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Sunday, July 16, 2006

Reflections: Reds come back late to sweep Rockies 6-4 (7/16/06)

Ok, so I didn't get to see today's game except via MLB Gameday. But I wanted to post something more positive than I did the other today, and today's game was pretty exciting.
  • Great to see that our offense still has the ability to rally a little bit late in the ballgame. Even so, I'm going to be very interested to see what our runs scored per game looks like at the end of this month. I'm guessing it'll be below the 5 runs per game they've averaged so far this year, especially with the lineups that Narron has been running out there.
  • Yet another quality start from Elizardo Ramirez in his first day back from the minors. The kid has been nothing if not consistent. That's 9 out of 14 starts now in which he has gone at least 6 innings and given up no more than 3 runs. Where would we be without him in our rotation?
  • David Weathers has given up only 2 runs in his past 8 appearances, totaling 8.1 innings. He can't seem to avoid giving up a hit though. :)
  • Todd Coffey, on the other hand, has now pitched two consecutive scoreless appearances after allowing runs in his previous four appearances (and 5 of his prior 6 appearances). I hope the all-star break did that guy some good, as we need him for this bullpen to be solid.
  • Redleg Nation is worried that Majewski might be tired, as he has been worked pretty hard so far this season. Christina Kahrl made a similar comment in her analysis of the trade at Baseball Prospectus. It's definitely concerning. Hopefully, Narron will try to limit his usage of the guy over the next month to make up for this. As I said in my analysis of the trade, I don't see Majewski as doing well in anything more than a middle-relief role. I'd rather see Bray given the opportunity to claim the setup role along with Coffey. But we need Majewski to be healthy and ready to pitch.
  • Guardado did give up a homer today--which he will do--but I have to say that the guy has been everything I'd hoped he'd be in the 9th inning thus far. Hope he can keep it up.
  • Adam Dunn hit his 30th today. We're really going to need Dunn and Griffey to get hot in the second half to help carry this offense.
  • Another solid day at the plate from Eddie Encarnacion (2-3, 2 runs), this time in the #4 hole. He may have to keep on hitting this well to get any shot at playing. I'll be surprised if he plays tomorrow though. Oh, did I mention that he didn't make an error, and did start a double play?
  • Props go to both Aurilia and Clayton for coming through in the pinch-hit role. I think that's a great role for those guys. ;) Although Gameday described Clayton's double as a "soft fly ball" and subsequent error by the shortstop. Anyone get to see that? I hear that folks back in Ohio don't get to see games this week either due to some sort of stupidity with FoxSports Ohio.

6 comments:

  1. I'll be surprised if Edwin starts tomorrow too, considering it's an off day. ;-)

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  2. I have mad predictive skills. :)

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  3. Actually, EdE should have been given an error on the play that BP was given the error for. He had a double play ball hit to him that would have gotten the Reds out of the inning when the third run scored. EdE gave BP a bad throw, which caused BP to have to stretch into the runner to catch the ball, and he subsequently dropped it. However, replays clearly showed that the ball was dropped as BP was grabbing it to make a throw and the guy was out, so the ump blew the call. Which I guess is ok since the home plate ump called a Rockies guy out at the plate on a Dunn throw, when it was obvious from the replays that Javy missed the tag completely. Still, BP got the error that should have been EdE's.

    But - if EdE's diving catch of a line drive in the previous inning wasn't the number one webgem, there is no justice in this game.

    A question - how do you normally watch Reds games if you are in Arizona? You can't get the Rockies games, too? Because the Rox televised every game.

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  4. Basically, I don't get to see many games, as I'm too cheap to shell out for MLB's webcast thingie. I do subscribe to the audio, but I generally don't listen to it except at work during day games.

    But for the few games I do get to see: I have TiVO, and it is programmed to record any baseball game with the keyword "Reds." It does a good job of snagging them whenever they're on the air. That means that I get to see 2 or 3 ESPN games a year, a few Braves games, a few Diamondbacks games, and a few Cubs games. And this year, I got to see one White Sox game (the one where they praised Dunn's defense the whole time).

    It kind of sucks. It's also probably part of the reason that I tend to focus more on the stats. That and I think baseball research is really fascinating...
    -j

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  5. I have no idea how the politics of all of this works, so I have an honest question: Why aren't more Reds games televised? (I'm know money has something to do with it, but is there something else going on that I'm unaware of?)

    JinAZ, I have TiVo as well, and do the exact same set up with the REDS keyword. Do you have the same fishing shows showing up in your Reds folder from time to time that I do? Hate that! ;)

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  6. I don't really know. I think part of it is that clubs have to be able to intice a network, like FSN, to purchase that many games...? The Diamondbacks seem to do pretty well around here--half their games are on FSN, and the other half are shown on local channel 3 (the WB station). There was even one case earlier in the year in which a game was shown via a free webcast to Arizona residents, because FSN had to cancel the game due to the Phoenix Suns' playoff run. That was the Bronson Arroyo Reds game here in Phoenix. :)

    In a related note to this TV talk...see the post I put up in a few minutes. :) -j

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