Time for a recap of tonight’s titanic struggle….
FINAL (11 innings)
Chicago 3
Cincinnati 4
WP: Masset (3-0)
LP: Marshall (3-5)
BOX SCORE
POSITIVES
–Smilin’ side of the scoreboard! It was ugly, especially the winning “rally” but any win against the stupid Cubs is a great one.
–Matt Maloney wasn’t extremely sharp, but all things considered, that’s a good major league debut. Six-plus innings, six hits, two earned runs. Congratulations, Matt. (Another positive is this: I love Maloney’s high cuff look. Next stop: stirrups.)
–Chris Dickerson was an absolute demon in center field tonight. As a matter of fact, he’s been nothing short of brilliant defensively since taking over for Willy Taveras a few days ago. There couldn’t be a bigger difference between his effort and performance out there and what we saw from Taveras.
–Ya know, Ramon Hernandez continues to be pretty good defensively at first base. I like when he hits a homer and drives in two runs, too.
–Daniel Ray Herrera (1.61 ERA), Francisco Cordero (1.50), and Nick Masset (0.86) continued to perform well out of the bullpen.
NEGATIVES
–TOS*
–I won’t tell you what I said when D**** W******* gave up the tying run in the 8th inning. This is a family blog, after all.
–To paraphrase a comment in the game thread, tonight Maloney joined a long list of major league pitchers who have been sitting quietly in the dugout while D**** W******* threw up all over himself to take the win away from the starter.
–Wow, Laynce Nix looked lost at the plate tonight.
ETC.
–Stupid Cubs.
–Dusty Baker’s arms-raised dance in the dugout after the Reds scored the winning run was a thing of beauty.
–All four Reds runs scored were unearned.
–Idiot pitcher Sean Marshall of the Cubs threw one at Chris Dickerson’s head in the bottom of the tenth. Bush league play. For his part, Dickerson stayed in there and calmly laid down a great bunt on the very next pitch.
–I missed the first half of the game (watched Maloney on DVR) because we took the kids to see a movie.
–Someone wake up Walt Jocketty and tell him to put Willy Taveras on the disabled list. Someone should tally up how many games this year Dusty Baker has been forced to manage with a hand tied behind his back by only having 23 or 24 players available. Ludicrous. Jocketty is asleep at the wheel.
–Suggestions in the game thread that Taveras should change his name to Wally Pipp, with the way Dickerson has outclassed him defensively.
–A win tomorrow to take this series would be very nice indeed.
–Jonny says, “I like beating the Cubs!”
*This Offense Stinks.