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Another fast (losing) getaway

By Hal McCoy | Thursday, August 28, 2008, 02:35 PM

Came within one pitch of breaking my all-time record today during my second-inning appearance on the radio with Marty and The Cowboy.

Seven pitches. My record is six. As Marty was quick to point out - and I agree inherently - “We’re running out of things to talk about.”

Just glad we’re getting out of town. Hurricane Gustav could be heading this way. I’ve never been in a hurricane and would like that to remain something I’ve never done in my life.

While I was in McCoy’s Fine Cigars the other day, a TV guy came in and they regulars began hooting. Said one, “This is the guy who stood outside during our last hurricane giving a report from Galveston, hanging onto his hat with one hand and a telephone pole with the other. We felt sorry for him until right on camera behind our friend was a guy pedaling easily past on a bicycle.”

HAVE YOU noticed how when member of the Reds are in a slump, they hike their pants up to their knees so that lots of red sock shows? Edwin Encarnacion does it. Jay Bruce does it. Joey Votto does it. Jeff Keppinger wears his that way all the time.

As soon as they came out of the slump, down come the pants. And usually down come the averages again. If they think wearing their pants high gets them out of a slump, when it works why don’t they keep their pants up.

Just wondering - not much else to wonder about these days.

AN INTERESTING THOUGHT from Dusty Baker before today’s game. It was Baker’s thoughts on how important it was to win getaway games on the road - a getaway game being the last game of a series before a team gets out of town.

For the Reds on this three-city trip it was the difference between a 6-3 trip and a 3-6 trip. In each case - in Chicago, Denver and Houston - the Reds were 1-1 in the first two games, only to lose the third.

For the season, the Reds are 8-13 on getaway days.

“It was something I emphasized to the team during spring training,” said Baker. “winning on the last day prevents sweeps, put you in a sweep position, but most of the time it determines whether you win or lose a series.

“You figure you win all those getaway games and we have a winning trip,” Baker added. “It’s the toughest game to play, especially the last game of a trip. Guys think about going home, being on the road a long time (10 days this time). I guess what you have to do is pretend you’re not going home, especially in extra inning games like that 12-inning game we had in Denver on getway day.”

The Reds weren’t going home after that 4-3 loss, but they were going to Houston for an off day.

“I reminded some of the guys today that even though it was getaway day they needed to bear down,” Baker added. “If you win the majority of your getaway days I guarantee you you’d be in the hunt.”

An interesting theory.

His team, though, wasn’t buying much of it. They were facing Brandon Backe. On August 6, Backe gave up 11 earned runs in 3 1/3 innings to the Cubs. On August 16, Backe gave up 11 earned runs in 5 2/3 innings to the Diamondbacks.

On August 28, he gave up zero earned run in xx innings to the Reds.

Of course, it doesn’t help the cause when your team is down, 2-0,. and you are on the first base with two outs in the sixth inning. You take your lead and after the pitch you walk slowly back to first base with your head down.

That’s when Houston catcher Humberto Quintero snapped a throw to first base that Chris Dickerson never saw coming as he walked back to first, eyes starting at the dirt. Out. Inning over.

And that’s one of the thousands of reasons the Reds are the Reds.

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Votto loses, but loves the battle

By Hal McCoy | Wednesday, August 27, 2008, 11:22 PM

The next time the Cincinnati Reds plays the Houston Astros, I am going to borrow Astros uniform No. 44, the one worn by Roy Oswalt. I am going to put it on and pitch for the Astros.

As long as the Reds believe I’m Oswalt, I know I’ll get them out with my 43 miles an hour cut fastball.

How can one pitcher be 22-1 for his career against one team? It defies logic. It defies reason. It defies the odds. It defies explanation.

Oswalt did it again Wednesday in Minute Maid Park, holding the Reds to one run and five hits over seven innings.

There was one confrontation between Oswalt and Joey Votto that defines baseball. The dullard would say it was a boring at-bat. Votto struck out. As Red Smith once wrote, “Baseball is dull only to dull people.”

If you are a baseball fan and didn’t enjoy watching that at-bat, then you aren’t a fan. You are a casual observer, and not a very good one.

Situation: Reds down, 2-1. Runner on third. Two outs. Votto vs. Oswalt. On the eighth pitch, Oswalt struck out Votto with a 97 miles an hour fastball, his highest velocity of the night.

The eight-pitch argument was pure testosterone, mano y mano. He was engaging and invigorating stuff. Oswalt stuck with his best, his fastball, dialing it up to 94 miles an hour, then 95 miles an hour (both fouled off), then blowing Votto away with a 97 miles an hour fastball.

Votto didn’t win that battle, but being the competitor he is, he enjoyed it, other than the result.

“I don’t think Roy cruises or anything, but he really showed me what he has on that at bat,” said Votto. “After the last pitch, he gave me a little stare and I kind of got goose bumps because I love competition. It was awesome, even though I lost.

“He has almost no fear and has really good stuff and that combination leads to a lot of success,” said Votto. “I wasn’t around for about 21 of those wins of his, but tonight he looked like one of the best pitchers in baseball.”

Now you know what I like Joey Votto so much. He struck - and certainly didn’t want to strike out - but he thrill in the competition and was appreciate of what occurred.

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Bruce: Still a work in progress

By Hal McCoy | Wednesday, August 27, 2008, 05:30 PM

Was sitting this afternoon in McCoy’s Fine Cigars (Mike McCoy, Proprietor, is not a relative and he won’t even give me a discount) and was doing an interview on my cellphone with a local radio station. Suddenly, the front door opened and a guy stormed in swearing at the top of his voice about some personal wrong doing.

Hopefully the station hasn’t been shut down by the FCC and hopefully I’ll be invited back. I told them it wasn’t me swearing, but I’m not certain they believe me. Probably figured I burned my finger lighting a Montecristo.

A VETERAN Houston writer took a look at Wednesday’s Cincinnati Reds lineup and asked with a wry smile, “Where’s Paul Householder and Tracy Jones and Duane Walker and Tom Lawless?” Ouch.

ADAM DUNN and Ken Griffey Jr. used to call it, “Getting called to the principal’s office.”

Jay Bruce was summoned to manager Dusty Baker’s office before tonight’s game. No hickory stick or paddle awaited, just a man-to-man people talk. Over the course of the last two games Bruce struck out seven times in a row.

“I appreciate Dusty doing that,” said Bruce. “That’s what he is there for and it is good that he is there for us. He’s been through it. He knows things.”

Baker said, “Jay is in Never-Never Land right now. He is between off-speed pitches and fastballs. The secret is to get back on the fastballs. He is so aggressive and I’d rather have that way than for him to be passive. It is focus and concentration. We want him to keep being aggressive, but be aggressive in the strike zone.”

Nobody knows it better than the 21-year-old Bruce.

“I’m learning,” he said. “The way I’ve been hitting lately is not acceptable by my standards because I expect a lot out of myself. No matter how old I am or am not or how long I’ve been here in the majors or not been here, I have a certain standard to perform. Lately I haven’t been doing it. And, yes, it’s embarrassing.

“But that’s the beauty of baseball,” he added. “Every day you start over. Make the best of it and learn from it. This is probably one of a million slumps I’ll go through and dealing with adversity is all part of it. That’s the positive side of it for me. Everybody struggles.”

Somebody suggested that maybe playing in Houston, his home, in front of family and friends, was too much pressure, but the first four strikeouts came Sunday in Denver and the next three came Tuesday in Houston.

Baker said he likes the fact that players leave scads of tickets and play in front of friends and relatives on the road and added, “I like that. Players know people want to see them play and usually they bear down and do better. All those people probably never saw Jay struggle as a kid.”

Said Bruce, “I know I have to be aggressive in the zone. These pitchers up here know right now that they don’t have to throw me a strike, so they won’t. Why should they? I wouldn’t either if I didn’t have to.

“This is all a learning process I need to shorten that process as quickly as I can,” he added. “I haven’t struck out seven times in my life, ever. In your whole life you are always experiencing first times and hopefully that’s the last time I experience that.

“But at this point I was going up there more trying not to strikeout than get a hit,” he said. “That’s a bad approach. That’s like playing not to lose rather than playing not to win.”

Count on this. Bruce soon will again come out smoking and some pitchers are going to pay. Knowing Bruce, if pressed, he’d promise that with a money-back guarantee.

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The Big A’s: Alonso, Arroyo

By Hal McCoy | Tuesday, August 26, 2008, 11:28 PM

While the Cincinnati Reds were winning a meaningless August game under the roof of Minute Maid Park, shielded from the thick humidity outside, news was being made elsewhere.

In the stifling humidity of Sarasota, Fla., in front of a few dozen fans swatting mosquitos, Yonder Alonso made his professional debut, a double off the wall in Ed Smith Stadium in his first at-bat.

See, he can use a wooden bat. Is he ready for the majors? Probably not quite yet.

Soon, maybe? The Reds certainly could use some heavy weaponry, even though they performed a major accomplishment Tuesday night by beating the Houston Astros, 2-1.

This one was won because pitcher Bronson Arroyo cranked up a dandy, a five-hitter and the first complete game this year by a Reds pitcher — the Reds being the last team without a complete game.

And a home run by rookie catcher Ryan Hanigan provided the winning run.

Arroyo certainly knew that closer Francisco Cordero was not back from attending the birth of his child and pitched accordingly.

“Arroyo came in after the eighth inning and said, ‘Give me a chance,’” said manager Dusty Baker. “I said, ‘You got it.’ I haven’t had the opportunity all season to say that.”

Said Arroyo, “With Coco (Cordero) not around, well, if he’s here I’m sure Dusty let’s him have the ninth. If I got somebody got on, I’d hope he would come and get me.

But Arroyo pitched a quick 1-2-3, with Lance Berkman ended it with a deep fly to center — sort of apropos.

“It was nice to have Berkman up there and to get him because he has beaten me so many damn times,” said Arroyo, 0-3 against the Astros this year before Tuesday. “In this park, I’m up 3-1 and he hits a three-run jack or something.”

Baker was appreciative of what Arroyo did.

“Bronson was masterful,” Baker added. “To hold this team to one run in this park, that’s masterful.”

Was Arroyo and the starting staff aware that the Reds had no complete games?

“Oh, yeah. We were aware,” he said. “Even if you have an off year you usually sprinkle in a few here and there. I knew after last time when I went seven and he pulled me. We thought, ‘We might not ever get this thing.’ Now we got one, so we’re off the schneid for this season.”

Arroyo’s sinker had the Astros digging divots in the infield, leading to a pair of key double plays. In contract to Sunday’s five-error fiasco, the Reds were digging dirt to make plays on ground balls — two exceptional ones by third baseman Edwin Encarnacion, two by shortstop Jeff Keppinger, one by first baseman Joey Votto and one by second baseman Brandon Phillips.

“A lot of good defensive plays that won’t show up in the box score,” said Arroyo, cognizant of the team’s five errors Sunday in Colorado that showed up glaringly and in bold type in the box score. I had the sinker worker to get those ground balls and if a couple get through I probably don’t come close to finishing.”

Arroyo picked up a clue from home plate umpire Dana DeMuth when he batted in the third inning and DeMuth called him out on what Arroyo thought was a low pitch.

“He rang me up on balls I thought were really low,” said Arroyo. “So I went to the mound and test him out. He called those strikes, too, so I said, ‘Beautiful,’ and tried to stay way, way low with my pitches, down at the bottom of the zone, right at the knees. And those got me all those ground balls.”

So now the Reds are 2-8 this season against a team this is 15 games out of first place in the National League Central and an even .500 — even though the Reds act as if they are playing the Angels, leaders of the AL West by 16 games over second place Texas.

The winning blow was struck by rookie catcher Ryan Hanigan, an eighth-inning home run above the yellow line and off the viaduct in left field.

Still, the Reds struck out 12 times — and that’s 26 in two games. They had five hits, same as they had Sunday in Colorado.

Jay Bruce struck out three straight times, giving him seven straight strikeouts over two games before he grounded out in the ninth inning.

Yonder, where are you?

Nineteen of the Reds’ final 31 games are against four teams either leading their division (Chicago Cubs, Arizona) or within six games of the leader (Milwaukee, Florida) or is within 3 1/2 games of the wild card leader (St. Louis).

Houston is not one of them.

After his gem, Arroyo was more concerned about his hair and said as he came out of the showers, “These people don’t realize you can’t wash your hair with Pert-Plus. Your hair will fall out.”

Meanwhile two Reds farmhands from Class AAA Louisville and five from Class AA Chattanooga will play for the Peoria Javelinas in the Arizona Fall League, whose pitching coach is Louisville’s Ted Power.

Outfielder Drew Stubbs and pitcher Charles Fisher are the representatives from Louisville, while pitchers Robert Manuel, Pedro Viola and Sean Henry, plus infielders Chris Valaika and Justin Turner are the Chattanooga representatives.

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The dog-savers: my heroes

By Hal McCoy | Tuesday, August 26, 2008, 02:52 PM

I have two new heroes.

You probably don’t know Dave and Kate DiCenzo, unless you live in Canada and read some of Dave’s hockey reports for the Canadian Press.

He recently began work as a stringer for my paper, although I didn’t know that. Nor did I know he lives a mile from me. I didn’t know Dave or Kate - until today.

My 9-year-old miniature schnauzer, Barkley, went on his own - Barkley McCoy’s Big Adventure. Our cleaning lady decided to let him out before she left the house. When she went to get him, he was gone. She searched frantically.

Finally, she called my wife, Nadine, who was at school teaching. Nadine came home. She and my mother-in-law, Lucille Tomczak, and the cleaning lady scoured the neighborhood for an hour. No Barkley.

My wife returned home just in time to pick up a phone call. It was Kate DiCenzo. Barkley was with Kate and Dave. They’d read his license number and called the county dog folks, who gave them our number.

Only when Nadine went to pick him up and she mentioned my name did Kate and Dave reveal that he has just gone to work at the Dayton Daily News — unbeknownst to me.

All I know is that Barkley is one smart pooch — other than not being able to find his way home. He found a house where another sports writer lived and stood on their porch. Or maybe it was the fact Kate works for the Iams dog food company and Barkley was after a free sample.

Anyway, thanks Kate. Thanks Dave. Other than Nadine, Barkley is my best friend in the world and I would have been a total wreck if something happened to him.

DAVID WEATHERS yelled at me. Again. He likes to yell at me, I guess.

This time it was after I visited Ken Griffey Jr. for a story in Chicago. The White Sox-Mariners game was a mess, a 15-3 White Sox win. I mentioned, offhandedly, in my story, that watching the Mariners was like watching the Reds. Dreadful.

Well, two nights later the Reds beat the Colorado Rockies, 8-5, after leading 8-0. Weathers himself gave up two of those five runs, but in the clubhouse after the game, Weathers yelled at me, “Hey, Hal. Did we look like the Mariners tonight?”

I said nothing, but I could have said, “Well, yeah, in the last three innings.”

A couple of years ago the bullpen was struggling and we were in Cleveland. After the bullpen blew up again I wrote, “This isn’t a bullpen, this is a pigpen.”

Weathers came into the clubhouse the next day waving the newspaper clippings and shouting, “So now we’re a pigpen, huh?”

One of Weathers’ best friends is fellow bullpenner Kent Mercker, but he came to my rescue and I am forever grateful. He said, “Hey, Stormy (Weathers), check the numbers. We are a pigpen right now. All I ask is that I get to be the Head Hog.”

After Weathers yelled at me in Denver, a couple of his teammates later apologized to me. For obvious reasons, they shall remain nameless, but one said, “Does he look at the standings? Has he watched us play?”

Strangely, I like David Weathers. He is a pro. He does anything the team asks him to do and more. He is a fun-loving guy and a good quote. He helps young players. He is good to have around - except when he is yelling at me.

I WAS ON Baseball Beat with Charlie Steiner on XM radio today and before our segment began, he played Eric Burdon’s song, “We gotta get out of this place, if it’s the last thing we ever do.”

Very funny, Charlie. Did you mean out of last place or did you mean I’ve gotta get out of this place of covering the Cincinnati Reds - the eighth straight losing season.

TODAY’S LINEUPS (If anybody cares)

No Corey Patterson.

Dickerson is leading off and playing CENTER FIELD. Jolbert Cabrera is in left field.

Dickerson, Keppinger, Phillips, Votto, Encarnacion, Bruce, Cabrera, Hanigan, Arroyo.

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United we ‘don’t’ stand

By Hal McCoy | Monday, August 25, 2008, 04:58 PM

I swear on the memories of Amelia Earhart, Charles Lindbergh, Jimmy Doolittle, Eddie Rickenbacker and both Wright brother that United Airlines looks for me.

Nobody could screw over one person more than United does me without trying.

Another travel day, another fiasco. When I landed in Houston I waited for my luggage. As always, it was one of the last pieces to arrive. And when it did, it came in two pieces. I checked it in one piece, I swear.

My bag came down the chute, followed closely by one wheel - off the bag, my bag they called “indestructible.” They don’t know United Airlines.

I picked up my 48-pound bag in one hand and the wheel in the other and trudged to the United Baggage office, where the lady in charge looked at my wheel and said, “Oh, my.”

Oh, my indeed.

“Oh,” she said sweetly. “We’re not responsible for wheels or handles.”

Wait a minute. I now pay $25 for you to haul my luggage so that some bozos can toss it around the tarmac like a Frisbee, but you’re not responsible when they turn it into a one-legged bag?

I feel singled out until other people tell me they endure the same thing time and again. A decision has been made. No more United. If I have to take a Greyhound, if I have to hitch-hike, if I have to walk (that’ll be tough, though, with a one-wheeled bag), no more United.

Isn’t is about time for one national airline? Even the government can’t screw it up the way United has for me this year.

There’s more. I get in a cab at the airport and the cabbie says, “Flat rate. It’s $47.50.” OK, I already know it’s like the distance from Panama to Chile from the George Bush Houston Intercontinental Airport to downtown.

But then why did he drop the meter flag, too? When we got the hotel, the meter said $42.30. I was too bedraggled by this time to argue. I pulled my one-wheeled bag out of the trunk, paid the $47.50 and dragged me and my crippled bag to the hotel lobby.

No game tonight, just news on the pitching front from Johnny Cueto and Homer Bailey.

Johnny Cueto, who left Sunday’s start after three innings, was diagnosed today by Dr. Tim Kremchek with a posterior strain on his right elbow, possibly due to hyperextension.

McCoy diagnosis: His elbow hurts.

Cueto won’t make his scheduled Saturday start at home against the Giants and Doc Hollywood (that’s Kremchek) will check him out again Friday.

And for those who thought Homer Bailey might come back to make that start, well, Kremchek gave the Reds a two-for-one when he checked on Bailey, too.

Kremchek said Bailey has a mild sprain of the medial collateral ligament in his right knee.

McCoy diagnosis: His knee hurts.

Bailey won’t take his Thursday start for the Louisville Bats and will be re-checked by Kremchek at the end of the week.

Bailey has not won a game in 21 starts at Louisville and Cincinnati. Twenty-one. He hasn’t won since April 27.

That’s hard to do if you try to do it. Maybe he can get a job at United Airlines.

One trip highlight so far: Spotting Sandra Bullock at the team hotel in Denver. Assume she was there for Obama and not Bronson Arroyo.

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The atrocity at Coors Field

By Hal McCoy | Sunday, August 24, 2008, 08:52 PM

Losing the worst-played major-league baseball game in this millennium was bad enough, but the Cincinnati Reds lost more than that — pending a medical work-up today of pitcher Johnny Cueto.

The Reds lost an almost indescribable game to the Colorado Rockies, 4-3, in 12 innings, but the real news happened about 3 1/2 hours before Rockies utility infielder Omar Quintanilla hit a walk-off home run against Mike Lincoln.

That’s when Cueto walked into the dugout after the third inning and said his elbow hurt. He was immediately removed.

Some thought equal parts of thin air and thin defense put quick closure on Cueto’s start in Coors Field Sunday afternoon.

Unfortunately for the Reds, it was something more sinister that knocked him out — soreness in his triceps tendon.

Cueto, making his 27th start, returned to Cincinnati on owner Bob Castellini’s private jet for a full evaluation today, but early indications are that the 22-year-old rookie may be shut down for the season.

The 22-year-old Dominican didn’t give up a hit in his three innings, but he was forced to throw 74 pitches because his teammates made three errors in the first two innings and he walked three.

“He came in between innings and said he was developing some stiffness and soreness in the back of his elbow,” said trainer Mark Mann. “That’s right where the triceps tendon comes into the elbow. Johnny being as young as he is, at this point of the season, logging as many innings as he has (155), we want to err on the side of caution, take no chances.”

And there was another perplexing situation in the ninth inning with the Reds leading, 3-2. It was closer time, Francisco Cordero time.

Instead, David Weathers walked to the mound and gave up an unearned run that tied the game as the Reds made two errors. Weathers committed a balk to put the tying run at second, plus he gave up a walk and two hits.

“Cordero had to leave and go home due to a personal matter,” said manager Dusty Baker. “We hope he’ll be back with us in Houston.”

As far as the game goes, it was the Reds falling out of an ugly tree and hitting every branch on the way to the ground.

They made as many errors (five) as they had hits (five), they struck out 14 times. They walked nine Rockies, threw two wild pitches, committed a balk, perpetrated a passed ball and Corey Patterson made his daily baserunning blunder by getting picked off base.

The videotape is going to Cooperstown as one of the five worst professional baseball games ever played.

Colorado stranded 18 and was 0 for 16 with runners in scoring position. Sound familiar? One difference. The Rockies won.

The game details are right out of a Dean Koontz novel. Scary.

Colorado took a 1-0 lead in the first when the Reds made two errors. First baseman Joey Votto kicked a ground ball, then Cueto walked two to fill the bases. Garrett Atkins blooped one down the right field line and right field Jay Bruce ran a long, long way. But he didn’t need to dive and the ball skidded off his glove for an error a run.

The Reds tied it in the second on Votto’s double and a single by Edwin Encarnacion.

Cueto left after three, replaced by Nick Massek, who pitched two scoreless innings while the Reds took a 3-1 lead, scoring one in the fifth on Paul Bako’s sacrifice fly and one in the sixth on Chris Dickerson’s third home run.

The Rockies pulled to within 3-2 in the seventh when Matt Holliday led with a single off Jeremy Affeldt, then stole second and third and scored on a wild pitch.

Then came Weathers in the ninth and Holliday reached on second baseman Brandon Phillips error on a ball that ticked off Weathers’ glove. Weathers was called for a balk, moving Holliday to second.

He scored on a single by Atkins on which Bruce was given an error on his throw home.

Meanwhile, the Reds didn’t score from the sixth inning on and managed only one hit, Encarnacion’s two-out single in the 11th.

“We gave ‘em the first three runs on errors and didn’t get a hit after the sixth inning,” said Baker. “Doing that and making five errors (season’s high) makes it awfully hard to win a game.

“We just can’t get the big hit with runners on base, especially with two outs,” he said. “It has been haunting us all year and we are just not a very good team at that part of the game.”

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