Series Preview: The Cincinnati Reds fly across the country from a series win against the Giants to renew their rivalry against the Cardinals with an interesting twist in the dugout and in the GM’s office. Dusty Baker and a newly hired Walt Jocketty come back to St. Louis with the Reds. The Reds have been a disappointment at 11 – 15, four games under .500 and it has not been necessarily been their pitching. Their offense has been missing in action, coming in at 13th in the NL in runs scored before an 8 run out burst against Barry “Wow, Look what you get for the $$$” Zito. The Cardinals will come off winning three of their last four and look to continue their home cooking, sitting at 10 – 5 at Busch III. Here is a look at the pitching probables for the series:
April 28th – Bronson Arroyo (0-3, 7.56 ERA, 1.84 WHIP) vs. Todd Wellemeyer (2-0, 3.77 ERA, 1.13 WHIP)
Arroyo has been a big disappointment so for in 2008 as the Reds were counting on him to anchor the 2nd spot in the rotation. He has failed to make it a full six innings in any start thus far and took a beating at the hands of the Astros [3 2/3, 8 ER and 10 hits allowed]. Look for Tony LaRussa to work Ryan Ludwick into the lineup against Arroyo, he of the insane 1.911 OPS against Arroyo, thanks to four hits in seven trips, including two doubles and a bomb. Wellemeyer has been tough of late, working at least six innings in his last four starts, though he did not earn a quality start his last time out. The Cardinals are 3-2 in his five starts and have a good habit of scoring runs in bunches when he takes the mound, the perfect recipe with Arroyo facing them.
April 29th – Johnny Cueto (1-2, 4.05 ERA, 0.87 WHIP) vs. Joel Pineiro (1-2, 5.29 ERA, 1.41 WHIP)
Cueto is the new hot thing on the scene. At age 22, scouts say he pitches beyond his years and possess electric stuff. His last start was a bit choppy (5 ER and only 2 strikeouts) and the Reds have a trend of not scoring runs for him. It will be interesting to see how Cardinals hitters fare against him, given he has an above average change that he works off an above average fastball. Pineiro looked like the guy the Cardinals wanted back after his eleven starts in 2007 against the Pirates his last time out, working seven strong innings, allowing only a single run on four hits and a walk while striking out six. The Reds haven’t had a lot of guys see Pineiro, but the ones that have have put up a collective OPS of .905 against him. Let’s hope that Busch III holds in some of his mistakes.
April 30th Aaron Harang (1-3, 2.76 ERA, 0.99 WHIP) vs. Braden Looper (3-1, 4.05 ERA, 1.24 WHIP)
A tough game here for the Cardinals. Hopefully they have found the ways to take the first two because Harang is a tough nut to crack. He has pitched in some bad luck this year, but his numbers are solid and you can usually count on staring out at the mound in either the 7th or 8th innings and still see Harang in the game. He is properly classified as one of the “Aces” in the Central Division. Looper comes off a start he needed to have. With Mark Mulder’s rehab clock winding down (May 15th is D-Day), Looper looked to be the odd man out after his up and down first four starts. But he laid a beauty on the line his last time out, hurling seven scoreless against a hot Astros squad, allowing only two hits and a walk before he left with the lead. An Izzy meltdown in the 9th prevented Looper from notching his 4th win of the season.
April 28 – Cincinnati 4 St. Louis 3
Todd Wellemeyer was not sharp through the first three innings, and he paid for it with his first loss on the year. His defense factored into the decision, but the bottom line was Wellemeyer did not make pitches when he needed to on the night. He finished strong after the slow start, working six full innings. allowing four runs, all earned, giving up seven hits and 2 walks against five punch outs.
The Cardinals chipped away at the Reds 4 – 0 lead and had a scoring opportunity to tie the game at 4 – 4 squashed by an outstanding grab by Edwin Encarncion, the Reds third baseman. After two were out, Duncan and Glaus singled to put runners on 1st and 2nd. Yadi Molina laced a grounder to Encarncion’s left in the hole between short and 3rd that Encarncion dove for, gloved and scrambled to his feet to nab Glaus at 2nd for the force out.
Ankiel, Pujols and Duncan all had two hits, with Glaus, Ankiel and Izturis garnering the RBIs, with Ankiel’s coming on his fifth home run of the year.
April 29 – Cincinnati 2 St. Louis 7
The hot new thing took the mound for the Reds in this game, but Johnny Cueto did not last long on the mound. The Cardinals knocked Cueto around for seven runs [6 earned] on eight hits and a free pass in only an inning and a third. Adam Dunn also treated us to a moment of jocularity when he decided to attempt the Statue of Liberty play with Corey Patterson and forgot to inform Corey that he was going to make the throw on a Glaus double at the wall sideways. Funny stuff Adam!
Plenty of hitting stars for the Cardinals as they banged out fifteen hits on the night. Skip Schumaker led the way with a four hit night, while Ankiel added three hits and 2 RBIs; Glaus added two hits and 3 RBIs, and Kennedy and Izturis chipped in with two hits apiece. The only guy that did not get in the act was Albert Pujols, who had his nine game hit streak snapped, but did extend his opening season streak of reaching base to 28 games.
Joel Pineiro led the pitching staff that allowed only three hits on the night. Pineiro had a shaky first inning, and was facing a runners on 2nd and 3rd situation with only one out when the Reds decided to help him out. Brandon Phillips grounded to Glaus at 3rd and, with Patterson breaking on contact, was easily caught in a run down. Keppinger, however, made a huge mental error when he abandoned 3rd base and tried to make it back to 2nd base, and he was subsequently doubled up.
Good team victory against a tough young pitcher.
April 30 – Cincinnati 2 St. Louis 5
A strong pitching performance and some timely hitting paced the Cardinals to another series win, this time against the Reds.
Braden Looper was certainly not as sharp as his last outing, but did make it through six innings, allowing two runs, both earned, on seven hits and two free passes against four punch outs. He made pitches when he had to and left with a slim 3 – 2 lead. The bullpen trio of McClellan, Franklin and Izzy made that stand up, with Izzy scoring his ninth save.
The offense added some insurance runs in the 7th, and the guys in the middle of it were Miles and Ankiel, the guys that paced the offense with 2 RBIs apiece. The offense continued its onslaught from the night before, with thirteen hits and four free passes. Ankiel and Miles had multi-hit games.
A nice series win that looked in doubt after the tough loss on Monday night, a game that they probably could have won. The 18-11 Cardinals look to entertain the Chicago Cubs over the weekend as the calendar turns to May.
