Going in to this series, as I looked at the pitching match-ups, I felt that if the Reds were going to get two out of three it would be Friday with Volquez and Sunday with LeCure against Westbrook. For fear of quoting the most over-used sports cliche of all time, "Thats why they play the games."
- Chris Carpenter was basically unhittable. As always, the Reds have trouble with Carp. He was mixing his pitches, and had nasty off-speed stuff today that had the Reds swinging and missing with regularity. That all changed in the sixth inning. After throwing a pitch hard up and in to Brandon Phillips (not sure if that was intentional or not), Carpenter went 3 and 0 to Joey Votto. Votto deposited the next pitch in the left center field bleachers to tie the game at 2.
- Sometimes I like to question Dusty Baker on this blog, so I feel I must also admit when I was wrong about some of his moves. In the seventh inning, he sent Travis Wood back out to start the inning. I was not a fan of that decision, because he had Logan Ondrusek warm, and the Cardinals had two right handed hitters coming up. Unfortunately, I was right about that, as Molina led off the inning with a double, and Nick Punto sacrificed him to third. Tyler Greene (also right-handed) was announced as a pinch hitter, and he was to be followed by Ryan Theriot (yep, you guessed it, right handed). So surely, Dusty will go with Ondrusek now? Absolutely not. Dusty goes with the LEFT hander Aroldis Chapman. As I sat in my seats in Busch Stadium I was wondering why on earth do you not go with Ondrusek here and save Chapman for Colby Rasmus. Here is the part where I eat a little crow. Chapman strikes out Tyler Greene on a wicked off-speed pitch on the inside corner, and then gets Theriot to ground out to short. Ondrusek comes in for the eighth inning and makes quick work of Rasmus, Pujols, and Holliday. That is why Dusty gets paid the big bucks, and I just write a stupid blog.
-The Reds eighth inning was so bizarre, but I wouldn't trade it for anything. Hanigan led off with a groundout. Then came the craziness. Stubbs reaches on an error by third baseman David Freese, who air mailed his throw into the stands. Phillips then struck out swinging. Votto is walked intentionally, Gomes is hit by a pitch. Trevor Miller is brought in to pitch, and he walks Jay Bruce to force in the tying run. Ryan Franklin (who was just demoted from his role as Cardinals closer) is brought in to pitch to Miguel Cairo. He gets Cairo 0-2 and then Miguel smacks a sinking liner to left scoring Votto and Gomes. The Reds get 3 runs on 1 hit in the inning to take the lead for good at 5-3.
- Since I shared the story of my confrontation with Cardinal Nation in my post from yesterday's game, I also think I should share with you the very pleasant experience I had today, just to show that not all fans are obnoxious. During the rain delay in the 8th inning today, a very nice older man came down and we talked about the Reds and Cardinals for a good 20 minutes. It was an honest to goodness conversation about the strengths and weaknesses of both teams and our love for baseball. Now if I only I could find that jack wagon from last night and introduce him to this guy as a mentor.
The Reds (11-10) look to take the series from the Cardinals (11-10) tomorrow night. The scheduled pitcher for the Reds is Sam LeCure (0-1, 4.15 ERA). However there are rumors that Dusty Baker is going to send out Edinson Volquez (2-0, 6.75 ERA), who was scratched from Friday night's start due to the lengthy weather delay. The Cardinals will go with Jake Westbrook (1-2, 9.82 ERA).
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