Let’s recap tonight’s titanic struggle….
FINAL
Cincinnati 2
St. Louis 4
W: K. McClellan (3-0)
L: M. Maloney (0-1)
S: M. Boggs (2)
BOXSCORE
POSITIVES
–Brandon Phillips was booed all night, and he responded with a couple of hits, including a homer. The homer was fun, as the boos only got louder, and BP enjoyed a little dance in the dugout after it was over.
–Drew Stubbs had a couple of hits from the leadoff spot and bumped his OBP up around .370. Miguel Cairo, starting at third in place of the injured Scott Rolen, had a couple of hits.
–Jordan Smith pitched three pretty good innings, giving up just one run on four hits. Bill Bray was great…again. Nick Masset was straight dealing in his two perfect innings of work. Very nice to see.
NEGATIVES
–Matt Maloney got the start after the rain delay, and he did not help matters any. Maloney gave up three runs on eight hits in two innings.
–Edgar Renteria has no defensive ability whatsoever. He left it all back in 2004.
–A baserunning blunder by Chris Heisey and Cairo (mostly Heisey) ran the Reds out of a chance to tie the game in the eighth. Sheesh. Looked like the old, pre-2010 Reds.
NOT-SO-RANDOM THOUGHTS
–The game started on time, then we saw a bit of gamesmanship from the Cardinals. The umpires stopped the game after six minutes, and the teams waited through a 2:10 rain delay. It seemed pretty clear that the Cardinals wanted to start the game on time, despite the obvious fact that it’d be stopped immediately, in order to cause the Reds to burn their starter.
–My opinion of his baseball talents hasn’t changed in the last year, but I find that I like BP much more than I used to.
–I don’t know if Dusty Baker was trying to get Masset into the game in a less-intense situation (he entered in the sixth inning), but Masset looked better than he has all season — by far.
–Chris Welsh said they tried hard, if that helps.
–The fact that Cincinnati had to use Maloney as the starter, followed by his poor two-inning start, means that the Reds bullpen is likely shot this weekend. Too bad.
–Bill Bray has really been great this season. Of course, as I said in the game thread, he’s due to get injured any moment now.
–The Redlegs certainly had their opportunities, but just couldn’t come up with the hit they needed at the right time. I still feel pretty good about the next couple of days, though I concede that I may be fooling myself here.