The Date that did the 2011 Reds in

[powersackers]

Discounting the offseason lack of moves by Jocketty... this is the date I think did us in. Sealed the deal. And bummed most of us out from that day forward:

May 24, 2011

We were 2 games above .500 going into that fateful day, we were 3.5 out of first place. And we weren't hitting or pitching very well up to that point. It had to go up from there, right? It would be a battle, but we could fight with MLW and STL and be in the race until the last week of the season. No it never worked out that way.

50-58 the rest of the way after May 24, 2011 when we were beat by a SS playing pitcher for the Phillies in a 6+ hour marathon game.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/ga...ate=2011-05-25

[texasdave]

The infamous "Tailpipe Affair".

[Cant Touch This]

Interleague play kills the Reds again. They actually have a winning record against the NL this year. (1 game over .500) but were 6 games under .500 vs. the AL. So I'm going with May 20 - the first day of the Indians sweep over the Reds.

(They also sucked against the NL East. They were 9 games over .500 against the Central and the West combined...14 games under against the East and the AL. Ouch.)

[will5979]

April 7-a 3-2 loss vs. the DisAstros...

First loss of the season but never again this season did I see the confidence, swagger, and attitude that the 5-0 Reds possessed that first week of the season, my cousin and I actually predicted the Reds to win the NL Pennant after that 3 game sweep of the Brewers, it was a good feeling.

Then came the losses after losses after losses. Losing 3 out of 4 AT HOME to the Pirates, the lowly Pirates, getting swept by the Pirates in May, getting swept by the Indians, blowing the extra inning game in Philly, not putting up a fight against the Yankees, blowing the leads against the Brewers, getting swept AT HOME in 4 games against the Mets, then getting teased a little when Votto hit that walk off homerun a month ago against the Nats that put us 1 game over .500-only to turn around and get swept AT HOME by the Phillies, now here we are-just lost 2 out of 3 to the lowly Pirates (same with the Cubs a few weeks back), this season has been nothing but misery.

The only fun time this season was the 5-0 start, after that it was all downhill.

[Vottomatic]

162 game season. I seriously doubt one game did this team in.

They got swept last year and would come back strong.

[bounty37h]

Whatever the date was the Phillies swept us in the playoffs last season, not much went right after that.

[big boy]

Originally Posted by will5979

April 7-a 3-2 loss vs. the DisAstros...

First loss of the season but never again this season did I see the confidence, swagger, and attitude that the 5-0 Reds possessed that first week of the season, my cousin and I actually predicted the Reds to win the NL Pennant after that 3 game sweep of the Brewers, it was a good feeling.

Then came the losses after losses after losses. Losing 3 out of 4 AT HOME to the Pirates, the lowly Pirates, getting swept by the Pirates in May, getting swept by the Indians, blowing the extra inning game in Philly, not putting up a fight against the Yankees, blowing the leads against the Brewers, getting swept AT HOME in 4 games against the Mets, then getting teased a little when Votto hit that walk off homerun a month ago against the Nats that put us 1 game over .500-only to turn around and get swept AT HOME by the Phillies, now here we are-just lost 2 out of 3 to the lowly Pirates (same with the Cubs a few weeks back), this season has been nothing but misery.

The only fun time this season was the 5-0 start, after that it was all downhill.

This pretty much sums it up.

[krm1580]

I will have to find the post where I was complaining about it at the time, but for me the second full week of the season was a precursor for how the entire season was going to be.

The Reds were out of the gate fast, starting the season at 5-1 looking great in the process. Over the next 9 games against Arizona, San Diego and Pittsburgh, they showed inconsistent starting pitching, late inning collapses by the bullpen and a constant inability to drive in runners from scoring position with less than 2 outs. As a result they ended up going 4-5 in games in which they could have very easily gone 7-2.

[Stray]

I don't remember the dates but there was a week or so when we played that 19 inning game and lost and then lost some heartbreakers in Atlanta. One I think Cueto pitched a gem and we still lost. That was a rough stretch because we were losing and not really playing that bad.

Then the Brewers series before the All-Star break. Coco has had a really good season, but his bad series then hurt us pretty bad.

[texasdave]

The Mets sweep in late July. Even with all the struggles the Reds encountered, real and self-inflicted, they were still in the mix until that four-game fiasco. They never really threatened to get back into the race after that. The only two teams they played in the last two months were Riff and Raff. And they couldn't take advantage. Very disappointing. Teams look bad when they struggle and all teams have a bad week or two somewhere along the line. It is, after all, a long season. But three months of suck (they had a losing record in July as well) is indicative that it is systemic, not just an icy patch on the road.

[Vottomatic]

I think it goes back to that extra inning game that Harang threw his arm out. They've never been the same since.

[brm7675]

I don't believe there ever was a date. Teams with young talent in key positions are going to have seasons like this. What happen to the Rays the season after they went to the World series? I think they finished like 3rd or maybe 4th? Young players are going to struggle, especially when there isn't the coaching in place to help them improve their play.

[Tadasimha]

Originally Posted by texasdave

The Mets sweep in late July. Even with all the struggles the Reds encountered, real and self-inflicted, they were still in the mix until that four-game fiasco. They never really threatened to get back into the race after that. The only two teams they played in the last two months were Riff and Raff. And they couldn't take advantage. Very disappointing. Teams look bad when they struggle and all teams have a bad week or two somewhere along the line. It is, after all, a long season. But three months of suck (they had a losing record in July as well) is indicative that it is systemic, not just an icy patch on the road.

This, alas. They were starting to get their feet back under themselves and then the Mets steam-rolled them. From that point on, they seemed out of it.

[powersackers]

The moral of the story of the 2011 lies in the fact that when things go wrong, leadership must step up and correct the issues. Things went wrong in at multiple points as we all noted above. Yet Jocketty and Dusty kept running the same entity out there, hoping for auto correction.

There were dozens of players available in the offseason and trading deadline that could have insused this team with the X factor. Maybe it works, maybe it doesn't. But leadership must try. They didn't.

[Mutaman]

The May 18th loss to the Pirates. They had won 5 in a row including a 3 game sweep over the Cards, they were 8 games over .500. It looked like they were ready to make a big move.

Morton shut them out for his second straight complete game over them, a record of futility against even average righthanded pithching that continued the rest of the year. Arroyo gave up two HRs, a trend that would continue .
They went on to lose 6 in a row, and played sub .500 ball after that.

Bad starting pitching despite big years from Cueto and Leake, bad middle relief despite a nice move forward by Chapman, and a real lack of left handed hitting which should have been spotted in spring training. A very disappointing season. After 5/18/11 it was all downhill.