Let’s recap tonight’s titanic struggle….
FINAL
Cincinnati 2
San Diego 3
WP: Bell (1-0)
LP: Masset (0-3)
BOXSCORE
POSITIVES
–Joey Votto is unstoppable: 3-4 with a double, a run, and an RBI.
–Travis Wood pitched 6.2 innings, giving up one run on five hits, striking out five and walking three.
–Juan Francisco, of all people, made some nice defensive plays. Chris Heisey made a couple of great plays defensively.
NEGATIVES
–Where do we start? How about Nick Masset, who has accounted for three of Cincinnati’s four losses on the season. Aroldis Chapman was not good, his velocity was down, he looked uncomfortable…and I predict right now that he’s about to go on the disabled list.
–Brandon Phillips reportedly hurt his groin on a relay throw. No word on severity.
–We haven’t been very critical of Dusty Baker here, at least not for quite some time. Let’s be honest, however: Dusty completely mismanaged this game. First, Chapman had no business pitching for the fourth time in five days, especially since his velocity was way down in his last outing.
Secondly, Nick Masset had no business being on the mound in the ninth inning. Then, after Masset got into trouble, why wasn’t CoCo brought into the game? Isn’t he the highest paid reliever for a reason? As Chris Garber said on Twitter: “Example #768 of why stat-obsessed, closer-centric bullpen stinks. #Reds “be$t” reliever is sitting down, while they live or die w/ Masset.”
Also, it could be argued that Wood was left out there too long, and a run scored in the 7th because of it.
NOT-SO-RANDOM THOUGHTS
—More from Chris: “Manager’s job is to put guys in position to succeed, and protect them from failures. Dusty simply isn’t doing that w/ Nick Masset.” Exactly.
–As bad as Masset has been, let’s not go overboard. He doesn’t need to be released or traded or sent to AAA. He started off pretty poorly last year too, only to rebound to be great in the second half. Masset just needs to be placed into some lower-pressure situations for a while. He’ll be fine eventually.
–Just a frustrating game, one that was winnable. In the end, however, it was a 3-3 road trip, and that’s not bad.
–No more thoughts, random or otherwise. I’m exhausted.