The yard is mowed, the CPA is out with some friends and the Reds look like a baseball team. Seems like a good enough reason to sit down and watch the game.
OK, those of you who know me know I’d be watching the game at some point regardless, but three things in the early innings of tonight’s Reds/Giants game have my interest piqued.
1. Bronson Arroyo, who despite being just 2-9 with hitters batting .288 off him has made nine “quality starts” in 17 trips to the mound t his season, got out of what could’ve been a serious mess in the first inning — two men on, one out and Barry Bonds at the plate. Not only did Bonds get a second chance when catcher David Ross dropped a pop up that was in his glove, but he about took Brandon Phillips’ head off when he lined into a double play to end the inning.
2. The Reds got a sacrifice fly in the first inning from Adam Dunn, yes that Adam Dunn, to push across a run. That may not sound like much, especially since the bases were loaded at the time, but the Reds have consistently gotten behind early this season. So, add Nos. 1 and 2 together and you’ve got a good start to the game!
3. Arroyo hit a homer! He ripped the first pitch he saw from Matt Morris into the stands in left — just a row or two in front of where the CPA and I sat two nights ago for the game.
Not only did he hit the long ball, but it was with two outs, meaning the top of the order got to come back to the plate. Josh Hamilton was hit by a pitch, Phillips reached safely and Ken Griffey Jr. hit a two-run double to give the Redlegs a 4-0 lead.
Ryan Freel just hit into a fielders choice, but for just about everybody else that would’ve been a double play. He legged it out on the relay throw from second and then scored on a double from Alex Gonzalez. Kudos to him for being back from the concussion and for running so hard all the time.
My only criticism of Freel on the play, and this isn’t so much aimed at him as it is the entire Reds team, is the way he runs through the first base bag. Others don’t run all the way through it, especially when they’re sure they’re about to be thrown out, but Freel runs full go and then stops just a step or two beyond the bag. For him to come to a stop so quickly he has to be slowing down before he hits the base. Again, he was safe at first this time, but is it going to take a group of little leaguers to come to Great American Ballpark and show the Reds how to run through the bag?
Just one of the many criticisms I, and other Reds fans, have had of the team since the season started out so poorly.
OK, no more Negativeville from me tonight, for now anyway! The Reds are up 5-0 and Arroyo, who has pitched great his last two outings, looks pretty good.
Here come the boos for Bonds. My experience Tuesday was as strange as I’ve ever had at a game. First, there were guys who were absolutely loaded even when the game first started, and as much as they booed the guy, they were still upset when the Reds decided to pitch around him.
Then came the weirdest thing of all. I’ve been around some unruly crowds, but while this one was loud, no one around us was vulgar. For all the steroid cracks and taunts of Bonds when he took his position in left field, none of them were filled with four letter words or racial epithets.
That said, the folks in the security garb at GABP weren’t putting up with any of it. I saw as many as four guys yanked from their seats for yelling at Bonds, and the worst name he was called among them was “Juice Box”. As much as the CPA and I didn’t want to hear the same thing over and over by some drunk fool, we were quite surprised at the lack of tolerance of the security and usher staff.
The Giants have scored two runs in the top of the fourth. Arroyo has started getting the ball up, specifically to Rich Aurilia who ripped an RBI single to left center.
This is the sixth series in a row since the Reds took two of three from the Indians where Cincinnati is playing for a series win in the final of three games. In none of those six series have the Reds taken the rubber game. If you say they could’ve won four of those rubber games they’d be just 12 games under .500 instead of the 20 they are now. What a difference taking two of three makes!
Skip ahead to the sixth and Hamilton hit one out the front door, straightaway center field. It’s a nice boost for the Reds, putting them up 6-2. Arroyo batted in the inning, meaning he’ll start the seventh. Keep him in there as long as possible! We don’t want that bullpen to work too hard.
Jon Coutlangus just struck out Bonds to end the eighth. I’d love to think, after his inning and a third of scoreless baseball, that this guy will be a fixture in the Reds pen for some time to come. Oh, and by that I mean as a good pitcher! He has had his ups and downs this year. Jeff Brantley has said he’s got a great slider, but he simply doesn’t use it enough. If that’s the case, you’d hope as a rookie he’s soaking everything in and will soon see it all come together.
The Reds have several issues, including depth in the starting rotation and in the everyday lineup, but the bullpen has let this team down more than anything. If the Reds had the bullpen they had anywhere from the early 1990s to 2002 they’d be in a lot better shape right now. It seems funny to me that the strength of some pretty bad teams from ’96-’02 — excluding winning teams in ’99 and ’00 — was the pen, but now they can’t get anyone out from the seventh inning on.
It seemed like from the Nasty Boys of Norm Charlton, Rob Dibble and Randy Myers to Brantley and Jeff Shaw, and even Danny Graves, Scott Sullivan and Scott Williamson, they were always turning over guys to come in to relieve the starters. Between ’90 and ’02 the Reds had one guy with 25 or more saves all but three times. One was ’94, when the strike hit in August, and another was ’93 when Dibble had 19. Shaw saved 23 for the Reds before the all star break in ’98 before being traded to the Dodgers, where he closed out 25 games in the second half — Shaw’s trade was typical of the Jim Bowden era. He had just signed a hometown discount kind of deal in the offseason, only to see Bowden stab him in the back and deal him out west where he was never happy.
Well, the Reds did it! They got Arroyo his first win in almost two months, they won a series for the first time in nearly a month and they looked like a solid baseball team, all in one night.
Now what will I watch?