Game 41: Reds 6, Indians 4

by Ryan on May 22, 2010 11:20 PM EDT in Game Recaps

Thanks to the public's insatiable appetite for the Mets and Yankees, one of the better local draws of the season wasn't shown in Cleveland or (I assume) Cincinnati. Nice job, MLB and FOX.

The pitching matchup featured two young Dominican fireballers. Both went six innings, but Johnny Cueto gave up fewer runs and had better defense behind him. Fausto Carmona again gave up two runs in the first, the second one unearned because of a bad throw by Trevor Crowe. Crowe has been surprisingly good at the plate in his first week as the everyday center fielder, but he's made several poor plays in the field. As was brought in the comments, the outfield defense probably gets better if you have he and Austin Kearns swap positions.

The Reds tacked on another two runs in the fourth on a Laynce Nix home run. Carmona yielded his second unearned run in the fifth; Jhonny Peralta let a bouncing grounder play him, allowing Brandon Phillips to reach, and Phillips was driven in with a Scott Rolen sacrifice fly.

Cueto cruised through the first five innings, but had to throw a lot of pitches in the sixth. Travis Hafner capped off an excellent at-bat by getting around on an upper-90s fastball and depositing it into the right field seats. It's been a slow process, but it seems that Hafner's pitch selection has gotten better with each passing series.

Shelley Duncan collected his first hit as an Indian when he singled in the eighth, joining a short list of father-son duos to get hits with the franchise.

The Indians made things very interesting in the ninth, pushing two runs across off Reds closer Francisco Cordero and bringing the winning run to the plate twice. But Cordero struck out Shin-Soo Choo looking, and got Austin Kearns to line out to end the game.

20100522_reds_indians_0_85_lbig__medium

via www.fangraphs.com

Highest WPA		Lowest WPA
Trevor Crowe	.069	Fausto Carmona	-.215
Russ Branyan	.065	Austin Kearns	-.144
Travis Hafner	.065	Shin-Soo Choo	-.144

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Comments

Yesterday:

ATTN ML Baseball: You can no longer run at will on Cleveland. All of your other considerable advantages (hitting, pitching, etc) stand.

Today:

4 SB by the Reds

Curse you, Twitter!

by Toxicadam on May 23, 2010 12:49 AM EDT reply actions

They did steal three yesterday and get caught once….no need to curse Twitter for being flat out wrong

by The Grimace on May 23, 2010 1:10 AM EDT up reply actions

GO HAffNER TRIBE

Hey, at least she bought a ticket.

"I call myself common sense" —Manny Acta

by westbrook on May 23, 2010 12:59 AM EDT reply actions

So, with all things considered about 2010, we should look at this game as a relative positive, right? Sure, we lost, but that really doesn’t matter. Rafael Perez managing to get through an inning without turning into a werewolf and dancing at a high school prom, Hafner continuing to resort back to looking like Pronk (and, although I didn’t see this particular game, he is looking a lot bigger from the last game I did see) and Carmona only surrendering two walks in six innings all have to add up to be a reserved success.

2010: AIM LOW!

by JRontherim on May 23, 2010 7:03 AM EDT reply actions

I also just saw that Suave Sowers struck out three in 1 1/3rd scoreless for Columbus. On a less important note, Carlos Carrasco threw seven strong innings.

by JRontherim on May 23, 2010 7:08 AM EDT up reply actions

LGFT Alert!

I’m perfectly fine with the Clippers losing said game because Scott Elarton picked up the win with two perfect innings in extras. It’s good to see him still pitching.

Goodnight, LGT.

by JRontherim on May 23, 2010 7:10 AM EDT up reply actions