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Message #: 30812
The highly-talented Cincy offense has lately been ceasing its season-long underachievement (42 runs, 64 hits in these 4 games) but the equally highly-talented pitching staff, which had been getting the job done all year long, is starting to hit the wall.... Game 1: The Reds pounced quickly on Mike Moore, driving his ERA up a little bit to 7.38 by scoring 4 in the first and 5 more off of him in the 4th. Kevin Gross (11-5) let the Cardinals pare the lead down to 9-4 but the Cincy offense woke up again and pulled away for a 13-4 win. The attack featured 16 hits, 5 doubles, a triple and a home run -- because HAL permitted Kevin Mitchell to roll in his 2 column for a rare change once the contest was no longer in doubt. Non-hitter Gross had a pair of hits including one of the 5 doubles (which opened a back-to-back-to-back-to-back sequence of two-base hits in the CIN 4th), and scored 2 runs. Gross tossed a mediocre complete game in which he scattered 9 hits and walked 4. ==================================================================== Game 2: Another day, another 13 runs, but this time all of the offense came early before we politely put the bats away. From there, CIN starter John Roper turned the 13-0 lead into a 13-5 final (2 of the 5 coming via Roper's own error). Jeff Brantley notched a 3-inning save, his 9th. HAL must have been the home plate ump when the Reds were on the mound, because an extremely high number of low-probability bases on balls were found in this series by St. Louis batters, with Roper donating 7 free passes in 6 IP in this contest. The visitors' 17-hit onslaught against Allen Watson and 5 relievers featured 3 round-trippers, the biggest being a Grand Slam in the 4th inning off the bat of newly-acquired Benito Santiago, who had 6 RBI today (and just 1 RBI in his other 8 games with the Reds). Santiago has been much better behind the plate than our other rag-armed backstops, as he has nailed 5 of 11 would-be stealers so far. ==================================================================== Game 3: Luckless Jose Rijo has failed to pitch at the quality level of his card all year long, so why should today be any different? It wasn't. With SLN's Scott Sanderson having one of his finer outings of the year (lowering his ERA to 4.99), Rijo didn't get many runs to work with, but he made sure the Cards had plenty and L.J.R. left on the short end of a 5-1 score. St. Louis broke the 1-1 tie in the bottom of the 6th with a surgical procedure that included a pair of free passes and a pair of timely blown-x chokes. Sub-.200 hitter Eric Anthony had done nothing up to that point, but in the end he had a big day at the plate (4 RBI) and 2 of those cut our deficit to 5-3, but a 2-run gopher and 4 straight baserunners with 2 outs in the SLN 8th capped Brantley's nightmarish fractional inning of relief. Anthony's final 2 RBI came on his 5th home run of the season but were far too little and far too late. Final score: 10-5. Perhaps one small factor in the outcome was the Cincy LOB Machine firing on all cylinders, outpacing the Cardinals by an slim 11-4 margin in that department. ==================================================================== Game 4: Another Cincy LOB-a-thon today proved nearly fatal, but we put a crimp in SLN starter Rheal Cormier's charmed season by scoring 5 early runs. Fortunately for the Frenchman, who was making his final start before leaving for Boston, nobody chokes like the Reds and Tim Pugh was only too happy to prove it. Over and over again. Leads of 3-0, 5-4, 6-5 and 7-6 were all forfeit by Pugh before he was finally escorted from the premises with the score 9-7 against him. The Cincy offense kept coming back though and amassed another 18 hits with 5 more doubles and -- it's a miracle! -- another 2-column home run from Mitchell. The real miracle was that it required a split card, of which the CIN batters drew a 20 a mere FOUR times today and fared only slightly better when not getting the highest possible card in the deck. Once Pugh was gone, the Reds bullpen eventually restored order although Chuck McElroy appeared just long enough to choke up a blown save (runs charged to the hapless Pugh) in the 7th. Todd Jones then took control and supplied 3 scoreless innings, while the offense came through with a tie in the 9th and the win in the 10th. Final score: 11-9. Cincy had a large (18-13) advantage in hits and an even bigger one in total bases, but our pitchers were squeezed for 8 walks which combined with our 11 LOB to help ensure a too-close-to-call result. Alan |
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