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Let’s recap tonight’s titanic struggle….
FINAL
Cincinnati 2
Washington 1
W: J. Cueto (9-5)
L: R. Detwiler (1-3)
S: F. Cordero (24)
BOX SCORE
POSITIVES
–Johnny Cueto was excellent: 8+ innings, one run allowed on six hits, striking out five and walking none. The only blemish was a leadoff homer he allowed in the bottom of the ninth inning, before leaving the game. Still…Cueto has been just outstanding all season long.
–Classic Joey Votto line: 2-3, homer, 2 walks, RBI, run scored.
–Miguel Cairo had two hits, one of which was an infield single where Cairo really busted his tail to get down the line. He keeps delivering* when needed.
NEGATIVES
–Not a lot of offense tonight.
–*Cairo did commit an error, his second of the year.
–Cordero wasn’t good, though he wasn’t helped by a key error from Paul Janish. Fortunately, he left the bases loaded, saved by a double play ball to end the game.
NOT-SO-RANDOM THOUGHTS
–I don’t know about the Reds, but I definitely needed that win.
–I’ve enjoyed getting to see Davey Johnson the last couple of days. Best Reds manager since Sparky.
–Sheesh, Washington’s Ryan Zimmerman is great. I love that guy. Really wish he played for the Reds. (Oh yeah, and he went to UVa too.)
–How good has Johnny Cueto been this year? I don’t think it can be overstated. He’s 9-5 with a 1.89 ERA, and he has just been dominant.
Okay, Reds go for the series win tomorrow.
Final was 2-1 Good Guys.
Thanks, MrSaturdayNite…I knew I’d forget to change that before I published the post.
I’m going to help out Sarge in between his bong hits. As I remember Daugherty has been critical of Jay Bruce.
As I have no respect for the guy, I’d ask Sarge to come up with someone in the media with a brain who has been critical.
On this site, tons of people have been critical. I do get 107,000 hits on google when I type in “Jay Bruce overrated”, but none to standard mainstream media sites on the first couple pages.
Cueto pitched outstandingly and they won which is very good.
That is also the only reason we aren’t talking about the two bases loaded situations with one or no outs which created only 1 run total
Excuse me!? Johnson is one of the most overrated managers of all time! Best Reds manager since Sparky, you have a choice of 2 to decide between: Pete Rose (4 consecutive winning seasons, something no other manager has been able to do since Anderson) or Lou Piniella (World Series winner). And no, you can’t blame Johnson’s failings on Marge Schott or (much as I would like to) Leatherpants. Johnson lost the play-offs because he realized much too late that Chuck McElroy and Xavier Hernandez SSSSSUUUUUUUUUUCKED and once he did, he threw Mike Jackson out there evry time and let him get shelled
Oh, yea…and what the hell was Baker thinking, 8th inning, bases loaded, 2 outs, letting Cueto hit? That was very nearly the tombstone on the game.
Really, we should just make a numbered list of mistakes and blunders Baker seems to make with regularity and a corresponding list of exclamations of disbelief, listed with letters. So the above statement (question: “What the hell…?” {listed as letter A}; situations: bases loaded, late inning, two out, pitcher hitting {listed as number 7}) could just be written as: “A7!”. It would save us some time
Okay, let me just say, after tonight…despite all of the Redlegs’ troubles this year, consider ourselves lucky to be their fans. I just got done attending back-to-back Padres games (vs. the f@#$^ng Mets) out here in San Diego. I’ve been displaced from Cincy (in Vegas) going on 10+ years now, and had never brought myself to making a trip to the nearest neighboring MLB ballpark (meaning, a NL park, and NOT the Dodgers, I won’t be beaten into a coma wearing my Reds gear) for a game. San Diego is such a pleasant city, weather, location, etc., and only a 5 hr. drive from LV, and with only a week before I have to go back to work, I figured I’d take the family on one last outing & see just how great PETCO Park is. It IS a very nice ballpark, not a bad seat in the house, but the Padres…they really suck…and their fans…they’re really not into baseball at all (even my wife, who despises baseball, noted the lack of excitement and energy here, compared to GABP). I looked at this trip as a little get away from my Reds’ 2011 Season depression, but even watching the Friars beat up the Mets last night, and then get their @sses handed back to them this afternoon, I couldn’t help but miss watching my Reds, back at home, in Vegas, on my computer, with my MLB.TV subscription. No real point to this post except that, despite all the problems we’ve had this year, this is still a team with a LOT of promise and a LOT of EXCITEMENT, and, I know from living in the ‘Nati, that the thought is that the grass is always greener on the other side…well…it isn’t. I would have killed to have been back at GABP the last two nights than here (except it was, like 75% and breezy…and almost every other woman you see is beautiful…and the entire ballpark won free tacos from Jack-In-The-Box tonight because some guy correctly guessed Cone # 3…but we missed out b/c my son took too long trying on the potty after the final out and they ran out of free taco passes…which is ridiculous b/c there was less than 20K there tonight in attendance…but I wasn’t that upset b/c it probably spared my entire family a bout w/ E. coli). Anyway, humidity, losing record and Dusty Baker aside, I experienced a much higher high the three games I took my family to GABP this year than coming to this “paradise” in Southern California. The highlight of my night tonight was seeing a 2-1 Reds’ final on the scoreboard. (And please don’t let this rant discourage anybody from missing out on attending a game @ PETCO, it really is an awesome ballpark, I mean, where else where you find a vendor selling hot chocolate from a 5 gallon tank on his back in your section in the middle of August?!? And if your home team is losing, you can just drive, like, 5 minutes to the beach and forget about it). Peace.
@wildwestLV: Kind of a long post there, but I get the jist of it. We take too much for granted as Reds fans. Tonite on my car radio I listened to Joakim Soira close out a win against the Yankees, on 40 pitches that included 2 hits and 2 walks. Even when they beat the Yankees, I’m glad I’m not a Royals fan.
@Python Curtus: Johnson lost the NLCS because of a bunch of bad luck in the first two games. The Reds couldn’t get guys home from 3rd with no one out in one game, and blew a 9th inning lead in the other. And what are you talking about with McElroy, who didn’t pitch in the NLCS at all, and Hernandez had one appearance in a game that was over anyways. Ditto for Jackson’s shelling; they got shut out in that game too. They didn’t hit.
I don’t know how you can rate Pete Rose over Johnson. Johnson only got 2 full years and finished in first place both of them. He got fired for living with his fiance at age 50 or something like that. What a deadbeat. Rose managed 4 full years and finished 2nd place 4 times. How is that better?
Lou had finishes of 1, 5, and 2 with the Reds. Not sure how that beats 1 and 1. Both are successful managers. I think Johnson is definitely better overall—his lifetime finishes are 2, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 1, 2, 1, 3, 2, in full seasons. I’d call that pretty damn good.
I missed the game and it’s just as well. Dusty’s batting Cueto with the bases loaded in the 8th and Janish’s error in the 9th would have given me cardiac arrest.
How many freaking times has Dusty pulled that kind of stunt this season ? It’s “Keep the starter in at all costs.” Cueto is the Reds best pitcher, yes, but he’d thrown over 100 pitches and you can’t pass on a bases loaded opportunity that late with a 1 run lead.
Glad the Reds won though. Cueto pitching a gem and the Reds losing anyway would have been a bummer.
@Dave Lowenthal: I agree that Pete Rose was not as good a manager as Dave Johnson. He was not a good manager, period. The Reds were the favorite to win the NL West in 1987 and 1988. They died in August of ’87 for no good reason – no key injuries – losing all 6 games to their rival Giants. The 1988 team also underachieved. All of Pete Rose’s second place teams finished well behind the first place team and were dominated by the first place team.
He overused Mario Soto – often starting him on 3 days rest, despite Soto’s objections. Then there was the little matter of 1989.
I don’t see how the Reds getting swept by the Braves in the 1995 NLCS was Dave Johnson’s fault. Ron Gant and Reggie Sanders were in deep slumps and the Braves had that great pitching. Only Larkin was hitting for the Reds.
The first 2 losses were in extra innings, the first one a real heartbreaker, losing a 1 run lead in the 9th – all I remmber about that was a ground ball that went just past Hal Morris’ glove.
It was the one year the 1990s Braves won the WS.
@Dave Lowenthal: The worst thing about the Johnson firing was his replacement: Ray Knight. Not one of your better moves, Marge.
@wildwestLV: Just read more of your post, good stuff. San Diego is indeed a beautiful city with a lot of beautiful women walking around. But not at all a baseball town.
Just checked out the video hilites. Ryan Zimmerman is good. (Duh.)
Jonny Gomes really wiped out Janish on that final play. It was clean, nothing to complain about I guess. But if Janish got hurt, bad news.
@pinson343: Correction to my own post. Cueto hadn’t thrown 100 pitches at the time he batted, and he of course pitched a full inning before being pulled in the bottom of the 9th.
So this for me does not count as an obvious case of leaving in the starter too long, especially with the way the Reds bullpen has pitched. I would have PH for Cueto, but it’s not an obvious call.
Welch was saying something to the effect that ‘Dusty sent Cueto out in the 9th because he’s the kind of manager that takes things like Cueto going for the ERA title into account and was trying to get him more innings’…
…I agree with Pinson – ‘I would have PH for Cueto, but it’s not an obvious call.’
…I was expecting to see the usual suspects posting about Cueto’s lack of strike-outs and telling us what his ERA *should really* be :roll:.
OK…2nd inning – no outs. A guy on first with below average speed and the league leader in strike-outs at the plate…What do you do?…If you’re Dusty Baker you try a hit and run which results in a strike ‘em out throw ‘em out double play.
@wildwestLV: James Joyce would have been proud of that post.
@pinson343: and it was a 2-0 lead at the time. But still, I also would have PH for him.
Janish did have a bad error in the 9th, but to be fair, he made a very good turn on the DP to end the game, the flip from Phillips was high and Gomes was barreling down on him. Nice job by Janish.
Another nailbiter at least partially b/c of our bullpen’s inability to throw strikes. Walks out of the bullpen make me crazy.
Stubbs deserves a lot of credit for beating Espinosa to the bag on Hernandez’s grounder in the 8th. Without that, it’s an inning-ending DP, and the run wouldn’t have counted. That hustle gave us a 2-0 lead, which ended up being critical.
And I agree it was a tough call whether to let Cueto hit in the top of the 8th with the bases loaded and 2 outs. Score was 2-0 at that point, and Cueto had been great for 7 innings, and I think his pitch count was in the low 90′s.
Alonso was in the on-deck circle and then got called back.
I think I would’ve pinch hit for Cueto (I figured at most we’d get just one more inning out of him), but it’s a tough call.
As far as I’m concerned, pinch hitting for Cueto was a no-brainer. 2-0 with a tiring starter, or a single makes it 4-0 with a chance for more at the top of the order and a fresh arm from the pen.
Worse than the actual decision though, was the way it was discussed by the announcers on the radio. “If Janish had been walked intentionally, I believe Baker would have pinch hit Alonso for Cueto.”
So they really thought that bases loaded, 2 out with a 2 run lead in the 8th was different than bases loaded, 2 out with a 2 run lead in the 8th? I’m just not following how they came up with that. And (this is the scary part for me) I’m not sure they were wrong about it.
At this point I have no issue with leaving Cueto in to hit in the 8th. He has been pitching very well and at this point in teh season all that matters is players personal stats, so why not allow Cueto the chance to get a complete game.
There is never a point in the season where this should be true. Maybe it is for individual players, whose next paycheck depends on their personal stats. But a manager’s job is to win every game. If he believes leaving Cueto in gives us the best chance, that’s fine. I disagree, but ok. But if the only reason for leaving Cueto in was to give him a chance for a complete game shutout, even when it isn’t the best decision for winning the game, then that’s just wrong.
At the point where a team is out of a pennant race, the team then looks to help players earn certain mildstones for their season/career which is okay. At this point what does it matter if we win or lose, we are not going to the playoffs so it really doesn’t matter if we win or lose does it?
I agree with jrob on this one. The manager’s job is to win games, regardless of where we are in the standings.
Janish made a DAMN good play at the end. Phillips toss was high and Janish was trying to time Phillips toss so he could step on the bag and make a quick through with Gomes coming very hard.
Janish did make an error just before that but it was a ball in the hole and Gomes has pretty good speed. He was trying to hurry to make the play in time.
I’m not a huge Janish fan but I think his error stats belie his defensive play. He has the best arm of any infielder and he has very good range.
I hope next year that he is THE backup to Cozart. He’s better defensively than Cozart I think (better range), but Cozart is definitely a much better hitter.