Out of focus: Dodgers slam Reds
Phillips' grand slam adds to Milton's HR woes in 9-3 loss
By Hal McCoy
Dayton Daily News
CINCINNATI | ESPN, in its all-encompassing desire to show viewers everything but the inside of the dugout bathroom, placed 26 cameras in every niche of Great American Ball Park Sunday night.
They were not enough, not enough to focus on everything that transpired in Great American Ball Park during a 9-3 Reds defeat to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Early in the game, they focused mostly on the good deeds of the Cincinnati Reds, especially pitcher Eric Milton, who this night was Eric Meltdown.
By midgame, the cameras pointed at the Dodgers and their eventual assault on Milton for nine hits in 62/3 innings, including two homers, one a grand slam.
"It's on me and it can't get much worse," Milton said. "I've let the team down and I feel bad for the fans. I don't know what it is.
"I don't have answers right now and I've tried everything," he said after his record slipped to 2-3. "I was cruising along tonight and all of a sudden I made too many mistakes."
All they needed early was one camera, focused directly on Milton, who hit a home run and gave up only one hit in four innings..
When Milton's name is mentioned in the same sentence with the term, "Home run," 99-and- 44/100ths percent of the time it means he gave one up — 13 this year, a league-leading 43 last year, 205 for his career.
On Sunday, it was Milton hitting a home run, first of his career, to give himself and the Reds a 1-0 lead in the third inning.
The camera could have left Milton briefly to focus on Ken Griffey Jr. for his 417-foot shot in the fourth that nobody could catch but a guy wearing a blue shirt and munching a Nuxy Knots pretzel in the right field seats, Griffey's third homer of the season, 504th of his career and a 2-0 lead for Milton.
Then it began unraveling and cameras were focusing here, there and everywhere after.
The Dodgers cut it to 2-1 in the fifth on doubles by Jason Phillips and opposing pitcher Jeff Weaver.
The situation returned to normal for Milton in the sixth, giving up home runs instead of hitting them, and he gave up a monster to Phillips, a grand slam behind singles to Jason Repko, Bradley and Jeff Kent ... and it was 5-2 Dodgers.
Perhaps Milton was fooled by the goofy-looking glasses worn by Phillips to collect four hits and drive in five runs.
"It has been tough on us, tough on the team," Milton said. "I tried to pitch inside (on Phillips) and didn't locate, caught too much of the plate."
The handwriting was clearly scrawled on the Reds' dugout bathroom wall in the sixth when they filled the bases and didn't score. Joe Randa flied to shallow center and Rich Aurilia struck out.
"That was an inning we could have bounced right back and got back in it, but we couldn't get the big blow like they got," manager Dave Miley said.
Bradley made it 6-2 in the seventh with another homer off Milton, the 56th he has given up over last season and this season, most by any human wearing a major-league uniform.
It all added up to the Reds' ninth loss in 10 games and as far as they are concerned ESPN can take all their cameras and dump them in the Ohio River. The Reds are 7-13 in ESPN Sunday Night games.