Fun's over: Reds enjoy final romp
Cincinnati completes sweep of Devil Rays with 14-5 pounding

By Hal McCoy

Dayton Daily News

CINCINNATI | So much for the Durham Bulls — and, yes, that's an insult to the great baseball movie Bull Durham.

The Durham Bulls are the Class AAA International League affiliate of the Trampled Bay Zero Rays, who for three days looked as if they sent their Class A Visalia Oaks to play the Cincinnati Reds.

With a 14-5 bonfire Thursday night, the Reds completed a three-game sweep, outscoring the Z-Rays 34-21 during three days of beer keg softball at its around-and-around-and-around-the-bases best.

In 25 innings, the Reds hit 11 home runs and never once said, "Excuse me."

At one point midway through Thursday's game, a member of the Trampled Bay traveling party said, "I expect (manager) Lou Piniella to throw out the white towel (slightly bloodied) any time now and scream, 'Uncle!' "

The fun is over. Three victories over a team with a 4-26 road record improves the resume, but gut-check time begins tonight.

Over the next 13 games, the Reds play the Baltimore Orioles (35-24), Boston Red Sox (32-27), St. Louis Cardinals (38-21) and Atlanta Braves (31-28).

Asked about the Orioles, manager Dave Miley said, "Yeah, that's who's coming, that's what the schedule tells us. They're a good offensive club and let's hope we swing the bats and get good starting pitching."

Of more importance to the Reds while they danced through their ballet, Mayhem With Wood, they might have regained a pitcher.

Against Trampled Bay Thursday Luke Hudson gave up five runs on only three hits (four walks) through six innings of his 91-pitch season's debut.

His ride through the Zero Rays lineup was easier than the leisurely four-hour drive he made Thursday in his Toyota Tundra truck from Chattanooga.

He is a drivin' fool.

"I've driven four times from California to Florida for spring training," he said. "And for my rehab start, I drove a Toyota Tacoma from Sarasota to Chattanooga. But that cramped my legs a bit so in Chattanooga I got a nice deal when I traded the Tacoma for a bigger Tundra."

And the Reds got a nice deal when they traded Pokey Reese and Dennys Reyes to Colorado for Hudson in 2001, even though Hudson was a trinket dangling around pitcher Gabe White's neck. White was the main player the Reds wanted in the deal.

Hudson, though, was 4-1 late last season and 3-1 with a 1.33 ERA in September, so he was distressed that he had to wait until June for his debut as his shoulder mended.

"I battled myself a little bit and the offense made my outing look a little better than it was," he said.

Miley agreed.

"Three of his four walks scored and he needs to stay away from that," he said. "His command wasn't what it will be, but it's sure nice to see him back out there."

Said Hudson, "I was a little up in the zone and not as sharp as I want to be, definitely something to work on. Mainly, I got my feet wet and got some kinks out.

"It's rewarding when you work hard to get back and, hopefully, I'll never do anything to make me go through what I did to get back here," he added. "I was down there in purgatory forever and finally got out and it is something I never want to do again."

Hudson is a dark-haired surfer boy who loves to get his feet wet and drives trucks to carry his surf boards.

Hudson's nomadic and explorer-like ways go back to when his father (No, his name isn't Henry Hudson, it's Bill Hudson) drove the family on vacation, the first when Luke was 10 — from California to Florida to New York to Washington state and back to California.

"And the van had 300,000 miles on it and broke down every 100 miles or so and we had to get out in the heat in Phoenix and help fix it," he said.

The gagging heat in Great American Thursday night had to remind him of Phoenix, but the Zero Rays certainly didn't remind him of the Arizona Diamondbacks.

The Reds reminded Trampled Bay of the 1976 Reds all three days and on Thursday the 14 runs were the most this season for Cincinnati.

Rich Aurilia had three hits and scored two runs, Ryan Freel scored three runs, Sean Casey, Adam Dunn and Jason LaRue all had two hits. The big thunder was back-to-back home runs in the sixth by LaRue and Jacob Cruz.

It was the second straight pinch-hit home run by Cruz and the second straight night he was the second man on the back-to-back board.