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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 > 2009 > May > 02
Saturday, May 2, 2009
A mad cap night with Matt Capps
Pittsburgh Pirates closer Matt Capps should change his name to Mad Cap - at least when he pitches against the Cincinnati Reds.
He came into a game Saturday night with an 8-4 lead and pitched as if he were more interested in the post-game fireworks than getting the Reds out. The gave up five hits and two runs and had the bases loaded weith a two-run lead before he struck out Alex Gonzalez on three pitches to end it.
Pinch-hitter Laynce Nix had a single during the mad-cap ninth and do I need to say about perhaps inserting his heavy-duty bat into the lineup for a while? What more does the guy have to do - a .333 average. And it isn’t as if Chris Dickerson (.213) and Jerry Hairston Jr. (.159) are shining lighthouses out there in left field.
Game stuff:
The Futility Factor of the two teams engaging in this weekend series in PNC Park was emphasized by a factoid excavated by the Elias Sports Bureau:
This is the latest in a season since 1999 that both the Pittsburgh Pirates and Cincinnati Reds are over .500.
Latest? May 3?
All that does is emphasize that the Pirates are working with 16 straight losing seasons and the Reds are on a streak of eight straight losing seasons.
The Pirates (12-11) outstaggered the Reds (12-11) Saturday, 8-6, and matters were decided quickly when Cincinnati starter Micah Owings put the game’s first four runniners on base and all four scored.
It was the 16th time in 23 games that the Reds have been behind and the eighth time they were touched for runs in the first inning.
“We have to figure out a way to get Owings past the early innings,” said manager Dusty Baker. “Once he gets past the first or second inning he is locked in. I don’t see anything. Maybe it takes him a while to get loose.”
Owings isn’t aware of any First-Inning Blues.
“I felt like I was making pretty good pitches,” said Owings. “But if there is something I can learn from talking to (pitching coach) Dick Pole and Dusty, well, I’ll see if they have any advice for me. If somebody finds out, let me know. I was loose and felt good when I warmed up.”
He gave up one run in the first inning of his first start, none in the first inning of his next two, then four Saturday.
Nyjer Morgan and Freddy Garcia both singled to right field to open the first, the same thing they did in Friday night. But on Friday Bronson Arroyo threw a double play ball and escaped cleanly. Owings didn’t.
Nate McLouth also singled to right, scoring a run. It was the first run scored by the Pirates after 22 straight scoreless innings and the first run giving up by the Reds after 19 straight scoreless innings.
And the Pirates didn’t stop. Adam LaRoche walked, filling the bases. With one out, Owings hit Andy LaRoche, forcing in a rjun, then Ramon Vazquez poked a two-run single to right for a 4-0 lead.
Pittsburgh added a run in the third before the Reds scored three in the fourth on an Alex Gonzalez three-run homer that hit the left field foul pole.
Joey Votto doubled to open the fifth, but didn’t score. Willy Taveras opened the seventh with a single, but didn’t score — nor even try to steal second before Votto grounded into a double play.
Then the Pirates filled the bases in the seventh with one out. Andy LaRoche hit a double play grounder to third baseman Rosales. He bobbled it briefly, then double-clutched the throw. He still had time for a force at second, but Brandon Phillips dropped the throw and two runs scored for a 7-3 Pirates lead.
Asked if Phillips was late covering the bag, Baker said, “The ball was bobbled and that messed up the timing, messed up everything. Brandon was trying to avoid getting killed (from the fast-closing runner).”
The Reds put runners on first and third with no outs in the eighth, but scored only one run.
As a finishing touch, the first four Reds in the ninth hit safely against closer Matt Capps for two runs, then with the tying runs on base and no outs and the bases loaded with two outs, but Gonzalez struck out on three pitches.
“We had a lot of action on winning that game,” said Baker. “At least our hitting came around (14 hits) and we scored runs. Both teams left a lot of men on base (Reds 11, Pirates 7).
The ninth was wild and woolly against Capps, who had an 8-4 lead when he arrived and only an 8-6 lead with the bases loaded when it ended.
It began with a Taveras infield single. Pinch-hitter Laynce Nix grounded a single to right and Votto second hit of the night drove home Taveras to make it 8-5.
Phillips, 7 for 12 with two homers against Capps when he stepped into the box, grounded a single to left and it was 8-6 with two on and nobody out.
Jay Bruce then crushed one to deep left center that Morgan somehow tracked down for the first out.
“Bruce hit that ball really hard, but they were playing him over that way,” said Baker. “I thought it was in the gap for a hit, but Morgan ran it down.”
Ramon Hernandez took a called third strike for the second out and Rosales stroked an infield hit to deep short, his third hit, loading the bases.
Gonzalez took two strikes, then swung and missed.
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TweetThe Derby, Black and Gold, the lineup
My Kentucky Derby picks (three hours before the race):
Friesan Fire (because he loves the slop, is a good mudder). Dunkirk (love the name and love gray horse).
The Kentucky Derby is probably the only major sporting event in America I have not attended and plan to do so at some point. As my friend Bob Hertzel, an official scorer in Pittsburgh who covered the Big Red Machine for the Cincinnati Enquirer, said to me today, “You always did like slow horses, slow dogs and fast women.” Well, he is partly right, but I won’t say which one(s).
QUESTION: Is there any other city in America where all of its pro sports franchises haave the same colors. That’s the case in Pittsburgh. The Pirates? Black and gold. The Steelers? Black and gold. The Penquins? Black and gold.
My hotel is full of Penguins fans, here for tonight’s NHL playoff game against the Washington Capitals. The lobby was stuffed with fans wearing Penguins jerseys. Not one Pirates jersey. In fact, I spotted a group of school kids touring PNC Park Friday, most of them wearing Steelers jerseys. Strange.
But my good friend, Chris Weller, is the Aramark guy for the Pirates and is only in his second year here and I’m sure he’ll get the market straightened out. And he is a closet Reds fan.
THE REDS lineup tonight: Willy Taveras, Chris Dickerson, Joey Votto, Brandon Phillips, Jay Bruce, Ramon Hernandez, Adam Rosales, Alex Gonzalez, Micah Owings.
I’m not sure that I wouldn’t continue to play Ryan Hanigan. Manager Dusty Baker says he likes to ride a player while he is hot. How hot is .412? And in my mind, as feeble as it may be, Hanigan may be a better defensive catcher. And if Dusty likes to get ‘em while they’re hot, how about Paul Janish at shortstop. He is hitting .357 (to .177 for Gonzalez) and while Gonzalez IS a defensive specialist, I see a diminished range with that repaired knee.
And if he wants to play Gonzalez, why not bat him ninth and pitcher/hitter Micah Owings eighth? Owings was 2 for 3 with a double in his last start. But I’m OK with Baker’s explanation: “It’s not bad to have a hitter batting ninth to get on for the top of the order.”
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