Slumping Reds Look to Rebound on the Road

Photo Courtesy of The Enquirer/Jeff Swinger

Well as I'm sure you know the Reds are in the midst of a big road trip with 3 against the Cardinals and 3 against the Brewers, the two teams that will threaten Cincinnati the most in their defense of the division title. The road trip is even more magnified now due to an extremely poor homestand against the Pirates and Diamondbacks. Pittsburgh got a pair of good pitching performances from Charlie Morton and Kevin Correia to take the opener and the final game of the series. In between, the Reds' offense started to look like they usually do. They blitzed the Pirates 11-2 behind a grand slam by Ramon Hernandez and a pair of homers by Jonny Gomes to give Mike Leake his second win. The tough one to swallow in the series, however, was Sunday afternoon, where the Reds pounded out 15 hits en route to a 7-6 loss. They loaded the bases in the 9th inning and failed to score, though they would have if it had not been for a base running error by Jay Bruce. It was an ugly series to watch, and it wouldn't get much better against the Diamondbacks. The snakes bombed four homers off of Reds' starter Sam LeCure and won a tough 5-4 game, as the Reds once again failed to complete a rally in the ninth. The next night Bronson Arroyo gave the Reds a solid 6 1/3 innings, but Cincinnati failed to muster any offense other than a Joey Votto double, falling 3-1. Even the finale of the series was tough to watch, as DBacks' starter Daniel Hudson gifted the Reds four runs in the first with three walks and a hit by pitch. Miguel Cairo's two run single was huge, as Cincinnati spotted Mike Leake an early lead. Joey Votto's third homer of the year extended a late lead, and Francisco Cordero tight roped out of trouble of his own doing in the 9th to seal the 7-4 victory.

Photo Courtesy of the Associated Press/Tom Uhlman

And so it was on to St. Louis, with the Reds and Cardinals tied atop the division in the early going with identical 10-9 records. Of course everyone remembers the bad blood that finally boiled over on August 10th of last year. It goes back further than that, though. There was John Smoltz and Chris Carpenter complaining that the baseballs weren't rubbed down properly before the game, and that they couldn't grip the ball. Or Tony LaRussa's consistently pointless mind games. Like when he asked the umpires to have Mike Leake remove his Livestrong band before a game. Or when he made it public that he thought Aaron Harang should be suspended for 10 games for hitting one of his batters in the head. Any type of advantage that LaRussa thinks he can get, he will go for. Then there was Brandon Phillips' comments last summer, followed by the infamous brawl on August 10th. A Cardinals fan came up with the following T-shirt idea to make fun of Mike Leake, while a Reds fan came up with their own response. See both here.

Photo Courtesy of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch/Chris Lee

All of this being said, what Tony LaRussa and the Cardinals organization did last night was absolute bush league and embarrassing. I could only hope that no other organization would ever do something like the following, especially not the Reds. And with the class acts Cincinnati has in Dusty Baker, Walt Jocketty, and Bob Castellini, I don't think it would happen. Anyway, with a big storm moving into the St. Louis area, it was questionable whether the game would start on time. With the weather under question, Tony LaRussa scratched his starting pitcher Kyle McClellan and elected to start long man Miguel Batista. This would normally be a brilliant move, except for what followed. The Cardinals had told Dusty Baker and the umpires that there was a 45-60 minute window to get the game under way and get started. Thus, Baker decided to let Edinson Volquez warm up and get ready for the game. Crew chief John Hirschbeck said, "They told us we had a window of an hour. That window turned into two minutes." I don't care how fast storms move, there's no way it could change that fast. As it turns out, Batista threw all of 6 pitches before the tarp was put on the field. By the time it came off 2 hours and 10 minutes later, Kyle McClellan took the hill and Matt Maloney had to start for Volquez. Tony LaRussa and the Cardinals lied to take advantage of the situation, because they controlled when the game started, per section 3.10a of MLB's official rules. Whatever little respect I had held on to for the Cardinals is now completely gone. To gain an uncompetitive advantage like what the Cardinals did is against the unwritten rules of baseball and good sportsmanship.

Photo Courtesy of AP Photo/Jeff Curry

Despite all of that, the Reds blew opportunity after opportunity to get back into the game after Maloney served up some early runs. Base running blunders by Jay Bruce and Chris Heisey ran the Reds right out of two innings, and cost them at least one run. Not to mention a paltry 1/13 with runners in scoring position was absolutely brutal for Cincinnati. They battled and stayed around in the game, but leaving 11 men on base is simply unacceptable in a 4-2 loss. Hopefully Travis Wood can give the Reds some innings today and save the bullpen, after Jordan Smith, Nick Masset, and Bill Bray combined to work 6 innings last night. It's going to be tough, though, with Chris Carpenter on the hill, who has won each of his last 10 starts against Cincinnati.