Marlins vs. Reds – April 9, 2019

When Ashley began her coverage of the Pirates series on April 4, she mentioned that the Reds (1-8) were attempting to snap a four-game losing streak.

That did not happen. They are 0 for April.

Not only did it not happen, the reverse took place. They still haven’t won. Our parting gift, however, is what I nominate as the next mural to adorn the inner walls Great American Ball Park. On the outer walls, it must be painted on the river side and projected into space, that beings from other states and galaxies may know of our valor.

Steve Mancuso kindly invited me to take part in this week’s short answer. Because of the diarrhea which issues from my keyboard whenever I encounter an interesting subject, my submission was a bit over the 150 word limit (which, you have to admit, is a more admirable turn-in than the original draft, which was 149 words under), I posted the missing bits here, should you be interested (I quite like the part in which I wedge a discussion of yoga pants into an examination of the Reds and the psychological realities of neuroticism. REDLEG NATION: Come for the sports talk, stay for the psychosis and yoga pants!)

I included this link because I thought you might be need of something to pass the time while waiting for various Marlins (3-7) to finish running around the bases. That might not happen, of course, but my history minor math indicates it probably will. For the moment, let us hope for a reality of sunny with an increasing chance of, much like Jerry Seinfeld’s rental car counter employee, taking a lead… and then hoooooolding the lead.

We meet at 6:40 PM.

Starting Pitchers

REDS

Sup, Luis. Luis Castillo has a loss pinned on him, but at this point, with this team, that means absolutely nothing. The Internet informs me that his changeup has “caused chatter,” so there’s that.

THE 2019 CINCINNATI REDS: CAUSING CHATTER

MARLINS

I see promise here with this Urena fellow– more than with David, Lord of the Pine Tar, anyway. He has two losses. Maybe he’s terrible enough that the Reds can do something with that. I would type that his ERA is, like, 10 to indicate how much hope you should have, but his ERA literally is more than 10.

Bullpens

REDS

Our biggest concern about the Reds over the off-season was 1) the pitching 2) the pitching after the pitching. This turned out to be incorrect. We should have been concerned about the offense.

Currently my favorite thing about the bullpen is the way it acted after Matt Kemp broke the scoreless streak:

The #reds bullpen reaction to finally scoring again was awesome! pic.twitter.com/Ojxg8xKxgO

— JMV1070 (@JMV1070) April 6, 2019

See? That’s adorable.

MARLINS

I could not find a tweet featuring the Marlins bullpen celebrating a Matt Kemp home run.

Lineups

REDS

1. Curtis Granderson (L) LF
2. Brian Anderson (R) 3B
3. Neil Walker (S) 1B
4. Starlin Castro (R) 2B
5. Jorge Alfaro (R) C
6. JT Riddle (L) SS
7. Lewis Brinson (R) CF
8. Peter O’Brien (R) RF
9. Jose Urena (R) P

LINEUP DISCISSION:

-Both teams have lineups.

-Remember how after Opening Day and the rainout, how those 48 hours without baseball seemed an age? How you just wanted to see Reds standing on grass?

Yeah that’s done. Yesterday’s day off seemed like a brief respite from being hammered in a field of weeds like the Office Space printer.

-Our Friend Puig is not in the lineup due to lameness. Not because he’s hurt. Because the MLB suspension people, as Doug Gray aptly points out, are laaaaaaaaaaaame.

News and Notes

–Homer Bailey’s ERA is currently 9; also, he has to live in Kansas City.

-I visited Miami Beach once. It was like someone picked up Manhattan and plopped it down on the edge of Florida.

It’s not a good combination.

-This is the first thing I’ve written for Redleg Nation since the website redesign that has been rated as having Good Readability by WordPress. Expect great things, baseball-wise, from here on out.