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Y! MyWebcubs 5, reds 0
Safety squeeze bunt play lifts Chicago past Cueto, Cincinnati
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
CHICAGO — When spring training begins next February, manager Dusty Baker needs to start from scratch, as in holding up a round white thing and saying, "This is a baseball."
Among 16 National League teams, the Cincinnati Reds are 14th in hitting, 14th in defense and 13th in pitching. There are no tangible statistics for measuring fundamentals, but the naked eye says the Reds are 16th.
Dead last, which is why they are dead last in the National League Central standings.
Night after night, the Reds perpetrate unthinkable mental gaffes that turn into defeats, such as the one third baseman Edwin Encarnacion enacted Tuesday night, Aug. 19, in Wrigley Field.
That one blunder led to the game's only run off Johnny Cueto over seven innings during a 5-0 Chicago Cubs victory. It ruined a superb pitching clinic by Cueto — seven innings, one run, four hits, two walks, five strikeouts.
The goof-up?
Chicago catcher Geovany Soto led the fifth with a drive to right center. After a long run, center fielder Corey Patterson dove. The ball hit the heel of his glove and skidded away for a triple.
With one out, pitcher Rich Harden laid down a bunt up the third-base line. It was not a suicide squeeze bunt. Soto was not running on the pitch.
It was a safety squeeze. Soto waited to see what third baseman Encarnacion did with the bunt as he crept down the line.
Encarnacion did not even glance at Soto as he threw to first. As soon as Encarnacion threw, Soto broke for home and slid across with the run.
And it didn't come without warning. Manager Dusty Baker said he yelled at the entire infield, "Watch for the safety squeeze."
Said Baker: "You have to look the runner back. You have young players, they are going to do some things. Hopefully, they learn from it. That was a tough way for Johnny to give up his only run.
"That runner on third base is far more important than that runner going down to first base," Baker added. "Soto executed the play perfectly by going at the right time (staying just behind Encarnacion and out of his peripheral vision until he threw to first base)."
Had Patterson caught up with Soto's triple, the bunt wouldn't have materialized.
"I had to make a long run," Patterson said. "The wind plays tricks here, plus the lights came in to play. This is a tough outfield to play. Still, I thought I had it because I saw it all the way."
Harden handled fastballs and sliders even better than he handled the bat on the bunt.
He pitched seven shutout innings, giving up two hits — a single to Jeff Keppinger in the fourth and a single to Chris Dickerson in the sixth. He walked none and struck out 10.
The Cubs put it away in the eighth after Cueto departed, replaced by Mike Lincoln. All four batters Lincoln faced reached, including another miscue when first baseman Joey Votto tried to throw a runner out at second on a bunt and threw high, wide and ugly.
"We tried to be greedy and try to get the runner at second base and that opened the gates for four runs," said Baker. "A team like the Cubs, an offensive team, you can't give them any extra outs because they know how to capitalize."
All four scored, including a two-run broken-bat single by Kosuke Fukodome that scooted past pitcher Bill Bray to make it 5-0.
"That's as good as Johnny has thrown since the beginning of the year," said Baker. "He gave up two leadoff doubles in a row (third and fourth) and didn't give up anything, but then he gave up a leadoff triple in the fifth and it's hard to keep getting out of that kind of trouble."
Cueto was fighting cramps afterward and said: "The guys told me before the game I was facing good hitters and I told them, 'I don't care, I'm going to throw a good game. I lost and I feel good, but I threw one of my best games this year."
And the pitching rotation was shuffled when Aaron Harang woke up Tuesday with neck spasms.
He was scheduled to pitch Thursday afternoon's finale in Wrigley, but has been moved back to Friday in Denver.
Josh Fogg, scheduled for Colorado Friday, "Because who knows how to pitch in Coors Field better than Fogg" — Baker (Fogg pitched for the Rockies last year) now pitches Thursday in Wrigley.
