Let’s recap today’s titanic struggle….
FINAL — 10 innings
New York (NL) 4
Cincinnati 5
WP: Owings (3-0)
LP: Feliciano (1-1)
BOX SCORE
POSITIVES
–Clearly, Orlando Cabrera is the greatest shortstop ever to play this beautiful game. Three for five at the plate with two RBI and the game-winning walkoff homer. And defensively…well….well, he didn’t make any errors. Good game for OC. Kudos. And kudos again.
–Johnny Cueto went 2-2 at the plate. Oh yeah, he looked pretty good on the mound as well: 6 innings, three runs on 7 hits, 8 Ks, 2 walks. He still has this continuing propensity to lose focus for short periods, however. It’s unnerving.
–Jonny Gomes and Brandon Phillips each went 2-4, and each hit a homer. Reports from the ballpark say that Phillips loafed around the bases after the home run.*
–Nick Masset struck out two in his inning of work. Just like that, Masset has begun pitching well. Bizarre.
NEGATIVES
–Johnny Cueto, 24 years old, threw 118 pitches. Four days ago, a 23 year-old Homer Bailey threw 121 pitches. Twenty-five year old Edinson Volquez is recovering from major arm surgery. Somewhere, Kerry Wood just cried out in pain. Meanwhile, 22 year-old Mike Leake cowers in fear in a corner of the Reds clubhouse.
–Francisco Cordero blew the save. I’m starting to get frustrated with CoCo.
–Drew Stubbs went 0-5. Rinse. Repeat. His numbers are down in Taveras/Patterson territory: .174/.267/.283. How long are the Reds going to allow this youngster to struggle like this? At the very least, bat him eighth, Dusty!
ETC.
–A nice series win, and the Reds are back to .500. I like it.
–Paul Janish won’t play for a month now. Of course, there was a pretty good chance he wasn’t going to play in the next month anyway.
–Sorry, I won’t be making a Cabrera sombrero. I do need a Cueto sombrero pic, and a BP one might be nice. Guess we’re stuck with the original tonight:
Johnny Gomes
*That’s a joke, BP fans. Lighten up.