The extra-innings heroics obscured another fantastic start from Edinson Volquez, who appears to have shaken off the disastrous relief outing in the San Diego Marathon and was again superb.
The one RBI that didn’t belong to Phillips came from the sensation, the one everyone was waiting for, Jay Bruce, who had four hits in another fantastic performance. He even provided a few laughs getting all turned around on the sac fly that led to Atlanta’s first run (it was so deep the runner would have tagged and scored no matter what). The other day they had video on the telecast of Dunn and Griffey tricking him into running onto the field by himself to start the game, and on top of that he was recipient of one of the best pies to the face I’ve ever seen. This team really does feel energized by the youth, and they’re playing with a spark they really didn’t show on the west coast trip. Bruce has truly shown he belongs so far, and has made the Reds look dumb for not going with him in center from the start. If he’s really this good, how many wins has it cost the Reds already putting the clowns they were sending out to center out there instead of Bruce?
Isn’t it interesting that despite being hot as fire, Joey Votto is permanently stuck in the seven hole, but Jay Bruce, a guy who’s getting his first big-league at-bats, has hit either second or third in each of his starts, including his first major league game? Dusty continues to slot hitters based on position in the field rather than what actual players are playing those positions on a given night. Bruce has performed well, but there’s not much room for a slump at such important spots in the order, and a rookie is eventually going to slump. Still no thought, it seems, has been made to moving Adam Dunn up to second or third in the order. Griffey is still cemented to number three, and Phillips to cleanup. It seems Dusty doesn’t read the Enquirer, which has had several excellent Sunday pieces on what hitter fits each spot best based on actual numbers, rather than gut feeling.
“Well, let me tell you something baby, the only thing I use a newspaper for is to whip a doggie, and ain’t nothing I use to whip a doggie that’s gonna whip my behind, jack!”
I’m not saying Bruce shouldn’t be starting, mind you, lest anyone say “People pick on Dusty for not playing youngsters, and now he is playing one and you’re complaining about it!” On the contrary, a blind man could tell you even he can see Bruce gives the Reds the best chance to win in center. Plugging him into the top of the order so soon is just a lot of pressure for a kid who’s already had a lot of expectations put on him. That is all.
With Griffey struggling, can’t he at least consider trying to go the other way every now and then? I can’t count the number of possible ground-ball singles hit straight into the shift this season (today, it was his AB in the bottom of the sixth). He doesn’t even seem to consider going with the pitch and driving it into left anymore. He does waste a strike every at-bat lamely showing bunt, but it doesn’t seem to be deterring the shift at all. I hate to suggest a Hall of Famer needs coaching in his approach at the plate, but if the power bat isn’t there trying to pull the ball all the time, doesn’t he need to be trying to get hits any way he can?
(NOTE: This is why I don’t do live blog entries on the fly; later in the game he did go the other way, twice. He lined out to short once and got the second hit continuing the rally in the eleventh. Kudos to Junior, and I’m an idiot.)
Not to go all Uni Watch on you, but I have to say one thing about Atlanta’s uniforms. I don’t know if the Braves have been doing this all the time, but the all-blue caps with the normal grey road uniforms looks like crap. First off, their traditional roads are absolutely a modern classic, and a great reminder of the TBS era, which I hated at the time but of which I now have this strange nostalgic fondness. Secondly, on those uniforms red is the dominant color, with blue as a trim color, and the solid blue caps look like they’re slapped on the top of a uniform designed to showcase red as well as blue (which, now that I think about it, is exactly the case). Third, the all-blue caps seem to be a different shade of blue than the blue on the rest of the uniform, almost a black, while the blue-and-red caps seem to be a slightly lighter blue. I’m no Pantone expert, but it looked really strange and out of place. I like the all-blue caps, although I’m no fan of Atlanta’s cluttering up of their uniform set with two alts. For the longest time they were one of the only teams to have no alternate look whatsoever, and it was really great how conservative they were. Not anymore, and much like the Braves being absent from TBS, that’s sad.
So tomorrow the weather calls for some Foggy conditions. Really Foggy. Josh Foggy. Foggybear takes on the Braves on Fox at 3:55 Eastern, 12:55 in Chargerland. Josh Fogg takes on star rookie Jair Jurrjens for the Braves. The Reds are 26-29 and back out of last by a half-game. The record is pretty amazing considering how terrible they’ve looked at times this year. May is almost gone and the Reds are ensured a winning month; with only one game left they’re 14-12. June looks to be a beastly month, with series upcoming at Florida and at Philadelphia, vs. Boston and the Dodgers, and at the Yankees, at Toronto and at Cleveland. Yikes. Good time to be peaking. Let’s get hot for more than a week and make this interesting.
With Griffey struggling, can’t he at least consider trying to go the other way every now and then? I can’t count the number of possible ground-ball singles hit straight into the shift this season (today, it was his AB in the bottom of the sixth). He doesn’t even seem to consider going with the pitch and driving it into left anymore. He does waste a strike every at-bat lamely showing bunt, but it doesn’t seem to be deterring the shift at all. I hate to suggest a Hall of Famer needs coaching in his approach at the plate, but if the power bat isn’t there trying to pull the ball all the time, doesn’t he need to be trying to get hits any way he can?
(NOTE: This is why I don’t do live blog entries on the fly; later in the game he did go the other way, twice. He lined out to short once and got the second hit continuing the rally in the eleventh. Kudos to Junior, and I’m an idiot.)
Not to go all Uni Watch on you, but I have to say one thing about Atlanta’s uniforms. I don’t know if the Braves have been doing this all the time, but the all-blue caps with the normal grey road uniforms looks like crap. First off, their traditional roads are absolutely a modern classic, and a great reminder of the TBS era, which I hated at the time but of which I now have this strange nostalgic fondness. Secondly, on those uniforms red is the dominant color, with blue as a trim color, and the solid blue caps look like they’re slapped on the top of a uniform designed to showcase red as well as blue (which, now that I think about it, is exactly the case). Third, the all-blue caps seem to be a different shade of blue than the blue on the rest of the uniform, almost a black, while the blue-and-red caps seem to be a slightly lighter blue. I’m no Pantone expert, but it looked really strange and out of place. I like the all-blue caps, although I’m no fan of Atlanta’s cluttering up of their uniform set with two alts. For the longest time they were one of the only teams to have no alternate look whatsoever, and it was really great how conservative they were. Not anymore, and much like the Braves being absent from TBS, that’s sad.
So tomorrow the weather calls for some Foggy conditions. Really Foggy. Josh Foggy. Foggybear takes on the Braves on Fox at 3:55 Eastern, 12:55 in Chargerland. Josh Fogg takes on star rookie Jair Jurrjens for the Braves. The Reds are 26-29 and back out of last by a half-game. The record is pretty amazing considering how terrible they’ve looked at times this year. May is almost gone and the Reds are ensured a winning month; with only one game left they’re 14-12. June looks to be a beastly month, with series upcoming at Florida and at Philadelphia, vs. Boston and the Dodgers, and at the Yankees, at Toronto and at Cleveland. Yikes. Good time to be peaking. Let’s get hot for more than a week and make this interesting.
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