Loading ...There’s no way to help fans forget two straight bullpen disasters like a dramatic extra inning win. I’m on the road (we’ve taken the kids on a short trip), so I listened on XM and I thought the game was lost when Scott Hatteberg came to the plate with two out in the bottom of the ninth. Fortunately, I was wrong.
Kyle Lohse was incredible again, and I’m so glad that he didn’t get the loss (as he would have without Hatteberg’s heroics). What an outstanding April Lohse has had. He’s been a stud.
Unfortunately, our less-spectacular former Twin starts today. Eric Milton can actually get his ERA below 5 today (it currently stands at 5.06), and something in the 4s isn’t a bad ERA for a fifth starter, frankly.
The Phils will counter with Cole Hamels, a good young pitcher who pitched brilliantly against the Reds last year in his major league debut. Here’s the game thread from that matchup; you’ll notice the wailing and gnashing of teeth about our bullpen. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
I feel a win coming on tonight, though. Discuss it here!
I’m on the road again, and listening on XM. Did Marty really just say that Gonzalez is hitting 5th?
Unbelievable.
MMMHMMM.
Freel
Dunn
Phillips
Conine
Gonzalez
Hamilton
Encarnacion
Ross
Milton
good ole milty..hopefully the offense shows up tonight
Hey, Gonzalez had the Reds’ only hit through 8.2 innings last night. He’s a sure thing.
Still no Griffey. Must be some illness – hope he’s getting better.
I’d love to see David Ross get going, 2 hits tonight would be a nice kickstart maybe.
So it sounds as if the Reds need a separate hitting coach for the right handers.
Wow, Hamels made that look easy.
Yeck!!!!
We need a puking emoticon.
Cole Hamels is better than Chuck Norris.
There’s the first of two ground ball outs Milton will force tonight.
1-2-3 Milton?
but is he better than Walker Texas Ranger?
This L-R-L thing is getting out of hand. Phillips-Conine-Gonzalez is the meat of our order?
CONINE!!!!!
What did I miss? I’m assuming someone homered of Milty.
Whoa – pretty meaty by Conine.
Cheese Coney Conine!
BATTLE OF THE HAMS!
Nope, Milton gave up a 2-run double after an Error by Edwin. One run was unearned. So not totally typical Milton.
Oh, Edwin. Is he still out there?
Will I be struck by lightning if I suggest sitting Hamilton against most lefties?
Eric is my second favorite Milton on the team behind JoshHa Milton
The Cards have scored 3 or fewer runs in 13 of 17 games. 2 or fewer in 10 of those. Hard to believe.
Larkin or Concepcion make that play.
Nifty DP!!!
Man he gets rid of that ball quickly.
I don’t think anybody throws out Victorino on that ball.
Six GB’s so far? He must be doctoring the baseball.
Man he gets rid of that ball quickly.
I don’t think anybody throws out Victorino on that ball.
and they throw him out easily.
Not hard for me to believe that the Cards offense sucks. They went out and got Adam Kennedy to play 2b. On purpose.
Pujols hasn’t heated up, Rolen is playing poorly, and that’s about the extent of their legitimate hitters. When Gary Bennett has the 2nd-highest OPS on your club, you’re in big trouble.
Speaking of struggling, here’s Dave Ross.
Maybe that walk is a positive sign from Ross.
Did Thom just refer to Ross as “Milton”?
That was really confusing.
Milty being selective up there – ahead 2-0.
Very nice bunt. Job well done.
nice sac bunt, milton!
Poorly done by Freel.
Hamels hadn’t thrown a strike yet – Freel pops up 2-0 on what was clearly ball 3.
The club misses Larue’s HBP presence.
That was an intelligent AB by Freel.
Adam’s not hitting balls in his green zone right now – that shows he’s struggling.
Thom thankfully keeping a running total of Dunn’s Ks.
Because not enough attention gets paid to that stat.
Broadcasters love to talk about how the team (or players) bat with RISP. But they never put that figure in any sort of context.
For example, the Reds are “struggling” with RISP, batting only .229. The problem is that they stink in all situations — their overall AVG is only .233. They’re not “bad with RISP,” they’re just bad.
Ha ha – good point, Chris. Context makes all the difference.
Milton has a very high BABIP allowed in his first few starts. Gives me reason to think that the results will be better as the season progresses.
Lets get the sticks going, boys. Heart of the order coming up – sort of.
BP with a fly to deep CF – Rowand takes a horrific route to the ball and lollygags back to the catch.
And draws praise for it, b/c he has a big name reputation.
DA, he’s allowing more hits than normal on balls in play?
Conine goes down looking. Didn’t like it, but it looked right down the pipe from here.
Did Brantly just say “Dadgumm”
Marty just announced a sellout at GABP.
Welsh making some really good points to Thom, explaining that first rounders are more valuable than later rounds, and that early first-rounders are typically better bets than later rounds.
Thom mistakenly thinks that there are more 4th and 5th rounders in the bigs than first rounders. Welsh tells him that he’s just not paying close enough attention, and points out that the Reds have several first rounders (mis-counting Dunn, who was taken in the 2nd).
Anyone else here Chris Welsh get that wrong? He said Adam Dunn was a first round draft pick, but Kearns was actually the first round pick that draft, Dunn was second round, and Coffey in the third, I think.
Yes, Milton has about a BABIP of nearly .360 coming into tonight. Graph here. It seemed to me that Milton hasn’t been giving up a ton of homers, or walks, and yet had an ERA of 5.03 … now, not to say that it’s totally not Milton’s doing, as he’s got an insane GB% of 14.3% coming into tonight.
Good stuff, DA. He’s keeping the ball in the park, but not getting any better results for his trouble.
Hamilton should not be hitting in front of a slumping Edwin, Ross, and the pitcher. His patience is in danger of being negated.
Maybe Ed is getting on track.
Well something going for “Rally-killer” Ross.
Can you believe that crap?
Thom criticizing EE for not driving in >7 runs in May, June, July or Sept.
…of course, he played 12 games in June and July combined.
Of you have to be focking kidding me. Ross hits into a triple play?
Oh my goodness. Triple play. Ross can’t go any lower.
OMG. Triple play by Ross. This team’s offense blows.
But was he hustling?
Thom is guilty of not doing his homework.
Can we hope Ross has hit bottom and can nowhere but up?
You see something new every day in this game.
Can we please play Valentin? My God.
Notably, Josh Hamilton was running on the pitch that Edwin flared for a single. I was wondering when he was going to try and steal a base…
It was hit and run. Actually suggested by Thom and Chris just beforehand.
There’s the Milty we know.
Nobody warming up.
Gonzalez is the 4th OF.
It’s like Gonzalez has just decided that nobody else on this team can catch the ball, so he’s going to go for everything. I think Mark Sheldon referred to him as Kelly Leak last night when he took that fly ball from Dunn.
Nice work by Dunn. Base hit to the opposite field, and hustles out a double.
Utley’s HR makes the run a lot less important, though.
Can BP get something going here? Dunn at 2nd; 2-out.
Welsh makes an interesting comparison b/w Hamels and Trevor Hoffman (fastball-changeup repitoire). Wouldn’t have noticed that one myself.
I thought that was a slow curve, not always a change.
Either way, it’s nasty as he strikes out Phillips.
Okay, off topic for a minute: My wife is watching that Planet Earth show. Anyone know how they get all those shots? I doubt they dragged a crane into the rain forest…
Reds fans still love the wave, don’t they?
We can talk about “baseball town” and all that, but there’s quite a contrast to those Red Sox games on TV.
I have yet to watch those though I want to at some point. Our they computer generated shots?
Ugh. How did Santos give up a hit to Barajas there? He was totally overmatched.
Now Hamels will be bunting. Need a popup.
Maybe they do the wave to irritate Marty, who hates it with a passion.
I hope that show wasn’t CGI. It doesn’t look like it, but by the same token, I’ve never seen video anything like it for comparison.
Reds lucked out on that call.
Hit and run with the pitcher up? What? No wonder Charlie Manuel is on the hot seat.
Gonzalez misses the tag (bad throw by Ross) as Barajas swipes second on a botched hit-and-run — ump blows the call in the Reds favor.
Is it possible to be any more laid back that Charlie Manuel?
Manuel wasn’t laid back when he challenged that Philly radio host to a fight earlier this week.
Video here.
I caught a glimpse of that clip. What did the radio host say to him?
This is going to be a long season, I’m afraid. A lot of people said things like “we never won any pennants when we had a great offense,” but personally, I’d rather watch the Reds lose 7-6 than 3-1 with 2 hits every night.
I never figured out what they were fighting about. Manuel comes across like an angry old hilljack.
Too bad there wasn’t a camera behind the door!
Watching Padres vs. Rockies – Todd Helton has a big bushy goatee, and looks very strange.
…and Helton just ran thru a stop sign and got thrown out at the plate with his team down 4 runs.
If Milton keeps up the quality starts maybe we can deal him for a bat.
Never one to grow his facial hair past some stubble, Helton showed up with a goatee thick enough to house a family of sparrows.
“I have my reasons for having it on there,” he said, and when asked whether he’d care to divulge those reasons, he said no.
Re Planet Earth
More than five years in the making, PLANET EARTH redefines blue-chip natural history filmmaking and continues the Discovery Channel mission to provide the highest quality programming in the world. The 11-part series will amaze viewers with never-before-seen animal behaviors, startling views of locations captured by cameras for the first time, and unprecedented high-definition production techniques. Award-winning actress and conservationist Sigourney Weaver is the series’ narrator.
Oh crap. Rowand hit that one a ton.
Would Chambliss make a difference with these hitting problems?
Ed with another hit. That’s encouraging.
2 consecutive hits for EE – a bloop on the hit-and-run, and now a broken bat job.
Maybe Ross hit for the cycle – a TP, a DP, and a routine out.
Ross is hitting at Narron-like levels. (Caution: Narron’s batting lines not safe for children)
I saw this a lot with Bruce Bochy – terrible-hitting catchers who become managers tend to give a lot of rope to their own terrible-hitting catchers.
LLM had better play all next week.
That strikeout ought to count double, it was so bad.
Poor Charlie!!!
Let’s tied it up to really tick him off.
Freel with a dink single.
1. No clue why they had EE going to 3rd on that one (down 3, and w/ 2 outs).
2. Throw beat him.
3. Good slide/bad tag = safe at 3rd.
….did Freel advance?
Will Ferrell will try for the tying HR.
Dunn with a chance to tie it. That’s all you can ask for, at this point.
Thom with the running count.
He’s really got to stop doing that. It’s obnoxious.
Gonzlez really is bailing everyone out – ball glances off a diving EE’s glove, Gonzalez barehands it and throws him out.
Gonzo with the manos de oro
Nice play by BP.
The “pitching and defense” is certainly much improved. The hitting is just sewer level.
19,500 walk-ups over the past 2 days. Reds fans really don’t like buying in advance, do they?
St. Louis is in some trouble. Marty says that they have Randy Kiesler in their starting rotation.
At least these games go quickly.
Hopefully, this wacky line up is history.
5 hits. Hurray! See you for more excitement tomorrow.
I don’t think the Reds fans like buying on-line and getting socked with a zillion service charges. I know I don’t. I alway buy the day of the game.
Wow, 15 strikeouts for Cole @#@#@# Hamels
Freel: 4 for his last 17
Dunn: 3 for his last 19 with 12 Ks
Gonzales: 4 for his last 27
Encarnacion: 4 for his last 39 with 9 K
Ross: 3 for his last 28 with 13 Ks
…don’t forget the triple play.