New York 8, Cincinnati 3
Cueto struggles early as Reds drop finale at Shea
Monday, May 12, 2008
NEW YORK — Johnny Cueto displayed every bit of his 22 years, most of it laced with immaturity and confusion, while the New York Mets performed a public mugging in Shea Stadium in the first inning Sunday afternoon, May 11.
The Mets rattled Cueto's psyche with a triple and two doubles en route to three runs, and the Cincinnati Reds were as dead as brass monkeys the rest of the way in an 8-3 defeat.
Extras
When the first inning ended, Cueto flipped his cap to the back of his head and trundled disconsolately toward the dugout, where he received a dressing down from pitching coach Dick Pole.
Asked if Cueto lost his composure, manager Dusty Baker said, "They jumped on him so quick he didn't have time to settle down. He came out of the bullpen with good stuff and all of a sudden it's bam, bam, bam, bam.
"Every pitch he threw was a line drive, even the outs were line drives — so the first thing I'm thinking is they have his pitches because they acted like they knew what was coming," Baker added.
Baker realized, though, it was location, location, location.
"When you are throwing every pitch down the heart of the plate, you don't have to know what's coming," he said. "This game isn't designed for that ball to ever be down the heart of the plate. And the Mets have some guys who know what to do with balls down the heart of the plate."
Jose Reyes started it with a line drive single and stolen base. Luis Castillo then tripled between right fielder Ken Griffey Jr. and center fielder Ryan Freel, a catchable ball on which Baker said, "I thought it was catchable when it left the bat."
With one out, Carlos Beltran doubled hard to left center for another run. An out later, Moises Alou doubled to right-center for a third run.
The Mets put a Mother's Day pink ribbon on it in the fifth with back-to-back home runs, a two-run rip by Beltran and a follow-up by Ryan Church.
Cueto is now 2-4 with a 5.91 earned-run average, not even close to what he was when he dazzled everybody in spring training.
His mentor, Mario Soto, was on hand to bear witness.
"Sometimes you have to learn the hard way," Soto said. As for Cueto losing his composure and displaying immaturity, Soto said, "Kids and big men both get frustrated when you expect to be good and things happen.
"He just couldn't get into a good rhythm in the first inning. I saw the same thing Dusty saw — the balls being hit were right down the middle. He was OK, then threw a bad slider with bad location to Beltran (home run)."
So the Reds are losers on another trip, dropping two of three to the Mets and they have been losers on 19 of their last 20 trips.
On the positive side, if there can be a positive from a last place team with a 15-23 record, following up on his 5-for-5 Saturday, Jeff Keppinger had two more hits and a walk, putting him on base eight straight times.
Then along came Smith — Wright State's Joe Smith.
Admittedly, they were behind, 8-3, but the Reds had two on with two outs in the eighth. Smith came in, fell behind 3-and-0, then whistled a 3-and-2 fastball past Keppinger for a strikeout. Keppinger only strikes out once every 20.3 at-bats, so it was noteworthy.
More noteworthy, though, was more preposterously bad base running when the Reds were down, 8-3, in the seventh. Freel singled with one out, then inexplicably was trying to steal second base on his own and was caught breaking too soon.
He was thrown out at second, about the two-dozenth time the Reds have committed goofy-ism on the basepaths.
As always, the Reds were pretty much helpless against left-hander Oliver Perez, who used to beat them like an old rug when he was with Pittsburgh. On this day, he was a Pirate again — six innings, three runs, three hits, eight strikeouts, his ninth career victory over the Reds, most against anybody.
"Just a bad day," Baker said. "It started bad and ended worse."
Next game
Who: Marlins (Badenhop 1-2) at Reds (Harang 1-5)
When: 7:10 p.m., May 12
Radio: WLW-AM (700); WONE-AM (980)
TV: FSN Ohio
