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Message #: 33145
Only the most utterly, totally and completely luckless team could visit the 12th ranked team in the N.L. and get swept -- AGAIN. SFN's record in home games vs. the Reds this year: 6-0 (1.000), all other games: 29-57 (.337).... Game 1: Cincy starter A.J. Sager had a tenuous 4-0 lead in the 6th when Matt Williams halved it with a 2-run double. Sager left for a pinch-hitter in the 7th so it was up to the bullpen to do what it has always done -- and today was, of course, no exception: Hector Carrasco faced 5 batters, retired 1 of them. Somehow not ALL of the others scored, only because Buddy Groom, with the horse already out of the barn, slammed the door by fanning Bonds & Williams with 2 men on base to end the inning. Never to be outdone in the LOB department in a close contest, the Reds LOBbed the bases loaded in the 9th without scoring. The Reds had it won in the 10th but missed the HR chance by one thin split card. Sadly, that would become a habit (see game 3). Jeff Shaw supplied a couple of decent relief innings in order to delay the inevitable, which occurred in the 12th inning when Blown Save Brantley allowed a leadoff double, right at the split card limit, and one out later the game-losing single. Final score: 5-4, the Reds' 4th loss in a row at Candlestick in 1996, all by exactly 1 run. It was 1-run loss #16, a category in which the Reds stand alone at the top (or is it bottom?) of the N.L. ===================================================================================================== Game 2: After a good start to the season despite getting zero offensive support (2.49 ERA but just 1-0 in 4 starts), Kent Mercker has suddenly become HAL's favorite whipping boy and has been dismembered for TWENTY runs in his last 2 starts while his ERA has nearly tripled. Today Mercker was victimized for 9 runs in 6 innings, San Francisco's most prolific output in a home game all season long. Final score: surprisingly not 9-8, but 9-2 instead. In addition to his surgical butchering, Mercker was "aided" by 3 timely errors' worth of sabotage defense. Although most SFN batters joined in HAL's party at the Reds' expense (Glenallen Hill had a pair of gophers), the biggest hero of the day was San Fran starter Billy Vanlandingham. He not only cruised the distance on the hill, scattering 8 hits on the way to an easy victory, but this totally non-hitting pitcher went 3 for 3 at the plate against the most luckless team in the universe, driving in a pair of runs and scoring twice himself. Barry Bonds was held hitless during the rout, due to being nothing but a spectator at the plate. He batted 5 times and put up a boxscore line of 0 1 0 1, drawing a free pass all 5 times. ===================================================================================================== Game 3: The Reds outhit the Giants 9-8 but the clutchless wonders from Cincinnati also out-LOBbed the home team by a slender 12-4 margin, then choked up 3 late runs to break a 3-3 tie and lose by the count of 6-3. Gophers -- ones that were hit and ones that weren't -- were the theme of the day and mirrored the typical clutchlessness and choking already mentioned. CIN starter Donne Wall, who did his normal damage at the plate by going 2 for 3 (.406 now) battled Mark Gardner to a 2-2 draw through 5 innings. Wall doubled with nobody aboard and 2 outs in the 6th and Tony Phillips rolled a HR 1-10 chance; naturally he drew an 11 for the out. Three batters later in the bottom of the frame with nobody aboard and 2 outs a SFN batter rolled a HR 1-7 chance; naturally he got the 7. The Reds fought back to tie the score again in the 7th and with 2 outs and a runner in scoring position Willie Greene rolled a HR 1-10 chance; you guessed it -- he drew the 11 for out. Greene had also fanned with the bases loaded and 2 outs in the Reds' scoreless first inning to get the game off on the wrong foot, lobbing 5 in RISP today all by himself. Exactly 1 batter later a SFN player had a split card HR chance; you guessed it, he didn't miss. Wall got out of the inning but Shaw unraveled from there, apparently just to avoid 1-run loss #17, and allowed the Giants' third gopher of the day plus another run in the 8th to seal up the defeat. Alan |
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