Rus Livingood
June 25, 2013 – Reds @ Athletics – 10:05pm – Fox Sports Ohio
Reds Record (45 – 32)
Away Record (19 – 18)
Athletics Record (44 – 34)
Home Record (22– 12)
Starters: Arroyo (6 – 5) vs. Milone (6 – 7)
Storylines: Brandon Phillips is going to miss this two game series due to paternity leave. That is a surprise to me and not much else is being said about it by the Reds. That is a private matter for Phillips, so it is understandable. Phillips will be missed in the lineup and at second base.
Chris Heisey returns from the disabled list today. He has been gone for a long time, and his right-handed bat is going to be welcomed with open arms. To make room for Heisey on the roster, Donald Lutz was sent down to Double A Pensacola.
The Setting: How are people supposed to stay up this late for a ballgame? The Reds might as well be playing in Cambodia, because there is no way I will last this long on a weeknight. I am watching at home until I pass out, which might be four pitches in.
The Game and Analysis:
•Well, I did not make it the whole game as expected. I did make it long enough to see the Athletics go bananas on Bronson Arroyo in the second, third, and fourth innings to give them plenty of runs on their way to a 7 – 3 victory.
•Arroyo might as well have been tipping his pitches (which the commentators seriously pondered) because the A’s were locked in on him. After the first four batters were retired by Arroyo, Brandon Moss doubled and Josh Donaldson hit an infield single to short. Josh Reddick doubled in Moss to put runners on second and third. Stephen Vogt, in his first plate appearance of the year, then hit a sacrifice fly to score Donaldson and make it 2 – 0 A’s. Reddick went to third on Vogt’s first career RBI. Eric Sogard struck out looking to end the inning.
•The next inning saw the A’s grow their lead to six runs by knocking Arroyo around some more. Yoenis Cespedes picked up and RBI single (3 – 0); Moss hit a sacrifice fly to make it 4 – 0; and then Donaldson smoked a two run homer to left-center for the 6 – 0 lead.
•Arroyo gave up his final run in the fourth inning as Seth Smith singled up the middle to score Coco Crisp and give the A’s a 7 – 1 lead. Arroyo would last only 4.0 innings, and was clearly having an off night. With the speed that Arroyo throws, he can get beat up like it is a batting practice if he is leaving his pitches up in the zone, out over the plate, or if his breaking balls just don’t have enough bite. This was one of those games. As the commentators said, it was as if he was tipping his pitches on what was coming. The Athletics stacked the lineup with lefties or switch-hitters, and I am not sure how much that came into play. Whatever they were doing, it was working.
•The Reds’ first run of the ballgame came off a Joey Votto opposite field homer. Votto came screaming around first base looking for as many bases as he could get when the umpire told him to just go ahead and take them all. It was nice to see Votto get the homer off the lefty, as his average is lower against them this year.
•The Reds scored two more runs in the fifth on a sacrifice fly by Shin-Soo Choo and a bases loaded walk to Jay Bruce. The Reds were able to chase starter Tommy Milone after 4.2 innings so he was ineligible for the win. The club could have had a much bigger inning, than the two runs, though. Millone issued three straight walks before being pulled, resulting in the second run of the inning. Chris Heisey then struck out with the bases loaded.
•The Reds would threaten with the bases loaded and Joey Votto at the plate in the sixth inning, but came away empty as Votto flew out to end the inning.
•The Reds bullpen put up a tremendous effort in relief of Arroyo. Curtis Partch (2.0), Manny Parra (1.0) and J.J. Hoover (1.0) combined for 4.0 innings pitched and did not give up a hit. The only base runners came on two walks by Partch. The bullpen has had its share of problems recently, so a great outing was good to see.
•Derrick Robinson had a career-high four hits, including a bunt single. Cesar Izturis, playing for Brandon Phillips at second, went 3 – 4 with a double and a couple of singles. He and Robinson batted back to back (ninth and first in the order), and combined to go 7 – 9. The rest of the team was 3 – 26. In Heisey’s return to the lineup, he went 1 – 3 with a double and a walk in the designated hitter role.
What Worked: Robinson and Izturis racked up the hits today and were always getting on base for the heart of the order to have something to work with. The bullpen was lights out.
What Didn’t Work: Arroyo was knocked around. The majority of the Reds lineup was cold at the plate and the team did not take advantage of several scoring opportunities.
Where They Stand: The Reds are 45 – 33 and trail the Cardinals by 3.5 games and the Pirates by 2.5 games in the NL Central.
Overall Thoughts: The Reds are 2 – 5 in their last seven games and just seem to be in an overall funk. The parts are there, but they are not all working at the same time. The Pirates have put some distance between themselves and the Reds right now, and Cincinnati is going to have to start playing some good baseball to make up ground on both them and the Cardinals.
Up Next: Game two is a day game, but as it on the west coast, it won’t start until near the end of my workday. I’ll have a chance to DVR the game and watch it in its entirety.
