Reds and Cubs game 1

[Lawman]

[quote name='A-Men-HouseofPain' post='471992' date='Apr 13 2007, 08:10 PM']he has already proven he is a mental case...the # 1 problem a closer can have. he is done for.[/quote]

Ok, Doctor Phil.

Actually what I heard on Baseball Tonight is that he is a really nice guy, a Closer needs to have a bit of a nasty deamor and disposition.

The look on his face after Pujol's home run was self telling; he felt the whole world was just placed on his shoulders. He probably fears of letting his teammates down again. A change of scenery would do him good. And confidence with throwing his slider, of course.

[bengals4ever]

If he came to the Reds, he would still face the Cards as often as if he was with the 'Stros, but that doesn't seem to be his problem... Maybe we could teach him the mental aspects of it, but then again, I'm a blind homer (don't tell Yojimbo) , so who knows

[Lawman]

[quote name='bengals4ever' post='472004' date='Apr 13 2007, 09:15 PM']If he came to the Reds, he would still face the Cards as often as if he was with the 'Stros, but that doesn't seem to be his problem[b]... Maybe we could teach him the mental aspects of it,[/b] but then again, I'm a blind homer (don't tell Yojimbo) , so who knows[/quote]

I bet, the late Vern Ruhle could of helped him. Losing Vern hurt.

[bengals4ever]

[quote name='Reds.com' post='471995' date='Apr 13 2007, 08:37 PM']CHICAGO -- In a neat tradition at Wrigley Field after each Cubs game, they take down all of the flags above the center-field scoreboard and replace them with one solitary flag.
The flag will either carry a 'W' for a home-team win or an 'L' for a loss.

In the fourth inning on Friday with the Reds trailing the Cubs and ace Carlos Zambrano by five runs, the 'W' flag seemed all but certain to fly in Chicago.

Then the Reds came to bat in a stunning top of the fifth.

Twelve men batted, nine came up before the first out was made. Five of the first six batters of the inning notched hits. Cincinnati scored six runs in the fifth-inning rally. And in a huge day for the bullpen, five Reds relievers made the rally hold up with five shutout innings in a 6-5 Reds win.

A little while later, a blue flag with a big white 'L' flapped in the wind over Wrigley.

"That was big for the whole team," said David Weathers, who survived a tense two-hit ninth inning before recording his fourth save of the season.

"It's a nice game to win," said Reds manager Jerry Narron, who's club is 2-2 on its current six-game road trip. "You get down to Carlos Zambrano and come back, that's outstanding."

[b]After he struck out his first two batters of the game, little else went well for Aaron Harang, who gave up five earned runs and nine hits in four innings. The Reds starter said he was pitching with the flu. [/b]
"It was pretty obvious that Harang didn't have his best stuff," Narron said. "He just could not get it going there."

Harang was already down 3-0 when Zambrano led off the fourth inning with a home run into the left-center-field bleachers. The right-handed Harang went to the showers down five runs, and with Zambrano appearing to cruise, 37,267 Cubs fans in attendance seemed poised for a joyous postgame session at the Cubbie Bear across the street.

When Juan Castro led off the fifth with a single into center field, the rally seemed innocuous enough at first. But it didn't take long for it to accelerate right over Zambrano.

Pinch-hitter Chad Moeller, who would bat twice before the inning was over, lofted a popup into shallow center field that blooped in for a hit narrowly between charging center fielder Alfonso Soriano and diving second baseman Ronny Cedeno.

After a Brandon Phillips walk, Josh Hamilton hit a two-run single to right field and Adam Dunn followed with an RBI single that scored Phillips. Ken Griffey Jr. flared an RBI double into right field, scoring Hamilton. Zambrano's final hitter, Edwin Encarnacion, was hit by a pitch.

"It did happen pretty quick," Cubs catcher Michael Barrett said. "They swarmed -- the Reds team swarmed. They remind me a lot of the Cardinals. The Cardinals tend to do that, where one hit after another leads to another thing."

Still with no outs and the bases loaded, lefty reliever Will Ohman walked back-to-back hitters -- Scott Hatteberg and Javier Valentin -- on nine pitches and gave Cincinnati the tying and go-ahead runs.

"You could honestly go 10 years without seeing something like that happen," said reliever Todd Coffey (1-0), who was awarded the victory for his two scoreless innings of work. "Seriously, stuff like that doesn't happen every day."

The six runs, which were all charged to Zambrano (0-1), proved just enough as Chicago's bullpen retired a stretch of 14 straight at one point. Yet, the Reds bullpen hunkered down and matched the Cubs all the way.

Rookie Jon Coutlangus took the 1-2-3 fifth. Rheal Cormier and Victor Santos handled the sixth. Coffey, who rarely works two innings and did it a handful of times last season, pitched the seventh and a 1-2-3 eighth.

"When your starter is out of the game after four innings, you have to have somebody go out there and give you more than one inning," Narron said. "Todd Coffey, I don't know if he's given us two innings over the last couple of years like that. That was outstanding."

Thinking he had been given his first big-league win as the fifth-inning pitcher of record, teammates doused the rookie Coutlangus with beer in celebration. [b]But the rule was clarified in the offseason and gives the official scorer the discretion to give the victory to the most effective pitcher. In this case, it was Coffey. [/b]
"Every pitch was big. Every situation was big," Coffey said. "The Cubs bullpen did a great job also. It was a battle of the bullpens and we came out on top of that today."

In the first half of last season, the Reds bullpen ERA ranked at the bottom. The group has been a huge source of strength this season with a stingy 1.55 ERA through the first 10 games.

"We just have to keep doing it," Weathers said. "The thing is, you can't get too gay and happy about this stuff. Every time someone gives you the ball, just try and do the job."

"Everybody has been consistent, going out there right after guys and not giving free passes," Coffey said. "If they beat us, they beat us. The bullpen did great today."

Bullpens and offenses pick up underperforming starting pitchers all the time, but this seemed like the ultimate bailout for Harang on Friday.

"They've been huge this year," said Harang, the first Reds starter to not last five innings this season. "[The bullpen] came in and slammed the door shut. The offense has been there too when I've fallen behind. They've been there to pick me up and give me some runs. I can't complain about it at all. I just didn't have my good stuff today."

Mark Sheldon is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.[/quote]

[sm00th_kw]

[quote name='oldschooler' post='471883' date='Apr 13 2007, 04:34 PM']No, I`m watching it on MLB.TV Mosiac. It`s a small little screen (they show all the games
at once that are being played) and there`s no sound. But it beats a blank.

Here is a link to watch it . . .

[url="http://www.myp2p.eu/MLB.htm"]http://www.myp2p.eu/MLB.htm[/url]
Click where it says "MLBTV Mosiac Overview Watch it in MEDIA PLAYER".
As far as WGN, the Reds-Cubs game is going to be on there this Sunday.[/quote]


Old...FANTASTIC!


Thanks sooooo much.

[Guest A-Men-HouseofPain]

Reds got Pwned today.

[JBandJoeyV]

should have played hamilton...

[Guest A-Men-HouseofPain]

[quote name='CJandRudiJ' post='472332' date='Apr 14 2007, 03:45 PM']should have played hamilton...[/quote]
and sat griffey