Reds vs Pirates 9/2/08

[Red in Chicago]

Can someone please post lineups...I just got home...

[Tony Cloninger]

All i know.....is just based on the Pirates leadoff hitter's socks....that guy is a winner and is going places in this game.

[OnBaseMachine]

Lineup .vs Pittsburgh:

Chris Dickerson lf

Jeff Keppinger ss

Brandon Phillips 2b

Joey Votto 1b

Edwin Encarnacion 3b

Jay Bruce rf

Ryan Hanigan c

Corey Patterson cf

Aaron Harang p

v. RH Ian Snell

[lollipopcurve]

well executed pitch out right there -- nice job by Hanigan and Harang

[OnBaseMachine]

Harang gets a ground out, a broken bat single by Cruz who was erased on a caught stealing, and then McLouth fouled out to Votto to end the top half of the first inning.

[lollipopcurve]

Dickerson has a legitimately quick bat.

Just another good AB from the kid.

[OnBaseMachine]

Another long atbat by Dickerson. He homers on the 9th pitch of the atbat! Wow!

[OnBaseMachine]

Dickerson has a nine pitch atbat, so what does Keppinger do? Swing at the first pitch and get jammed for an easy out.

[RedsManRick]

Dickerson works a 9 pitch AB and Keppinger and Phillipps are both swinging on the first pitch. Kepp gets jamed and Phillips hits a grounder to SS which should have been an out.

[lollipopcurve]

Dickerson works a 9 pitch AB and Keppinger and Phillipps are both swinging on the first pitch. Go figure.

Phillips had a good pitch to hit, Kepp didn't.

Dickerson swung at the 4th pitch -- if he hadn't fouled it off, it would have been a four pitch AB.

[dougdirt]

So Dickerson hits a mammoth foul ball on an inside fastball up in the zone. So where do they go on a 3-2 pitch? Fastball, in and up. HR. If I am the opposition, I am pounding the outside of the zone from now on with him.

[OnBaseMachine]

Dickerson has a very quick bat and a good eye at the plate. It's easy to see why the Reds have always liked his tools.

[Degenerate39]

Dickerson works a 9 pitch AB and Keppinger and Phillipps are both swinging on the first pitch. Kepp gets jamed and Phillips hits a grounder to SS which should have been an out.

Dickerson hasn't been around Dusty as long as Kepp and BP have.

[OnBaseMachine]

Dickerson hit eight homeruns in July with Louisville has hit five homeruns in 69 atbats with the Reds. Going back to July he has hit 13 homeruns in his last 198 atbats. Not bad.

[OnBaseMachine]

Harang gives up back-to-back two out solo homeruns to Brandon Moss and Andy LaRoche.

[MrCinatit]

I hate to admit this, because Aaron is one of my favorites (if not total favorite) Reds - but he has been simply terrible this year. It has become brutal watching him.
The second homer was a complete, wrapped gift.

[OnBaseMachine]

I'm just glad to see Harang pitching again. I'm confident he'll return to the normal Aaron Harang next season.

Bruce begins the bottom of the second with a line drive single.

[MrCinatit]

I think he will return to his old form next year, too, OBM. At least I hope so. I keep hoping that this season is a combination of bad luck, bad fielding, bad hitting, slight injury and a bit of a slide in confidence thanks to "all of the above".

[OnBaseMachine]

Bruce singled, Hanigan struckout but Bruce stole 2nd and went to 3rd on a throwing error and scored on a Patterson single. 2-2.

[Degenerate39]

Bruce singled, Hanigan struckout but Bruce stole 2nd and went to 3rd on a throwing error and scored on a Patterson single. 2-2.

I'm not watching the game this must be a typo ;)

[OnBaseMachine]

Harang walks Ian Snell to begin the 3rd inning. Nice.

[OnBaseMachine]

Harang doesn't have it tonight. A walk to Snell followed by a Nyjer freaking Morgan double.

[lollipopcurve]

Hope Masset's available.

[OnBaseMachine]

3-2 Pirates after 2 1/2.

Keppinger pops out on ball 4 to begin the 3rd.

[OnBaseMachine]

Great plate discipline this inning. Keppinger swings at a high 3-1 pitch and pops out and then Phillips swings at a 1-1 pitch that bounced in the dirt and was a foot outside.

[OnBaseMachine]

Votto flies out to the 404 mark in center field. That ball looked good off the bat.

[Tony Cloninger]

That was after Dickerson chased ball 3 and 4.......so basically they are playing into this guy's hands. He is wild ...as 78 walks in less than what? 150 innings? shows.

Terrible hitting team....probably worse than Reds.....so this team continues to be unable to get in any roll at all.

Juan Castro could do no worse than what JK has done in the last month.

I think if you look up his stats with BAL.....I may not be taking such a wild guess.

[Kc61]

Can we please score a few runs for Harang?

[OnBaseMachine]

Dickerson draws a four pitch walk to begin the 5th inning.

[MrCinatit]

Wow. Spectacular catch by Patterson to rob a homer!

[Kc61]

Super catch by Corey Patterson.

[corkedbat]

It's a real shame CP can't manage .250/.350/.400/.750. He can definitely pick it and seems like a decent kid. Fantastic catch.

[reds44]

No way this kid is a catcher.

[corkedbat]

The best of Corey and the worst of Corey, all in a quarter of an hour.

[OnBaseMachine]

3-2 Pirates going to the bottom of the 8th.

[Matt700wlw]

The Pirates have the Reds number this year

[CTA513]

The Reds lost 3-2 the last time Harang started and they lost 3-2 tonight.

[WVRedsFan]

A guy at work mentioned to me today that the Reds had fixed their pitching at the expense of offense. I asked who they traded and he replied, "Hamilton, Dunn, and Griffey combined to hit 89 HR's and drive in 250 runs (he was almost correct) and were replaced by Jay Bruce, Patterson and Dickerson--2 rookies and an incompetent."

Food for thought?

Reds pitchers combined to pitch 9 innings of 7-hit, 3-run ball tonight, but the Pirate starter who had a near 6.00 ERA as the game began held them to 7 hits and 1 earned run. The Reds pitchers did all you could ask of them. The hitters simply didn't. Now, will we trade offense for hitting again and complete the viscous circle?

[New Fever]

A guy at work mentioned to me today that the Reds had fixed their pitching at the expense of offense. I asked who they traded and he replied, "Hamilton, Dunn, and Griffey combined to hit 89 HR's and drive in 250 runs (he was almost correct) and were replaced by Jay Bruce, Patterson and Dickerson--2 rookies and an incompetent."

Food for thought?

Reds pitchers combined to pitch 9 innings of 7-hit, 3-run ball tonight, but the Pirate starter who had a near 6.00 ERA as the game began held them to 7 hits and 1 earned run. The Reds pitchers did all you could ask of them. The hitters simply didn't. Now, will we trade offense for hitting again and complete the viscous circle?


To add to this the Reds have had a quality start in every single game since Aug. 17 ( Except for Volquez's game on Aug. 29 that he won). The Reds record is 7-7 in that time frame.

[WVRedsFan]

To add to this the Reds have had a quality start in every single game since Aug. 17 ( Except for Volquez's game on Aug. 29 that he won). The Reds record is 7-7 in that time frame.

Just more reason to believe that:

1. Stud pitching is wonderful, but you don't acquire it and ignore the offensive side of the game.
2. You don't pay rediculous money for guys who have poor OBP records (Pattterson, Gonzalez, etc) in the name of defense.
3. Tonight and many other nights are a textbook case in why it is unwise to load your team up with sterling pitching (which really is not the case on this team--it's better but not lights out) while ignoring the offensive problems of your team.

I've said it before, this roster was a mess before the season started and it's worse now. Jocketty had to rid himself of Griffey and Dunn to make room for something different (and I hate it), but the proof in the pudding will be what he does in the off season to shore up the offense. Trading more offense for more pitching will only result in another losing record unless there is a plan. I surely hope Walt has a plan.

[Ron Madden]

We listened to the Reds game tonight at work and actually heard some play by play. :)