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Reds ruining Nationals' October plans
Griffey's bat, Claussen's arm lead 5-3 road win
By Hal McCoy
Dayton Daily News
WASHINGTON, D.C. | If the Washington Nationals and their cadre of Cincinnati castoffs fail to qualify for the postseason, they can blame themselves, the Cincinnati Reds and Ken Griffey Jr.
Cincinnati may not have Ford's Theatre, the Old Ebbitt Grill or the White House, but the Reds have Washington's number, and it isn't 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
In six games against the Reds this season, the Nationals acted as if the 2005 Reds were the 1975 Cincinnati Reds, winners of 108 games, and they were the 1963 Washington Senators, losers of 106 games.
Counting Thursday's 5-3 win in RFK Stadium, the Reds took pleasure in their business of beating up the Nationals five times.
"We're trying that with every contender," said Griffey after collecting three hits, including his 30th homer. "It's not as fun as being in a pennant race, but it's fun if you can send somebody home."
The list of Nationals with a Reds connection is a litany: Executives Jim Bowden, Bob Boone, Barry Larkin and Jose Rijo, manager Frank Robinson, coach Jose Cardenal and players Jose Guillen, Hector Carrasco, Joey Eischen and Carlos Baerga.
Some folks, mostly Chicago residents, believe Griffey should be another Cincinnati castoff, but on Thursday he continued his Season of Resurgence. He has 30 home runs after he hit none in April and ESPN sent a crew to Chicago to do a docu-drama, What's Wrong With Ken?"
Answer? Nothing.
Griffey, though, won't call out ESPN for being the doubting network.
"I wouldn't do that ... I would not," he said. "It is better to go out and play and show 'em that way."
Griffey hit .300 or better seven times for the Seattle Mariners, but due to injuries he hasn't done it in Cincinnati. But his average is at .297 after a creepy crawler start.
"The biggest thing was that I hadn't played since last July," he said. "Getting timing, and getting game conditions, getting comfortable again — I just felt like a fish out of water."
These days he is a whale-shark and doing just swimmingly. And .300?
"I don't think about those things," he said. "I concentrate on one at-bat at a time and if I can put a good streak together, things are all right."
Even though he is on an 11-game hitting streak during which he is hitting .457, he needed a call from dad after the first two games in Washington when he was 1 for 5 and 1 for 4.
"I couldn't get adjusted to this place the first two days, then my dad (Ken Griffey Sr.) called and told me I was pulling out a little bit," said Griffey. "He always calls at the right time, but I did ask him, 'Why didn't you call after the first day?' "
It was the first time Griffey played in RFK and it became the 40th different major-league park in which he has homered.
Said manager Jerry Narron, "Griffey has been on fire. What is this, Griffey's 100th park to hit a home run in? That's unbelievable how many parks he has hit home runs in."
Griffey knows he is going to hear it from Adam Dunn, although Dunn is delighted to abandon RFK after going 0 for 12 in the three games.
"That just means I'm old, playing in old parks and new parks, that's what Dunn is going to say. I'm older and I've been around," Griffey said.
Brandon Claussen held the Nationals to one unearned run and six hits over 5 2/3 innings while the Reds built a 5-1 lead — one in the first when Washington starter Livan Hernandez walked Austin Kearns with the bases loaded, one in the fifth on a Kearns run-scoring single and three in the seventh, an inning started by Griffey's home run and finished by Jason LaRue's run-scoring single after he stranded eight runners in his first three at-bats.
Griffey added levity, too, when he fielded a double by Preston Wilson in the sixth. As he threw to return the ball to the infield, he held on too long and fired the ball directly into the ground, like Brett Favre spiking a football.
"This used to be a football field, right?" he said. "I was intentionally grounding the ball so we could get another play off. What really happened was when I turned around I saw everybody heading for third base. So I thought the runner was rolling. But when I saw him at second base, that's when I threw the ball straight down."
It was funny stuff to everybody but the Nationals, who see nothing funny about what the Reds did to them this year.
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Originally Posted by CincyRedsFan30
