Tuesday, August 3, 2010

4-2-10: vs. the Cincinnati Reds

The star of this game was undeniably Travis Wood. Look at him fielding that line drive. 7 innings, and only two hits; good luck in the world series, little badass.
Ohlendorf, on the other hand, was pretty damned inscrutable. He went 0-2 to Brandon Phillips and for a moment Bucco fans smiled. Then he threw about 8 consecutive balls and that smile left the building. Ohlendorf made it five innings, went over a hundred pitches, gave up five hits, four walks and collected 3 earned runs.
Bizarrely, he also managed to get 4 strikeouts and actually managed to keep us in the game. If I were a Reds fan, I would have definitely wanted the blowout win that this game threatened to turn into at times. Definitely not one of Ohlendorf's best starts, but not bad for a guy who caught a line drive to the head during his last start.
Amazingly, he also caught a line drive to the leg in this start as well. His smile indicates that he at least recognized the humor in it.
As a Pirates fan, I am not very well-acquainted with The Right Stuff, but this rookie has it in droves. A starting pitcher with an ERA of under 3.
Ross Reacts.
Ross Reacts Some More.
Jose Tabata's 12-game hitting streak was snapped in this game. The Pirates only managed to get three singles throughout the game, and when Tabata, McCutchen and Jones aren't hitting, we are going to fall well short of our 3-runs-per-game average.
This game marked the debut of catcher Chris Snyder, acquired from the Diamondbacks shortly before the trade deadline. Straight into the fire went Chris; this game provided a wholly accurate taste of what this season has unfortunately been all about.
With the recent loss of almost all of our bullpen, relief pitching has been something of a concern. Of course, having a solid bullpen is mostly a point of irony for a team that puts up so few runs, but it was nice to have one aspect of the game that the Pirates excelled at. Wil Ledezma and even Justin Thomas put in very good work tonight, however. Thomas is not long for the 25-man, but Ledezma was something of a concern after a disastrous appearance last week in which he gave up five runs in the 8th inning, and it was nice to see him recover from it.
Snyder catches a pop-up.
Jay Bruce takes issue with a called third strike.
Before tonight I had never seen an in-the-park home run before and I had hoped not to see one against the Pirates, but lo and behold, McCutchen misplayed a fly ball to center and I made a new memory.
One bad note for the Reds-Orlando Cabrera sustained an injury that may send him to the DL-15. This comes as especially bad news for the aging shortstop who has seen his batting average, OBP and slugging drop sharply from last year. However, being able to play 14 years in the majors is no small accomplishment and it'll take more than this to shut down the Reds machine. The pennant race is going to be very exciting this year.

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