Originally Posted by
reds44
Good stuff, SF.
Tonight, the Cardinals came into a plan against Bailey. They knew he loved throwing first pitch fastballs to try to get ahead in the count, and because of that you saw a lot of first pitch swinging. The first time thru the order, that really didn't work very well. However, it became clear Homer wasn't getting anything over but his fastball (which wasn't that good to begin with), and they changed their gameplan and sat on his fastball. And obviously, it worked.
Now flip to the Reds. First inning against a pitcher making his first career start. Bruce with a good AB as a leadoff hitter working a 3-2 count before grounding out. Janish comes up and walks on four pitches. Griffey comes up, and walks on 4 pitches. Phillips comes up, and the first pitch is a ball. So Boggs has thrown 9 straight balls, and 12 of his first 15 pitches are balls. I'm all for looking for something to rip, but Phillips goes up there and swings at a pitch that is a borderline pitch at best and flies out to RF. While it was only one AB, the AB kind of set the tone for the game.
Fast forward to either the 6th or 7th inning. 1st and 2nd 1 out with Paul Bako up in a 5-2 game. He works himself into a really good 2-0 hitters count. What does he do? Hits a check swing grounder to SS that ends up a force out.
Now go the 9th, Reds are down by 5. Edwin Encarnacion up with a 3-1 count. You need baserunners. He gets a high fastball that would have been ball 4, but instead he's trying to blast one into the 2nd deck and swings and misses. Next pitch, called strike 3 at the knees.
I don't know if it's the players, manager, or both, but this team sometimes seems like it's going without a plan. Granted, these are individual ABs, but it's still a team sport. Rarely do you see Reds hitters, as a team, have a plan. Phillps is going to be Phillips and hack. Dunn is going to work the count and normally either K, walk, or go yard. EE if he's on will hit and if he's not he'll pop up early in the count.
It's rare where you see the Reds as a team do what the Cardinals did tonight. Baseball is a team sport, and very rarely do the Reds make each other better.