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!

Homer Bailey Shines In Return Fromm DL, Reds Win 10-4

Homer Bailey looked great in his first start since
coming off the DL.

By:  Coop


Homer Bailey was making his first start since 2010, as he was coming off the DL.  Bailey was looking to have a good first game of 2011, and help the Reds win the series vs. Houston.  That he did, he looked great, and the Reds got him enough run support as well, Cincy wins 10-4, here is how.


The Reds scored first, as in the 2nd inning, Ryan Hanigan hit an RBI single, Bruce would score, it was 1-0.


In the bottom of the 4th, Ryan Hanigan would be back at it when he hit a 2 RBI single to left, Votto and Bruce scored, 3-0.


An inning later, Edgar Renteria hit an RBI single to right, Chris Heisey would come around to score, it was 4-0.


The Astros would get on the board in the 6th when Hunter Pence hit an RBI single to plat Bourgeois, 4-1 the score. 


The Reds would answer back in their half of the 6th when hit a sac fly, Gomes scored, Reds back up by 4.  Same inning, Fred Lewis was welcomed to Cincinnati with a solo home run to right center, his first as a Red, it was 6-1 with those good ole Reds on top.


If you tune into a game where the score is 6-1, you would think it is a laugher, well it was, until the Astros 7th inning.  Aroldis Chapman came in to pitch, and suddenly the bases were loaded with 2 outs.  Jason Bourgeois walked, a run scored, 6-2.  Okay, not a bad score, 4 is still a good lead, let's just get out of this inning and then get the bats out.  But that did not happen, Hunter Pence hit a 2 RBI single, Downs and Bourn scored, 6-4 the score, and now it was a game.  But not for too long.


In the Reds 8th inning, yesterday's hero, Jay Bruce, hit a home run to right center, his 6th of the year, and the lead was  3.  The Redlegs would get more runs in the 8th.  One run was scored thanks to a Drew Stubbs RBI double, another was thanks to a Chris Heisey sac fly, and the final run was scored thanks to an Edgar Renteria RBI single. 


So the Reds win it 10-4, a lot of players looked good today, like Bruce, Hanigan, Lewis, Stubbs Renteria etc. But that is not the story of the game.  The story of the game was that Homer Bailey made his first start this year, and went 6 innings, gave up 4 hits, 1 earned run, 1 walk, and fanned 7, earning the win.  Good job by #34.


Later today the Reds will hope on the plane and travel to the Windy City for a 3 game series with the Cubs.  Tomorrow they will play at 2:20 PM ET, and the game will be televised on Fox Sports Ohio.

Reds Rebound From Loss, Beat KC

Travis Wood went 3 innings, gave up 5 hits, 2 runs, walked
2, and fanned 2 in his win over Kansas City.

By:  Cooper Ledford


The Cincinnati Reds were coming off of a terrible loss to the Brewers, yesterday, losing 15-2.  They were looking to rebound from that loss, and pick up a win over the Royals.  That they did, as the Reds won 5-2.  Travis Wood was pretty solid in the 3 innings he pitched, but did give up 2 runs and 5 hits, but those 2 runs came from a Billy Butler 2-run-jack, Wood still got the win though.  Anyways, here are the scoring plays.


In the bottom of the 3rd Billy Butler went yard, on a 2-run home run, and KC had a 2-0 lead.


Cincinnati would answer back in the top of the 4th when Drew Stubbs hit a 3-run homer to center, and the Reds, just like that, had the lead 3-0.  4 innings later the Reds would get a run when Fred Lewis grounded out, but Miguel Cairo would come around to score from 3rd, it was 4-2.  The Reds would get their final run in the 9th when Felix Perez (never heard of him) hit an RBI single to plate Ronald Torreyes (never heard of him either), 5-2 was the score, and that would be how she finished.


So a solid game for Wood (see paragraph 1) but also a good outing for LeCure, Willis, and Maloney, who all pitched 2 scoreless innings.  


With this win, the Reds go to 7-4, while Kansas City falls to 7-4.  Next, the Reds will travel to Peoria, Arizona, to take on the San Diego Padres.  That game is tomorrow at 3:05 PM ET and there will be no TV and I am unsure about radio.

Great Pitching Allows Reds To Beat M's

By:  Cooper Ledford


The Cincinnati Reds were 4-2 in Spring Training, and they traveled to Peoria, Arizona, to take on the Seattle Mariners, who were 2-2.  On the hill for Cincinnati was Chad Reineke, while Seattle had Doug Fister pitching.  Forget about Chad Johnson Ochocinco Johnson, Chad Reineke was great, as he went 3 innings, gave up 3 hits, 1 run, and fanned 2.  He helped the Reds pick up the win, 3-1.  Here is how.


In the top of the 2nd, Fred Lewis hit an RBI single to bring in Hernandez, Cincy had a 1-0 lead, but they were not done.  Same inning, Kris Negron hit a sac fly to plate Lewis, 2-0 Reds.


The M's would get on the board in the 3rd when Ichiro hit a sac fly to bring in Dustin Ackley, 2-1 the score.


The Reds would get their 2-run-lead back in the 5th, when Dave Sappelt (I am really starting to like this kid) hit an RBI single to bring in Negron, 3-1 the score.


Cincinnati's pitching staff was able to keep the Mariners off the board for the next 4 innings.  A good job by Willis, Bray, Masset, Gil, and Valiquette.  But, out of all the pitchers, Chad Reineke is the player of the game, as I said in paragraph one, he went 3 innings of 1 run, 3 hit, baseball, struck-out 2, and picked up the win.


So, the team from Southwest Ohio picks up their 5th win, and go to 5-2, while the Mariners of Seattle go to 2-3, but at least Seattle still has good coffee. 


Next, the Reds will go to Camelback Ranch to take on the Dodgers, that game is tomorrow 3:05 PM ET.  This will be the 2nd time in the last 3 days the Reds and Dodgers have gone at it.