A sweep in Atlanta would be nice but I wouldn't be upset with a split. I'm hoping for another winning road trip.
A sweep in Atlanta would be nice but I wouldn't be upset with a split. I'm hoping for another winning road trip.
With the exception of the Cards the rest of this month couldn't get any better for the Reds. The Braves, Indians, Astros, and Pirates all have losing records. Great time to add some wins onto the record
a series preview against Atlanta. It's written by a Braves fan, and those guys fear the dreaded Reds...
http://www.talkingchop.com/2010/5/19...reds-at-braves
the first place Cincinnati Reds come to town to take on the Atlanta Braves... cough, cough, yes, I said first place Cincinnati Reds. Why is it that the Reds always seem to be playing their best baseball when they face the Braves? For the last few years they've played Atlanta as tough as any team in baseball. Last year Atlanta was 3-and-6 against them, the year before 3-and-3, a miserable 1-and-6 in 2007. You have to go back to 2006 to find the Braves with a winning record against the Reds, and then only barely at 4-and-3.
As an aside, it's kinda funny to go on to other team's boards and just browse around when the Reds are in town.
It's neat to see that Joey Votto draws the same kind of combination ire/respect as Albert Pujols, Ryan Braun, etc. do here.
Cincinnati Reds: Farm System Champions 2022
I was hoping for a split in Atlanta but that's going to be tough now after tonight's loss. They got shutout for six innings by Kenshin Kawakami tonight, who entered the game with a 5.79 ERA and 6 HR allowed in 37.1 innings. Tommy Hanson is a much, much better pitcher than Kawakami so tomorrow's game will be very tough.
Tonight's game is one of the reasons why I'm not completely sold on this offense. A good offense should feast on a guy like Kawakami. Oh well, you can't win 'em all. Let's hope Leake can shut the Braves down tomorrow and the offense can scrap together enough runs to win and escape Atlanta with a split.
Every good offense will have clunkers against guys like Kawakami. It happens.
Tonight, the Reds did have 14 baserunners. Their OBP has been pretty good recently. I think this group is very capable. Are they a reincarnate of the BRM? Definitely not. I think they're a good group though.
"No matter how good you are, you're going to lose one-third of your games. No matter how bad you are you're going to win one-third of your games. It's the other third that makes the difference." ~Tommy Lasorda
Yeah, the offense (mostly Bruce) just couldn't come up with a big hit tonight. Bruce left 7 guys on base, and at least 3 or 4 were in scoring position.
These guys never gave up tonight and managed to tie the game after being shut down by Braves pitching for most of the game. Sometimes things just don't go your way but I give the guys a ton of credit for fighting back and nearly pulling off the win. Other teams are learning that you can't sleep on the Reds because they aren't giving up anytime soon. They'll be ready and raring to go tomorrow! :
"I tried to play golf, but I found out I wasn't very good." -Joey Votto on his offseason hobby search
An MLB.com reporter asked what one thing Votto couldn’t do. “I can’t skate or play hockey,” Votto said. “Well, I can skate ... but I can’t stop.”
Wow, just got home to see the Reds blew a 9-3 lead in the 9th inning. See, this is exactly why I'm never comfortable with a lead with this team. That trip I talked about taking to Cincy netx weekend? Cancelled. I'm not wasting my money on this crap. People will say it's just one games. No, it's really not. This type of loss crushes a team. I have a feeling this is the beginning of the yearly slide.
Unreal.
It's one game! Geesh, I knew people were going to start freaking out over this game. It's one game out of 162 this season. I refuse to judge this team based on one game in the middle of a long season. I didn't get to watch but it sounds like they were totally sloppy after the big inning, and just like hitting is contagious, errors and bad pitching tend to be contagious too. They've shaken off worse games and come back strong. I'm not ready to give up on this team yet and they are more than capable of kicking the Indians behinds this weekend.
"I tried to play golf, but I found out I wasn't very good." -Joey Votto on his offseason hobby search
An MLB.com reporter asked what one thing Votto couldn’t do. “I can’t skate or play hockey,” Votto said. “Well, I can skate ... but I can’t stop.”
Perhaps the negative of a crushing loss outweighs the positive effects of a late game rally, but remember how many big wins the Reds have had in recent years that you said, "well this should hopefully lead to something better," that were followed with 5 game slides?
Remember Dunn's Grand Slam against the Indians? The game left the Reds tied for 1st place. Until they lost the next 6 and 8 of the next 9.
Quite honestly the Reds have been living on borrowed time for a while. The Karma gods just got us back a few this week.
It may be one game but it's more than that. These types of losses can send a team into a funk, and I would be almost willing to bet anything that is what happens with this team. I'll be shocked if they're within three games of first place two weeks from now.
That, folks, is why we complain about the backup players and mopup guys. Mike Lincoln for three innings? Are you kidding me? Miguel Cairo on the roster and starting? Wow. Why is Paul Janish even on the team if he isn't going to come on as a defensive replacement?
The Reds won't be getting any money from me next weekend.
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