Hall of Fame baseball writer Hal McCoy is in his 36th year of covering the Cincinnati Reds, the longest tenure for any active writer covering one team. Counting spring training and postseason games, McCoy has covered more than 7,000 major-league baseball games, written close to 18,000 baseball stories and eaten enough hot dogs to give Babe Ruth indigestion.Home > Blogs > The Real McCoy | Cincinnati Reds baseball news > Archives > 2008 > April > 25 > Entry
Westward, ho - or ha?
All semblance of his residence here is gone. No photos. No memorabilia. No historical markers in plain view.
You know who we’re discussing here. Barry Bonds. The Giants let him go after last season and it is as if he never existed. He is the all-time leader in home runs, but as far as the San Francisco Giants and AT&T Park are concerned, he was a figment of some marketing guru’s imagination.
He was swept away like a dead fish in McCovey Cove.
OK, so there is one concession. After the local media fussed about it, the Giants put up a small barely visible orange shield on a brick wall in deepest center field, unreadable and unnoticeable from most locales inside the park.
But they took down the Splashdown Count, a running total of the home runs that landed in McCovey Cove, saying Bonds was the only one who drowned baseballs anyway.
With that little bit of historical data, the Cincinnati Reds and San Francisco Giants began a three-game series in AT&T and the Reds didn’t care about the Bonds landmarks, they are just happy he wasn’t in San Francisco’s lineup.
Meanwhile, on the Louisville front, Homer Bailey had his worst start of the year Friday against Indianapolis, giving up four runs and six hits in six innings, with two of the six hits home runs. He also walked three and hit a batter while striking out six.
Time out while I run outside the pressbox before the game starts to purchase a churro. Love churros. Maybe I’ll get two so I’ll have one for the seventh inning.
I’m back. Got two. Now I need to keep the sugar away from the keyboard or this PowerBook G4 will be doing some sweet-talking.
Brnadon Phillips isn’t in the lineup. He’s 6 for 38 over his last 10 games and is having difficulty discerning the difference between whether he should takes strikes and swing at balls or take balls and swing at strikes.
Manager Dusty Baker had Edwin Encarnacion batting cleanup for the first time this year, hoping to take advantage of his 14-game hitting streak. But he chatted with EE before the game, imploring him not to change what he has been doing.
“I hated to bat cleanup,” said Baker. “All of a sudden you’re saying, ‘Hey, I’m THE cleanup hitter. I gotta do something special.’ Nah, it’s just a spot in the order and you shouldn’t change. But I couldn’t transfer that to my process.”
Encarnacion led the team with six homers, mostly with nobody on, and Baker hoped by placing him fourth in the order that there might be some people occupying bases when he connects.
The Reds were facing a lefthander, Jonathan Sanchez, and Baker’s 10-year-old son, Darren, had a scouting report for his dad: “He’s tough, dad. We have to get to him early.”
Ryan Freel led the game with a single, a quick start. But when Jerry Hairston bunted Freel to second, after Hairston was thrown out at first Freel overran second base and was picked off.
Then nothing. Sixteen Reds went down feebly before Reds start Aaron Harang tried to take matters into his own bat, slashing a two-out double in the sixth. But Freel struck out.
The Reds were down1-0 at the time after a one-out opposite-field excuse-me double over the third base bag in the fourth by Eugenio Velez and a two-out, two-strike double by Bengie Molina.
San Francisco added two runs in the eighth, one on Ken Griffey Jr.’s throwing error and another on a sacrifice fly, for a 3-0 lead.
That’s the way it stood - two hits for the Reds - until Phillips led the ninth with a pinch-hit home run and Freel singled, ending Sanchez’s night. Brian Williams came on to strike out Jerry Hairston and get Encarnacion on a pop up, ending the game and his 14-game hitting streak.
The Reds lost the opening game of a series this year for the ninth straight time.
Sanchez was a 27th-round draft pick in 2004, but on this night he looked like a lefthanded Nolan Ryan, striking out 10 Reds while giving up four measly hits. But then it is the Reds, who are the moment are as danerous as a banana slug.
Poor Aaron Harang. He is 1-3 despite a 2.74 ERA. When he pitches the Reds feel as if they don’t have to score runs. They don’t, then they lose.;
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Comments
By Diabolical
April 26, 2008 3:00 PM | Link to this
wow 2 thru 8 no hits! i’m disgusted. my friends are disgusted this team is ridiculous. 0-9 trip count on it. welcome to hell jocketty!By MAC
April 26, 2008 9:52 AM | Link to this
Exactly hij; clearly the Reds made a decision to move forward w/ Dunn & Griff which I’m sure they are rethinking now. At least they got some good pitching for Ham. It looks like they’ll be starting over w/ Bruce and the other young players & pitchers in the near future. Once again, it appears to be wait until next yearBy redfuture
April 26, 2008 9:33 AM | Link to this
I agree that odd as it may sound Dunn’s only possible value as a hitter is in the 1 or 2 hole and if not there the 8 hole. He obviously loves to draw walks. There is value for that in the 1 or 2 hole but not in the 4th, 5th, or 6th hole. If he doesn’t draw the walk there is an 80% chance for an out and even greater with RISP. Sure he’ll probably hit 40 HRs but they won’t be any less valuable in the 1 or 2 hole. I also agree that Keppinger needs to be in whichever 1 or 2 hole that Dunn is not. If you elect to bat Dunn anywhere else it has to be in the 8th spot. At least there he’ll get a lot of walks which will allow the pitcher to sacrifice with less than 2 outs or prevent the pitcher from leading off the next inning! You have to take your value from the abilities that exist. Wishing for Adam to hit with RISP isn’t going to get it done. Utilize what skills he has and minimize his weaknesses!By redfuture
April 26, 2008 9:18 AM | Link to this
You can tell that Dusty’s instructions to be aggressive and swing at the first pitch is being followed. I think a lot of this hitting malaise is on him. He sets the tone! Yes, this team has shortcomings but seems that he amplified them rather than attenuated them. It’s going to be a long year.By MAC
April 26, 2008 9:05 AM | Link to this
Here again, we see a team full of guys swinging for the fences when a couple of well placed singles, a bunt & a fly ball could have made all the difference in the world. Hatty, Kepp, Hop, Harriston & MAYBE a few others are the only guys who show any willingness or ability to shorten up their swings and hit the ball where it’s pitched. This is why I say our scouting/development/management folks value the wrong skill set? Likewise, Dusty has to realize he doesn’t have a traditional ball club….put Dunn in the front of the lineup…pitchers are more likely to pitch to him there and when they don’t, Griffey, Phillips, EE ect will face pitchers out of the stretch and see more fastballs to hit! Likewise, you don’t put your best hitter and perfect #2 hitter in the 6 hole to protect guys that don’t get on. Kepp and Dunn need to be up frontBy hij
April 26, 2008 8:58 AM | Link to this
No one thought the issue was going to be offense. Yet Josh Hamilton has 23 rbi’s which equals Griffey + Dunn’s totals.By Mike
April 26, 2008 7:54 AM | Link to this
It is beginning to look very, very ugly.By Kyle
April 26, 2008 7:54 AM | Link to this
Shock, I totally agree. At least last year we threw away games late after scoring a bunch of runs. Don’t hitting coaches usually get fired over starts like this?By ShockMonkey
April 26, 2008 7:11 AM | Link to this
Somebody wake me when this nightmare shows signs…anything positive…of being over. My gawd, not only are we awful but boring too!By Bill
April 26, 2008 2:21 AM | Link to this
It is time to bring up Tom Shearn. The players crushed the ball when he was on the team.By Ryan
April 26, 2008 1:37 AM | Link to this
During pre-game on FSN Ohio, Chris Welsh commented that Jason Sanchez was good for “4 or 5 innings max.” So much for that. He mowed us down with ease. It’s nerve wracking to think that we can’t get anything going against a guy who usually has the bullpen up and warming all game.