Reds Take a Long Time but Lose, Phillies 5-4

The Reds and Phillies entertained about 100 people for 6 hours last night. On his 6th inning of work, for a guy who'd been closing in Louisville, Fisher finally tired, loaded the bases and allowed Raul Ibanez to walk the Phillies off with a sacrifice fly to center. Fisher pitched well and probably deserved a little better then he's going to get, a likely demotion to Louisville when Leake comes up to make tomorrow's start. But that's the way things go.

Speaking of the mistreatment of Fisher, the Reds didn't do much during innings 13-19 but did get the opportunity to face a position player, Wilson Valdez (pictured) in the 19th. Votto hit one deep. He drilled Rolen, who had a solid game, 0-7 with a walk and HBP, the Bruce and Fisher flew out. Turns out he was the first position player to get a win on the mound in quite some time. In 2000, Brent Mayne, who I'm sure everyone remembers as the one-time Royal catcher with a little pop behind the plate, picked up the W in relief.

The loss sours an otherwise admirable performance by the Reds. Wood gave up 3 in the first 2 innings but settled in and gave his team 6 pretty solid innings. The offense had 11 hits off Halladay, all singles, of course, but came back from that 3-0 deficit against arguably the best starter in the majors. Bruce hit a bomb to lead off the 10th but Coco returned the favor in the bottom, sending the game in the extra-innings abyss. So, now instead of being guaranteed, at the least, a split, the Reds come into today with Bailey needing to throw a lot of innings and pick up a win against Cliff Lee. The Reds have always preferred Lee to Hamels and Halladay, so, maybe that will help.

And B. Phill, what are you doing out there? Jimmy Rollins is not your friend. Four free passes in an inning, the 11th is this particular inning, should be enough to get a single run. Well, fortunately the Reds Rocket has a short memory, due to significant early head trauma. What was I talking about? Oh yeah, Reds win today.