7/8/08: Reds @ Marty's Favorite Fans--The Return of Dusty Act II

[Reds Fanatic]

Valentin doubles off the wall in center. 7-2 Cubs. 2nd and 3rd.

[Reds Fanatic]

Hairston grounds out to short. 7-3 Cubs. 2 outs. Runner on 2nd.

[Reds Fanatic]

Bruce strikes out swinging for the 4th time tonight. Reds lose 7-3.

[Wheelhouse]

Bruce strikes out on a--you guessed it--low pitch.

[Tony Cloninger]

Bruce missed his fastball....and the Cubs announcers...really Bob? Inside is his problem area.....I say I know better than you. It's called low...low and away soft stuff that turns Bruce into Patterson.

[Spring~Fields]

Cincinnati 
  IP H R ER BB K HR Season ERA  
A. Harang   4.1 5 6 6 7 6 2 4.76  
J. Affeldt  1.2 1 1 0 1 2 0 4.00  
G. Majewski 2.0 1 0 0 0 1 0 4.41  
 
 Chi Cubs 
  IP H R ER BB K HR Season ERA  
R. Dempster 7.0 2 1 1 4 5 0 3.13  
N. Cotts    0.1 0 0 0 2 1 0 2.51  
C. Marmol   0.2 0 0 0 0 1 0 3.55  
B. Howry    1.0 3 0 0 0 1 0 4.26

WP - J Affeldt.

HBP - J Bruce (by R Dempster).

Pitches-strikes - A Harang 108-58; J Affeldt 30-18; G Majewski 24-14; R Dempster 103-59; N Cotts 13-3; C Marmol 9-5.

Ground balls-fly balls - A Harang 3-3; J Affeldt 0-3; G Majewski 5-0; R Dempster 10-5; N Cotts 0-0; C Marmol 0-1.

Batters faced - A Harang 23; J Affeldt 7; G Majewski 6; R Dempster 27; N Cotts 3; C Marmol 2.



Scoring Summary
Bot 2nd: Chi Cubs
- G. Soto hit sacrifice fly to deep center, A. Ramirez scored


Bot 3rd: Chi Cubs
- A. Ramirez hit sacrifice fly to center, R. Theriot scored


Top 4th: Cincinnati
- P. Bako walked, K. Griffey Jr. scored, J. Keppinger to third, J. Votto to second


Bot 4th: Chi Cubs
- M. Fontenot homered to deep center, M. DeRosa scored


Bot 5th: Chi Cubs
- G. Soto homered to deep left center, D. Lee scored


Bot 6th: Chi Cubs
- M. Fontenot scored, R. Dempster to third on wild pitch


Top 9th: Cincinnati
- J. Valentin doubled to deep center, J. Keppinger scored, P. Bako to third

- J. Hairston Jr. grounded out to shortstop, P. Bako scored

Batting
RBI - P Bako (26).

2-out RBI - P Bako.

Runners left in scoring position, 2 out - A Dunn 1, A Harang 2.

Team LOB - 7.


Fielding
PB - P Bako.

DP - 2 (B Phillips-J Hairston Jr-J Votto, J Hairston Jr-B Phillips-J Votto).


Batting
2B - M Fontenot (11, J Affeldt).

3B - A Ramirez (1, A Harang).

HR - M Fontenot (6, 4th inning off A Harang 1 on, 0 Out), G Soto (16, 5th inning off A Harang 1 on, 1 Out).

SF - A Ramirez , G Soto.

RBI - G Soto 3 (55), A Ramirez (61), M Fontenot 2 (18).

Runners left in scoring position, 2 out - J Edmonds 1, D Lee 1, R Dempster 1.

GIDP - R Theriot, G Soto.

Team LOB - 5.
Base Running
SB - D Lee (5, 2nd base off A Harang/P Bako).

CS - K Fukudome (4, 2nd base by A Harang/P Bako).
Fielding
Outfield assists - K Fukudome (A Dunn at 2nd base).

DP - 1 (M Fontenot-R Theriot).

[Spring~Fields]

Fay on Harang

Aaron Harang went 4 1/3 innings and gave up six runs in five hits. He walked a career-high seven.

He's 3-11 with a 4.61 ERA. Last year at the break, he was 10-3 with 3.70 ERA. He's given up five or more runs in six of his last nine starts.

http://news.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs...cincinnati.com

[Big Klu]

I think I would consider skipping Harang on Sunday, and going with a bullpen day at Milwaukee. (Maybe Affeldt could get the start.) Everybody will be available, anyway.

[Wheelhouse]

The book on Dunn is that he takes the first pitch almost all the time.....so it figures that would have been the best pitch to hit the whole AB.

KC....people are waiting with bated breath for JH to regress.....I am sure even if he walks it will not be deemed as good as Dunn walking.

When he was not hurt in 2005.....were his numbers bad? They looked okay to me.....either way...he is healthy now but he still will struggle eventually....and people are going to beat that into the ground, just like they did about a month ago when he went through a down cycle.

Here, here. Hairston is a good ballplayer in all areas.

[WVRedsFan]

Once again, Harang's pitching and Griffey's gift triple made no difference in this game. The Reds got 5 hits tonight. Not hardly enough to even get them in most games. If we don't get lights out pitching we lose. It's that simple.

Jay Bruce struck out 4 times and Reds castoff Ryan Dempster, an All Star, held the Reds to 2 hits over 7 innings. Give me a break. More alarming is the first 5 batters in the batting order did not get a hit. None. All five hits came from positions 6-9.

My opinion is that Harang has a problem he's hiding. Time will tell, but we can ill afford to not have him around next year, so he'd better get fixed this year.

[Wheelhouse]

Bruce missed his fastball....and the Cubs announcers...really Bob? Inside is his problem area.....I say I know better than you. It's called low...low and away soft stuff that turns Bruce into Patterson.

Yep. Will he be coached through it? Doubtful. I'm sure some of the veterans on this club have made it clear it's showing up a player to take him aside.

[penantboundreds]

This team kind of makes me sick?

This is not a knock on Votto, please, don't go off on me.......but I'd like him to get in Bruce's head a little and find out what's going on, then try to see how he can help make the kids adjustments a little easier.

Can you help me out here guys, How was the ball Ramirez hit an absolute out? I didn't exactly see it, I was kind of doing something and the part of the replay I saw was Griffey diving for the ball and coming up a hair short, but I'm not sure why it was a gift triple, once again, some help please.

[WVRedsFan]

This team kind of makes me sick?

This is not a knock on Votto, please, don't go off on me.......but I'd like him to get in Bruce's head a little and find out what's going on, then try to see how he can help make the kids adjustments a little easier.

Can you help me out here guys, How was the ball Ramirez hit an absolute out? I didn't exactly see it, I was kind of doing something and the part of the replay I saw was Griffey diving for the ball and coming up a hair short, but I'm not sure why it was a gift triple, once again, some help please.

Here's the deal pbr. Any ball, no matter the effort, hit toward Griffey is a sure out if Bruce in in right field. Bank on it. Any ball that Bruce misplays in center is because he's playing out of position--he should be in right and Griffey should be in the retirement home. Bank on it. Any base running error made by Bruce is OK because he is the golden child. Any lack of effort shown by Griffey, even with legs held together with screws, is simply a lack of effort. Any move that doesn't work is the total fault of Dusty Baker. Case closed. Any bad pitching performance is becaue Baker abuses his pitchers. You got all that down?

If you've digested that, there are a couple more. This team would be a contender if only we had a competent right fielder. I can't name who that would be, but that's the company line. Oh, yeah, that's Bruce Magnificent. I forgot. Center field should be manned by...I don't know who. Do you? Maybe someone on the farm who is a great prospect? Maybe. Bray is the next coming of Norm Charlton and Weathers is just too old. Volquez is king while Arroyo is junk. Harang will get over his slump (he's not injured) while Darryl Thompson should be our fifth starter because of a shaky 5 inning stint against the dreaded Yankees.

It's RedsZone at its finest. Ignore the fact that we have a roster that is the worst in the last 10 years flooded with left handed batters who can't hit left handed pitching and a cleanup hitter who isn't really a cleanup hitter.

If only we had Freel and Hopper to anchor the lineup.

[nate]

Here's the deal pbr. Any ball, no matter the effort, hit toward Griffey is a sure out if Bruce in in right field. Bank on it. Any ball that Bruce misplays in center is because he's playing out of position--he should be in right and Griffey should be in the retirement home. Bank on it. Any base running error made by Bruce is OK because he is the golden child. Any lack of effort shown by Griffey, even with legs held together with screws, is simply a lack of effort. Any move that doesn't work is the total fault of Dusty Baker. Case closed. Any bad pitching performance is becaue Baker abuses his pitchers. You got all that down?

If you've digested that, there are a couple more. This team would be a contender if only we had a competent right fielder. I can't name who that would be, but that's the company line. Oh, yeah, that's Bruce Magnificent. I forgot. Center field should be manned by...I don't know who. Do you? Maybe someone on the farm who is a great prospect? Maybe. Bray is the next coming of Norm Charlton and Weathers is just too old. Volquez is king while Arroyo is junk. Harang will get over his slump (he's not injured) while Darryl Thompson should be our fifth starter because of a shaky 5 inning stint against the dreaded Yankees.

It's RedsZone at its finest. Ignore the fact that we have a roster that is the worst in the last 10 years flooded with left handed batters who can't hit left handed pitching and a cleanup hitter who isn't really a cleanup hitter.

If only we had Freel and Hopper to anchor the lineup.