May 18, 2010
By
Amanda
Posted at 10:13 am
Last Game
Johnny Cueto followed up his 1-hit complete game shutout performance in his last start with a 7 innings of 1-run baseball against the Milwaukee Brewers last night. Granted, not as good as the last outing, but I’ll take 7 innings of 1-run ball every start of the year. The offense came to life once Brewers start Yovani Gallardo left the game to give Cueto his 3rd win. The Reds won 6-3 to keep their slim 1/2 game hold onto first place.
Next Game
The Reds finish their short 2-game series against the Brewers today. With the win last night, they’re hoping for the sweep today. Home Bailey starts for the Reds, while the Brewers send out Manny Parra. Game-time is 12:35pm EDT.
Adding Another Cuban to the Humidor
The Reds signed another Cuban player yesterday to go along with Aroldis Chapman.
Felix Perez is one of those 5-tool outfielders that made Jim Bowden lose all sense of propriety. Originally signed by the New York Yankees last year for $3.5 million, the contract was voided when it was discovered his stated age–20–was a lie. MLB banned him for a year, and the Reds reaped all the benefits.
Perez, who aged 5 years since his last contract, signed for $550,000. He will be sent to Arizona for evaluation, and then will likely head to the Dayton or Lynchburg minor league clubs.
What to Say to Sound Smart at the Water Cooler
The Reds lead the majors in the never-heard of before stat of runners going 1st to 3rd on a single. They’ve done it 32 times this season.
May 17, 2010
By
Amanda
Posted at 1:14 pm
Last Game
The Reds won their first series of the year against the St. Louis Cardinals over the weekend and found themselves sitting alone atop 1st place. And for once, it seems less mirage-y than years past. Yesterday, the Reds destroyed the Cardinals and scored 7 runs to their 2. Bronson Arroyo pitched the complete game, and also drove in a couple to break the game open in the bottom of the 5th.
Next Game
The Reds get a chance to prove their mental fortitude and defend 1st place when the Milwaukee Brewers come to town tonight. Johnny Cueto battles against Yovani Gallardo at 7:10pm EDT.
Hoping for an All Star Game
For the second year in a row, Cincinnati hosted a very well received Civil Rights weekend. One hope is that this will lead to an All Star Game for Great American Ball Park soon.
“I think so,” Reds chief operating officer Phil Castellini said. “We’ve had them before. It’s not like the Reds are unable to put on an All-Star Game. It’s one of those things, to be present and to be participating with MLB at this level, I think helps make them aware that our current team, and management team, and city is ready to get behind it and support a bigger jewel event like that. Does it communicate that in real time to them? Sure. But is it a quid pro quo? Not necessarily.”
The All Star Game is set for the next few years, but it would be nice for Great American to get one before it gets moth-balled. I’m still not sure how all those stadiums built after the Reds got to jump ahead in line.
What to Say to Sound Smart at the Water Cooler
The Reds are 11-4 in their current stretch of 17 games against NL Central division rivals. When the stretch began on April 27, they were in 5th place, 4 games behind St. Louis.
May 15, 2010
By
Zeldink
Posted at 1:47 pm
The Red Hot Family was in Cincinnati last night to see first hand the game that might have seen the Reds take over the NLC. While it didn’t turn out that way, it was still a helluva game and we immortalized some of the excitement for this installment of The 8th Inning Show.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
May 15, 2010
By
Zeldink
Posted at 1:35 pm
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E |
|---|
| Cardinals (21-15) | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 9 | 1 |
| Reds (19-16) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 8 | 0 |
W: Garcia (4-2)
L: Harang (2-5)
S: Franklin (8)
Boxscore
In the first game of the battle for first place, the Cincinnati Reds didn’t have quite enough to defeat the St. Louis Cardinals. St. Louis moves to 1 1/2 games ahead of Cincinnati.
Aaron Harang started and was solid, with the exception of two long fly balls to Albert Pujols and Ryan Ludwick. In most other parks, they would have been caught at the warning track, but in Great American, they fell into the first row of the seats. The perils of being a flyball pitcher for the Reds. They should do something about that. Oh yeah, Mike Leake goes tomorrow.
Both of those home runs were 2 run shots, and were all the Cardinals could manage. The Reds attempted a comeback, but fell short. They scored 2 on their own 2-run shot from Drew Stubbs in the 7th. Then in the 9th, Jonny Gomes singled and was driven in by by Drew Stubbs. The comeback faltered, though, when Ramon Hernandez swung at the first pitch he saw and grounded into a double play.
At the game, I at-first thought I heard the announcer say Chris Heisey was pinch-hitting, but he was instead only pinch-running for Ryan Hanigan. I think I would’ve preferred Heisey over Hernandez. It would have been a gutsy move instead of throwing old “Mr. Clutch” in there.
The Reds send out the aforementioned groundball pitcher Mike Leake today, while the Cardinals counter with Adam Wainwright at 7:40pm. Should be a good one.
May 13, 2010
By
Zeldink
Posted at 3:25 pm
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E |
|---|
| Astros (13-21) | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 7 | 0 |
| Cardinals (20-15( | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 0 |
W: Norris (2-4)
L: Carpenter (4-1)
S: Lindstrom (9)
Boxscore
The Houston Astros finished their sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals today, beating the first place team and the undefeated Chris Carpenter.
The Astros rode the best start of Bud Norris’ career, as he went 8 innings and allowed 1 run on 6 hits while striking out 8.
The Cy Young winner Chris Carpenter got his first loss of the season thanks to a terrible 3rd. Lance Berkman singled in the Astros first run. He was followed by Carlos Lee, who, with 2 on, popped out to the shortstop. He was frustrated by his failure and slammed his bat into the ground.
Apparently, Chris Carpenter has been paying attention to the sore-loser antics of Albert Pujols, and took exception to Lee. After a few words, the dugouts emptied. Eventually, sad, widdle Carpenter–the guy who’d actually won in the battle against Lee–got over his hurt feelings enough to return to playing a child’s game. Except that he didn’t calm down quite enough as Hunter Pence took him deep to give the Astros a 4-0 lead.
The loss narrows the Cardinals’ lead over the Cincinnati Reds to 1/2 game. The series this weekend could be quite enjoyable. I’m hoping for some fireworks. With this many crybabies on the Cardinals roster, it shouldn’t be too hard to get them riled up.
