Reds Game Live Blog.. type thing

Much like we did for some of the Bengals games, tonight starting at 7:10 we will be following the Reds vs. Pirates game tonight with inning by inning updates. So if you are bored, and/or are watching the Reds game tonight stop in an follow along.

Here is a picture of the always popular Erin Andrews Ass to hold you over until then....
We are five minutes or so from the first pitch. The starting pitcher for the Pirates is Paul Maholm who is 3-4 with a 4.5 ERA. So not impressive. The Reds are starting UNDEFEATED Mike Leake. I think its about time for us to give Leake a nickname. We'll get back to that later though.... be back in an inning.

Inning 1: Some Pirate got a hit but no one cares, no harm done. 11 pitch inning for Leake. In the Reds' half of the inning Votto laced a double which got me thinking about something. ESPN sportswriter and my personal hero Bill Simmons has a theory, inspired by Joey Harrington, that a player can't possibly be respected with the name Joey. It makes sense. Think about it... everyone named Joey you know is either a screw up or at the very least kinda goofy. Meanwhile Joe Frazier, Joe Theisman, Joe Morgan, Joe Namath... all great athletes. All great Americans. So from now on we call him Joe Votto. Or if you must, Joseph. Rolen grounded out 0-0 after one.

Inning 2: A couple double plays make this a rather uninteresting inning. Both pitchers look "groovy."

Inning 3: Cedeno gets a hit which makes number 8 hitters 2-16 against Leake on the season. Thank you for that random stat Mr. Chris Welch. Another double play for the Reds and the Pirates have 3 hits and nothing to show thus far.

Janish starts the bottom of the 3rd with a hit. The 2nd of his career. Okay not really but man he's weak at the plate. Reds strand him at 2nd. 3 innings down, 0-0 still.

Inning 4: Welp Gomes got a 2 out double but they couldn't get him in. I'm glad they decide to play the most boring 4 innings of baseball I've seen this year when I decide to do a running diary. Just to make sure you're awake......... sorry, I couldn't find any hot girls wearing Reds gear. Some nice Marge Schott stuff though.

Inning 5: A Pirate runner almost got to 2nd base!!! And who says baseball is boring. Our pitcher got a hit... nothing else. This is physically painful. On a brighter note since I have nothing to write about I spent the inning searching and look what I found....
.... pretty sure I've posted this pic in another blog, but I don't care.

Inning 6: The first 5 innings took place in less than 1 hour and 10 minutes. At this rate this could possibly be a 2 hour game, which will give me way too much free time. Somebody. Do. Something.

Chris Welch has absolutely no idea what the Pythagorean Theorem is. Here's a hint buddy: It has nothing to do with run differential compared to win/loss record. It actually is about triangles... which, in case you were wondering, the baseball field is not.

The Pirates get a couple more hits, but strand 2. Shocking. Joe Votto got picked off first base. There's something ya don't see everyday, but if I'm not mistaking that's at least the 2nd time Votto has been picked off this season. Rolen lines out to end the inning and the score is STILL 0-0.

Inning 7: Lastings Milledge (how could any sane person honestly think Lastings is a good name for a child) just swung at a pitch that, I swear, bounced in the grass before the plate. He would then lace a line to left for a hit only to get thrown out trying to steal a second.

The Reds finally have a runner in scoring position with a Ramon Hernandez double. I still don't think Hernandez should play as much as he does, but I'll admit he doesn't completely suck. Hannigan is still batting almost 60 points higher, but unfortunately does not speak Spanish which hurts when Cueto starts. I'm guessing the new call up Enerio Del Rosario would prefer a Spanish speaking battery mate as well. Regardless I think Hannigan should be starting 2 of every 3 games and as I write this Hernandez has 15 more at-bats than Hannigan. This will be interesting to watch as the season progresses. After a Janish walk, Dusty curiously leaves Leake in to bat? Who pops out ending the inning. Very questionable move there. 0-0 as we head to the 8th.

Inning 8: Unreal. Routine fly to center, and Stubbs can't find the ball which ends up landing about 20 feet behind him. Iwamura ends up on 3rd. Next batter ropes a double up the first base line bringing him in. That's just plain dumb luck. Leake gets pulled after 8 and 1/3 solid innings. Another impressive showing by the rookie. Lets just hope the Reds can get the sticks going in the bottom of the inning and keep him undefeated. Aurthur Rhodes and his 0.49 (not a typo) ERA are on to relieve. WOWZA!! After a strike out by Rhodes, Hernandez snaps off Walker who strayed a little bit too far from second.

Bruce pitch hit for Heisey and dribbles the first pitch back to the mound. SO LET ME GET THIS STRAIGHT DUSTY. YOU PITCH HIT FOR A GUY YOU FELT COMFORTABLE IN THE LEAD OFF SPOT AND HAD ALREADY SEEN THE PITCHER TWICE WITH BRUCE, ONE OF OUR COLDEST BATTERS WHO HAD BEEN SITTING ON THE BENCH ALL GAME!?!?!?! MY GOD I HATE YOU.

PHILLIPS HOMER!!!! ABSOLUTE BOMB TO LEFT CENTER! Okay Baker, you're lucky that Phillips distracted everyone from yet another horrendous coaching decision. On a happy note though, it's tied up 1-1 and Mike Leake will get a no decision. Votto and Rolen strike out, but FINALLY something has happened. End of 8. Pirates 1, Reds 1.

Top of 9: After getting the first batter, Baker replaces Rhodes (in a 1-1 game) with Nick "son of a b*tch" Masset. Text from Greg: "Oh God." That sums it up nicely. Rolen makes another difficult play look routine. Every time he does this it makes me hate Edwin Encarnacion more and more. Masset gives up a homerun on a fastball straight down the middle. Awesome. The worst part is I'm not even surprsied. How many times is Dusty going to overmanage this team before something changes. It is absolutely unbelieveable how bad of an in game manager he is. Once again, Masset should be shot... that is quickly becoming the new Cintucky slogan.

Bottom of 9: Jonny Gomes starts off the inning with a strike out. Hernandez gets things started with a hit to left field. Lance Nix pitch hits for Drew Stubbs. Now this one makes sense. You put in a guy who has been crushing the ball for a weak hitter (who was batting 7th). It should also be noted that Nix homered in 3 straight starts, then hasn't started since (thank you for actually useful information Welch). Nix bloops out to 2nd. Cabrera, pitch hitting for Janish pops out to the catcher to end the game.


RECAP: What did we learn? Dusty sucks. Masset also sucks. The bats were cold. Shit Masset gets his 3rd loss on the season and his 2nd in his last 4 appearances. Final Score: Pirates 2, Reds 1.


Brian "now lets hope the Padres can take care of the hated Cards" Reinhart

Good to see the Reds we know and love are back....

So there I was at work grinding away like usual. I had heard the Reds put up 8 runs in the second inning after a God, ahem, Joey Votto grand slam, and were heading into the bottom of the 9th with a 9-3 lead. Normally for day games I will periodically check the score and try to follow most of the 9th inning from my desk, but today I was pretty busy, and thought “Hey it’s a 6 run lead… this ones in the bag. I’ll get some work done and just read the recap later.” Well you can then imagine my surprise about a half hour later when I get a text from my friend Volz reading “no ducking way.” Clearly Volz has not quite figured out predictive text, but we’ll deal with that at another time. An email from Greg shortly followed: “walk off grand slam, game over.”

At first I just assumed they were ducking with me because I mean come on.. not even the Reds could blow a 6 run lead in the 9th, but some quick research as well as a couple other angry emails/texts from friends would indeed confirm that the Reds had lost. They went into the 9th with the win in hand, and gave it up faster than Audrina at the site of a motorcycle.

To make matters worse the hated Cardinals beat the Marlins today to take over first place in the NL Central Division, or what is quickly becoming known as the St. Louis Invitational. Sure it may only be one game, and all this worrying is simply an over-reaction. I’m sure that’s how outside people or non-diehards feel about today’s game, but real Reds fans… we know. We’ve been here before, seen this 1,000 times, and will be shocked if anything but the expected lies ahead. What is the expected? About a 5-15 slide that puts us about 5 games back, causing Dusty to over-manage killing the confidence of all his young players, wearing out his veterans, and positioning us for a second half slide that leaves us below .500 and in 3rd or 4th place in the division yet again. I know I sound like Chicken Little, but we Reds fans just know when the sky is falling.

If you want to know why we lost today it was two main reasons: 4 errors (games like these happen and generally speaking the Reds have been outstanding defensively this season so we can let this slide) and poor coaching. I’ll elaborate on the 2nd one. First off you should never pitch Lincoln and Massett back to back. They are our most up and down relievers and if both are having an off night it will add up to a big inning for the opposition. You have to mix these high variance guys in with the more steady performers like Rhodes and Coco so that the inning doesn’t completely blow up in your face before you even realize what happens. Also if you are going to make a substitution, do it for the right reasons. Going into a defensive inning you do not take out Stubbs and leave Nix in the game. That is just flat out poor managing!

Hopefully this team can prove me wrong. They’ve never said die all season and are still only a half game out of first place. Unfortunately for most Reds’ fans we’ve seen this act and we know how it ends. Pretty ducking miserably.

Brian “Ugh” Reinhart

All We Can Talk About is Reds!!

Two things:

I heard the Reds are something like 45-22 since they signed Scott Rolen last year. Rolen is one of the reasons why this team is different than the pretenders of the mid 2000's with Griffey and Dunn. Another reason? Griffey and Dunn are gone. According to this article on SI.com, Griffey and Dunn were notorious for lounging around before games on the couch paging through magazines. The younger guys, including Jay Bruce would follow suit. Now a days? Exert from story:

"The couch is still in the Reds' digs. Nobody uses it before games. "There's no entitlement in that clubhouse now,'' Castellini said."

The Reds lead the majors in going first to third on a hit. Do you think Griffey and Dunn teams would have that type of hustle? Don't think so.

Lastly, I found a video of the saxophone player from Saturday night's Civil Rights game. BK Jackson performing America the Beautiful:

1st Place!?!? Feels...

.... oddly unsettling.

I better get this post up quickly because you never know how long it will last, but after back to back wins over the hated Cardinals your Cincinnati Reds find themselves atop the NL Central for the first time in... well I'm not going to take the time to look it up, but it's been f*cking forever. What I can tell you is that this is the latest in the season the Reds have led the division since 2006. Wow.

That's a long time. A lot of stuff has happened since then.

Like what exactly? Well I'm glad you asked.

Since the last time the Reds led the division this late in a season:
- The IPhone is released and makes rich college kids feel extra cool.
- Dexter premiers on Showtime and becomes the best show on TV.
- Rachael Ray becomes a household name and a leading candidate for the "Would you.." game between guys. Yes, I would.
- Monday Night Football moves to ESPN.
- The Dark Knight and Pirates of the Caribbean movies make more money than 20% of the countries in the world.
- Kevin Garnett finally wins an NBA title (before he became the role player he is today).
- The Departed wins an Academy Award for Best Movie Ever.
- Mel Gibson is arrested for DUI. To improve his image after this embarrassment he blasts Jewish people, goes insane, tries to come back, fails.
- Chris Hanson catches predators and develops an uncanny ability to get people to "have a seat right there."
- The Nintendo Wii is released. Idiots launch controllers into TV's. The Nintendo Wii Controller Wrist Safety Strap is released.
- MLB produces the Mitchell Report naming all players that have used or are using steroids.
- The United States suffers through its worst economic recession since the Great Depression.
- Hollywood writers go on strike producing more reality TV including 10 seasons of Survivor, 5 Real World/Road Rules challenges, 1 Howie Mandell, and 7 guido's STDing it up in Jersey.
- UK basketball fires Tubby Smith, hires Billy Clyde, fires Billy Clyde, hires John Calipari.
- Tiger Woods becomes #1 on the "Men Women Hate the Most" chart.
- Michael Jackson moonwalks one last time.
- The Hills on MTV becomes insanely popular sends Lauren Conrad straight into the bedrooms of horny teens everywhere.
- Twilight makes vampires seem cool. They really aren't though.
- Kanye West makes Taylor Swift cry.
- The United States of America elects its first African American president, Barack Obama.


Needless to say, us Reds fans have waited awhile to be relevant again.

Brian "oh and 'Megan Fox' became the number 1 google 2 years in a row" Reinhart

What A GAME!!!!!

Well I might have to pause writing this when the cops show up from the scream I let out as the Cardinals were thrown out at the plate trying to tie the game in the top of the 9th. What a game! And what a game to represent the civil rights game. Absolutely humongous come back game for the Reds. The guys should be congratulated, all but Coco Cordero who should be strapped to the wall by his jock strap while Jonny Gomes hits off a tee towards him.

(As a side note to how much Jim Day sucks, during the postgame he just said "there are tons of fans still here cheering and they are going crazy!!" Little did he realize that the camara had a good portion of the stands in his background and there was not a fan to be seen.)

Ramon Hernandez had an absolutely huge night with 2 hits, a walk, an RBI and the fabulous play at the plate to make the final out. Drew Stubbs also had a timely hit with a 2 run triple to put the Reds up 4-2. Arthur Rhodes came in and went 1,2,3 in the 7th. Nick Massett came on in the 8th and got the heart of the order 1, 2, 3 making Pujols look like a school girl on a strike 3 looking.

The win goes to Mike "10 year veteran rookie" Leake who improves to 4-0 and allowed 2 earned runs over 6 innings tonight. The game was a mirror image of last nights game. With the stellar rookie holding the opposing team to 2 runs. Luckily, this night belonged to the Reds.

This win has to be a huge confidence builder to the Reds who came into this game 2-5 on the year vs the Cardinals. They know the division runs straight through the Cardinals and at some point they will have to get over the mental hurdle of beating the Cards. Tonight was a big step in the right direction.

A big "u suck" goes out to ESPN for not covering this game on TV and for making no mention of it on espn.com the entire day or even after the game. I would think this would be the most recognized game of the year for MLB and for espn to make no mention of it is a shame.

One of the highlights of the night for me was saxophone player BK Jackson playing America the Beautiful. It had to bring a chill to everyone in the stadium. I will keep an eye out for it on youtube and post it if it appears.

Great night for the Reds and great night for the country. Rubber match tomorrow!!


Greg "I love the Reds" R.