Pirates at Reds 4/6/2007

[redsrbetter]

Saarloos in o pitch the ninth in a non save situation.

Uses that great sinker to get Bay to ground out to Phillips.

[redsrbetter]

Saarloos Ks LaRoche looking at a two seamer that breaks right over the plate on the inside corner.

1 more

[browntown653]

MVP 04 huh? That is a great game. Good choice on choosing the Reds. You have the rosters updated?

Nah I have the old rosters...the Reds were the worst tanked team in the game and I wanted a challenge. So far I traded Jimmy Haynes who was horribly overrated and two young players for Morgan Ensberg and signed Pedro Astacio so my rotation is:
Astacio
Harang
Paul Wilson
Brandon Claussen
Danny Graves

Lineup is Larkin, Ensberg, Griffey, Dunn, Casey, Vander Wal vs RHP/Freel vs LHP, Castro, LaRue...Kearns is pretty bad in the game actually.

[redsrbetter]

Saarloos Ks Paulino swinging to end the game!

Reds win!

[redsrbetter]

So the Reds take on first place in the Central standings tied with the Pirates. Big win here as everything seemed to click on all sides tonight. Offense was good delivering 10 hits on the night and showed some good patience early on. Conine delivered bigtime in the clutch after EdE and Griffey both got 2 out singles, he hit a 3 run homer to take the 4-1 lead. Later, he got a triple to CF. His bat, Griffey's hustle to get the infield hit, and great pitching won this ballgame.

What a night for Belisle! He definitely has shown us that he deserves to start. Struggled a bit early but only gave up one run on 3 hits in the first. After that, he gave up one hit in the second, then shut the Pirates down. He retired 14 straight batters and got through 6 innings. The bullpen came in a protected his lead never giving up a single hit. Outstanding start for Belisle and great work by the bullpen.

MVP: Belisle and Conine

[browntown653]

You guys must be loving the back end of the rotation so far.

[Mr. D™]

I'm loving this year so far

[missionhockey21]

Belisle shows what can be done when you pound the strikezone. He had a great spring, really earned that rotation spot and he has done nothing to show that his spot is not justified with tonight's effort. I watched the highlights on ESPN and I saw he hit at least 93 at some point in the night which was great, as was that pitch that Conine got all over for his blast.

It's a shame the game wasn't on tonight or won't be on tomorrow (for FOX Sports Ohio.)

[CincyRedsFan30]

Not meaning to come in here to smak talk, but this is some shitty attendance for opening night.

Might be the cold weather.

That was a nice play by Phillips.

The weather was frigid with the wind chill.

Not surprised by the attendance last night and that wasn't opening night anyway. Wednesday night was the first night game.

[CincyRedsFan30]

Great game despite the weather!

Anyway, here are my comments/observations:

*Freel doesn't seem to be seeing the ball very well right now. His swings are not very solid. I think he will adjust and might have started that in the AB he got the double. He did play solid defense in CF(good closing speed) though and created a Run after the Double when he stole and ran home. He makes pitchers/catchers tense up often.

*Phillips seemed to get jump-started a bit last night. He threw his arm up excitedly after he hit the HR and seemed to be making a little better contact last night. Good defensive range. Had a good view of him from RF(right behind him) and he was smooth getting to balls.

*Dunn looked good, even when he was retired. Solid contact, short stroke. Played pretty good defense. He seems pretty locked in overall. Showed his usual plate discipline for the most part.

*Edwin looks pretty good, though he hasn't had as much to show for it as one might expect. He is showing good plate discipline and I think he will get more hits soon.

*Griffey looked decent. Doesn't seem to have his bat speed up to par yet, but I think it is getting a little better. He played RF fairly well, despite the ball that bounced away from him. That play was right in front of us (being about 10 rows from the wall in RF and almost directly behind him). The corner spot seems to make him a little unsure at times, but I think he is getting and will continue to get better. One funny thing he did the whole game was stick his non-glove hand in his back uniform pocket between plays and pitches to keep his hand warm.

*Conine looked good last night, obviously. Got hitting, fairly solid at 1B as well. He is the type I trust in key situations and I hope he can continue hitting well.

*Gonzalez was pretty good at the plate actually and his defense was SUPERB. It feels good to have a SS that you don't have to hold your breath over every time they have a chance. He charged balls flawlessly and made great throws to 1B. Great mechanics, no rushing throws and just looked very good. Also showed off the range, particularly toward 3B (most seemed to be hit that way). I think he helps Edwin out there.

*Ross actually looked better tonight. His bat speed was still a little slow at times, but he seems to be locking in a little more now. Hopefully he can get going.

*Hamilton simply looked nervous. The crowd response was nice. He seemed to be over-anxious and swung at some pitches up. Good to see him in the OF and at the plate though.

*Belisle was good. Early on he was throwing strikes for the most part but was getting hit as he left a few balls down the middle of the plate. I noticed in the 2nd inning (and especially the 3rd and beyond) that he started to look a lot better once he seemed to speed up his delivery. He didn't seem to wait as long to throw pitches and that seemed to help him out and got him in a rhythm. He touched 94 a few times on the stadium radar gun, even in the 5th or 6th inning. You could see his control going a bit at the end of the 6th,which was likely fatigue as he had thrown around 100 pitches. I would not let him go much over that for a few more starts and then start to stretch him out. Had good movement on his slider and his fastball seemed "quick." Pirates hitters swung late fairly often.

*Coffey was good. Didn't have his best control, but good movement and all.

*Stanton was sharp. Didn't blow anyone away for sure, but good movement and seemed to know how to make quality pitches.

*Saarloos was good. Everything was down in the zone. Made the hitters look bad.

*Did not care for the homeplate ump's strikezone. A little inconsistent and didn't seem to want to call anything strikes except a few pitches that probably shouldn't have been strikes that he DID call strikes.

Nice to see another solid pitching performance. The offense was better. I hope it continues.

Co-MVP: Belisle and Conine

[missionhockey21]

I listened to the game (most of it) while running errands last night. From what it sounded like, it seemed that Belisle hit the endurance wall hard in the 6th and went from pounding the zone with strikes to having difficulty finding the zone. I agree with you that Narron should slowly stretch out Belisle and let him regain his starters endurance. Hopefully he won't overwork him like he does with Arroyo and Harang, since given his past injury troubles and the fact that he hasn't been rocked in the season or spring training, he is healthy and confident which is dire for a young pitcher to have to find success.

[CincyRedsFan30]

Yup, you are right about Belisle. His control started to go. You could see him sort of "slumping over" after he released the pitch. He managed to hang tough and get that last out after the walk though.

[redsrbetter]

Thanks for the report CRF!

I agree that Belisle pounded the zone real nicely. I am very excited about the potential of having a really good rotation. Glad to hear that Ross looks to be getting his bat speed up. And I agree that Griffey's bat still looks slow, but I have no doubt it will get back to respective soon. I wonder if his wrist is still holding him back a little.

Anyhow, again thanks for the analysis.

[ghettochild]

belisle should be good