Reds won tonight.  Adam Dunn hit a monster grand slam homer (471 feet!) to deep center, had 2 HR and 5 RBI on the night.  All of which is great and makes me happy in a nominal way, but relative to this season means jack and squat. 

My thoughts tonight are about Ric Ankiel and how he played tonight.  Rick Ankiel dropped two balls in the outfield (in the lights?) tonight and had some goofy judgement in the infield. Perhaps it’s just one game.  Perhaps the HGH controversy is occupying his mind.  But I can’t help but wonder if the mental issues he had when pitching for the Cards, where he couldn’t get the ball to homeplate, are starting to surface in the outfield.  Obviously I need a bigger sample size to make such a judgement.  But the pattern could be the same:  Spectacular early results then sudden inability to execute. 

HGH or not, I’m not wishing such a thing on Ankiel; It would be horrible if the mental block came back.  It’s just the first thing that came to mind while watching him play tonight.  It wasn’t just that he was messing up – it was the tentative way he did it.

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