Loading ...Well, I’m home from a trip to New York, and I’m looking forward to catching tonight’s game. Those New Yorkers can’t appreciate how difficult it is to follow the Reds on a daily basis. It’s so easy to be a Yankees fan. We’re worrying about whether the Reds can hang on and compete for a playoff spot throughout September. Yankee fans are complaining because Alex Rodriguez isn’t good enough.
If only we had such problems. 
Anyway, September is here, and the Reds are hanging on by a thread. I’m very optimistic tonight, however, for some reason…even after what has become a disastrous West Coast road trip (are there any other kind?). Maybe it’s just wishful thinking, but I feel good about this series.
Hope we feel good about it after Sunday, because this is probably the most important series of the year at this point. The Reds need to win two out of three — minimum — if they plan to stay in the Wild Card race. The number of games remaining is dwindling.
Bronson Arroyo is on the mound, so the good guys should be competitive tonight. Let’s see a wild game thread tonight.
Discuss the game here.
Go Reds! Gotta win this one.
Reds:
Freel RF
Dunn LF
Junior CF
EdE 3B
Hatteberg 1B
Aurilia SS
Phillips 2B
Ross C
Arroyo P
Good lineup.
Pads:
Roberts LF
Giles RF
Walker 2B
Piazza C
Branyan 3B
Cameron CF
Gonzalez 1B
Blum SS
Hensley P
Some former Reds there.
Good work, Jerry Narron. That’s a good lineup to start the series.
The Padres lineups have looked goofy all year. I don’t think they’ve ever figured out where to put Mike Cameron. And Todd Walker is like Aurilia, in that he always finds himself in the middle of lineups, when he probably doesn’t belong there.
I agree: kudos to Narron. Big game, we need our best lineup.
I’m a Todd Walker fan, but he certainly doesn’t need to be in the middle of the lineup. He’s a good guy to have around, a decent bat, decent on-base skills. I liked him when he was a Red.
Bat him seventh and he’s an effective player.
Let’s get this game started!!! Gonna be a late night.
Mike Cameron is kind of like Adam Dunn – power hitter who walks and K’s a lot. Because that is historically somewhat unusual, there’s not much precedent for where you properly slot in that type of hitter.
Though I am surprised to see Cameron as low as 6th. I remember him as being decent with RISP.
Love Cameron. Hope he sucks this weekend, though.
Food poisoning for BP the other day. During the game, Marty just said “flu-like symptoms,” and I hadn’t heard about the food poisoning. He must have eaten a bad Dodger Dog.
Alright! Freel almost takes off the pitcher’s head with the first pitch.
Need a big hit here, Dunner.
Darnit, Dunn.
Dunn and Junior can’t get anything done. Hope the youngster (EdE) can produce here. We need to get on top early.
Freel steals second.
Encarnacion is the FREAKIN’ MAN!!!
Double for EdE, and an RBI. Love that kid.
I love it. Freel steals into scoring position on the first pitch to Edwin, and the second pitch gets driven to left for the RBI double. 1-0 Reds.
good night for some baseball!
Need a good outing by Bronson Arroyo.
I’m glad we took the early lead… Freel taking 2nd made the difference.
The big problem for Arroyo over the past few months has been homers. This is the right park to pitch in to reverse that trend.
Let Bronson be the stopper!
I have to agree that this is one of our best lineups
I have alot of respect for Todd Walker. We drove to Atlanta one year to see the REDS and Todd was about the only one to sign autographs for fans.
Richie!
HR for Aurilia.
Someone explain to me why you would ever start Clayton at SS.
Wooooo! Aurilia drives on down the line, just far enough to get out. 2-0 CIN.
I credit that homer to Narron for not starting Clayton.
Hah! FUnny, Mike Martz.
Double for Arroyo! Excellent.
this needs to be our lineup for the rest of the season, Double Arroyo
Agree, but Clayton will probably be back in there tomorrow.
couldn’t we kidnap him?
It could happen:
excuse me Mr Clayton, you have been kidnapped for actions detremental to the team………….
I wish.
Just hold on to him till November!
Hey Mike, wish you had FSN… The last 6 Real Reds have spotlighted Bucky Dent with some great drills for the youth!
Dunner got on base, but I don;t like batting the two lefties back to back… With the super shift on it is a dp nightmare!
Griffey robbed of a homer by Cameron…
Junior crushes one!
Oh, and Cameron caught it! Oh my, Junior couldn’t have hit that one any further without it leaving the park.
Speaking of kidnapping. Jr was just robbed!
That was poetic. Cameron takes a homer away from the Hall-of-Famer he was traded for.
Encarnacion crushes another one, but caught on the warning track.
Chris Welsh was right, those would have been back to back homers at GAB.
I think Dunn is getting tired running back and forth like that!
Hatteberg crushes one, and at least this one got down for a double and an RBI.
Finally, got one. Nice shot by Hattie! And Dunn got to run without turning around!
A shot by Hatty. I have a feeling that the Reds are on the verge of scoring a lot of runs tonight.
RBI Double by Hatteberg… That’s three batters in a row to hit the ball to the warning track according to the radio call.
Another hit for Aurilia, and a third RBI. Awesome.
RBI Single by Aurilia…Reds lead 4-0
Another one… Keep em coming!
So, can Arroyo hold the Pads?
Just my luck, I would have liked to see the drills. I remember watching the Baseball Bunch with Johnny Bench when I was growing up
Who else loves the movement on Bronson’s pithes. Perfect so far!
well I’ve got a 5 am wake up call, you folks enjoy the game. Looks like I’m leaving the Reds in good hands tonight.
All fielding drills, very useful. Have you ever used a wall?
Well goodnight Mike.
G’night, Mike. Hope you get good news in the morning about tonight’s game.
A two run homer would be nice, Adam.
EE grounds into DP…
Aurilia can do no wrong.
Marty’s talking about wine and sweat dripping into it…
Is there even an important game going on right now?!
Cameron hits one out to junior that skips away from jr… (ironic, since Cameron was traded away for jr by the Reds way back when…)
Padres score 1, now 4-1 Reds
This is scary. Russell Branyan is playing 3B and batting .429!
Arroyo is starting to struggle and I’m starting to get nervous.
Walk to sledge…Roberts drives in another…goes to second since Freel dropped the ball. oye.
Alright, another run on the error by SD. We are going to need all the runs we can get, I’m afraid.
Boards are dead tonight….
Once again, Rich Aurilia can do no wrong.
I’m surprised, with the impending Reds win and all.
Yeah, where is everyone? Out having fun on a Friday night?
Bases loaded for Ross. I like this.
Why hit Arroyo now? We have Majewksi back for the bullpen!
Bite your tongue, Bill.
Arroyo coaxes a double play.. Probably saw Cormier in the bullpen and decided he had to pitch all 9 innings in order to keep the bullpen from blowing another win for him!
Anyone know how many pitches Arroyo has thrown through seven innings?
Gamecast has it at 111 pitches for Arroyo – not sure how accurate that usually is though
Cormier sucks. Krivsky has completely crapped up this bullpen, and cost us two of our best players in the process.
Majewski coming in for the 9th?!
I agree on the bullpen, its been mostly crap out, crap in, and at a very high price.
‘Magic Man’ warming up…
Please, dear Lord, not Majewski. A four run lead is not enough to withstand his crappitude.
EE having another good at bat… Good to see. (or in my case, hear since I’m listening on radio)
Surely Narron isn’t stupid enough to put in Majewski with a Reds lead in a VERY important game?
Arroyo may need to take a baseball to Majewski’s legs so that he can’t blow a win for Arroyo tonight
Get a triple, Richie!
Bullpen quiet – so says Marty.
No Majewski then *phew*
A couple RBIs for Ross would be real nice here!
Yeah, keep Coffey in. That’ll be fine.
No, it’s Schoeneweis…and Juan Castro at SS.
I’m nervous, but maybe he’ll pitch as dominantly as he did in the ninth inning the other day.
EdE makes an error…it was a bad throw, but it looked like Hatteberg should have caught it.
And there’s a double play!
…And this one belongs to the Reds!
Double play ends the game, renders EE error void.
Reds win, break the losing streak finally!
Great way to start this important series.
Good game, gentlemen.
Tied with Philly for second in the Wild Card race, a half-game back…unless I’m calculating that incorrectly.
See everyone tomorrow.
100!
Good night all. Hope everyone shows back up here in the thread to see the Reds return to first in the wild card race tomorrow.
We are ahead of Philly. Win the next two in San Diego and we go home with nothing really lost on this road trip.
How has Krivsky hurt the bullpen? Look at the bullpen ERA before the break and after the break.
I wouldn’t compare Todd Walker to Rich Aurilia.