Sometimes This Team Makes Me Want To Strangle Someone

... no one in particular, just someone to get the frustrations out.

I fully expected the Reds to lose two of three to Pittsburgh. The Pirates just seem to be the perfect team to give the Reds trouble; they aren't that good but they have solid lefthanded pitching, and the Reds seem to just let down against them. The Reds are 27-24 against teams with records over .500. If they could just take care of things against bad clubs they'd be in the race.

But they haven't, and they aren't, and the second half is going to have games where you think the Reds aren't that far off, and games where you just want to tear your hair out. Sometimes both emotions, joy and elation, are present in the same game, like the first two of this series. Monday the Reds went to the plate against Paul Maholm like they had a plane to catch. Through five innings he'd thrown just fifty-three pitches, I believe the telecast said. They just don't work the count at all. Aggressiveness isn't a terrible thing if you're swinging at quality strikes and squaring up on the ball, but there's just no excuse to hit a sky-high popup on the infield on the first pitch you see (I'm looking at you, Brandon Phillips, and you, Edwin Encarnacion, both of whom do so as if there were a contract incentive that can vest by popping up).

So with the offense hitting like it was September 30 instead of June 30, the burden of winning the game fell upon Aaron Harang, who aside from an Adam LaRoche two-run dinger pitched very well over seven innings. Hopefully he's getting back on track after a rough stretch.

But late in the game... oh, Dusty. Dusty, Dusty, Dusty. Dunn walked in the eighth, and Baker pinch-ran Corey Patterson for Dunn. Donkey represented the tying run, so this *may* have been a defensible move at the time; however, I cringe whenever one of the Reds' few plus bats is removed for a decided minus bat. Brandon Phillips had an infield single, putting men on first and second (the speedy Patterson on second, remember) with none out. Patterson can score on nearly any hit, unless it's an infield single or an iffy trap situation in the outfield and has has to hold up halfway. Still, though, Dusty asks Joey Votto, not exactly an experienced bunter, to bunt off the tough Bucs lefty Damaso Marte. Naturally, he can't get it down, gets behind 0-2 and strikes out. Edwin also struck out. So, rather than let the rookie lefty Jay Bruce try his luck with Marte, Dusty pinch-hits Javier Valentin in his spot. I know Valentin's only use to this team generally at the moment is as a pinch-hitter. I know Valentin is a switch-hitter. But he's so awful from the right side, he really isn't a switch-hitter at all. Did Dusty know this? Who knows? Whether Dusty knew it or not, Valentin grounded out. Because he's terrible against lefties. Just an awful, awful move, and way too many strategic errors in a row to even begin to defend on Baker's part.

The Votto bunt decision was just inexcusable. It's like Dusty's playing it "by the book" all the time, but he's reading from a book that wasn't written with common sense in mind. Let's ask a rookie who's not experienced at bunting to get down a bunt in a situation where it's not even really warranted? Was he playing from the "play for a win at home" perspective? If he's playing it by the book, it isn't a book I've ever read. You'd think after the Arizona game where Edwin hit a game-winner after getting down two strikes, and the Atlanta game where Dunn homered after not being able to bunt, that he'd give up on the bunting the power bats. And why did he remove Dunn for Patterson if he was going to bunt anyway?

Anyone hiring Dusty to manage their team, though, really was asking for stuff like this, and that's why I can't really feel sorry for the Reds on this one. They had to know what they were getting coming in. Signing Corey Patterson to a Dusty-managed team is like giving a bottle of whiskey to an alcoholic. That dude may be the only person who can see how destructive his habit is, but he's sure as hell going to down that bottle as soon as he gets thirsty. Dusty's going to find ways to get playing time for Patterson. He did it again last night, when he again pinch-ran Patterson for Dunn, and this time it may have cost the Reds the game. You just can't put that bat into the lineup and expect it not to hurt you, and sure enough, Patterson was at the plate with the game on the line in the eleventh, and didn't come through. I don't blame Patterson; I'm sure he's as frustrated as anyone about his sub-.200 average. Jocketty, though, owes it to Reds fans to get him off the team.

Back to Monday, though, Griffey managed to save the day with a ninth-inning walkoff dinger, and it was pretty exciting. Tuesday was also a close, exciting game that saw the Reds blow a tie game in the ninth, send it to extras, get down two in extras, then nearly rally to tie again before the rally fell short. Overall the Reds had enough chances to win that the loss can't be entirely blamed on any one person, Dusty and Patterson included, but all the chances made it even more frustrating to watch. Hopefully they can get the series finale tonight and go into the Washington series over the holiday weekend looking good and feeling good. Daryl Thompson gets the ball tonight against John Van Benchoten for Las Piratas. JVB has been just awful in the bigs his entire career, so naturally he'll look like an ace tonight. I think I'll go kill myself.