By Thaq Diesel

The Reds have been smacked around by the Cubs and Brewers respectively the last couple series.  Based on the season thus far, you would expect Cincinnati to win or sweep those games against teams behind them in the standings. 

The glass-is-half-full pundit would say that the Reds are only 2.5 games out of first with the third-best record in the National League.  The glass-is-half-empty side says that the Reds face some tough opponents the next three series:  the White Sox at home, then travelling to see the Mets and pesky Indians (who have struggled but are licking their chops at a shot at their in-state rivals).  The biggest problem I see is that the Reds are not kicking the Cardinals while they are down.  Pujols is hurt.  The Cards normally rock-solid pitching has been at-times shaky all the way through the bullpen.  I worry that St. Louis will pull themselves together and start to put some distance between first and the rest of the division.  Another scenario is that the Clemens-led Astros make a run like they did last year to close the season.  I’m more skeptical of that scenario, but the Astros are only 5 games out of first.

Anyhoo, nothing can bolster your confidence like sweeping the World Champions.  Go Reds!  I want to see and hear Ozzie Guillen go berzerk for some reason. 

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June 12, 1976 at Riverfront Stadium 

Cardinals 5, Reds 4  (36-21)

The Cardinals finally figured out the Reds and a late inning comeback fell short as the Reds four game winning streak came to end.  Like yesterday’s game, the Cardinals jumped out to a 5-0 lead.  And like yesterday, the Reds slowly crept back into things, even coming to within a run of tying the game after scoring two runs in the eighth.  Unfortunately the Reds went down quietly in the ninth as the comeback fell just short.

Doug Flynn went three for four with a run scored and Tony Perez and Pete Rose both hit solo shots.  Jack Billingham didn’t last through the third inning and he gave up five runs (two earned on six hits and two walks).  He dropped to 5-4 on the season.

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By Thaq Diesel

A look at the last four wins:

•  Monday – Griffey comes up HUGE with a 3-run jack in the 9th inning to take the lead on a fat fastball on a 3-2 count.  Coffey has a no-stress save.  F-Lo goes 4 for 5.  Starting pitching and middle relief not so great.   Just win, baby.
• Tuesday – Eric Milton is one start away from officially becoming yet a third dominant starter for the Reds.  His change up is really starting to get nasty.  There is an Adam Dunn sighting in this game.  Griffey gets dinged up again, though it looks to be minor.  Edwin Encarnacion looked like he was shot when he fell to the ground while running the bases.  You thought blown ACL, blown hammy, he was bit by a Black Widow spider…  It turned out to be just a mild sprain, but it must have hurt like hell.
• Wednesday – A series sweep of a bitter rival in their house.  How sweet it is!  Aaron Harang dinged up his ERA just a tad when he ran out of gas in the sixth, but in the ‘Natti it’s all about results and a win is a win.  Dave Weathers continues to sputter a bit.  The Reds ordered up some Coffey in the 9th and it was strong.
• Thursday – Some retribution was delivered for the smack laid down by Chicago last week.  Bronson Arroyo looks to be a leader on this team – he has some street cred with the championship he earned with Boston.  He was quoted saying this Reds team is a confident as the Red Sox in the playoffs.  A bit of hyperbole, perhaps, but he’s leading with his arm.  Great offensive production from the bottom of the batting order.  Adam Dunn is in a real funk.  This team is smoking hot and is hitting on all cylinders right now.

Random Thoughts

• The Reds have all the team components required to win.  Not all the pieces have necessarily been working at the same time, but this team has what it takes to be a playoff team.  Most notably, pitching, depth and great pinch hitting have been key strengths.  Hitting has not been noticably absent at times, though during this winning streak hitting has certainly improved.
• I love watching Todd Coffey coming out of the bullpen like a clumsy freight train.  It’s not a cool entrance like, say, Trevor Hoffman.  However, the zeal Coffey displays has to give the opposing team some pause.  I wonder if the bullpen coach tells him something like, “If you can beat Javier Valentin to the mound, there’s a hot dog hidden under the rosen bag.”
• How fun was it to watch Griffey jack out a game-winning home run Monday night?  It was a reminder of the immense talent he has and a great moment in his career.  I saw the catcher set up outside on the 3-2 count, but the ball stayed over the plate.  Griff got around on the ball with that easy swing and it exploded off his bat.  It was even sweeter to ding up the Cardinals and their vaunted closer Jason Isringhausen.
• Cincinnati, and his subsequent release was the best thing to happen to Tony Womack the past two years.  Talk about being motivated by your ex… 

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By Thaq Diesel 

As I found myself cringing during the five-game losing streak, trying not to panic, I kept telling myself that all teams have losing streaks during a season.  I was making that face as the Pirates won the first three games of the series.  It’s the face people make when they have just witnessed a very nasty slam dunk or when someone has passed gas around them.  Bronson Arroyo was saying what we were all thinking when he questioned how the Reds could lose to a team like Pittsburgh.  Now, a sweep of the Tigers and all is good again.

•  Despite the losing streak, the Reds have the third best record in the National League behind the Cardinals and percentage points behind the Mets. 
• I sure hope today’s offensive outburst of 16 hits gets the Reds right again behind the plate.  Detroit will certainly be a good litmus test since their pitching and league-leading 3.13 ERA have definitely been part of their great start.

• I mentioned to my wife that the Reds had been losing to the Pirates and she asked the question she always asks when I bring up Pittsburgh:  “Is that guy with the huge ass still playing first base for them?”  The genesis of this was when we took a tour of East Coast baseball stadiums in the summer of 2001 and saw the Pirates in Pittsburgh and in Montreal, both times with seats on the first base line.  The wife, who looks at different things than I do at ballgames, apparently was checking out first baseman Kevin Young’s ass the whole time. 

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May 18, 1976 at Dodger Stadium 

Dodgers 6, Reds 0  (20-13)

The Reds finally ran out of gas on the west coast and they managed only three hits against Dodger starter Rick Rhoden.  It also didn’t help that the pitching staff got knocked around.

Jack Billingham dropped to 4-3 and gave up four runs on five hits and four walks in three innings of work.  Pedro Borbon gave up a single run on five hits in two innings.

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By Thaq Diesel 

So the Reds were swept, running into the buzzsaw that is the blazing hot Phillies.  What bothers me, however, is the way Cincinnati lost.

1. Defense.  The Reds committed an error each day.  Quinton McCracken’s drop of a routine fly ball Saturday night was the most aggravating; I hope he apologized to Dave Williams.  What’s worse is the passed balls in critical situations (Friday and  Saturday) that made comebacks almost impossible. (Despite losing by four runs Friday the Reds were actually threatening when trailing by six runs down in the 9th, but the passed ball kept the tying run from coming to the plate.  Arggggh!) 
2. The Reds wasted three outstanding pitching performances over the weekend (granted the Phillies had great pitching too, but you hate to waste quality starts like that.)  Poor Elizardo Ramirez – the guy can’t get a break.  Three earned runs over seven innings should get you a win.  I won’t even begin to describe how wasteful it is for the Reds to squander the great outings by Claussen and Dave Williams (and make Jon Lieber look like Greg Maddux at the same time.)  
3. Cincinnati has gone cold at the plate.  Their run production has fallen off woefully in the past 11 games, averaging 3.6 runs per game and only scoring one run or less 6 times out of those games.

The defense though is the most painful and tough thing to overcome.  It would appear that the achilles heel of the Reds is indeed their error-prone ways.  Can you teach defense?  Is this just a phase or will the Reds be doomed?

What scene does this describe?  “Jason LaRue stepped up to the plate, his pink bat gripped tightly with both hands.  He waved it in front of the catcher’s face, tapped the plate with it (!), then stared at the man on the mound, waiting to see who would make the next move.”  [Description of "Pink Bat for Breast Cancer Awareness Day," or opening scene to "Brokeback Ballpark"]

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By Thaq Diesel 

Welcome back Junior!  With one patented lazy swing depositing the ball in right center field, Griffey capped an amazing comeback win.  I said it once, I’ll say it again – this team finds a different hero every night.  What an exciting year it has been.  I still don’t believe it’s happening.  I also don’t have that indignant feeling fans get when their team was picked to be last and instead is doing well.  I agreed with the pundits before the year started – on paper, this team didn’t seem to have a shot.  Instead, it’s plucky and fiesty.  It reminds me a bit of the Cleveland Indians from last year. 

• The Reds seem to like to binge on certain stats.  Last week it was errors.  This week it has been stolen bases.  The Reds stole 11 bases against the Nationals, Felipe Lopez with five of those.  They stole zero bases on Tuesday, followed by six steals on Wednesday.  Five tonight.  I mean, that’s insane.  
• Another great start by Arroyo tonight.  No win, but we’ll take those kinds of starts every time. 
• Farewell to thee, Tony Womack.  We hardly knew ye.
• Another series win for the Reds who are in first place for 14 days straight.
• Cincinnati finishes out the month against Philly (decent team), Pittsburgh (last place in the Central, should win that series), Detroit (decent team), Milwaukee (sub .500, should win that series), Arizona (decent team), and the Cubs (bad team, getting worse, ready for the gas pipe).  I have to think they’ll be in first or just a couple games back by June. 
• I heard Colin Cowherd (he’s my favorite sports radio personality now – he’s always saying intelligent things) say on ESPN radio today that you need two good starters, a closer and clutch hitting to make it to the World Series.  Hmm, I wonder what team that describes thus far this season…

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By Thaq Diesel 

The Reds are heading home after a lackluster road trip which yielded two wins but featured some slumping bats and error-prone defense.  The pitching is still good to great, but Cincinnati is starting to show cracks in the armor.  Little things like giving up six unearned runs in an inning like they did Friday to the Diamondbacks need to stop.  Perhaps they can pull it together.  I picture Jerry Narron making the team field balls all day Monday.  Narron standing at the plate with a bat, screaming “AGAIN!” like my 6th grade little league coach or the Asian guy in that Bud light commercial. 

• I maintain that the inside-the-park home run (or even attempting one) is one of the most exciting plays in baseball.  Felipe Lopez had the speed to pull one off Saturday.
• Can the Reds continue to make up for their fielding mistakes with their power and run production? 
• Cincinnati has had eight errors in the past five games.
• The Reds lead (or are in last place, if you think of it that way) MLB in errors with 32, though they just committed one fourth of them this past week.
• The Reds are 9th in strikeouts, middle of the pack in ERA and have given up the fifth best number of walks (just 92).  So much for a crappy pitching staff.
• Austin Kearns is hitting the ball really well.  He took El Duque out of the yard to left Sunday, one pitch after hitting a rocket over the fence just foul.  I can’t remember ever seeing that before (“Hmm, that guy just hit that fastball hard.  Maybe I can throw another fastball by him…”)

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By Thaq Diesel 

• The Reds are the second team in the majors to win 20 games and are a half game out for the best record in baseball.  What a great start to the season.  I couldn’t be more pleased or surprised.
• It was only a two-game series, but it’s still sweet to sweep the Cardinals.
• Who would have thought that the Reds on Wednesday, near the top of the majors in home runs, would be shut out in the thin mile-high air?   It was a shame because it was a pretty good pitching performance by Brandon Claussen. 
• Aaron Harang had a masterful pitching performance in Colorado striking out 12 and breaking  bats all over the place.   The Reds have a low ERA the past 10 games too, which correlates to the 8-2 record.
• It was cold and rainy, but there was NObody in the stands in Colorado.  It’s a shame because the Rockies have had a great and suprising start too.  They have the 2006 “Thaq Diesel Reds vs. Colorado Rockies” curse to thank for that.
• Tomorrow, we get another look at Elizardo Ramirez.  He’s had two quality starts since his call up from the minors and will need all the help he can get as he matches up against the Diamondback’s Brandon Webb (4-0, 2.22 ERA)
• I heard a podcast a couple days ago: “Baseball Today” on ESPN.  The host said, “The Reds are off to a hot start, their pitching has been great, but it just can’t last.”  We’ll see. 
• The Tigers are the American League version of the Reds this year – nobody expected them to compete, but they’re getting great hitting and solid pitching and have put together a great record and are only 1.5 games out of first.  The Reds, the Rockies, the Tigers; it’s just kooky.

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May 4, 1976 at Shea Stadium 

Mets 5, Reds 3  (11-9)

The Reds dropped their second straight game as they traveled to New York to take on the Mets.  Fred Norman only logged two innings and gave up two runs on no hits (yes, you’re reading this right) and five walks.  In the bottom of the second, Norman walked the leadoff man before getting one out.  Then he walked three batters in succession, including the pitcher for the Mets, Tom Seaver, before getting out number two that resulted in the second run of the inning.

Pedro Borbon didn’t fare too well either.  In the bottom of the third, he gave up two more runs to give Hall of Famer Tom Seaver a comfortable four run cushion.

Pete Rose and Ken Griffey both had two hits and Joe Morgan drew three walks and scored.  The Reds scored all three of their runs in different innings.

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