Marlins 6, Reds 7: The One Where Janish Saves Dusty’s Ass
By
Zeldink
Posted at 8:30 am
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Marlins (23-17) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 6 | 10 | 1 |
| Reds (18-23) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 11 | 1 |
Bronson Arroyo had his best start of the season last night, pitching seven shutout innings. The bullpen, upon witnessing this, furrowed its brow with dark malevolent thoughts. This could not stand.
So it didn’t. Shiny new closer Francisco Cordero, with very few miles on him after only a handful of drives out to the mound, allowed a home run in the ninth to tie the game and send it into extras. It was oh so reminiscent of last year, only with a “proper” closer this time.
When Cordero started warming up, I had a bad feeling. He’d been used two straight nights, one of those for two innings. Yeah, this would not end well. If only there were someone, anyone, on the team who had closing experience. Alas, that was not the case, and now Cordero will be completely unavailable should he be needed today. If I didn’t know better, I could have sworn it was Narron managing again.
Dusty Baker was the puppet-master looking at the strings he was supposed to pull, though, and miraculously had his team get the win thanks to a game-winning hit by Paul Janish. What a way to get your first hit.
The Reds go for the sweep of the four-game set with the Marlins tonight when Andrew Miller faces Matt Belisle at 7:10pm EDT.
I just wanted to point out that the reds do in fact have a player with closing experience – David Weathers, who has quite a good resume esp. last year. This makes it even more frustrating than your original post states. Maybe Dusty knew he wouldnt need Coco today (since Matt Belizzle was starting tonight) and thats why he went for a third consecutive night. I also want to know though, why Matt Lincoln would come out to pitch a second inning after having a hard hit ball taken off the leg in the inning before? Even if the guy says hes alright, I think thats a questionable call.
Im starting to doubt Dusty Baker more and more.
What I thought was great about this game was, Janish’s mother happened to be visiting Louisville when Paul got called up. She made the drive from Louisville to Cinci with him, then got to watch her son take an 0-2 change the other way for a walk-off single in his second major-league at-bat.
The Marlins had to feel like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid staring out at the Federales after Wednesday’s game (Who ARE those guys?). I mean, the Fish come to town with the best record in baseball, riding a seven-game winning streak. So what happens?
On Monday, Keppinger and Phillips hit two-run homers in the seventh inning to beat them. Then on Tuesday, the Reds get the eventual game-winning run in on a safety squeeze bunt by David Ross. And on Wednesday, they get beat in the tenth inning by a guy with all of one prior major league at-bat under his belt.
Thursday’s game was rained out, so it’s a series sweep by the Reds. Corey Patterson, the favorite stathead whipping boy, scored the Reds’ first run of the game, gunned down a runner at third base, and gunned down another runner at the plate. Arroyo pitched seven shutout innings, striking out the side in his final inning, and has now allowed just one run in his last 15 innings of work, knocking more than two full runs off his ERA.
And – oh, yeah – that was the first blown save by the Reds’ bullpen this season. ‘Nuff said.
JK
It was the first blown save, but I don’t think it needed to be. As I look at the game logs, Weathers had been used in the previous three consecutive days, so he wasn’t used. That’s probably why Lincoln was used; he hadn’t pitched for a few days. Bray was available, but I can understand not wanting to trust him.
The bullpen has been used a lot this year. Again. Right now I can’t tell if it’s misuse from Baker or simply due to relievers being needed so frequently after the 5th inning.