April 24, 2006
Hell, I’ve Got Some Time
By
Amanda
Posted at 7:20 pm
I thought the Realtor® was coming over tonight to check out the house, but she called in sick so I've got an evening to sit on my ass and blog about the game as it happens. Never done this before (at least not w/o Bellyscratcher), so it could be a real disaster.
Half an inning in, the Reds have scored three. Hopefully EZ doesn't give 'em up so easy.
Soriano base hit to center field. Tags up and heads to second on Vidro’s fly out to left.
Johnson base hit to right center and brings in Soriano. Ah young EZ: this is hardly the dominating appearance you need to stick around for the duration of Milton’s injury and beyond.
Jose Guillen strikes out. And he doesn’t even through a tantrum. What the heck?
Javy hustles his short little self into the ample foul territory to catch Zimmerman’s pop-up. At the end of one, Reds lead it 3-1.
Javy’s a little tiny stud. He trucks his way to a triple after he knocks one just past Soriano in left field to lead off the second.
After Ramirez does that pitcher-grounding-out thing, Freel walks. The crowd’s a-booin’.
Lopez singles, Javy scores, but then Dunn GIDP.
Still, it’s 4-1 Reds after an inning and a half, looks like the offense has shown up tonight.
Lopez hits one deep to right field. Fortunately, the Nats’ outfield defense is looking even worse than the Reds’ and it drops.
Aw, Dunn GIDP. Middle of 2, Reds up 4-1.
Ryan Church flies out to left.
Royce Clayton flies out to right.
Shall Brian Schneider fly out to center? Nope: ground back to the pitcher. After 2, still 4-1.
Wow, a 1-2-3 inning for Lizard. Cool!
No kidding, and he only had to field one of them himself!
Kearns K, Hattey pop out, Encarnación pop out. Bah.
Kearns swings. misses, returns to dugout. Strikeout #1 for Livan.
Cue the Elton John music in the background…
“Livan…Livan likes his money…”
Heh. Livan strikes out himself. I guess that #2.
And Soriano FO to center. Yippee!
And Vidro flies out to second. That’s at least two competent routine plays in left field today!
I don’t know why, but I’m in the mood to rag on Dunn today.
Hernandez K, Soariano flies to center, and Vidro flies to left center, and Lizard has his second straight 1-2-3 inning. I wonder if they slipped Arroyo into Ramirez’s uniform after the first inning.
Check out young Phillips: easy swing and a fly ball almost outta here. Still an out though.
On the other hand, Valentín hits one right up the middle. Top of the fourth: 1 out, 1 on, and Ramirez at the plate.
Aw, Javy’s out at second on Ramirez’ fielder’s choice. Does the LLM really run that slow, or was he just breaking up the double play?
The sacruifice bunt is in order…
Freel flies out to right field to end the threat. In the middle of the fourth, the Reds still lead it 4-1.
Ahh, fielder’s choice. What a waste of an out.
You think The Lizard can bunt?
Gotta like 7 hits in the first 3 innings though. Considering hernandez is their best pitcher, we can expect more good hitting the rest of the series
Mr Nick Johnson steps up to the plate. You think he had one of those Big Johnson shirts that were so popular when I was in middle school?
And he grounds out to short. *That* wouldn’t have made a very good shirt.
Guillen grounds out to third.
That’s dangerous thinking, HMZ. This is the team that beat Carpenter only to lose to Fat Sydney.
Apparently Narron didn’t think he could, he had him swing away. I’d have him bunt just so he didn’t hit into a double play. 🙂
Got Johnson on a grounder to short, that’s what, nine in a row.
Big Johnson grounds out to short.
Brought to you by General Electric.
Zimmerman grounds to short to end the inning. After five, the Reds lead it 4-1.
EZ is inducing the ground balls like crazy. He must have been studying during the off-season.
You’re right about Carpenter and Ponson. But this is the Nationals, not the Cardinals. There’s a reason they were 7-11 coming into tonight.
Come to think of it, Hernandez’s ERA to start the game was also 7.11 – guess that makes this a convenience store special on RHM.
And Ramirez has retired 11 straight Nationals. Yeah!
Yeah, but the Nationals have the scintillating example of their GM to lead them.
Lopez strikes out and Dunn flies out. What’s up with Dunn today? Has he had one of his three outcomes yet?
BTW, that single by Soriano in the first inning extended his hitting streak to 10 games.
Oh Kearnsy, Kearnsy, Kearnsy. Lay off the ones away, huh?
The Ears strikes out to end the Reds’ half of the fifth. 4-1 remains the score.
Nope. Hasn’t walked, hasn’t struck out, hasn’t homered.
Two grounders and a fly out.
And Kearns K’s again. Still 4-1.
Frankly, I can’t believe we didn’t end up with Soriano.
I’ve gotta brush the kid’s teeth and put him to bed. You’re up Crack Hard Facts Staff.
Since we’re ha;fway through the fifth I think somebody’s supposed to say, “This blogcast is produced by red-hot-mama.com and is solely intended for the enjoyment of our reading audience. Any other re-use of this blogcast without the express written consent of red-hot-mama.com is prohibited.”
Hmmm, I’m trying to think of something witty to say about the prospect of a guy named Church hitting against Arroyo in Wednesday’s game.
Uh-oh, Clayton just doubled. Start warming up Belisle.
Schneider’s liner is snagged by Phillips, and there are two out and a runner on second for Hernandez.
Hernandez grounds out to first, and the inning is over.
No runs, one hit, one left on, and at the end of five, the Reds lead, 4-1.
Hatteberg, Encarnacio, and Phillips due up in the sixth for the Reds.
Pretty lame, GameChannel is still showing a picture of hatteberg in an A’s uniform. Scott flied to left and is 0-for-3 so far tonight.
Encarnacion lines out to second.
Phillips grounds to short. No runs, no hits, none left on, and the top of the Nats order will be coming up as we go to the bottom of the sixth.
Soriano grounds out to EE at third.
That brings up Vidro, who’s 0-for-2…and Vidro singles to center. There’ll be one on and one out for Big Johnson.
The tension mounts as Johnson walks, putting runners at first and second with one out for former Red Jose Guillen. Guillen is 0-for-2 tonight.
And Guillen singles to center, scoring Vidro. Johnson goes to second. First and second with one out for Zimmerman as the Nationals close to within 4-2.
Thanks, man. I see our opponents doubled their score while I was gone.
Well, The Lizard thinks he can bunt now. With no one on, he’s done nothing but show bunt.
Ooh, until now! Hit over the short stop into shallow left. w00t!
Zimmerman grounds to third. Encarnacion steps on the bag for one, but then uncorks a bad throw. Guillen goes to third and Zimmerman to second on the error.
But Ramirez gets Church on a popup to Encarnacion to end the inning.
For the Nationals in the sixth, one run on two hits, one Cincinnati error, they leave two men on, and at the end of six, it’s 4-2, Reds.
Valentin opens the seventh with a fly ball out to deep right, and Ramirez is due up.
Ramirez may have the ugliest swing in baseball.
Chris and George said that was his first major league hit. Followed up by Freel flying out to left field. The Reds have done a nice job of not leading off innings with the pitcher tonight.
OK, so in the top of the seventh, Valentín flied out to right, Freel flied out to left, and Lopez flied out to center. Among those three consistent hitters, the freaking pitcher is the only one to get an actual hit and they leave him stranded.
Hard to complain when the good guys still lead it 4-2 in the middle of the seventh, but for Arroyo’s sake.
Ramirez singles to shallow left, and the Reds have a runner aboard as Freel comes to the plate with one out. Felipe Lopez in the on-deck circle.
Freel flies to right, leaving it up to Lopez.
And Lopez flies out to left-center, the inning is over. Still 4-2, Reds.
Ah, we welcome RHM herself back to the blogcast booth. Hope everything went nicely with the parental duties, RHM.