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Time for a recap of tonight’s titanic struggle….
FINAL
Houston 8
Cincinnati 3
WP: W. Rodriguez (2-2)
LP: Harang (2-3)
BOX SCORE
POSITIVES
–Laynce Nix crushed a homer in the 8th as a pinch-hitter; it was his first major league homer in 3 years. The more I see this guy, and the more I hear about the injury that really sidelined him for a long time, the more I think Nix has a real chance to resurrect his career and have a few good years. I have no idea why Chris Dickerson should play over Nix.
–Brandon Phillips had a double and a solo homer. Finally, signs of life!
NEGATIVES
–TOS (This Offense Stinks.)
–Again, pitching and defense? Three more errors tonight. Only two teams in MLB have committed more in 2009.
–Aaron Harang wasn’t helped by his defense tonight, but he wasn’t very good anyway. Disappointing performance by the big guy.
–Mike Lincoln continued his terrible work out of the bullpen, giving up two more runs in one inning of work. His ERA is now up to 15.12. I really feel bad for the guy, because he has a neat story, but he just isn’t pitching very well right now.
ETC.
–The Reds are no longer above .500. It was fun while it lasted. Hope they get back above the break-even mark tomorrow. That’s not guaranteed, though; the Astros have won 11 straight and 17 of their last 18 games at GAB.
–Glad to see Adam Rosales with the big club. I expect he’ll start at 3B tomorrow.
–Thom Brennaman tonight:
Right now, on this Reds team, there are a lot of guys that, when they go to shave in the morning, they know that they’re not getting the job done. In many cases, they know they’re going to be in the lineup that night (anyway).
Free Laynce Nix. And Free Jonny Gomes while you’re at it. A Nix/Gomes platoon in LF could be productive.
—-Smallest crowd in Great American Ballpark history tonight:
Paid attendance is just 9,878 at GABP here tonight. John Fay’s list of all-time GABP crowds shows we’ve shattered the previous low mark of 11,987 set April 3, 2008 vs. Arizona.
The park opened in 2003. Weather tonight was 71 degrees. Rain moved out earlier, game started on time.
There were also 7,000 Kid Glove tickets distributed tonight.
Yeah, the Reds had a really nice road trip, which would ordinarily energize the home fans. On the other hand, they’ve played just awful since coming home, and this is on the heels of 8 straight losing seasons. Are Reds fans making a statement with their wallets, or are other factors more to blame?
Thought this was worth commenting on as well..
http://news.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?category=blog07&plckController=Blog&plckScript=blogScript&plckElementId=blogDest&plckBlogPage=BlogViewPost&plckPostId=Blog%3ae57bcc87-152a-4f72-96fb-cc08b1f396efPost%3a8f1f3c49-ae0c-4632-9a7c-4cecd031bfd1&plckCommentSortOrder=TimeStampAscending&sid=sitelife.cincinnati.com
http://www.thesimpsonsquotes.com/quotes/353.html
http://www.rpi.edu/~markhn/sounds/suck.wav
Crowd size says alot.
Time for Gomes/Nix. But need a lefty handed hitter for the bench as well. Janish needs to get a chance as well.
From McCoy’s blog:
In addition, the Astros stole four bases in four tries and the Reds made three errors. Whatever happened to the New Era — defense, pitching and manufacturing runs? The Reds are manufacturing runs like GM is going to manufacture Pontiacs. And they brought in catcher Ramon Hernandez for defense. Four stolen bases. No, it isn’t always the catcher’s fault, but he didn’t come close to throwing anybody out.
Are you really done with Dickerson at this point? Given the defensive issues I see giving Nix more time, and I thought Gomes should be up over McDonald to start the year, but after last season I think it is still a little early to pull the plug.
I have to agree wholeheartedly. Lets get Gomes up here with Nix and send Dickerson back to AAA where he belongs. I can’t believe anyone ever thought that he’d hit 25 HRs a season in the bigs.
It’s too soon to declare Dickerson a bust. But it was also too soon to declare him a starter going into the season. In other words, they should be making decisions based on their long-term talent evaluations, and not 31 games last season or 17 this.
That said, Nix has at least as impressive a pedigree, and Gomes has to have more appeal than Ol’ McDonald.
you cant be considered a bust if you were never a serious prospect to begin with.
with dickerson i thought we’d get a guy who could get on base and play defense.
Check out the “Ryan Freel is Unhappy” post at mlbtraderumors.com.
“It seems that the O’s acquired Freel for Ramon Hernandez in December mainly just to free up cash (they saved $3.5MM) and a catching spot for Matt Wieters.”
Well duh.
Farny wants more playing time. What OF, other than ours, is weak enough for him to get playing time ?
Who is to blame for the errors and the baserunners running a marathon around the bases? I think it falls squarely on the shoulders of the manager.
Who thought Hernandez was brought in for his defense? It has been harped on here by many, myself included, since that deal was made that Hernandez was not a good defensive catcher, he can’t stop the running game, and opponents test his arm more than any other catcher in the majors.
Exactly, Greg; I thought that was a given.
The benefit to adding Hernandez is that his bat, if not above-average, should be significantly better than what the Reds had last year. I thought everyone accepted, however, that he’d be worse than Bako defensively (and worse than Hanigan, too, for what that’s worth).
You could attribute the low attendance to the Swine flu scare.
And to the fact that (at least according to legend) the Reds don’t start drawing until school is out.
People aren’t going to the games anymore because they don’t wanna miss Brantley’s brilliant insights. That dude refers to everything as the Louisiana Breakdown. As a Texan, what is his obsession with Louisiana?
We could probably develop a Jeff Brantley “Cowboy” Drinking Game for those fans not sophisticated enough to play the George Grande Drinking Game.
Bob, maybe we could attribute how the Reds have played the last couple of nights to the swine flu also. Its like their sleepwalking out there.