Reds Ignore Other Eight Innings, Beat Cubs Only Through Use of the 5th 6-5

For four inning the Reds allowed the Cubs and their home fans to believe in their baseball team, then they drained the city's collective soul (if you have Tivo, see if you can pinpoint the exact moment of heart break). Because Narron likes to mix it up, today's game plan was to score a whole bunch of runs in one inning, then do absolutely nothing for eight innings. And that's exactly what the club did. Down 5-0 in the top of the 5th, Harang had already done his part, struggling over four innings, even allowing a homer to Big Z, the offense started slowly. Castro and Moeller singled, Phillips walked and then Hamilton drove in two with a single to right. Then Dunn and Griffey each had run scoring hits, Dunn a single and Griffey a double. Pinello came out to get Zambrano, who pulled a handmade shiv out of his back pocket, but then reconsidered, pointed to God and went in to beat the shit out of the clubhouse, or clubhouse manager(s). Ohman came in and was lights out, correction, terrible. He walked in two of Zambrano's baserunners, not a good idea, then he went in to beat the shit out of the clubhouse. Now with a 6-5 lead, Narron called it off. Successfully choking out all hope, the next three batters K'd and they went hitless the rest of the game.

A truly heartless display, we're not only going to beat you, but we only need one inning to do so. The author is happy that he has no reason to be anywhere near Carlos Zambrano this evening. Reds! Reds! Reds!

(Subnote-Bullpen was great today. For some reason the AP has Coffey listed as the winner and though he was big frucking nasty, the go ahead runs directly preceeded Coutlangus entering the game. Please leave a comment if you know why this would be the case. Coutlangus, Santos, Cormier, Coffey, and Weathers allowed 4 hits and struck out 6 over the 5 innings for which they were responsible. Truly outstanding.)

*Update: (from a reader much more intelligent than the author) Coffey got the win because: There are occasions when the official scorer has some discretion in awarding the win to a pitcher other than the starter, when the starter does not last 4 innings. According to Rule 10.17, the pitcher at the time the team takes the lead shall be awarded the win...unless that pitcher is a starter who didn't last 5 innings. (In this case Harang was still the pitcher at the time the Reds assumed the lead; Coutlangus relieved him with the Reds already up 6-5. But Harang only threw 4 innings.)In this event, "the official scorer shall credit as the winning pitcher...the relief pitcher who, in the official scorer’s judgment was the most effective, if there is more than one relief pitcher."