1. Hanging a loss on Oswalt (for just the second time in 25 career decisions vs. Reds)
2. Holding Berkman hitless for an evening (and he actually only went 2-for-10 – albeit with a home run – in the series)
3. When a division rival brings in its closer trailing 4-2 in the series finale to “get in some work”
4. A series sweep on the road!
Comment in CBS’ gamer from Wednesday made me chuckle …
Line from gamer:
The homer was the 315th in Berkman’s career, moving him ahead of Reggie Smith and into sole possession of fifth place on the career list for switch-hitters.
Cheezdogger’s comment:
Of the 315 career homeruns, 313 have been against the Cincinnati Reds.
Check out this recently posted video footage on YouTube. It’s a home movie from a Reds/Cardinals game at Busch Stadium in the late 70s. Haven’t been able to figure out exactly what year it was filmed in, let alone the game. At the 3:03 mark, you can see Mario Soto down by the bullpen and Pete Rose Johnny Bench hit the home run in the beginning, so it was either 1977 or 1978 1977 or after. Can any sleuths out there figure out what the date of this game?
The scoreboard is show a few times and you can see messages about upcoming promotions with the day of July 20th… so that’s a starting point.
While we do see highlights from game played in the ’70s quite often, this is still pretty neat to see. It’s documentation of a trip to the ballpark by a fan. It’s their perspective and not a broadcast TV station’s angle. The lack of sound just adds to home movie aspect and makes it that much more special.
Cincinnati, upside ya head! (Photo courtesy of Gary Vengeance and Dr. Whiskey)
Eat it.
Yesterday at Great American Ball Park, the dynamic duo of Gary Vengeance and Dr. Whiskey unveiled something they like to call the “Sky-Rosa.”
This heart-attack on a plate consists of a Skyline Cheese Coney being wrapped up in a piece of LaRosa’s pizza. Moments before he was hospitalized, Gary said it was the best thing he’s ever eaten in his life.
I have to admit, I’m going to try it (as soon as I finish writing my will).
Like Jamie, we’re eager to give it a whirl. We might even stuff that bad-boy into a ice cream helmet and have at it.
This Bud’s For You, Gary and Dr. Whiskey!
UPDATE: In case you didn’t really believe someone would actually ingest this beauty, here’s video proof:
Johnny Cueto and his stirrups
Last year, our main cheese slice Joey Votto hooked ‘em up, as did Mike “Latest Sensation*” Leake while pitching in the Arizona Fall League Rising Stars Game. We had high hopes that both would continue the look, but alas, we’re back to baseball slacks styled by Disco Stew.
So, where does that leave us? Well, just pining for more.
But also… an idea. Or, at least a suggestion. Here goes:
Redlegs' uniforms during the '50s
It’ll be great seeing the Cardinals in their ’54 styles too. Looking forward to the visuals that day.
*That’s not really Mike’s nickname. We just made that up. On the spot. You can use it if you want. If not, no biggie. It’s really not that great of a nickname anyhow. If you do have something better (Godzilla is pretty tight) let us know. We’ll do our best to seed it for ya.
Before. After. You Make The Call®
Discuss amongst yourselves.
Doesn’t it seem like every year (at least since 2000 – the last year where the Reds finished better than .500) the team has one reliever who gets absolutely lit up for about the first month of the season before he gets sent down or put on the DL or DFA’d. Logan Ondrusek is looking more and more like this year’s Josias Manzanillo (my personal favorite). Remember Manzanillo? That dude threw batting practice in his brief stint as a Red.
I know there are people who will say why not Masset but Masset’s proven he’s got set-up guy and probably even closer-caliber stuff and I for one am giving him an off-to-a-rough-start-of-the-season pass. Ondrusek’s a rookie; I don’t doubt that he has very good stuff and he had a very solid spring but he’s struggling badly. His ERA is 11.25.
Anyway, a look back …
2009: Mike Lincoln. 8.22 ERA in 23 innings. His ERA at the end of April was 15.12.
2008: Todd Coffey. Coffey sported an 8.00 ERA through 8 appearances in April, and it was only down to 6.46 by the end of the month before he landed on the DL.
2007: Gary Majewski. OK, it didn’t happen in April because he was hurt or in Louisville but Majewski was AWFUL for the Reds in June. Through his first 10 appearances with the Reds in 2007, Majewski’s ERA was 15.88.
2006: Tough pick here. Mike Burns had an 8.78 ERA in 11 relief appearances before he was sent to the Red Sox. Brian Shackelford’s ERA was 7.71 at the end of May. Rick White’s ERA was 6.26 when he was dealt.
2005: Ben Weber. 8.03 ERA in 10 appearances. Honorable mention: Joe Valentine. whose ERA was 9.53 when he went on the DL May 3. Valentine allowed 2 or more earned runs in three of his last four relief appearances before going on the DL.
2004: Brian Reith. This was reliever Brian Reith, three years after he went 0-7 in 8 starts in 2001. Reliever didn’t fare much better, posting a 7.27 ERA in 22 appearances before a mid-June departure. And before you point out that Mike Matthews didn’t have great numbers either, he was actually pretty solid that year with the exception of a 14-4 loss to the Pirates June 27 in which he allowed 8 earned runs in 2/3 of an inning.
2003: This was the Manzanillo year. 15 earned runs – including 7 home runs! – in 10 2/3 innings to start the season. He was gone by April 19. He somehow managed to give up 2 home runs in each of three different appearances. Phenomenal.
2002: Jim Brower’s ERA was 5.87 at the end of April.
2001: No really futile starts to the season to speak of among the bullpen; Frankie Rodriguez had an 11.42 ERA in 7 relief appearances, but that was in July.
Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to track down any video of it (let us know if you find it) but I’ve read on several message boards about how on Monday’s Baseball Tonight John Kruk really dressed down Alfonso Soriano for his lack of hustle – and specifically mentioned former Red Adam Dunn as an example of a player who runs hard on a hit to the outfield.
Baseball Tonight had a timer set on Soriano going from home to 2nd base and one on Dunn doing the same but faster.
Did anyone see it? It all goes back to Dunn going all out because he’s not a Red anymore, right!
I hate to keep picking on the poor guy, but truebluela.com’s preview also failed to recognize the Janish factor.
Seriously, you don’t get much bigger RBI hits with two outs than that one. Clutchish.
And I think we all know that a sixth consecutive loss – in a game we led 9-3 – would have been pretty devastating (all together now) even this early in the season.
Unsung hero: Jay Bruce. That catch to end the top of the 8th and stop the bleeding was HUGE.
Issues: Homer is looking more like first half of ’09 Homer than second half Homer so far. And you have to start to wonder what’s up with Masset.
Dodgers fans are licking their chops in advance of the upcoming 3-game series. Among the blogs kicking the Reds while they are down on Monday was truebluela.com.
Truebluela.com’s preview (don’t feel like you have to give them a page view unless you REALLY want to, because I’ll cover the high points), which blasts Jay Bruce repeatedly (at one point calling him “the king of the poster children of Delmon Young, Andy Marte and Alex Gordon”) and calls the Reds “a team in disarray,” and doesn’t think very highly of our projected starters for the series (nor our “decaying” starting backstop):
• On Homer Bailey: “Homer has never quite lived up to the lofty expectations. His control is awful, his dominance only adequate, and he lives up to his name.”
• On Aaron Harang: “He has a 7.82 ERA, a 6.59 FIP, but only a 4.32 xFIP, suggesting he’s had some bad luck in the home run department. That probably won’t improve after our outfield gets done with him.”
• On Mike Leake: “Mike Leake jumped from college to the starting rotation and has a done a job in two starts in keeping base-runners from scoring. He’s gotten into the sixth inning in both his starts. We will kill him. That sterling 2.63 ERA will look very much like his xFIP (5.69) after Thursday Night. He does not belong in a major league rotation yet. At least not one facing the Dodger outfield.”
Just a couple of other gems, with our responses in Redleg red (which I realize is a no-no because folks might mistake them for links but please allow me an exemption of sorts, just this one time):
• “Help for the rotation could be on its way with Aroldis Chapman who is in the minors for some reason.”
Heaven forbid a 22-year-old pitcher from Cuba with known control issues makes a couple of starts at Triple-A Louisville before joining the Reds.
• “Bullpen:Francisco Cordero is still the closer and still doing the job.”
Preview posted Monday but Saturday’s recap/box score apparently weren’t available. It IS, however, a compliment, so actually we’ll take it.
• “Hitting stud Micah Owings is doing the best work. The ex-starter seems to be thriving in the bullpen, to bad this reduces the times he will hit. Others we will see are Nick Massett, Daniel Herrera, Arthur Rhodes (yes he is still pitching), and Mike Lincoln. Anyone else and that means the game is out of hand.”
So I guess this means that the game will have to be out of hand if Logan Ondrusek makes an appearance. Which would be quite a departure from Ondrusek’s game log thus far considering that up until now he’s appeared in some very close games.
• “I expect a sweep as our offense will overwhelm their pitching.”
Your offense that scored a grand total of two runs in its past two games – at home? Keep in mind your Dodgers dropped two out of three in friggin’ Pittsburgh just a couple of weeks ago, which isn’t quite as bad as getting swept but it’s not good Ethier (intentionally misspelled just for fun). We’re reeling a little right now but we’re not going to get swept in consecutive series. So don’t bet the farm. Your team is 6-6, dude. Let’s dial it down.
OMGReds: promoting goodwill among fellow fan blogs since Jan. 9, 2008.
