Time for a recap of tonight’s titanic struggle….
FINAL
Washington 2
Cincinnati 0
WP: Mock (2-4)
LP: Harang (6-14)
S: MacDougal (12)
BOX SCORE
POSITIVES
–Very nice outing for Aaron Harang. Seven innings, six hits, two runs, six Ks. Poor guy has less luck than anyone.
–Paul Janish made a wonderful leaping grab of a Ryan Zimmerman liner in the 8th inning. The Nationals announcers agreed that they were disappointed that Alex Gonzalez wasn’t a Red anymore, since he wouldn’t have made that play.
NEGATIVES
–TOS* Why can’t Harang ever get run support? This is getting ridiculous.
–Dusty Baker.
–I had intended to mention this in the recap when it was first posted, but forgot until Jim’s comment jogged my memory:
Lay this one at the feet of Mark Berry….His idiotic decision to send Harang (who would be hard pressed to beat Ramon Hernandez in a foot race) killed a potential big inning. I’ll take Joey Votto with the bases loaded any day.
I only watch the Reds, so there may be some incompetent 3B coaches I haven’t seen…and I’m not saying Berry’s incompetent, but doesn’t it seem like Berry is getting runners pegged at home all the time, in situations where everyone on earth knows that the runner should be held up?
How many times have we seen it? A million or so, I’d bet. I’d like to see the stats on which teams have the greatest percentage of runners gunned down at the plate.
ETC.
–Why does every third-rate pitcher in the world make the Reds look like schoolgirls at the plate?
–Chris summed it up perfectly in the game thread:
Here’s what I don’t understand: To Dusty Baker, Paul Janish is SO BAD that he can’t see the field. The Reds had the worst SS in baseball, and Janish got all of 25 AB since July 1.
YET TONIGHT, when he has no choice but to play Paul Janish, Dusty bats him second.
One day (season) a guy can’t crack the lineup, the next he’s batting at the top of the order. Another news flash to Dusty: Like Gonzalez, Janish is slow.
Indeed.
–Johnny Cueto tomorrow on Brandon Phillips Bobblehead Night. Oh joy.
*This Offense Stinks