Reds First Post Season in 15 Years Doesn't Go Quite According to Plan, Phills Sweep

It's hard for the Reds Rocket to pick their favorite part of the surprisingly brief three-game set with the Phills, you have Games 1 and 3 where the bats were completely dominated by Halladay and Hamels and then Game 2 where they got a few hits but followed the hits with a shit load (which is the technical term for more than 4 errors) of errors and the bullpen faltered. It's a tough choice. I suppose I'll take Game 2 as my favorite. At least the team made some solid contact. Bruce and Phillips went yard. If you look at the box score, you see a lot of sub .200 batting averages for the series (Votto .100, Rolen .091, Stubbs .111, Cabrera .125). i believe Cabrera and Rolen both had as many errors as hits. Traditionally, that's not the way to win in the playoffs, by getting no hits and fielding poorly. But the Reds have not been bound by tradition.

The pitching, putting aside Volquez's start, was pretty solid. Game 1 the relief gave the team a chance, were they have to picked up a couple of hits, to stay in the game. Same for Game 3, though Cueto was also quite good. But, in the end, the Phillies looked like they might be a little better team or, in the alternative, simply know how to behave in the playoffs. The Reds simply aren't used to any fans caring about what they do. That's a drastic change. At least the Phillies have to face Lincecum, Cain and a recently dominant Sanchez in trying to win 4 versus the Giants. So, we will see how their experience matches up against another team who also knows very little about the playoffs.

On a more positive note, Fall League ball starts today in Arizona. So, for people like me, that gives us another opportunity to watch the Reds rather than everything coming to an abrupt start. For people not like me, season's over, I guess. For the second year in a row the Reds will be members of the Peoria Saguaros. A saguaro is a large cactus, like what you'd expect to see Wiley Coyota fall on in the roadrunner cartoons. But, I don't need to tell you about cacti. The participating Reds are: James Avery (AA, P), Jeremy Horst (AAA, P), Devin Mesoraco (AAA, C), Chris Negron (AA, SS), Dave Sappelt (AAA, OF), and Phillip Valiquette (AAA, P).

So, that wraps it up. I will drop by whenever I have something that I feel someone may be interested in. Like, for example, the real reason the Reds looked so awful in Game 3.

They just couldn't listen to any more stories about Dave Conception. "I know he could glove it, just shut up already. I have a sore abdominal and have had a terrible series." Said Orlando Cabrera. He maybe didn't say the part about the terrible series.