6th Inning Rally Lifts Reds Past Cubs

Jonny Gomes celebrates with teammate, Brandon Phillips, after hitting a
home run in the Reds 7-4 win over Chicago. 

By:  Coop


The Cincinnati Reds were coming off of a 3 game sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals.  Now, another foe was in town.  The Chicago Cubs hopped on a plane and headed towards the Queen City to take on the Reds for a 2 game series.  In the 1st game of the series Homer Bailey was on the hill for Cincy, while Carlos Zambrano was pitching for the team from the south side of the Windy City.  Bailey got roughed up early on, and his team was down 0-4, but a 6th inning rally by the Reds allowed them to win 7-4, here is how.


The 1st run of the game came in the 5th inning when Zambrano hit one to 3rd, Rolen came plateward with it, the throw went under Hanigan's legs, Pena was able to come in and score a run, 1-0 Chi-Town.  Same inning, Barney hit an RBI single, Zambrano scored, it was 2-0.


Then in the Cubbies 6th inning Carlos Pena hit a 2-run homer to right field, and the score was 4-0.  That was Pena's 4th homer of the year, 2nd against the Reds.


Many Reds fans, including myself, we saying to themselves "Oh boy, 4 runs, I dunno if we can do it.  Looks like this winning streak will come to and end."  But then we all remembered something.  We are the Reds, we never give up.  Some maybe, just maybe, we can get a rally at some point, take the lead, and win the game.


Well it happened. 


The Reds had a 7 run 6th inning.  The first 3 runs were scored by RBI singles by Votto, Phillips, and Bruce.  Then a Scott Rolen RBI double, and just like that the game was tied at 4.  Then a wild pitch allowed Bruce to come home from 3rd to give the Reds the lead. Then, with a man on and 1 out, Jonny Gomes came up to bat. Gomes had not hit a home run since mid-April.  But on May 16th, he went yard to right center field for a 2-run home run, his 7th long ball of the year.  You wanna talk about a guy that really needed a home run, well then talk about Jonny Gomes.  Hopefully that will end his terrible slump, and will get him back into the groove of things.


7-4 was the score after the 6th inning, and the best part about it, Homer Bailey was now eligible to get the win, well as long as his bullpen could keep the Cubs from scoring 3 runs.  Well, LeCure, Bray, and Cordero were able to do so.  


Homer Bailey needs to go buy everyone involved in that 6th inning rally a nice dinner for saving him from getting the loss.  Or he could simply just say thanks, either one.  Homer is now 3-0.  Coco Cordero picked up the save, his 8th of the year in 9 attempts.


The Reds will look for the sweep in game 2 at 7:10 PM ET.  Edinson Volquez will pitch for Cincinnati, while Matt Garza will climb the hill for Chicago.  The game will be televised on Fox Sports Ohio.

Reds Take Game 1 From Cubs

Jay Bruce (32), Drew Stubbs (6), and Chris Heisey (28) celebrate after beating
the Cubs, 5-4, Friday

By:  Coop


The Reds were coming off of a mediocre home stand, and were looking to look better on the road.  Today, they were opening up a 3 game series with the Chicago Cubs.  This was the first time this season the North Siders and the Reds met up.  The Reds absolutly dominated Chicago last year, and were looking to continue that domination.  Well, they did not really dominate them in this game, but they beat them, 5-4, here is how.


The Cubbies scored first when Matt Garza came across to score thanks to a passed ball by Ramon Hernandez, that was in the 3rd inning.


The Cubs' 1-0 lead was soon demolished.  In the 4th inning, Jay Bruce hit a long one to right field, it was a 3-run jack, 3-1 the score.  That was Bruce's 7th homer of the year, a team high, and his 75th home run of his career.


Chicago would answer back in their side of the 4th when Giovanni Soto grounded into a double play, a run scored, and we were back to a 1-run game.


Cincinnati would have a good 5th inning, as they scored 2 runs thanks to two RBI singles.  One by Joey Votto, and the other by Brandon Phillips.  Both players are having great seasons so far, and coming up big.  Joey Votto has now reached base in all of the Reds games this season, and is just 3 game shy of the club record.  Just sayin'.


So after the top of the 5th inning, the score was 5-2, but the Cubs answered back in their 5th inning when Ramirez hit an RBI single, Barney scored, 5-3.


Then in the 6th inning, Soto hit an RBI single to plate the former All-Star, Byrd, 5-4 the score, and that is how she finished. 


Edinson Volquez did not look to great in this game, but did do good enough to get the win.  He went 5 innings, gave up 4 earned runs, on 6 base hits, 4 walks, and 3 strikeouts.  Usually not good when you have more walks than strikeouts.  Edinson is now 3-1.  


Francisco Cordero gets save #5 in as many chances, as he continues to look very good thus far, hopefully he can keep it up.


Tomorrow the Reds and Baby Bears go at it at 2:20 PM ET, another day game, since we are in Chicago.  The game will be televised on Fox Sports Ohio.

Leake Makes Great Debut, Reds Win

By: Cooper Ledford

The Cincinnati Reds were hosting the Chicago Cubs in the final game of the series.  The series was even at a game each.  Pitching for Cincinnati was the rookie who skipped over all of the Minors, Mike Leake.  Leake ended up getting a no decision, but the Reds won 3-1 in a great game.  Here is how.

The Cubs started off the scoring with an RBI single by Derek Lee in the 5th inning, it was 1-0 with Chicago on top.  The Reds would tie the game up in the 7th when Cairo was batting, the bases were loaded with one out, Cairo hit it back to the pitcher, and it went off his glove, everybody was safe, that would bring in a run, it was 1-1.  Cincinnati would take the lead in the 8th inning when the bases were loaded and Ramon Hernandez was a walk victom, that made it 2-1 with the Redlegs on top.  The Reds would get another run in the same inning, Jonny Gome hit a sac fly off of Caridad to score Brandon Phillips, it was 3-1.  Then in the 9th inning, Cordero retired the side to give the Reds the victory, and they take two-out-of-three games from the Baby Bears.

Mike Leake went 6.2 innings, gave up a run, four hits, seven walks, and five strike outs.  Leake looked great in his MLB debut.  The Cubs starter, Tom Gorzelanny, had a steller game, he went 6.1 innings, gave up no earned runs, four hits, two walks, and seven strike outs.

Next, the Reds head to South Florida to take on the Florida Marlins.  It is a four game series, all of the games are at 7:10 PM ET and televised on FS Ohio.

Stubb's Grand Slam Gets Reds Past Cubs

By:  Cooper Ledford

The Cincinnati Reds were hosting their division rivals, the Chicago Cubs.  The Cubs were coming off of a win against Atlanta, while the Reds were coming off of a walk-off win against St. Louis.  Homer Bailey was on the hill for Cincy, while Carlos Silva was pitching for the Cubbies.  Most of the game, it was 3-1 with the Cubs on top, making the fans at GABP very bored, until the bottom of the eight, when Drew Stubbs hit a grand slam to give the Reds the lead.  Here is how all the magic happened.

To start the scoring, Aramis Ramirez hit a sac fly to score Tyler Colvin to make it 1-0 in the top of the first.  The Redlegs would tie it up in the bottom of the first when Cabrera hit a sac fly to score Drew Stubbs.  In the third inning, the Baby Bears would get their lead back when Xavier Nady hit an RBI single to score D-Lee, it was 2-1.  The Cubs would then getting a bigger lead when Derek Lee hit an RBI single to score Ryan Theriot in the 4th inning, it was 3-1 Chicago on top.  The Reds would not score until the bottom of the eighth.  After two walks and a bunt hit, the bases were loaded with no outs, and batting was Drew Stubbs.  On the 1-0 pitch, Stubbs hit a GRAND SLAM, that gave the Redlegs a 5-3 lead going into the 9th inning.  Pitching for the 'Nati was Francisco Cordero, after a nice play by Phillips to get the first out, batting was Derek Lee.  Lee hit a home run to the Kroger Bleachers, it was a one run game, 5-4.  The bases would then get loaded, after a few messed-up defensive plays by Janish and Rolen.  Batting was Fontenot, he grounded into a one to three put away to end the game.  The Reds are .500, 2-2, as they win 5-4.

The winner is Micah Owings, who pitched 3.0 innings, gave up only one hit and had 2 strike outs.  The save goes to Cordero, the loser is Esmailin Caridad who pitched 1 inning, gave up 2 hits, and 4 runs, being a grand salami. 

The Reds will play game two of the series tomorrow at 1:10 PM ET, on the hill for Chicago will be Carlos Zambrano, while either Mike Leake will make his MLB debut for the Reds, or Harang will pitch.  The game is on FS Ohio.