ST Game 25: Reds at Phillies
By
Amanda
Posted at 5:55 pm
Two years ago when we first set foot inside Bright House Networks Field in Clearwater, my son was 3 years old, and not particularly interested in baseball. The CTS and I used to entertain him by taking turns going for walks around the stadium while the other tried to catch a few innings of the game. That's how I stumbled across the Kids' Zone: a playground, inflatable jumping house, and kid-centric concession area that we didn't get to leave from until the park was actually closing well after the game was over.
Every year since then (and even when going to regular season games) Winter would ask if we were going to the place with the playground. Last year we made a special trip out there when the Reds weren't even in town. This year, we went last night.
And Winter got bored before the game even started. We were back in our seats with Dippin' Dots before the first pitch. They grow up so fast, don't they?
Well, maybe not everyone. After a caught-stealing in the first inning, Ryan Freel just couldn't hold back his enthusiasm in the bottom of the first with a headlong dive into the wall. Adam Dunn was waving for help before the dust had even cleared from Freel hitting the ground.
After not moving very much for a distressingly long period of time, Freel did stay in the game to finish the inning. However, Josh Hamilton replaced him in the second inning. Drew Stubbs replaced Hamilton in center a little while later, and you could definitely tell that it wasn't Freel out there.
On the other hand, Ken Griffey, Jr., showed quite a bit of maturity. With the shift on for him leading 
off the second inning, he didn't try to blast one over their heads just to spite them. No, he laid down a nice easy bunt for a base hit. Barry Larkin did that in the very first Reds' at-bat of the very first major league game I ever attended, so I have a certain respect for the maneuver.
And a good thing Jr. got on, too, since little Edwin Encarnación smacked a big ol' home run to give the Reds their score.
Kyle Lohse got the start, and was not as good as I'd like him to be now that I've dubbed him the third starter. He gave up two earned runs (solo shots) on five hits in his four and a quarter innings. Jon Coutlangus was much better as he finished out the fifth inning, and his continued adequacy makes me irritated that we've got Rheal Cormier on the roster, especially after nights like last night. He surrendered three earned runs on three hits in the seventh, prompting me to yell, “You're on our team now, Cormier!”
Todd Coffey and Dustin Hermanson also got turns. Coffey pitched a scoreless sixth. Hermanson gave up one in the eighth.
It was an unfortunate showing from the Reds that brought their spring training record to 16-9. They continued their campaign today when they hosted the Pittsburgh Pirates at Ed Smith Stadium.
When Freel does stuff like that it has to have some affect on his teammates… I remember reading about the Marlins World Series season and how Juan Pierre was the guy who hustled on every play and how he shamed his teammates into giving it their all to, because he is just a drop of water compared to the giant power hitters. Dunn has to look at Freel and say to himself geez I gotta hit a home run to win this game because look how Freel just laid himself out for the sake of the team. Its also ironic because Rowand hit the ball, and Freel and Rowand are probably both the craziest daredevil outfielders in the game. If they were on the same team I could imagine them colliding in mid air going for the same ball and one of them would make the catch.
Great photos. Heart-stopping, but great. They really tell a story.
Thanks. The CTS’s skills with the camera are really coming along.
Hey, were you at the game tonight? Is Conine all right?
Seems to be open season on outfielders these days. 🙁
Yeah, I was there. Ugly, ugly game. I ran into C.Trent, which I see he didn’t mention on his blog. Just for that, I’m liking to John Fay instead!
Conine seemed fine to me; he just took a pitch to the back. I guess those old guys just don’t shrug ’em off as quick. >:-)
I was concerned about Griffey. He made a diving catch in right field, and looked to me like he landed on his arm with his wrist bent, but he was fine the rest of the game, if you count doing nothing at the plate as being fine. If you do, just about everyone was fine tonight.
What! You met Trent and he didn’t tell us!
Probably afraid CC would be jealous.
The announcers said Conine got hit in the elbow, and Trent said he was going to find out how he was (but so far hasn’t reported back).
It probably was in the elbow. My view isn’t so awesome from section 4.