Rus Livingood
August 11, 2013 – Padres @ Reds – 1:10pm – Fox Sports Cincinnati
Reds Record (64 – 52)
Home Record (36 – 20)
Padres Record (53 – 63)
Away Record (22 – 36)
Starters: Kennedy (4 –8) vs. Leake (10 – 5)
The Setting: This “lazy” Sunday will see my game-watching interrupted by an employee meeting for my restaurant, grass mowing, and a cookout. I’ll catch the ending via DVR.
The Game and Analysis:
•After a very rough start, the Reds were able to tie up the game late to go to extra innings. In the thirteenth inning, the Reds loaded the bases and scored the game-winning run on a Joey Votto sacrifice fly. The reds would walk away with the 3 – 2 win. Details of how we got to that outcome are below.
•The Reds allowed the Padres to mount an early lead yet again. In yesterday’s game, it was due to errors by the Reds. This time, Mike Leake was hit early, giving up singles to Yonder Alonso, Logan Forsythe, and Ronny Cedeno sandwiched around an out. That had the bases loaded for a sacrifice fly that would easily score Alonso given where it was hit to center field. Shin-Soo Choo caught the ball and threw to the cutoff man toward third base, and Cesar Izturis alertly threw back to second to try and nail Forsythe for the third out. See, there was a decent chance that Forsythe would make the third out before Alonso crossed the plate. The only problem with that was Izturis threw about five feet wide of second base, allowing Forsythe to score all the way from second and Cedeno went to third as the ball went into foul territory in right field. Leake would get Ian Kennedy to ground out to end the inning, but the Padres had a 2 – 0 lead in the second inning.
•Leake would pick up the Red’s first hit, a single up the middle to lead off the bottom of the third inning. He would make it to second on a wild pitch, but get no further. The Reds have had their share of issues moving over runners and/or getting them to score once they get in scoring position. This has been a problem all year. The top of the order failed to get the job done here.
•Leake found himself in trouble in the fourth. He walked Forsythe to start the inning and then picked up a couple of outs. Forsythe stole second during this, so Leake intentionally walked Rene Rivera to get to the pitcher Kennedy. That plan didn’t work out, though, as Kennedy walked on eight pitches to load the bases. Leake would rebound to strike out Will Venable to end the threat, but his pitch count was up to 72 after the 29-pitch inning.
•The next several innings would see the Padres threaten to increase their lead, while the Reds went down in order, as the hit by Leake in the third was all they had through seven innings. Cedeno hit a two-out triple for the Padres in the sixth, but could not score. In the seventh, Will Venable doubled with one out and went to third when Leake threw errantly trying to pick him off second base. Venable was caught up by Izturis, so Venable was awarded third base due to obstruction. Dusty Baker gave umpire Country Joe West his opinion on how dumb he is, but Dusty never got tossed. The Reds would recover as the at bat continued, as Votto fielded a grounder and fired home to get Venable in a rundown. The batter, Alexi Amarista, went to second on the play and the rundown, but was stranded there with the next batter getting the third out.
•Leake exited after seven innings. His final line: 7.0 innings, 6 hits, 3 walks, 2 runs (1 earned) and 4 strikeouts on 109 pitches. He gave way to Manny Parra, who gave up a hit and sacrifice bunt that put Yonder Alonso on second. J.J. Hoover then came in and finished the eighth inning, getting a groundout and a strikeout to strand Alonso at third. The Padres had several opportunities to increase their lead, but the Reds kept shutting them down.
•The bottom of the eight saw the Reds get on the board. With one out, pinch-hitter Zack Cozart hit a rocket down the line that Alonso dove to knock down. He could not recover in time to get Cozart at first, though. After that infield hit, the Reds called upon another pinch-hitter, Xavier Paul. Paul launched a two-run homer into the right field stands to even the score 2 – 2. Those were the second and third hits of the day for the Reds.
•Aroldis Chapman came in for the ninth inning for the Reds and struck out the side. His velocity was “down,” as he only hit triple digits once. He mixed in his slider often, with much more success as the inning went on. With Chapman reaching a full count on his first two batters and his velocity not up to his typical standards, I was almost expecting the Padres to have a big inning and retake the lead. I was happily wrong with that fleeting thought.
•Ian Kennedy left after eight innings, and he threw a heck of a game. He gave up only three hits and two walks while throwing 97 pitches in his eight innings of work. He retired 16 in a row at one point, during which he had innings of nine, eight, twelve, and seven-pitch innings. The Reds had no answer to him until the Home run by Paul.
•The game went to extra innings as the Reds could not score in the bottom of the ninth. The Padres had a great opportunity to take the lead in the eleventh inning as they began with back-to-back singles by Chris Denorfia and Cedeno. Rivera tried to bunt them over, but bunted back to pitcher Logan Ondrusek in the air for an out. Ondrusek promptly balked to move them over anyway, so the Padres had runners on second and third with one out. Mark Kotsay lined out to center, and Denorfia was unable to tag and go home. Venable then struck out to end the inning.
•The Padres would load the bases in the twelfth inning on walks by Ondrusek. Sam Lecure came in to get the final out to end yet another threat by the Padres.
•The thirteenth inning saw the Padres get yet another runner to third as Jedd Gyorko doubled to lead off the inning. After a sstrikeout, Venable grounded out to second to move Gyorko to third. Amarista grounded out to finish that inning.
•Finally, the Reds were able to get some offense going in their half of the thirteenth inning. With one out, Jack Hannahan walked. Choo doubled to put runners in scoring position with one out. Ryan Hanigan was hit by a pitch to load the bases, bringing up Votto. Votto lifted a high fly ball to left field, deep enough to easily score Hannahan and win the game for the Reds!
What Worked: The Reds pitching staff held the Padres off and prevented them from scoring on several occasions. It was your typical “bend but don’t break” scenario.
What Didn’t Work: The bats were cold for much of the game. Izturis’ throw in the second allowed the Padres an extra run in a game where the Reds would need every run they could get.
Where They Stand: The Reds are 65 – 52 and trail the Pirates by 5.0 games and the Cardinals by 2.5 games in the NL Central.
Overall Thoughts: It was a long game (4:18), and not a particularly fun game to watch as a Reds fan. The Reds gave the Padres every opportunity to walk away with the win, but they found a way to grab the win for themselves. It’s still a long road ahead.
Up Next: The Reds travel to Chicago for a three game series with the Cubs.
