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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 > July > 05
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Carpenter saws the Reds into five easy pieces
Unless you are a St. Louis Cardinals fan, it isn’t much fun watching Chris Carpenter make your team look aimless and helpless. He makes them pound the ball into the dirt - ground ball after ground ball after ground ball.
After Sunday’s game, there can’t be a worm alive under the Great American Ball Park grass because the Cincinnati Reds beat them to death with their ground balls.
Carpenter pitched seven innings and held the Reds to one run and five hits during an 10-1 victory.
ON THE OTHER side, Bronson Arroyo was up to his recent ineffectiveness - five innings, eight runs (five earned) and 11 hits. Three unearned runs scored because of a throwing error by third baseman Edwin Encarnacion (where have we seen this act before?).
Didn’t matter that much because five earned runs was enough for Carpenter.
Manager Dusty Baker knew what was coming. Usually, there is no batting practice on a Sunday morning before a day game. But on this morning Baker had his boys out there taking BP, “Because we have that nasty Carpenter to face and we need to prepare.”
That one didn’t work so well.
Baker said the other reason he had his team taking batting practice was because it is embarking on a seven-game trip to Philadelphia (four) and New York (three), the last games before the All-Star break, “And you don’t get as much batting practice time on the field on the road.”
These last seven games against a couple of NL East powerhouses are important for the Reds to cling close before the break. What is amazing about the NL Central is that the Reds are as close to the top (three behind St. Louis) as they are to the bottom (three ahead of Pittsburgh). Wins, wins and more wins are needed.
Baker put it quaintly: “What this does for the NL Central is that there are no broken spirits before the All-Star break. Usually there are broken spirits. The spirits are all still alive. Makes for good baseball, though.”
AS EXPECTED, the Reds have only one All-Star representative - closer Coco Cordero (20 saves in 21 chances). It is Cordero’s third All-Star game, all with different teams - Texas, Milwaukee and Cincinnati.
“A good goal for anybody is to make the All-Star team,” he said. “I’m excited. I may not seem like it now, but I will be when I get to St. Louis for the game. It’s real special, something big for me and my family.”
NOW IF US Airways can get me to Philadelphia tomorrow, we’ll see what the next six games will bring. Can’t wait for Friday, though, when I ride Amtrak Business Coach from Philly to New York, a pleasant 1 1/2-hour train ride. No security lines, no luggage hassle, no extra charge for suitcases, no cramped seats.
Amtrak won’t lose my luggage because it will be with me. Last year, US Airways lost my luggage after my flight from Dayton to New York was scuttled halfway there because of a foul odor surfaced in the airplane. We returned to Dayton, I was re-routed to NY through Washington, D.C. - but I think my luggage was re-routed through Washington state.
I got to New York Friday evening, just before game time. My luggage arrived Sunday morning - at check-out time from the hotel. US Airways did pay for the clothing and toiletries I had to buy to get me through those two days.
If I had known that, I would have shopped at Armani’s instead of the The Gap. Live and learn.
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