6/22 Cards vs Reds: Dunn bats 7th?!?!

[missionhockey21]

Seabol into PH for Mulder. Grounds out to 3B.

[missionhockey21]

Eckstein groundsout to FeLo, runner scores. 7-2.

[missionhockey21]

Edmonds with a basehit and another one scores.

[Wally Mo Pena]

pujols could make this real interesting right here.

[Wally Mo Pena]

but he doesn't.

Leadoff man extrordinair adam dunn is up.

[missionhockey21]

Ortiz got them to go in order. Strikeout, groundout, strikeout.

[Wally Mo Pena]

in the eighth wagner comes in, hits eckstein, walks edmonds, gives up a single to pujons and gets yanked.

Weathers comes in and gets what should be a DP ball but Felo throws it away after getting one out, allowing two runs to score instead of 1.

7-6 reds, 2 down, with walker on first after a fly out.

[Wally Mo Pena]

weathers on to close it in a save situation that never should have been.

Molina grounds out.

Mabry singles to put the go ahead run at the plate in Eckstein.

[Wally Mo Pena]

after a bit of a battle, eckstein grounds into a force, but beats the throw to be doubled off.

Narron makes a bold move here, taking the ball from Weathers who has pitched well and giving it to edmonds. A first test of Narron's instincts here. Mercker is notorious for letting inherited runners score.

[Wally Mo Pena]

two swinging strikes on edmonds right off. 0 -2

[Wally Mo Pena]

And this one belongs to the REDS. Mercker dominated Edmonds with the high heat, for the swinging strikeout. Narron's move works to perfection.

The game shouldn't have been this close, but a win, is a win, is a win.

Ortiz goes 7 giving up 3 ER off 5 hits and 3 walks while striking out 5.

Wagner got torched for 3 ER without getting an out, raising his season ERA to a near Miltonian 6.27.

Weathers drops his ERA to below 4 for the first time this season, and is looking more and more like a great signing. With so many teams struggling for bullpen help, he could bring a good prospect if the reds deal him.

[Wally Mo Pena]

MVP: Ortiz

Tough one to call, Dunn had two jacks, but they were both solo shots because he kept leading off innings after wily mo strikeouts. Aurilia went three for 5 with b rbi and 2 RS. But ortiz did what few reds pitchers can, which is deliver a quality start and go 7 innings.

[missionhockey21]

Ortiz gets it tonight. 7 IP of quality baseball and he didn't leave giving up more hits than the innings he pitched (a common trend for him in 05.)

[CincyRedsFan30]

MVP: Ortiz, simply for the fact of it being a Reds starter pitching well.

I don't understand the rationale if Dunn's solo HR not being good though. He hit .500 today and had a monster OPS, regardless of the team dependent stat. of who was on-base ahead of him.

I think yesterday was another clear example of why Dunn needs to bat higher in the lineup. If he has Freel/Lopez ahead of him, there is a decent chance that one or both of them could be on base when he hits one of many (near the top of baseball) HR.

Also, this is what worries me about Pena. When he's slumping, he has nothing to fall back on, which is why I've been wanting to see the BB go up. At this point, he has a .321 OBP, but still has a .958 OPS. I'm just worried that even the OPS could slip to a not as impressive area if he continues to be unable to even BB when in the midst of a slump.

Speaking of OPS... Randa's is at .856 at the moment. I continue to be impressed by him, although not that surprised.(Just for reference, his career OPS is .770). He is on pace for 25 HR and 88 RBI.

[Wally Mo Pena]

i didn't mean that there was anything wrong with Dunn's HRs, i thought it was great that he was locked in. It wasn't his fault that he kept leading off innings after Wily. I just meant that in general, if someone hits two HRs in a win, i'd give them the MVP, but since it was a relatively high scoring game, and they were both solo shots, that i didn't think his impact on the game was as big as Ortiz's.