The Reds came within six games of .500 last week, then hit the skids. Three losses to Houston, including a series ending loss to Red killer Roy Oswalt, started the streak off. This weekend, the Reds didn’t fare much better, but at least we went out on a winning note.

Friday, we ran into Tim Hudson. While it doesn’t look like he’ll be contending for the Cy Young this year, he did enough to take care of the Reds. He gave up 12 hits but he struck out seven. On the other side, Eric Milton got shelled, again. The bulk of the damage happened in the fourth when the Braves scored four runs. Austin Kearns got his average above .250 and hit his thirteenth homer and Ken Griffey continues to crush the ball as he went yard for the 34th time.

Speaking of Austin Kearns, he’s now sporting a somewhat solid .786 OPS. While he’s no where near the league leader board, it’s not bad considering how rough of a start Kearns had.

Saturday was more of the same. Five runs in the third, and the game was effectively over (I can say that because we now know the score). This time it was Luke Hudson on the receving end of the beat down. A four run fifth inning by the Braves really put the game out of reach.

Adam Dunn, who just homered tonight, has only five homers since August 1st. That’s a rough slump for the big guy, and while 45 might be out of reach, he still has a solid shot at making another run at 40.

Yesterday was the streak breaker. It took the Reds twelve innings, but they won the game by running up an 8-3 lead in the twelth. Ken Griffey homered for the 35th time in the first inning and Jason LaRue hit a pinch hit grand slam in that twelth inning.

So now we’re well behind the Cubs again. No biggie, because it doesn’t matter much. Right now, the Reds are mired in a 1-1 pitching dual with the Brewers. The Reds have only three hits, but one of the them is an Adam Dunn solo homer. Maybe the future Hall of Famer can hit another one with men on base.

I made the playoffs in my fantasy baseball league, which contains fellow baseball geniuses Joel of GARB fame and JD Arney at Red Reporter. To boot, I could pick up a cheap win because the guy I’m playing left some points on the bench in the opening round of said playoffs.

Permalink | Posted in 2005 Season | Comments Off

Don’t look now, but the Reds are in fourth place. It doesn’t mean much, but it puts an exclamation point on how well they’ve played in this second half (and also how bad they played in the first).

Ken Griffey had a monster series. He hit two homers on Friday and then added his 33rd today. This afternoon’s homer was his 534th career homer, allowing him to tie up Jimmie Foxx for 13th all time. Congrats once again Grif.

Also key to the Reds sweep was some quality pitching. In all, the Reds only gave up five runs over the weekend. Aaron Harang improved to 9-11 on Friday with seven quality innings. On Saturday, the Reds needed extra frames to win, but their pitching kept them in the game. Eric Milton had one of his best starts of the season as he went eight and gave up only six hits. This afternoon it was Luke Hudson and four reliever who combined to give up only eight hits and two runs. Hudson evened out his record to 6-6.

The Reds are now six games below .500, a mark I thought was completely out of reach at the All Star break. We get to play spoiler this week as we head to Houston. Hopefully we won’t have to face Roy Oswalt (he owns us, I’m willing to admit it). He threw on Saturday, so we might just miss him.

Please, let’s miss him.

Permalink | Posted in 2005 Season | 1 Comment »

Boy, the Nationals have really fallen off of their pedestal. They’re now in last place, and to add insult to injury, the struggling Reds rolled into RFK and took two of three against the Nats.

On Tuesday, Luke Hudson got the job done. Seven innings of four hit ball, and the kid struck out five guys. EE hit his fifth homer of the season and six different Reds scored their six runs.

Wednesday was the downer day. Ramon Ortiz actually threw a good game, but the pen let him down. Jason Standridge gave up three runs in his inning of work. Felipe Lopez had three hits, but he was caught stealing twice. Javier Valentin drove in two of the Reds three runs with his eleventh homerun.

This afternoon’s game was highlighted by Ken Griffey’s 30th homer of the season. Brandon Claussen threw a nice game and improved to 9-8 (yes, that’s a winning record, for those Reds fans who haven’t seen one in a while) and Austin Kearns drove in two runs.

The win today puts us nine games below .500 and with only four more wins, we guarantee we won’t lose 100 games (which at one point seemed to be a foregone conclusion). We’re only two back of the Cubs for fourth place in the NL Central. We’d be in second place if we played in the West.

Pittsburgh is on deck this weekend and they’ve been playing some rough baseball. I think two of three is a solid prediction. Reds rock. At least this half they do.

Permalink | Posted in 2005 Season | Comments Off

Felipe Lopez now has three homers since the All Star Break and his post-break OPS is .668. That’s a slump.

Ken Griffey, Jr. hit his 530rd career homer. I think Mays still might be within reach. It’s a stretch, but if Griffey plays five more years, that’s like 25 homers a year. Not out of the realm of possibility. In fact the way Sosa is playing, he very well could end up ahead of him. At least we’re not comparing him to Jimmie Foxx anymore.

The Reds dropped three of four to the Giants. The lost in a lot of different ways. They lost the one run game yesterday, and the two run high scoring game the night before. They even got blown out on Monday. Too make matters worse, Ryan Freel is back on the disabled list.

The Diamondbacks are on deck. What’s really sad is if we played in the NL West, we’d be only five games back of the Padres. The Diamondbacks are in second place and they’d be a game ahead of us.

Also, the Ken Griffey, Jr. trade watch continues. I keep hearing the White Sox, who have lost Scott Podsednik. I’m not sure if they’d be willing to part with Brandon McCarthy, who was one of the top pitching prospects to start the season. Unfortunately, he looks like the second coming of Eric Milton. He’s given up 16 homers in 107 2/3 innings down in AAA. He’s also struck out 118.

Permalink | Posted in 2005 Season | Comments Off

Nine games below .500 (sorry for the mistake last week, I was getting ahead of myself). I always hate to use artificial benchmarks (I know, anything short of a championship is a failure, blah, blah), but if this team could crawl back to .500, it would be, well, huge. It’s at least something to build on for next season.

Luke Hudson and Austin Kearns got things rolling on Friday. Hudson threw six solid innings and the pen did their job. Hudson even got his ERA below 7.50. Woo hoo. Austin Kearns had two hits and an RBI.

Yesterday can only be explained by some freakish alternate reality thing. If you combined all of the Star Trek captains into one committee, even they wouldn’t be able to figure this one out. A two freaking hitter??!! Yes, Ramon Ortiz and three relievers combined to throw a two hitter. On offense, Ryan Freel had just as many hits (2) and twice as many RBIs (2) as the Brewers entire team.

Unfortunately, it all came to end today. The Reds lost. I know, it’s hard to believe. Ken Griffey did hit his 26th homer. Five hits just isn’t going to cut it though. Brandon Claussen did his job, but the pen finally ran out of gas.

Or something. A five run eighth blew the tie game wide open. I guess you can’t win them all.

The Giants roll into town. We’re actually four games better then they are. Although I think the Reds need to be the spoiler to win. This series doesn’t mean much.

Permalink | Posted in 2005 Season | Comments Off

It’s nice to deliver a beating when you’ve been on the receiving end of it for so long. The struggling Cubs hosted the Reds, and the Reds are flying away with three blow out wins.

The Reds had it all. Pitching, hitting. It was possibly their best series of the season, and it was against a solid team. The Reds kicked things off on Monday and rolled to a 9-0 lead before the pen gave up four meaningless runs (although I was seeing a headline titled “Biggest Ninth Inning Comeback Ever”). Adam Dunn hit his 33rd homer and Ken Griffey hit his 24th. Brandon Claussen threw seven shutout innings and earned his seventh win of the season.

Yesterday was a little closer, at least for a while. The Cubs were up 3-2 before the Reds rattled off six unanswered runs. Ken Griffey went yard again as did Jason Larue, who drove in two runs and had three hits. On the mound, Aaron Harang earned his team leading eighth win of the season.

This afternoon was more of the same. Eric Milton gave up only four hits and a single run (another homer, go figure) through seven innings and Ryan Freel had the big game with the bat. Two for three with three RBIs and two runs. Ken Griffey drove in two runs and the Reds scored three runs on bases loaded walks.

Don’t look now, but we’re only eight games below .500. For as bad as a first half we had, we could potentially finish with more then 75 wins. And we’re only two games back of the Cubs.

Since the All Star Break, the Reds lead the National League in slugging percentage (.501) and runs scored (143) and they have a respectable 4.52 ERA. Not too shabby for a team with little to play for. And heck, maybe it’s something we can build on.

This weekend is Milwaukee, who’s on the outside looking in as far as the NL Wildcard. I say we play spoiler again. First we knock the Cubs from being a legitimate contender and now we can do the same against the Brew Crew.

Permalink | Posted in 2005 Season | 1 Comment »

Just when the Reds give you a little hope and something to watch, they go and hit the skids again. Two series against NL East opponents and two series losses.

This weekend’s series was particularly tough because of the lack of offense. The Reds scored a grand total of five runs through three games, and with that in mind, we were lucky not to have been swept.

Friday’s game saw Eric Milton get pushed out of the game before logging five full innings. He gave up two homers, so he’s back on the record watch. The only Reds run came on a Edwin Encarnacion RBI double.

Yesterday’s game was very welcome. The Reds came gave up the lead, then came back to win it. Luke Hudson was solid, but three different relievers combined to throw three innings of one hit ball. Austin Kearns had two hits and Adam Dunn drove in a run and scored.

Can I ignore today’s game? The Reds had just as many errors as they had hits. Ramon Ortiz threw three balls away trying to keep Juan Pierre at first base. Two of those errors resulted in Juan Pierre eventually scoring the only two runs of the game. What’s ironic is, Ortiz didn’t get hit with earned runs because they were part of an error, even if they were his own.

This week we have the Cubs, who are fighting for their Wild Card lives. Last year we played spoiler by beating the Cubs in a series down the stretch. If we take two of three, we can seriously impede their chances of making the playoffs this year.

Permalink | Posted in 2005 Season | Comments Off

Don’t look now, but the Reds are winning. Unfortunately, it doesn’t matter much. Riding two straight wins over the Dodgers, the Reds went to San Diego and swept the Padres to extend their winning streak to five. I think this is their longest streak of the season (I’m too lazy to look it up).

Luke Hudson started things off for the Reds on Friday. Five so-so innings of work and he walked away with a win. Adam Dunn continued his tear as he hit two homers and a double. That last homer was his thirtieth of the season and he’s right on pace to hit the same number of homers he did last year (46).

Yesterday was even better. Aaron Harang threw a really nice game to win his seventh game (leads the team, sigh). His ERA is an outlier on the team at 3.81. Austin Kearns drove in two and Valentine drove in three.

Today, the Reds finished things up with another squashing. This time it was Eric Milton. In what was by far his best start of the season, he went seven innings and gave up no runs on four hits. No walks either. He struck out six and he walked away with his fifth win of the season. Bert Blyleven’s record might be safe yet. Adam Dunn hit his thirty first homer and it was a grand slam. Joe Randa went 0 for 11 in the series.

Other then the Randa trade last week, the Reds stood pat at the trading deadline. The Padres now join all of the other teams in the AL West below .500. They’re now tied with the D-Rays for first place, despite being three games below .500. If the Reds played in the NL West, they’d be four games out of first place (tied with the Dodgers).

And the Reds are no longer the second worst team in the National League. They’re now tied for the fourth worst, so we’re moving on up.

Braves are on deck. Another first place team will fall before us. Day off tomorrow, so enjoy it.

Permalink | Posted in 2005 Season | Comments Off

At this point in the season, even a win is good news. So a two-two split against the Dodgers this week wouldn’t be great if the Reds were in contention, it’s about as good as it gets for the last place version of the Reds. It’s also good considering the Reds lost the first two games of the series only to bounce back to win the last two.

Monday’s game was pathetic. One hit. One freaking hit. Aaron Harang held the Dodgers to four runs, which these days isn’t that bad.

Tueday’s game, while a loss, was a little more palatable. Eric Milton gave up one, and only one homer and he matched that by hitting a homerun himself. Ken Griffey also went yard, his 22nd of the season. Milton dropped to 4-11 and failed to get his ERA below seven.

Things turned for the Reds yesterday. The Reds came back from being down 4-2 to take the lead only to give it up. Then with the game tied 6-6, Ryan Freel drew a walk, stole his fourth and fifth bases of the game, and then scored the go ahead run on a sac. fly by Felipe Lopez. Ken Griffey hit his 23rd homer of the season. Do we really want to trade this guy?

This afternoon was even better. Brandon Claussen threw a gem (seven innings, one run, four hits) and Jason LaRue hit his eighth and ninth homers of the season. He drove in five of the Reds six runs.

We’re still in last though. The Padres are on deck, and their home stadium is the antithesis of the Great American Ballpark. We’ll pass those pesky Pirates yet.

Trading deadline is coming up. I’ve heard everyone being shopped from Adam Dunn to Ken Griffey so it should be interesting. I wonder if we’ll be buyers or sellers???

Duh.

Permalink | Posted in 2005 Season | Comments Off

The Reds have won seven of their last ten games. Not too shabby. And for a brief moment, they pulled themselves out of the cellar only to inspire the Pirates to two straight wins. Those two wins pushed us back down to the bottom.

But at least we’re dragging the Brewers down closer to us as we took two of three this weekend. Friday night’s game was plain old butt whoopin and Adam Dunn did the whoopin. The future Hall of Famer belted two homers (putting his season total at 27) and drove in three runs. Joe Randa drove in three runs in what was his final game in a Reds uniform and Felipe Lopez went yard.

Between Friday and Saturday’s game, the Reds traded Joe Randa to the Padres. In return, we get two pretty good young arms. Justin Germano has struggled so far this year but he’s a pretty good prospect. Baseball Prospectus said he had excellent control and a good groundball inducing arsenal. That also picked up Travis Chick, who also seems to be a stingy with the walks.
Germano will turn 23 this in a couple of weeks and Chick is 21. I give the Reds an A for effort on this one.

In Saturday’s game, the Padres turned the tables and scored 11 runs of their own. Brandon Claussen was on the receiving end of the beatdown as he gave up nine earned runs in less then four innings. Ryan Freel filled in for Randa at third and scored twice, and Adam Dunn once again got it done by driving in three. His two for three day kept him right at .250.

The Reds actually got some pitching in Sunday’s game. Luke Hudson had his best start of the season (which really isn’t that tough) and matched Doug Davis by giving up only two runs. Unfortunately for the Brew Crew, they don’t have an apparant future Hall of Famer, because Adam Dunn once again got things done by hitting a solo walk off homer to win the game. Give some credit to the Reds bullpen. They pitched three innings of one hit ball.

Now we go on one of those west coast swings. First up to the plate are the Dodgers. Four games at Chavez Ravine, then we go to San Diego over the weekend.

Brian has the Reds diary caught up again, but this is a pretty boring part of the season. Although if compared to the 2005 version of the Reds, the 1975 version might seem pretty surreal. All they do is win.

Permalink | Posted in 2005 Season | Comments Off