Standard “day game after night game” lineup, plus Mike Leake pitching. Cueto was DL’d which makes him ineligible if the Reds make it to the NLCS although he would be eligible to pitch in the World Series if the Reds are part of that. Brisk weather today in the Queen City. Cooler than yesterday by 10 degrees and windy.
Super Todd Frazier taking Scott Rolen’s place at 3B and Dioner Navarro will catch Leake. Baker said that Mat Latos will pitch Game Five if necessary.
1. Brandon Phillips (R) 2B
2. Zack Cozart (R) SS
3. Joey Votto (L) 1B
4. Ryan Ludwick (R) LF
5. Jay Bruce (L) RF
6. Todd Frazier (R) 3B
7. Dioner Navarro (S) C
8. Drew Stubbs (R) CF
9. Mike Leake (R) P
No offense to Rolen, but I’m excited to see some postseason Super Todd today.
Pretty simple really – all year long the theme here from time to time has been TOS. It cost this team a huge win last night. Zito/Cain – this offense has two chances to step up and take some pressure off the reeling pitching staff. Can they do it or not?
@Greg Dafler:
im extremely surprised Hanigan isnt starting. He’s a pitchers security blanket! Navarro proved adequate. hell even useful, but i dont feel comfortable with this at all
Ok, while last night was awful and it’s unfortunate what happened to Johnny, that’s all in the past.
Go get ’em Leake.
While it stinks that we lost Cueto for the NLCS, whenever Mike Leake pitches and my wife watches, we win. It’s been that way the entire season and vice versa with Bailey although Homer did really well last night, but we still lost.
NL team has never come back from 0-2 hole.
I agree with Hank here, Rolen has looked like a guy toughing out some pain. I know everyone is banged up but Rolen especially has looked flat in the postseason on a lot of plays and at bats. I’m very excited to see Leake pitching tonight. Right now GABP isn’t playing as small as it usually does and our starters are in another “anything you can do, I can do better” phase like they were around the all-star game. We’ve given up 2 earned runs in 3 playoff games.. that is outstanding. I think Leake will continue that run tonight with a very solid showing. He won’t be shut-down but he will bring it tonight.
According to the lineup posted on MLB for SF — Sanchez is catching.
Bruce: 5/14 (.357 average) with 1 homerun
Cairo: 4/13 (.308 average) with 1 homerun
Cozart: 1/2
Frazier: 3/5 with 1 homerun
Hanigan (who is out of the lineup): 2/8
Heisey (who is also out): 0/4
Ludwick: 6/26 (.231 average) with 1 homeruns and a .355 OBP
Navarro: Never faced Zito
Phillips: 8/19 (.421 average, .520 OBP)
Rolen (who is also out): 2/7 with a .538 OBP
Stubbs: 5/13 (.385 average, .467 OBP)
Votto: 3/18
Everybody in the lineup except Votto has been pretty successful against the lefty Barry Zito in the past, and I’m surprised Zito is getting so little attention when fans try to predict the game’s outcome.
I don’t think Frazier is in for the remainder of the playoffs, I think he’s in today because he’s been successful against left handed pitching and Barry Zito in particular.
Dioner Navarro, we rarely see him bat right handed but I guess we get to today.
Go Reds! Reds need to go, tonight. I don’t like a game 5 scenario for them.
And I actually find it really intriguing that with all the other issues this ball team has faced, why not have one more thrown at them during the most crucial part of the season? Losing Cueto during the NLCS is a HUGE loss, but is it as much of a loss as losing Votto? We all witnessed how well the Reds played everyday after Votto went down, so perhaps Leake can lock down the NLDS and the rest of the staff can perform well in the NLCS.
Go Reds!
@vared: What team have you been watching? Seriously, what part of the pitching staff has been “reeling” over the last 4 days?
not surprised to see Frazier in this situation. i think dusty was planning on getting him a couple spot starts and this is a good situation. today’s game being a pseudo-day game (4:00), this seems like a pretty good spot to rest Rolen.
don’t know how i feel about Navarro. Hannigan (outside of his bad passed ball yesterday) has been really good of late. and having him behind the plate is a GREAT security in the playoffs.
I like that they’re going with Leake. With Cueto out, there was no “good” solution for today’s game. Going to Latos on short rest (and, apparently, with the sniffles) was risky; he gutted out a strong performance the other day on short rest, but we all know he didn’t have his best stuff out there. Who knows how he’d look on short rest a second straight outing? If he took a loss, we’d be looking at Arroyo on short rest tomorrow; I love Bronson, but Bronson on short rest isn’t where I want the ball with the season on the line. This way , if Leake wins it, great; if not, we have a fully-rested Mat Latos on the hill for Game 5. And if someone had asked you before the series who you’d want on the mound if it got to Game 5, how many people here wouldn’t have said Mat Latos?
Then there was this quote from yesterday:
He’s looked pretty good???? What am I missing here?
http://cincinnati.reds.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=25371833&topic_id=37975852&c_id=cin
Some more info on the Cueto decision from Price
So either the medical staff fooled us all again with Cueto, or the decision to pull him for Leake was a terrible one. Even if we win this series, we’ll be Cueto-less next series against a presumably better opponent (since they won their series to advance). I just don’t understand why they don’t just go… “Hey Mat, we need you to throw 5 innings out there today.” and then just go with our fairly well rested (and best in MLB) bullpen that’s gotten back-to-back starters pitching 7 innings. Baffling that we’re going with the guy who’s had an ERA over 5 since the All-Star Break.
Also, the decision to go with Frazier over Rolen shouldn’t be all that surprisingly. People who have preached about Rolen’s gold glove defense hasn’t been watching this year clearly. The guy’s got a .948 fielding percentage, which is his lowest since 1997. Todd Frazier’s fielding percentage is .968 at 3rd and .994 at 1st.. as a rookie. Just don’t see how that one’s a hard decision.
Also wouldn’t mind seeing Heisey get in there at center field.
All things said, I think the bats wake back up today and we win as long as Leake keeps it close.
I’m cool with the Leake decision. Seeing what we’ve seen of players dealing with oblique problems, the odds of Cueto being ready to go next week are pretty low. He may not be able to go the week after, either.
You know the old saying – you go to war with the army you’ve got, not the one you wish you had. Steal this game like it’s a t-shirt, Leakey!
I’m a fan of this Dusty lineup. Frazier over Rolen, and get Navarro a start. Only way to improve it would be start Heisey over Stubbs (although I do love Stubbs’ defense). Time to close this out boys.