Cardinals 10, Reds 0: Cincinnati Taken for a Looper
By
Zeldink
Posted at 8:31 am
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cardinals (40-27) | 5 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 10 | 10 | 0 |
| Reds (31-36) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 |
The Reds were shutout by Braden Looper, who threw the first complete game of his career. Thanks to Dusty Baker’s “swing at everything” philosophy, Looper was able to complete the game by throwing only 98 pitches.
The Reds looked terrible last night, the exact opposite of the Pujols-less Cardinals. Yet on paper, the talent-level seems the same, if not possibly in the Reds’ favor. What on earth could the difference be?
Seriously, how much longer will the Reds hang with Baker? I know he has a large contract, but it was a terrible signing at the time and grows worse as time goes by. Perhaps I’m overreacting, but it seems to me that Cincinnati always looks terrible against well-managed, competently run teams. Like both games so far against St. Louis.
Of course, Baker wasn’t playing. That was Johnny Cueto, who struggled like an inexperienced rookie often does and allowed two homers and 6 runs in 5 innings.
Looper lead the Cardinals to their 40th win of the year, keeping them 2.5 games behind the Cubs, who also won their game yesterday.
The Cardinals go for the sweep today sending Joel Pineiro out for his first back-from-rehab start, while the Reds counter with Bronson Arroyo at 7:10pm EDT.