Seth's 50 Centers

I hadn’t planned on writing today, but the play-by-play of Marty Brennaman just struck a chord with me.

Marty and son Thom are calling the Reds game at St. Louis — the Reds lead 4-1 at the close of three innings — and he just got all over the Reds’ defense.

I’ve criticized Thom for his role in being hard on the Reds early in the year, but that doesn’t mean he’s been wrong.

Case in point: Fly ball base hit over the head of Josh Hamilton in the third inning. There was a man on and a good throw to Brandon Phillips, who was the cut-off man on the play, and the Reds have a chance to nail the runner at the plate. Hamilton instead air mails the cut off and the ball gets away from shortstop Alex Gonzalez, taking away the possibility of getting the man at the plate.

Marty rips into the Reds, not just Hamilton, about the play and says he’s sick of hearing manager Jerry Narron preach fundamentals when the team clearly doesn’t do things the right way. Thom chimed in that throwing the ball to the cut off man isn’t something that even a rare infield practice would reinforce, but Marty didn’t care.

After a minute trying to cool off, Marty chimed in again: “Let me tell you something. I don’t know why I get so upset. Because if they don’t care, why should I?”

It’s a good point. Even Hamilton, who’s as naturally gifted a baseball player this side of a young Ken Griffey Jr., needs to know that the cut off man is there for a reason. It’s the same thing you deal with when you play slow pitch softball and a former baseball player in the outfield thinks he can throw it from the fence to the plate. Well, you can’t, and you just gave up a run because of your macho ego!

Funny enough, though, Hamilton redeemed himself when the next batter hit a line drive to him in right. He scooped it up off the bounce and threw a one-hop laser to the plate to nail Albert Pujols for the third out! Pretty good stuff!

Hamilton then led off the next inning with a first-pitch double.

Funnier criticism!

Marty just got a nice dig in on Cardinals manager Tony LaRussa. Marty and I are in complete agreement on this guy. Thom questioned why LaRussa was bringing the infield in with two strikes when Reds catcher David Ross was by no means trying to bunt the ball — although he did try a suicide squeeze on the first pitch, pushing it foul.

Marty said he’s the only guy in baseball that would do that, with the exception maybe of Buck Showalter. Thom pointed out that Felipe Alou would do it at times.

Marty’s retort was classic.

“There are some guys who simply think they invented the game,” he said, leaving the rest to be determined by the listener.

Arroyo

Bronson Arroyo and his sub-3.00 ERA on the season are looking for an offense.

The Reds haven’t given him the run support needed to win a game, and the bullpen has done more to ruin his starts than the offense.

Arroyo was pulled after seven innings last night in a 1-1 game, having yet to throw his 100th pitch. Not one to get argumentative in the media, Arroyo remained calm when asked about it by reporters, but it has to affect the guy.

Arroyo’s breaking ball was sick last night, meaning he could’ve throw 20-30 more pitches, easy. Yes, his spot in the order came up first in the top of the eighth, but as I told the CPA at that point, with Arroyo out of the game the Reds would have to get to the Cardinals pitching ASAP, because without a lead you knew they were going to get pounded in the bottom of the inning.

Freel popped out, the Reds went quietly and the Cards came back to score four runs in the bottom of the inning. I hate being right sometimes!

Cincinnati scored one run in the ninth, but it wasn’t enough and the game was quickly over.