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Message #: 31744
The inevitable lump of coal in our stocking is officially a few weeks away, but the Reds get a pre-Christmas miracle by completing a 6-0 week despite our best efforts to avoid that perfection in the finale.... Game 1: Pittsburgh's Shawn Estes, recently rescued from the scrap heap, made his major league debut against the Reds and naturally performed far above expectations. Estes hooked up with CIN starter Scott Kamieniecki in a battle of goose eggs, with the scoreboard reading just 1-0 after 6 innings. That run came in the Cincy 3rd when Jeff '4e88' Huson, who gave Barry Larkin 3 partial days of rest, singled home Mark Lewis with 2 outs. Both starters turned the contest over to their respective bullpens, at which point the fireworks started. The Reds got the party underway with 3 runs off of Mike Bielecki, all of them coming via Chad Curtis's 6th homer of the year. Of course Tim Fortugno wasted no time in giving 2 of the 3 right back, aiding the Pirates with 3 free passes. The Reds tacked on 2 insurance runs, Fortugno stopped walking everybody, and the Reds came away with a 6-2 win. Fortugno registered his first save of the season with 3 innings of work (56 pitches, most of them avoiding the strike zone) and Kamieniecki raised his record to 4-2 and lowered his ERA to 2.53. Larkin, in relief of the 4e88 guy, homered in the 9th to complete the day's scoring. ========================================================================== Game 2: A phrase heard about once every decade -- "the Reds got all the breaks" -- was true today as scrub hurler Tim Pugh pitched a 3-hit shutout against the Buccos while his team gave him 7 runs of superfluous support. Final score: 8-0. The dice somehow kept finding the dead spots when the Pirates were at the plate, Jeff King made a couple of helpful (to the Reds) errors, and the Cincy offense pecked away constantly for 8 runs without scoring more than twice in any inning. Three home runs (Walton, Santiago, Ashley) off of Pirate lefty Denny Neagle in the first 4 frames produced 4 runs. ========================================================================== Game 3: A much more common occurrence in a Cincy contest: a team takes a 6-0 lead and that team blows it. But for a rare change the Reds were not "that team"! David West started for the Reds for the final time before being released, looking to keep his amazingly successful season on track. A quick pair of gophers from a couple of ping hitters, plus the x-chart finding Mr. 4e88 every chance it got (twice, for FIVE bases worth of botches), gave the home team 6 runs in the first 3 innings, 5 of them laughingly classified as "earned". Pittsburgh would score no further today, and probably wouldn't have needed to, but the Reds stormed back with 4 runs in the 4th. A bases loaded walk and a sac fly made the score 6-2, then Huson atoned for some of his defensive shenanigans by coming through with a 2-run, 2-out triple to cut the deficit to 6-4. West's last three innings of the season went much better than the prior three had, and he got off the hook in the top of the 7th when the Reds tied the game while in the process of lifting him for a pinch hitter. Eddie Taubensee homered, Huson singled and eventually scored on Curtis' single. Curtis went all the way to third on his hit when Pirate LF Rex Hudler misplayed the ball, but the next 2 batters made outs. Jeff Brantley took over and had one of his finest outings of the year, his 4 scoreless innings causing his ERA to plummet all the way to 5.06, illustrating how devastatingly rotten his season has been. The Reds had a chance to win it in the 9th when Huson led off with a walk, stole second, and Brantley executed a perfect bunt to put him at third. Might as well have swung away; of course the next 2 batters struck out. Cincy LOBbed another in RISP in the 10th, but the Pirates also failed to come up with a clutch hit when they had a golden opportunity. Finally in the 12th, lefty reliever Jason Christiansen was summoned and the Reds Righties went to town. Boone & Ashley singled and Sanders tripled them both in. Mike Mimbs supplied 2 scoreless relief innings to earn the 8-6 win. At the plate in this series, Huson fared far better than he did on x-plays, going 4 for 10 with 5 RBI and skyrocketing his average (batting average, that is) to .196. Alan |
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