Titanic Struggle Recap: Joey. Votto. MVP.

Let’s recap tonight’s titanic struggle….

FINAL
Washington 6
Cincinnati 9
W: S. Marshall (1-2)
L: H. Rodriguez (1-3)
BOX SCORE

POSITIVES
–Joey Votto. Joseph Daniel Votto. There aren’t enough superlatives for me to describe Votto and his performance today.

With nearly everything going wrong for Cincinnati, the Redlegs climbed on Joey Votto’s back and he carried them to an unlikely victory. On the day, Votto was 4-5 with three homers, a double, 6 RBI and four runs scored. The last homer, however, was the most important.

With two outs in the bottom of the ninth, Votto strode to the plate with the bases loaded (Ryan Hanigan singled, Drew Stubbs and Chris Heisey each walked) and the Reds down 6-5. As you would expect from our MVP, Votto drilled a fastball over the right-center field fence for a walkoff grand slam. Pandemonium promptly erupted among the twenty or thirty fans who remained in the park after a nearly four hour rain delay at the start of the game.

This is the only way to describe it:

Wow. Just…wow. #reds

— Redleg Nation (@redlegnation) May 14, 2012

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–Ryan Hanigan was the only other Red with more than one hit. He’s hitting .300 with a .355 OBP this season. I’d love to see Hanigan hitting first or second on this team.

NEGATIVES
–Everything other than Joey Votto, basically.

–Once again (for the third time this season), Dusty Baker used Devin Mesoraco to pinch-run for Ryan Hanigan (today, it happened after Hanigan got his hit to start the 9th inning rally). Someone please explain to me why Dusty thinks this is a good idea.

–Every Reds pitcher was bad today, and I’m not in a mood to expound upon that. Joey Votto!!!

NOT-SO-RANDOM THOUGHTS
–For most of the game, I figured that this recap would be nothing more than a picture of Milton, the goat with braces. This whole series has been ugly.

Thank you, Joey Votto, for giving us something to smile about tonight.

–Jay Bruce had a double, but it was mostly due to Bryce Harper looking a bit foolish when he lost the ball in the lights.

—Today’s game thread is kinda hilarious to read. So much negativity, followed by pure unadulterated joy. That’s baseball, my friends.

–Last walkoff grand slam for the Reds? My guy Adam Dunn, back in 2006 vs. the Indians. Remember that game?

–Mike Costanzo made his major league debut as a pinch-hitter in the fifth inning. He hacked at the first pitch and hit a sacrifice fly, driving in his first MLB run. Welcome to the show, Costanzo (or should we call him T-Bone?)

–The Reds lost two of three to the Nationals, and looked pretty bad in the process…yet Joey Votto’s heroics means that the Redlegs gained a game on the first-place Cardinals over the weekend. Baseball is a funny game.