger, you’ve got to get here” and “this is gonna be big!”
I agree; I’m exhausted. How can a 3-3 game go on this long?
I have never seen that Alamo commercial. We must get the dull commercials here.
I think I’m going to call it a night. I’m exhausted – I probably drove 150 miles today to and from the fancy vet’s office. The Proxy, kitty and I are gonna go to bed.
I predict the Reds will win. The Cardinals rarely win at home. I’ll text Proxy from the game with smack to post. 😉