Oops--meant Hatteberg. All those H's...Originally Posted by PuffyPig
Oops--meant Hatteberg. All those H's...
www.ris-news.com
"You only have to bat a thousand in two things; flying and heart transplants. Everything else you can go 4-for-5."
-Beano Cook
As long as EdE is in a funk this team is impotent against even mediocre left-handers. We need a RH 1B who can optimally play some corner OF. Someone with some pop - Freel, Hopper & Castro don't count.
I get it - short RF porch - load up with lefties, but you play 81 games elsewhere and you face LH pitching. That's one of the reasons there are players on the bench balance. Even the next two OFs in line are lefties (Bruce & Dorn). There is some help on the horizon - Rosales, Szymanski, Francisco, Stubbs, Frazier, Waring - but they need another solid right-handed power bat on the 25-man NOW!
The 1976 team came within two of being no hit on the next to last day of the season. I know because I was there. So yes, even the best struggle. I think this team will hit but there are deficiencies. No right handed pop is killing them right now. EdE really needs to hit or this team is going to struggle big time against lefties all season and may anyway. But, keep pitching the way they have and this team will win a lot more than they will lose this season.
Reds Fan Since 1971
Reds waste another gem from youngster
Volquez shuts out Pirates for five innings before rain delay but Cincinnati bats can muster only seven hits.
By Hal McCoy
Staff Writer
Saturday, April 12, 2008
PITTSBURGH — Neither rain nor thunder nor lightning could prevent the Cincinnati Reds from leaving baserunners standing in the rain.
They left 12 runners begging to be driven home, but were 0 for 10 with runners in scoring position and they not only got wet, they got beat, 1-0, by the Pittsburgh Pirates Friday night.
Manager Dusty Baker takes all losses like a razor across the back, but said, "That's the worst. 1-0 losses are the worst. Everybody else lost and we had a big chance right there (to go into first place)."
The game's only run arrived late, in the seventh, a home run by Jason Bay off Jared Burton, but there were a lot of nits to pick in this defeat.
Persistent rain and a Pittsburgh Penguins playoff hockey game up the road at Mellon Arena held the crowd down (13,603) — well, the crowds always are down in PNC Park due to more than a decade of monotonous losing.
In fact, the Pirates-Reds game was bumped off television for the Penguins-Ottawa game. And there was more scoring in the hockey game than the baseball game as the Penguins beat Ottawa, 5-3.
The Reds and Pirates were 0-0 after five innings as Edinson Volquez and Paul Maholm strung zeroes across the scoreboard.
The Reds put four runners on base in the first inning and couldn't stumble across home plate. Hopper reached on an error, but Jeff Keppinger hit into a double play.
Ken Griffey Jr. walked, Brandon Phillips singled and Adam Dunn walked to fill the bases, but Edwin Encarnacion grounded out.
The Reds had two on with one out in the second before Hopper pop-bunted into a double play.
"Got under it," said Hopper. "Usually in a situation like that, when I bunt, you can put money on it."
Said Baker, "No sign or anything, he did that on his own. That's Hopper's main thing. He works on it all the time and is one of the best at it. Just a bad night with some bad outcomes."
Volquez issued a walk to Bay in the first inning, the first walk issued by a Reds starter in 27 innings. And Volquez didn't get his first (and only) strikeout until he cut down opposing pitcher Maholm in the fifth.
But with the sound of Thor, a crash of thunder and a deluge of rain invaded PNC at 8:52 and before umpires could say a word, Reds first base coach Billy Hatcher ran off the field, followed closely by Joey Votto, who was on first base.
Adam Dunn was on second and Votto on first with one out when play was suspended and the grounds crew fought and wrestled with the tarp for 30 minutes, never able to completely cover the infield.
The crew spread scores of Kwik-Dry (kitty litter) bags on the field and play resumed at 9:56, with Volquez and Maholm out of the game.
Paul Bako popped up and pinch-hitter Scott Hatteberg lined to right center, stranding Dunn and Votto and leaving it 0-0.
"We had runners in scoring position in every inning through seven innings," said Baker. "We just couldn't get the hit we needed."
The scoreless spell was broken by Bay in the sixth, a two-out 3-and-2 home run off Jared Burton that stayed in the air 432 feet.
"Burton pitched great — just that one pitch to Bay," said Baker. "He's a guy you don't want to let hurt you, then he hurts you. That one mistake was the whole ball game. Man, it's tough when you can't get that one hit."
Said Burton, who has been practically perfect this year, "That was pretty much the only bad pitch I made in my two innings. I was throwing everything where I wanted it, but you leave the ball up and midway in and a guy like Bay is not going to miss it too many times."
Hopper led the seventh with a single off relief pitcher John Grabow, but Keppinger and Griffey popped up. Phillips walked and Damaso Marte came in to walk Dunn to fill the bases.
Edwin Encarnacion, who hit is only career grand slam exactly a year ago (April 11) in Chicago, didn't do it again. He popped out, the second time this night he left the bases fully populated.
With two outs in the ninth, Griffey drove one to deep right center, but center fielder Nyjer Morgan ran it down and Griffey said, "Got inside on me. Didn't even make the warning track. Some days it's like this. Next gamer maybe we'll get all those runners in, or most of them."
http://www.daytondailynews.com/s/con...spredsweb.html
Last edited by OnBaseMachine; 04-12-2008 at 01:29 AM.
I still have no idea why Norris thought it was a good idea to lay that down."Got under it," said Hopper. "Usually in a situation like that, when I bunt, you can put money on it."
Said Baker, "No sign or anything, he did that on his own. That's Hopper's main thing. He works on it all the time and is one of the best at it. Just a bad night with some bad outcomes."
I don't know either, but what else does he have in his vast offensive arsenal?
He has nothing.......and so you get nothing....to lose to a crappy team like this is really pathetic.....I would rather have Reggie Taylor hitting than thus guy.
No team can afford to fool around April thru June.
"In my day you had musicians who experimented with drugs. Now it's druggies experimenting with music" - Alfred G Clark (circa 1972)
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