Battle for First in the Central: Reds vs. Cards, gm 1

• Mooney44Cards

  

  Harangatang takes the mound against Jaime Garcia, who, despite his 3-2 record, has been pretty untouchable with a 1.18 ERA. Lets hope the Battlin' Redlegs knock that ERA up a few points tonight.
  
  Lets also hope that the Harang we've seen the past few times out shows up tonight. The Cardinals offense has been struggling of late, we need to take advantage of that.
  
  Thinking about heading down to the ballpark to see this one, but I'm not sure yet cuz I'd be coming straight from work and I'd be by myself.
  
  LETS GO REDS!
• CinciX12

  

  Couldn't be more excited for this weekend series. I actually have a good feeling about it, for once.
  
  These guys have actually become really fun to watch. I'm scared to go to a game in person and jinx it. I usually go on the losing efforts.
• SportsAndLady

  

  I cannot wait for this series..if I were back in Cinci I would for sure go to every game. It's not too often we have a home series that means first place..
• Mooney44Cards

  

  Almost game time!
• gerb131

  

  Nice play by OC to save a run. Harang escapes in the first.
• osu45804

  

  Bruce strikes out to leave the bases loaded in the 1st
• gerb131

  

  4-0 as Ludwick takes Harang for a 2 run ride after Pujols (who else) takes Harang out in the 3rd I do belive.
• gerb131

  

  Stubbs 2 run jack makes it 4-2 STL with one out in the 7th.
• mhs95_06

  I was hoping the Reds bullpen could get 9 straight outs to get thru the 9th without having to face the top of the Cards order the 5th time. So I was disappointed that Massett walked Molina with two out. But then I was pleased that Molina ran himself into an out to have no one LOB!
• mhs95_06

  BP hit by pitch with one out. Cards bring in a lefty to face key hitter Votto. Ump makes a bad call strike on an outside breaking ball on the first pitch. Then Votto gets the pitch he wants and pops it up for the biggest out of the game.
• mhs95_06

  Reds hopes to score three in the 8th and 9th took a big hit with a zero in the 8th. LaRussa used 3 pitchers to get thru the 8th.
• mhs95_06

  Dusty's gut move of putting righty pinch hitter Hernandez up against a righty closer backfires "big time" on the first pitch with a game ending double play! I think Dusty was trying to avoid using three subs instead of two. Rightfully he wanted to get a faster runner on first for Hanigan who hopefully could score the "walk off" run. So since Hernandez could hit and go into catch he'd only need two subs if they just tied it, instead of using three subs if he used conventional wisdom and pinch hit the lefty Nix.
• jordo212000

  

  Ramon Hernandez grounds into a double play to end it. He swung at the first pitch! Ahh Ramon. Interestingly the guys said that lefties hit .300 of Franklin, righties hit .200, and individually Nix had better career numbers off Franklin. Not sure the result would have been any different, but it makes you wonder
• Rotinaj

  

  Dinglebaker strikes again and refuses to pinch hit guys based on the numbers.
• jordo212000

  

  Personally I would have maybe went with Heisey. I don't care how old he is, or how few hits he has. He is a good hitter. It still perplexes me that brought up one of the jewels of the farm system to not play him.
• Mooney44Cards

  

  HERNANDEZ?!
  
  Fuck.
  
  Laynce Nix maybe?
  
  Heisey?
  
  Ugh.
• jordo212000

  

  If you go by the stats, Nix would have been preferred over Hernandez. However, you know my stance on Nix, and for some reason you like bringing up the fact that he is "my boy" when he finally earns his salary. Of course he is going to get a hit/HR every once in a while... if he didn't he wouldn't have made it this far. My problem with Nix is that there are others on the team who are going to get more hits than Nix, more consistently than Nix.
  
  That's my basis for the two posts you are having a little bit of fun with.
• Mooney44Cards

  

  jordo212000 wrote: If you go by the stats, Nix would have been preferred over Hernandez. However, you know my stance on Nix, and for some reason you like bringing up the fact that he is "my boy" when he finally earns his salary. Of course he is going to get a hit/HR every once in a while... if he didn't he wouldn't have made it this far. My problem with Nix is that there are others on the team who are going to get more hits than Nix, more consistently than Nix.
  
  That's my basis for the two posts you are having a little bit of fun with.

  Haha, actually I only said something just that one time. I think you misinterpreted what I just posted.....it wasn't a reply to your post, just an overall exclamation of disgust.
• mhs95_06

  Dusty said, in his post game comments, that Nix was unavailable. They didn't say why. I thought they never wanted to go into a Cardinal series a man short - weren't they saying that is why they were going to put Dickerson on the DL right away with his wrist? That being the case, if a right hander had to be put up, of the ones they had, Ramon was the best choice.
• Mooney44Cards

  

  mhs95_06 wrote: Dusty said, in his post game comments, that Nix was unavailable. They didn't say why. I thought they never wanted to go into a Cardinal series a man short - weren't they saying that is why they were going to put Dickerson on the DL right away with his wrist? That being the case, if a right hander had to be put up, of the ones they had, Ramon was the best choice.

  I disagree. Ramon has very little power, Owings could at least put a good rip on the ball.
• gerb131

  

  Good game by both teams. Harang pitched well just the 2 dingers cost him. Reds just couldn't get anything early which cost them late. Hope they can pull one out tomorrow with Leake on the hill.
• Ironman92

  

  NIx must've been unavailable because Dusty rarely pinch hits a catcher when he only has 2 catchers...another one of Dusty's book of idioticness.....though I wish he would've stuck with it tonight.
  
  Announcers said the cards pitcher reminded them of Johan Santana a bit......he dead on a young Mike Hampton
• charliehustle14

  Man I was wanting Heisey to hit so bad in that situation instead of Ramon.
  
  Ramon's power is non-existent and was 2-20 something off Franklin. Plus anything hit on the ground becomes an easy DP.
  
  Heisey has more speed and never has seen Franklin before. I'd rather send a guy up there who is 0-0 against a pitcher rather than someone who is hitting less than .100 for their career against said pitcher. Plus Heisey looked good the other night at the plate. Ramon hasn't looked good with the bat since last year.
• jordo212000

  

  charliehustle14 wrote: Man I was wanting Heisey to hit so bad in that situation instead of Ramon.
  
  Ramon's power is non-existent and was 2-20 something off Franklin. Plus anything hit on the ground becomes an easy DP.
  
  Heisey has more speed and never has seen Franklin before. I'd rather send a guy up there who is 0-0 against a pitcher rather than someone who is hitting less than .100 for their career against said pitcher. Plus Heisey looked good the other night at the plate. Ramon hasn't looked good with the bat since last year.

  That was my opinion too. Heisey has been a stud for over a year down in the minors. Give me a guy like him every time. If Hernandez wasn't a catcher he wouldn't start in the big leagues. His bat is only average for a catcher and when you consider some of the garbage catching on other teams... that tells me everything I need to know.