A Shelling On The River

And who would have thought? Last night at GABP I sat through a painstaking 8 ½ shutout innings from both ball clubs. The Reds assembled a quarter of a dozen leadoff doubles, left the bases loaded a couple times, and simply failed to get the runners in. The Mets suffered the same fate, but as I told my brother-in-law in the top of the ninth, this is how walk-offs are born.  

To make the night that much more intense, I had my two-year old side kick with me; keeping a little girl interested and awake until 11:00 at night is a feat in itself. However she, as always, was right on cue with her perfect rendition of “Bruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuce”. She timed her battle cry flawlessly as the right fielder crushed a long ball cross field, good for three runs and a massive celebration at GABP’s home plate. Honestly I think the game was won by two previous, less climactic, events. The first was Mat Latos’s shutout pitching; only allowing 5 hits in 7 innings. The second was Drew Stubbs awkward catch that should have been a diving bucket grab, rather the speedy center fielder tracked it down in a charging fashion, retiring the side with the Mets threatening in scoring position. 

Though a shutout game, the Reds did assemble a massive amount of offensive plays which included doubles by Bruce, Cozart, Hanigan, and Ludwick. The team stranded 14 runners. There was no shortage of classic Brandon Phillips’ gold glove catches as well as a line drive snare by first baseman the Todd-Father himself. Reliever Jose Arredondo notched the win after fine hurling by lefty Sean Marshall. Arredondo earned his fifth win of the season, which is a little better than tonight’s starting pitcher Mike Leake has amassed all year (4-7); just another display of the division leading clubs pitching prowess and arguably the key to all of their success. The Reds pitching and bullpen has been lights out on the season and is starting to focus their efforts on the post season. The Reds are now 6 games ahead of the trailing Pirates and 7 games on top the 2011 WS Champion Cardinals.