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Hall of Fame baseball writer Hal McCoy has retired from the Dayton Daily News after covering the Cincinnati Reds for 37 years. Hal's blog, though, will continue to be a must-read for Reds fans. He'll share his thoughts on the team this season and will file updates from Great American Ball Park. You also can catch Hal in print every Sunday in his popular Ask Hal columnHome > Blogs > The Real McCoy | Cincinnati Reds baseball news > Archives > 2008 > September > 07
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Double disaster dosage for Piniella
The grin on Jolbert Cabrera’s face was as wide as both batter’s boxes and he placed a finger in front of his lips and said, “Shhhh. Don’t tell Lou Piniella. That’s two walk-offs for me against him.”
Cabrera should know, Piniella is like an elephant (only meaner). He doesn’t forget.
The latest was a Sunday thriller in Great American Ball Park, a three-run ninth-inning rally that ended abruptly when Cabrera pulled a line drive single to left scoring the winning run in a 3-1 victory for the Cincinnati Reds over the Chicago Cubs.
The cinema finish was accomplished against Cubs closer Kerry Wood and after Cabrera’s single nestled in the left field grass, he pumped his arms and an angry Wood screamed at him for his celebratory display.
“It was a game-winner and I was showing him up,” said Cabrera. “He has a reason to be mad, but not at me. I was just doing my job. I’m sure if he strikes me out, he pumps his arm.”
Wood had reason to be angry. At himself.
The Reds had only three hits and trailed 3-1 entering the ninth.
Edwin Encarnacion led the ninth with a bloop single to center that skipped past Jim Edmonds for an error that placed Encarnacion on second.
Jay Bruce walked, but Ryan Hanigan forced Encarnacion at third on a sacrifice bunt attempt gone bad. Pinch-hitter Javier Valentin walked on a full-count to fill the bases.
That brought up pinch-hitter Chris Dickerson, who was originally in the starting lineup but was removed just prior to game time with a sore left ankle.
Dickerson shot a two-hopper at shortstop Ronny Cedeno. A game-ending double play? No, the ball took an extremely high hop and deflected off his glove as two runs scored. At first it was ruled an error, then changed to a two-run him that tied it, 3-3.
Then Cabrera produced.
“Remember that game when I was with Cleveland and we fell behind Seattle, 12-0, when Lou managed Seattle?” said Cabrera. “It was the biggest comeback in major-league history. We came back to win, 15-14.”
It was August 5, 2001 and it was also to left field. But it was a broken bat. All this hit did was break a bunch Cubs’ fans hearts.
They thought they had this one won. Instead of taking the series two games to one, they lost it two games to one,.
“It felt like we were playing in Chicago,” said Cabrera. “Sometimes you have to get lucky and we did (with the Edmonds error and the high bounced at Cedeno). We want these teams to do if they are going to go through us to a championship they are going to have to earn their wings and we’re going to make it tough on them.”
Speaking of wings, Piniella flew the coop after the game, ducking the media by telling his public relations representative, “Tell them I decline.”
Baker, though, was more than happy to chat with the media, which he did, then as they left his office his telephone rang.
It was his wife.
“Yeah, it was a nice win,” he said to her.
Baker’s wife said something about feeling sorry for Wood, “Because we’re close, close to him and his wife.”
Said Baker, “Hey, I love Kerry and his wife, too. But we needed this more than he did.”
A quick check of the standings reveals that that is not the truth.
Before the game, Baker stopped Reds starter Aaron Harang, grasped his elbow, and said, “This is your playoff game. This is a playoff atmosphere, what it is like to be in the playoffs.”
And it certainly was that, plus Harang pitched well enough to win — seven innings, three runs, six hits.
To the media before the game, Baker added, “It is our playoffs. This gives us something to chew on.”
There was no chewing until the ninth inning, then the Reds spat out the Cubs as most of the 37,540 blue-clad fans fell silent.
“We wanted to win this game to let them know we were coming after them right to the end, right through the last game we played against them, and to let them know we were coming after them next year with a better team,” said Baker.
The Reds scored first when Encarnacion singled with one out in the second, took second Jay Bruce was hit by a pitch, moved to third on a walk to Ryan Hanigan and scored on Corey Patterson’s fly to right.
The Cubs tied it in the fourth, scoring only one run despite getting three straight hits to open the inning. The run scored while Geovany Soto was hitting into a 6-4-3 double play.
Amazingly, Harang had not hit a batter in 155 innings this season, not one, not once. In the seventh he hit Geovany Soto and Mark DeRosa, back-to-back. And both scored to give the Cubs the 3-1 lead they protected until the ninth.
“I tried to go in on both of them and went too far in,” said Harang. “Then I threw a good pitch on the inner half of the plate to Ronny Cedeno and he barely got his bat on the ball the flared it to right field (for a run-scoring single). I stood on the mound and said, ‘Are you kidding me?’”
That’s what Piniella is saying right now about Wood, about Cabrera, about his team’s sixth loss in seven games.
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On an early Sunday morning in early September, one didn’t need a newspaper or the internet to check the standings to see where the Cincinnati Reds stand and where the Chicago Cubs stand.
Few have access to major-league clubhouses, but those of us who are fortunate enough can take an easy reading.
Reds bottom. Cubs top.
A walk into the Reds clubhouse at 11 a.m. Sunday revealed, uh, not much. There are four couches at one end, couches formerly the domain of Ken Griffey Jr. and Adam Dunn. Now that they are gone, the couches have become the Latin Quarter - occupied by the Hispanics. On this morning they were being used by Javier Valentin, Ramon Ramirez, Johnny Cueto and Edinson Volquez. Jolbert Cabrera and Francisco Cordero are members, too.
But their talk was quiet, subdued. Joey Votto quietly dressed in his corner stall.
Manager Dusty Baker stopped Aaron Harang and said, “This is your playoffs. Treat it like a playoff game.” Then he wandered over to relief pitcher Mike Lincoln, who has had a problem finding outs lately, and talked to him for 15 minutes about pitch selection.
There was no music. A TV was on, with the sound off. Nobody was watching.
Now a trip to the Cubs clubhouse. Loud music. Players in uniform everywhere. Former Cincinnati pitcher Ryan Dempster was with several writers, talking about the Chicago Bears.
There is a clubhouse attendant named Mike Dillon and he loves to torment the Cubs.
On Sunday, he had a pen, but it wasn’t really a pen. He gave it to Cubs catcher Henry Blanco and asked Blanco to sign an autograph. When Blanco began to sign, the pen shocked him.
Blanco, Carlos Zambrano and a couple of other Cubs grabbed Dillon, known in the clubouse as ‘Skins,’ and tossed him into a large laundry cart that is on wheels. Then they wrapped him up in advesive tape like a mummy, including his eyes, and wheeled him from the clubhouse to the playing field.
Blanco poured a bottle of water all over Dillon and they left him baking in the sun at slow simmer.
When Dillion extricated himself, he went back into the Cubs clubhouse and doused Blanco’s locker with a bottle of water. Blanco wasn’t happy and said, “You got some important papers wet, Skins.”
Said Dillon, “You got my underwear wet, important underwear. Fruit of the Loops (sic).”
Dillon rides a bicycle from his home to the park every day and Blanco disappeared for a while, re-appearing carrying the front wheel of Dillon’s bike.
“Are you stupid? Are you an idiot? Tell me you didn’t take the wheel off my bicycle,” Dillion yelled as Blanco handed him the wheel. Said Zambrano, “Whatcha got there, Skins, a unicycle?”
The Cubs leave Cincinnati for St. Louis Sunday night and Skins whispered to me, “Hal, why do they treat me like this? I’m a nice guy.” Then he smiled sheepishly and said, “Wait until they get to St. Louis and check their equipment. They aren’t gonna like me then at all.”
Dillon/Skin wouldn’t say what he did to sabotage the Cubs, but his smile said it was, indeed, dastardly.
Ah, the fun and games of a winner and The Silence of the Lambs in the loser’s quarters.
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