June 11, 2008
The Cardinals without Pujols
By
Amanda
Posted at 6:57 pm
Sure, it’s a battle between Braden Looper and Johnny Cueto, but will it really be much of a battle without Goliath Pujols on the field? Come on.
OK, yeah, in fact it’ll be a much more fair battle without Goliath Pujols on the field.
Will Jay Bruce crack under the pressure of leading off? Will Paul Janish be the next shortstop to go? Will Griffey be Seattle-bound before the end of the game? That’s what makes the game exciting, baby.
So, Bellyitcher is going to be late tonight because of a *weekly* appt with a treadmill.
In my imagination, Wednesday is the day when guilt over failing to work out all week finally catches up with her. Then, after a rigorous Wednesday evening work out, she rides the sense of accomplishment the rest of the week.
I recently started getting regular exercise myself, dedicating 30 minutes a night to some family activity. Last night we sweated playing basketball on the driveway; tonight we sweated playing DDR in the basement.
I don’t know that I get a real sense of accomplishment out of it; mostly a sense of dread leading up to it and a sense of relief after it’s done for the night. Plus weird pains the next day. Damn I’m 30.
I’m going to miss the first few innings while working out.
This is going to be a loooong month without Pujols.
Hey, I’m older than that! A friend of mine has a gym in her loft building – this way I know I have to work out at least once a week. I try for more 😉
Heh, the shoe is on the other foot. Lots of balls in a row.
Ok, I’m hitting the road, I’ll be back shortly. Enjoy our depleted line up!
Who needs Pujols when you have LaRue?
Drat! I missed ya!
And for the fans at home,I just got a text message from Ms. Itcher expressing her regret over missing the LaRue home run.
Holy crap, I heard the play-by-play, but that five spot in the top of the inning didn’t hit home until I saw it in the on-screen graphics on FSNO.
And the Reds go down 1-2-3.
This is going to be a long game. Except it won’t. It only took Looper 11 pitches.
And Loopy makes short work of Jay, Janish, and Jr. Way to give Cueto time to rest, guys.
So, how about that LaRue? I wonder how he feels about Cincinnati these days. There aren’t even too many guys around from his heydey. Man, back in the day, though, LaRue, Casey, and Boone were the trifecta of awesome. Larkin too. How did that team not win?
When I watching bitching about the hiring of Dusty Baker and sited his performance with Chicago as evidence as to why I was so pissed, someone on the Baker bandwagon said, “Yeah, but they’re the Cubs!”
Just think: as a Reds fan since 2000, I could way more say that about Cincinnati as an excuse for losing than about the Cubs.
Dude, this is going way depressing. I need to think about something else.
Top of the third and the Reds are doing an excellent job of understating their offense.
Janish! Way to stick with that play.
Cueto has now walked five. Good call on the rest, BubbaFan. How’s he supposed to pull himself together when all his time not spent on the mound is spent walking to and from it?
Johnny Bench just said “shit” on t.v.
That makes me happy.
Ye gods. I can’t believe he got out of that inning unscathed.
Just think: If Cueto can make it a complete game and allow no more runs, he’ll only have a 5 ERA.
Uh-oh. Here comes Dick Pole.
All-right! I love it when a runner misses the plate.
We’re really lucky that it’s only 6-0. 😛
So, what do you think, BF: how long till Dusty’s on the hot seat?
Seeing LaRue again reminds me that the Reds are lacking anyone with really excellent facial hair.
Boy-oh-boy, this is boring.
Three hits, eh?
Pujols who?
The first Cardinals/Reds smack talk.
There were only 12 comments on that post so it’s hard to tell what happened in the game. But that was the game that the Reds took a 7-run lead into the ninth, only to lose thanks to Danny Graves and David Weathers.
It may be time for some turnabout.
Awesome.
It is entirely possible for the Cards to blow this, but I kinda doubt it. The pen has some good, young arms. Which does not include Springer and Franklin. I haven’t seen Flores in a while.
Ooooh, they showed B roll of Skyline at the park.
The chili?
Welcome back. I hope the treadmilling was good.
LaRue’s aboard again. Man, he’s the awesome tonight.
what the hell. Even Looper is getting hits.
Yeah, the chili. Yum. It’s a little warm for chili though.
Look at the wheels on LaRue!
There’s a Brendan and a Braden on this team, but no proper Brandon.
C Pat!!
There’s 2 Ryan (first name) and 1 Ryan (last name). It’s confusing.
A lot of players have first names that are last names and last names that are first named. I’ve occasionally gotten obsessed with the idea of making the longest possible chain of baseball names. For example:
Sean Casey Blake DeWitt
And so on. I’ve always been too lazy to really do anything with it.
For crying out loud, you’re not going to need those young bullpen arms!
I think Dustball is safe for awhile. The injuries and the struggles of the pitching staff aren’t his fault.
His lineups are ludicrous, but lineups don’t really make that big a difference. Overall, Dusty hasn’t been as bad as I feared. He’s not killing the young pitchers. He is giving the kids a chance.
I did find it interesting that Dusty said the original plan for when Kepp gets back was for Kepp to play 3B and Hairston to play SS. That changed when Hairston broke his thumb. Dunno what they were planning to do to EE. Send him down? It worked last year.
Brendan Ryan Chris Duncan Ryan Franklin (Franklin may be a stretch as a first name)
I’ll agree with the better treatment of the young players than I expected, but I give Dusty all of the blame for all the free-swinging. A little more discipline might well have this team at .500.
I also give him all of the blame for C-Pat.
Jeepers, how may ABs did LaRue get this game??
Yeah, who knew Looper could pitch 8 innings? I hope he can make it through 9. With Wainwright out and Pinero going tomorrow, the pen is going to be tired.
I have wondered about the free-swinging. The entire Reds organization seems to be afflicted with it.
C-Pat…I think it was worth taking a chance on him. The problem was batting him leadoff. But they did send him down. And he would have stayed down, at least for awhile, if Freel hadn’t gotten injured. And now that he’s back, Dusty’s keeping him on the bench. More or less.
Baseball-Reference.com has several first-name Franklins, including Frank Francisco. So we could do:
Brendan Ryan Franklin Francisco
From which, we could obviously go to:
Brendan Ryan Franklin Francisco Cordero
Don’t think I’m going to come up with a guy whose first name is Cordero.
Damn, Loops. Under 100 pitches.
Looper’s first career complete game, and it’s a complete game shutout, AND his pitch count is under 100.
Damn.
No, I can’t recall any Corderos. Or a Brendan as last name.
I’m not holding out hope for tomorrow. Pinero is just coming off the DL. But I also didn’t think they’d score 10 without Albert.
Belly, you have an identity crisis today.
I know. Up is down. Black is white. I don’t know what to think about this team. I keep waiting for the rug to be pulled out, but it hasn’t happened yet.
I was referring to your itcher/scratcher issue, but that’s a good point.
How weird. I didn’t even notice. I couldn’t log in as scratcher so I made a new account. I have no idea what happened.
Gawd, what an ugly game. I know, half the team’s on the DL, but still…they’re really not very good this year, are they?
Ok, I gotta get to the dishes. I’ll see you tomorrow!