Monday, June 6, 2011

Reds Unravel Saturday, Lose Interest Sunday

Tough weekend for the Reds supporters, especially after Arroyo's fine start and Rolen's big hit Friday night. That game lasted about 2 hours then everyone was home happy with the Reds winning 2-1.

Saturday, however, was less positive, at least from the 8th inning on. Cueto was awfully good for 7 innings and the offense touched up Clayton Kershaw for 7 runs, which is also awfully good. If you take a poll around the league, Kershaw is one or two on the lefties that everyone hates to face. So, everything was alright. However, Masset continued to be unable to get people out during the day, which is confounding. His above average stuff should work just as well at 3 o'clock as it does at 8 o'clock. But it didn't. And the people who forced him out of the game were Tony Gwynn, Jr., Jamey Carroll and Aaron Miles. That hurts. That meant that Bray was forced to come in a walk Ethier. I guess he wasn't forced to walk him but opted to. Then Ondrusek, pictured above, gave up Matt Kemp's second bomb of the day, this time with the bases loaded. That tied things up, then the Reds waived the white flag in extras eventually losing 11-8.

Yesterday, Wood continued the bullpen's trend from the night before in allowing big hits to Matt Kemp. He gave up 8 over 4+. His ERA is approaching 6.00, which is not a great number. In fact, absent the huge walk total, it's very Volquez-esque. Though, Fred Lewis' losing Ethier's 4th inning double, after the Reds had cut the lead to 4-3, didn't help. Especially since Dusty opted to walk Kemp and then Rod Barajas, of all people, pushed the lead up the 6-3. Speaking of Volquez, he likely makes his triumphant return from his banishment tomorrow to face the Cubs. The offense wasn't bad yesterday, piling up 6 runs in battling from behind. But the staff kept the lead large enough where the offense was never able to catch the Dodgers. Stubbs his a bomb to lead off the Reds' half of the first, Votto drove in a couple as did Phill. The team had some opportunities. So, tough break but the Reds even with all of their poor play are at .500. Lots of time to play better and wait for the Cardinals to play worse, which they undoubtedly will.

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