Boxscore

A day after the St. Louis Cardinals cheated themselves to an early advantage, the Cincinnati Reds finally got their bearings back and put away the Redbirds.

Things started very well, with Reds’ starter Travis Wood pitching a scoreless first inning. Let me repeat that. A Reds starter pitched a scoreless first inning. While it might seem a mundane thing, it’s something that hadn’t happened for 6 or seven games. Wood did allow runs in the 2nd, 3rd, and 6th, but he did turn in a quality start.

Chris Carpenter started for the Cardinals and was wild in the first, but managed to escape unscathed. The Reds continued to have solid at-bats against him, working up his pitch count. He left after 6 innings having thrown 103 pitches and allowed a couple of runs.

Those 2 runs for the Reds came when they were down 2-0 in the 6th. Joey Votto came to the plate with a runner on and deposited a 3-0 pitch over the outfield wall. That’s what an MVP does right there.

The Reds promptly gave up the lead in the bottom of the 6th, but their attitude seemed less defeated than before. RHM turned to me during the rain delay and said, “They’re going to win this one.”

And they did, thanks to the Cardinals’ crappy defense and Ryan Franklin. In the 8th, Miguel Batista was pitching. Drew Stubbs reached on an error, Brandon Phillips struck out, Joey Votto was intentionally walked, and Jonny Gomes was hit by a pitch. Trever Miller was brought in to face Jay Bruce, but Bruce worked a walk that brought in the tying run. Then the Cardinals turned to their former closer, Franklin, who promptly gave up a two-run single to Miguel Cairo.

That was enough for the Reds. Francisco Cordero came in for the Reds in the 9th and pitched a perfect inning for his 3rd save.

The Reds and Cardinals will play tomorrow night to see who wins the series. We’ll see if the Cardinals can go another game without cheating.

I was initially hesitant to link to this because I didn’t want to reward MLB’s draconian and asinine policies on sharing and embedding videos, but really, it’s worth it. I mean, my principles aren’t really worth not viewing this epic failure last night by the St. Louis Cardinals.

First, I’ll set the stage. The Cardinals’ offense continues to be non-existent, but it had scratched together a 1-run lead. Closer–and former Cincinnati Red–Ryan Franklin was on in the 9th. He’d managed two outs, but had also allowed two runners to get on.

That’s when former Houston Astro Miguel Tejada came to the plate and delivered this walk-off hit.

What I really love is that the loss was a team effort. It wasn’t just Franklin. Center fielder Colby Rasmus failed to catch the ball, and both Rasmus and left fielder John Jay failed to communicate.

I fully expect the Cardinals to rebound and become competitive this season. But that’s not going to take away any of my enjoyment from them starting off so horribly in 2011. They’re 2-6 and 4 games behind the first-place Reds.

Poor Tony LaRussa. Just look how mean the news media is being to him and his team:

(HT Cincinnati Reds Blog)

I mean, how unfair: to ask how the team that contains Albert Pujols, a guy many people still think is the best player in baseball despite the evidence of Joey Votto, in his contract year, has scored only 15 runs in 6 games and sports a 2-4 record. Just because it’s the most important question facing this team doesn’t give them any right to actually ask it. Don’t people have any respect?

As of this writing, LaRussa had not shared his opinion of what the media should be asking, but when he does, it’s sure to revolutionize baseball reporting as we know it. But until then, I recommend questions such as:

• Let’s talk about Chris Carpenter’s six Ks
• Tell us about the Lance Berkman RBI and how run production like that complements his superior ability in right field.
• Where did you get those awesome sunglasses?

Really, it’s the least guys who’s won 5 Pennants and 2 World Series titles in just 33 years can demand of the objective media.

The USA Today released the opening day payrolls for all major league baseball clubs today. The Cincinnati Reds’ payroll of $75,947,134 sits comfortably at 19th (out of 32), one spot up from 20th last year.

As John Fay notes, the Reds have set a club record this year.

The Reds’ overall payroll is $75.9 million, the most in club history. The previous high was $74.1 million in 2008.

The Reds place in their own division is also in the bottom half at 4th. The Chicago Cubs are first with $125,047,329, while the Pittsburgh Pirates are last with $45,047,000.

The NL Central table is below.