Cueto Handed Tough-Luck Loss

By:  Coop


Perhaps the biggest rivalry in baseball right now is the Reds vs. Cardinals.  Today the Reds were playing visitor to those Cards, hoping to gain ground in the NL Central.  The best-buddies were on the hill today, Johnny Cueto and Chris Carpenter, and by best-buddies I mean enemies.  Both pitchers were great, but Carpenter was just a little better.  The Cards won 1-0.


All it took was an 8th inning RBI single by Mark Hamilton.  


Carpenter went 8 innings, gave up 6 hits, no runs, walked 1, and fanned 3. 


Cueto pitched well enough to win, but had zero run support, which is an odd thing, usually the Reds give him tons of run support.  Johnny went 8 innings giving up just 1 run, off of 6 hits, and 3 walks.


The Reds are now 3 games back and St. Louis is in 1st place alone.  But, if the Reds win the next two games here in St. Louis, and win the series in Milwaukee they could actually be in 1st place at the break.


Tomorrow the Reds will send Edinson Volquez to the hill while Jamie Garcia will pitch for the little red birds. Game time is set for 8:15 PM ET and you can catch it on Fox Sports Ohio.

Reds Back In 1st Place

Reds catcher, Ramon Hernandez, hit 2 home runs in the
Reds 7-3 win over St. Louis, Saturday.

By:  Coop


After a 10 inning win last night, the Reds were trying to win the series today against their hated rivals, the St. Louis Cardinals.  The Reds had not won a series versus the Cards since May of 2010.  They were also trying to get their 1st place spot back.  In order to win the series, and get back to first place, Johnny Cueto would need to do well against a team that absolutely hates him.  Well, he did great.  He also got plenty of run support, the Reds won it 7-3.  Here is how.


In the 2nd inning, Public Enemy #1 in St. Louis, Brandon Phillips, hit a solo home run to left field, the Reds were up 1-0.  


1 inning later, Ramon Hernandez went yard to left, the Reds lead was doubled, 2-0.

Johnny Cueto looked great in the Reds 7-3 win over
the Cardinals, Saturday.

We go to inning #5 now, Hernandez would go yard once again.  This time to center, and the Reds had a 3-0 lead.  For the 2nd time this year, a Reds catcher has hit 2 homers in 1 game.  Still in the 5th, Phillips hit an RBI single, Stubbs scored, 4-0 the score.  


Now in the 7th, B-Phil would be at it again.  He hit a sac fly, Stubbs scored from 1st, 5-0 Cincinnati on top.


In the meantime, Johnny Cueto was just cruising heading to the 8th.  But, he had to throw a few more pitches in that 8th, thanks to two errors.  One by Janish, one by Rolen.  Two of the best defensive infielders in the league make rare errors allowing two runners to reach with Jon Jay coming up.  Then Cueto made his only mistake of the game.  He gave up a 3-run homer to Jay, his 3rd long ball of the year, and just like that it was a 2-run game.  That was followed by an Albert Pujols hit, but Logan Ondrusek came in and was able to get Holliday to hit pop up behind the plate to end the inning.


In the bottom of the 8th, the Redlegs answered back.  Fred Lewis hit an RBI single, Rolen scored, the Reds were back up by 3.  Later on, Lewis would be on 3rd, with Paul Janish batting, Motte threw a wild pitch, Freddy Lew easily scored, 7-3 the score.  Janish would then ground out to end the inning.


Francisco Cordero came in in the 9th in attempts to end the game.  He did just that, he had a 1-2-3 inning, and with that, the Reds went back to 1st place in the Central, and beat their biggest rivals, the St. Louis Cardinals in a convincing win.


While the offense was great today, so was Johnny Cueto.  #47 went 7.2 innings (a team high this season), did not give up an earned run, walked two, and fanned 5.  A great outing by Cueto.  In his 1st two games, he has looked absolutely great, and is now 2-0.


Tomorrow the Reds will go for the sweep.  Sounds good huh?  Travis Wood will battle it out with Chris Carpenter at 1:10 PM ET.  Come on down to the ball yard tomorrow, like I am, or watch the game on Fox Sports Ohio.  Let's hope to use our brooms!

V Is For Votto, And Victory

By:  Coop


Cincinnati vs. St. Louis.  It's becoming a big rivalry in the National League Central.  Two heavyweights going at it playing for the top spot in the division.  Every game between the Reds and the Red Birds promises to be a good one, but this one was far from good.  It was great.  Bronson Arroyo started the game, and did not look to good.  For most of the game, it looked like St. Louis had the game in control, but those Reds battled back and won the game in 10 innings, 6-5 thanks to a Joey Votto walk-off single.  Here is how it all happened.


The game was scoreless until the 4th when Matt Holliday hit an RBI single, Rasmus scored, it was 1-0.  Make it 2-0 after a Lance Berkman sac fly to plate Pujols.  Then 3-0 after a Daniel Descalso RBI double.  So a rough 4th inning for the high-kicking righty, Bronson Arroyo.


The Cards would add another run in the 6th when Descalso hit an RBI single to plate Molina, 4-0 the score.


The Reds would get on the board in the 6th when Jay Bruce hit an RBI single to plate Votto, 4-1.  Still in the 6th, Scott Rolen hit an RBI double to allow Bruce to score, 4-2 the score.  We'll talk more about Rolen later.


The game was close now, 4-2, but the Cardinals would be able to answer back in top of the 7th when Holliday hit an RBI single, the lead back to 3.


Cincy would answer back in their half of the 7th when Edgar Renteria hit a 2 RBI double, Heisey and Stubbs both scored, and just-like-that we had a 1 run game, 5-4.


That remained the score until the 9th.  Brandon Phillips hit an RBI single into center, Renteria scored, and the game was tied at 5.  The Reds later on had 2 outs, and 2 on, the batter was Jonny Gomes.  He hit a walk-off homer last season against the Cards, could he do it again?!  No, he was sent down on strikes.


So the game was heading to extra innings.  In the top of the 10th, Francisco Cordero allowed only one base runner (Albert Pujols, who reached on a 4 pitch walk), and kept the game tied heading to the bottom of the 10th.  


After a lead-off double by Hernandez, followed by a play in which Hernandez was tagged out during a run-down, and Hesiey was able to get to 2nd, and then a Drew Stubbs pop-up, and then an Edgar Renteria walk, up came the reigning NL MVP, Joey Votto.  After being behind 1-2, Votto eventually was able to work his way into a 2-2 count.  You could sense something coming.  Could Joey Votto win it? Well, he hit one into right field, they waaaaved around Heisey, and the Reds are going to win it!  Joey Votto delivers the walk-off RBI single in the 10th inning to take game 1 of the series.


Joey Votto is no doubt the hero of the game, but Scott Rolen was an important part too.  Scotty R. went 3-5 with an RBI.  What is so special about that?  Well, it was his 1st game since coming off the DL.  Glad to have #27 back.


The winner is Cordero, the loser is Motte.


Tomorrow the Reds will try and seal the series win.  Game time is set for 4:10 PM ET, and will be televised on Fox Sports Ohio.

Votto And Cairo Help Reds Beat Cards

Miguel Cairo hit a 2 RBI single, helping the Reds beat the
Cardinals 5-3, Saturday

By: Coop


The Cincinnati Reds were coming off of a tough loss to St. Louis last night, and were looking to even up the series tonight.  The Reds were on national television, as they were on Fox.  Yes Fox, not Fox Sports Ohio, but Fox.  The same Fox that American Idol comes on.  Anyways, Cincy was looking to beat the Cardinals, go over .500, and be tied for 1st place in the Central.  Well, they did win, thanks to good pitching by Travis Wood, and key hits from Joey Votto and Miguel Cairo.  The Reds won 5-3.  Here is how.


For the first time in what seems like forever, the Reds kept a team off the board in the 1st inning.  But, they failed to keep them off the board for too long.  In the 2nd inning, Davis Freese hit an RBI single to right, Berkman scored, it was 1-0 Red Birds.  Then in the 3rd, Chris Carpenter hit a lead-off double, then was bunted to 3rd, then Colby Rasmus hit a sac fly to bring him home.  Great execution by St. Louis, get em on, get em over, get em in.


2-0 would remain the score until the 6th.  Brandon Phillips was on first via walk, and Joey Votto was at the plate.  Joey Votto did what Joey Votto does.  He hit a home run, a 2-run jack, his 4th homer of the season, and the game was tied at 2.  For those of you who like to know how far it was hit, it was about 410 feet to center field.


So the Reds tied it up, but in the 7th, Albert Pujols untied it.  He hit a long, and I mean long, ball to left field, right over the Reds bullpen, 426 feet, and the Cardinals had a 3-2 lead.


After the 7th inning was completed, the game went into a rain delay, after 42 minutes of sitting, we were ready to play ball.  Miguel Bautista was the pitcher, the same guy that started last night.  In a blink of an eye, the bases were loaded for Jay Bruce and the count was full at 3 balls and 2 strikes.  Well, Jay was patient enough to watch ball 4, and bring in a run, the game was tied once again, 3-3.  The next batter, Miguel Cairo, had them loaded, and he delivered.  He hit one into left field, Votto and Gomes would score, it was a 2 RBI single for Miguel, and the Reds had a 5-3 lead.


Logan Ondrusek had a 1-2-3 8th inning, and then in the 9th, Francisco Cordero had a 1-2-3 inning, picking up save number 3.  Alroldis Chapman, who pitched in the 7th, gets the win and goes to 1-0 on the season.


The starter, Travis Wood got a no-decision, but pitched well, as he went 6.1 innings, gave up 3 runs, off of 8 hits, walked one, and had 5 strikeouts.  


The Reds are now 11-10 and tied for 1st place.  Tomorrow they will try and be in first place alone, as they battle St. Louis at 8:10 PM ET.  That game will be nationally televised on ESPN.  Nice to see the Redlegs on national television, even better when it's two nights in a row.

Discard My Last Post

By:  Coop


Okay, so I just said that they would not play, I said I could almost promise you, well that's what Mark Amazon made it sound like.  But, they are playing, so yeah. Tune into 700 WLW or Fox Sports Ohio.

Reds @ Cardinals Update

By:  Coop


The Cincinnati Reds and St. Louis Cardinals are currently in a rain delay.  They have not yet officially postponed the game, but I could almost promise you that the game will not be continued.  There are storms in the Gateway City, along with some tornadic activity, so there is no way this game will be picked up today.  I actually have no idea why this game was even started.  But, the Reds were off to a good start it looked like.  Drew Stubbs reached, and stole 2nd, then the count was 1-1 on Brandon Phillips, and that's when they decided to delay the game.


Now there is talk for some reason that the Cardinals manager, Tony LaRussa, had something to do with this.  They say he changed the radar, and messed up Marty Brennaman's radio phone lines, which is bogus.  I am not sure what all this means, but on 700 WLW they say that Tony LaRussa had something to do with this.  If he messed up the radar, to where he would keep fans at the game, and there is dangerous storms, then he could face criminal charges.  But who knows, I dunno what's going on really.  If you have been listening to WLW, please leave a comment on this article and tell me what's going on.

Why I Think The Cardinals Have Terrible Fans

By:  Coop


Okay, so the St. Louis Cardinals are one of the better teams in the NL, and they have a great history.  Their fans didn't used to bother me at all, and I thought of them of good fans for a good team.  Well, that all changed last year when the Cards came to town to take on the Reds.  Now, we all remember what Brandon Phillips said about the Cardinals, how all they do is b---- and moan about everything, which is somewhat true.  The next day, B-Phil came to bat and before the 1st pitch was even thrown, there was a benches-clearing brawl between the two teams.  This brawl was not Brandon's fault, it could have been avoided if one man did not come out of the dugout.  That man was Chris Carpenter.  The Cardinal fans that were in Cincinnati were booing the Reds, and sure enough when the Reds went to St. Louis, they booed the Reds like crazy.  They were not gonna forget about it.  Some Red Bird fans still talk about that, and brag about how they made Johnny Cueto get suspended, and try and make the Cincinnati Reds sound bad for starting such a terrible incident last year, even though it was their fault.  


But that was the past, and now the Reds are in St. Louis about to take on those Cards, and now the fans of St. Louis are over that and don't care about that, and respect the Reds again, right?  No.   They made tee shirts making fun of Mike Leake's arrest, that just proves that they have no respect what-so-ever of anyone that does not play for their hometown team.  The Reds didn't make tee shirts last year making fun of Mark McGwire's steroid use, and did not make fun of them for being unable to resign Albert Pujols.  So, the Cardinals just had to strike first and be bad sports about this.  


All of that supports my thesis that the St. Louis Cardinals have terrible fans overall.  Not all of them are bad, some are very good and good sports, but most of them are really just terrible.


Oh, and before any Cardinal fans come on here and say "The Cardinals dominated the Reds last year, so what's it matter" or something like that, well I am not gonna deny that they did, the Cardinals dominated the Reds last year.  


There ya have it, just my thoughts.  Oh, and by-the-way, the Cards still have better fans than the Chicago Cubs and the Philidelphia Phillies.