Let’s recap tonight’s titanic struggle….
FINAL (10 innings)
Cincinnati 6
Florida 5
WP: Masset (2-0)
LP: Badenhop (0-1)
S: Cordero (3)
BOX SCORE
POSITIVES
–Only one place to start: Scott Rolen. Rolen had the best game of his Reds career (and one of the best in his entire career, perhaps?), going 3-5 with two homers, two runs scored, and three RBI. His first homer gave the Reds the lead, and his final hit scored Joey Votto with what turned out to be the winning run.
I don’t know about this sentiment, but the guy played a great game today.
–Jay Bruce continued to rip the ball, but he got a couple of them to fall for base hits today, including a double. You could see the relief on his face when he reached second after that double in the second inning. Keep hammering ’em, Jay.
–Great bullpen work by Logan Ondrusek and CoCo. I questioned the decision to bring in Ondrusek in a 5-5 game, but the kid was lights out. Dusty Baker is smarter than me.
–The Reds had 11 hits. That’s a positive.
–The Reds are undefeated on the road!
NEGATIVES
–Joey Votto looked like a deer in the headlights on a defensive play in the eighth. Just caught a ground ball and was so indecisive that he didn’t get any outs. Thanks to Nick Masset, it didn’t come back to haunt the Reds, but it very easily could’ve lost the game (the Marlins loaded the bases).
–Johnny Cueto struggled all night long. He gave up 9 hits and 4 runs in 5 innings; Cueto threw 110 pitches and never seemed to be in command at any time. We need better than that from Johnny.
ETC.
–Let me tell you what I enjoyed about this one: the Reds kept fighting back. A couple of times, they started to look like the same old Reds and you half-expected them to just fold up their tents and give up. They didn’t. The team was fun to watch tonight.
–Thom Brennaman says what we’ve all been thinking about Mike Lincoln.
–The camera flashed into the dugout once, and I swear I saw Paul Janish in there with a “BB” on his back.
–The Reds are above .500. Great way to start the road trip.
— Celebrate, Scotty!
*This Offense Stinks