Pirates 9, Reds 5: Watching Jay Bruce’s Soul Be Crushed
By
Zeldink
Posted at 8:48 am
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pirates (40-44) | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 9 | 13 | 0 |
| Reds (39-47) | 1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 7 | 0 |
Remember when Jay Bruce was called up for the Reds and he was awesome and optimistic and full of life and excited about how he was going to help the club win? Sigh. If only he were on any other team besides the Reds. Heck, at this point, he might have a better shot with the Pirates, who defeated the Reds last night and won the series.
Yes, the Pirates defeated the Reds in Cincinnati, where the Reds had been good. Pittsburgh had been anything but on the road, but they’re obviously better than the Reds. Pittsburgh now sits in 5th place, with Cincinnati 1.5 games behind them in last.
Anyway, back to Bruce. He hit two home runs in the process of going 2-3 with a walk and drove in 4. Honestly, he’s lucky to have gotten as many RBI as he did, considering he was leading off for some insane reason. Who’s the idiot manager of the Reds anyway? Oh. Right.
So despite giving his all, the Reds lost, and just a little bit of Bruce’s soul died. Unfortunately, it won’t be the last time, not as long as he plays for Cincinnati.
chipper!
That’s me, your optimistic, glass-is-half-full guy!
I tried to make this a post to Random Ramblings and NLC but WordPress ate it and put up a blank post instead.
The top three teams in the division as the All-Star break approaches are within 3-1/2 games of each other. The Reds are 10-1/2 back, but I think they could still sneak back into the race.
Soriano’s out for 4-6 weeks. Last time the Cubs had their best player go on the DL for a long time it was Derrek Lee, and the team sunk like a rock to the very bottom of the NLC pool in fulfillment of a now-famous prophecy made by RHM on the day Lee got hurt. This Cubs team is better than that one was, and I’d be surprised if they fell that hard, but this still might let someone else slip by them
Cardinals? maybe. But their best pitcher so far has arguably been Kyle Lohse. And Pujols has that bum elbow, making him an injury time bomb…if Albert The Great has to go on the DL for Tommy John surgery, his season’s over, and maybe the Cardinals’ season as well.
The Brewers are not last year’s Brewers. But if you’re a fan of any NLC team other than the Brewers, pray that the Indians don’t trade C.C. Sabathia to Milwaukee. Sabathia and the rejuvenated Ben Sheets at the front end of the Brewer rotation could spell big trouble for the rest of the division.
Then there’s the Reds. They’ve had a hell of a time keeping shortstops healthy. But they have the best pitching they’ve had in several years, and they have a couple of key guys (Griffey, Phillips) who’ve shown a tendency to get hot when IT gets hot…and we’ve just entered July.
The Astros and Pirates are about where I figured they’d be, back when everybody was coming out of spring training. I expect that’s where they will pretty much stay, too.
Which brings me to this: When Mr. Castellini fired Wayne Krivsky he told us, “We will not continue to lose.” Since then the Reds have played under .500 and all that Walt Jocketty has done about it is to bring in Andy Phillips – twice. well, okay, yes, he called up Jay Bruce, but frankly, Trey Griffey could have gotten that move right.
I’m sure I needn’t remind anyone that the trade deadline is now less than a month away. So the ball is in Jocketty’s court.
Lights…camera…ahem, Mr. Jocketty, are you there?
HMZ