Dear TNT and the Makers of Law & Order:

Tonight, I turned on the television to TNT, which I assume is short for “Turner Network Tnetennba”, to watch one of my favorite shows, Law  & Order. I was highly disappointed by what I saw.

Tonight’s episode “Reds vs. Giants” was the worst episode of Law and Order that I have ever seen in my life.

For one, I recognized right away that it was one of those gimmick episodes that tries to cross-promote shows on the same network by switching casts of characters. I have no idea what television program these characters were supposedly from, but this was obviously a terrible idea. Clearly, these characters were from a sports-based show, which does not mesh well with Law and Order’s procedural format, and moreover, they were ludicrous. The handsome, soft-spoken, good-at-everything Canadian, Joey Votto? What’s the point of a character who never makes a single mistake and is better than everyone at everything in the world? If you want a character to be relatable, don’t make him go 3-4 with two runs scored. Or the friendly, easy-going Ryan Ludwick. A guy going 2-3 with a HR is just too much skill for a convincing TV character.

Second of all, there was no conflict to this story. It was obvious from the very beginning that lead prosecutor Bronson Arroyo would give all those Giants fellas what they deserved. Where’s the fun in the story if one side only gets two hits, and is completely shut down by the opposition? It was easy to root for Arroyo, given his background, and his flowing, blond mane, and his double-ear-beflapped helmet, but it’s really only fulfilling if we get to see him develop and overcome adversity for even a little bit. There was no adversity here! Just a seven inning postseason outing with only 2 baserunners!

Lastly, the right fielding character, Hunter Pence? That beard should not be allowed on television.

I really hope that this episode of Law & Order is never aired on TNT again. Thank you for your time

Sincerely,

A Concerned Fan

P.S. Oh, gods of baseball karma, please don’t take this too seriously. It is clearly satire. Amen.

(Photo by M.C. Martin/Flickr)

Too soon? Probably. Reds fans had an opportunity in the first inning to be paralyzed in horror when Johnny Cueto came off the mound, bending over and clearly in pain. The situation did not seem improved when Cueto came out of the game a few moments later, reporting back spasms. Currently, TBS is reporting that Johnny Cueto is in line to pitch in game 3. That’s really optimal. Since we’ve left Mike Leake off the NLDS roster, if we replace Cueto with Leake, we’d have to leave Cueto off the NLCS roster (counting chickens…) as well.

Thankfully, we had a pair of especially heroic pitching performances from Sam LeCure and Mat Latos. LeCure came in immediately to pitch 1 2/3 scoreless innings, earlier than he could have guessed he would be needed. Latos was immediately seen in the dugout, volunteering to warm up. He came in to start the third inning, and pitched four more scoreless innings. They weren’t without their worries, but Latos did a good job coming up on short rest, in a familiar, but extremely hostile environment.

Then we had some… slightly less heroic performances from pitchers. From kind of pathetic, like Homer Bailey’s second inning pinch-hitting adventure in failing to get a bunt down, to some very solid relief performances from Marshall and Broxton, to an extremely wild and nerve-wracking (close to more horror-paralysis) 9th inning outing by Aroldis Chapman.

The consensus player of the game, and all-around star was Brandon Phillips. Phillips was brilliant at the plate, going 3-5, with a home run that drove in two home runs and gave the Reds a lead they’d maintain the rest of the game. He also made a beautiful defensive play, stopping an errant throw from Scott Rolen, that got past Joey Votto at third.  Bruce was great too, with a double and a home run. And Ludwick made TWO nice plays in left field – which is never expected from Ludwick. The defense was really solid, all around.

Even though this was a great team effort, LeCure, Latos and Phillips rising to the occasion really stands out. But I think it would be remiss not to applaud Dusty here. It’s hard to come up with the right answer when your starter comes up injured after a single out in game 1 of the playoffs. Whether optimal or not, Dusty’s decisions got us through the mess, without severe damage to either the bullpen or the rotation. It’s not clear where Cueto’s injury will leave us going forward, but Dusty got us through today with a win, which is the best anyone can do.

The good news: Todd Frazier’s rookie of the year season proceeds apace. (Photo by BubbaFan at the english language wikipedia)

That sucked.

Things were lovely for the first five innings. Before the 6th, things were going reasonably well for the Redlegs, who were winning 5-2 based on strong hitting, and reasonably good pitching from Latos.

The sixth inning is where everything became terrible. Latos let the first two batters on base via singles – and then allowed two consecutive home runs from Allen Craig and Reds fan favorite Yadier Molina. After Latos walked the next batter (all with no outs), we brought in Alfredo Simon, who then allowed a series of hits/wild pitches/sac flies which allowed a total of 6 runs to score in the inning. (Alfredo semi-redeemed himself by pitching two more scoreless innings.

The offense did alright, really, chasing Lance Lynn in the third inning with good performances from Frazier (per usual), Phillips, and even Rolen. But there were plenty of strikeouts. We threatened in the bottom of the 9th against closer Jason Motte – Ludwick and Frazier got on with singles, but Rolen struck out for the third out.

Even so, as a whole, this loss is more on Latos than anyone. It’s really been awhile since Mat Latos has been so outright bad. I’m not getting on his case, he’s had a really great last couple of months, but tonight was bad.Nights like this are bound to happen I guess – we’ve still got a six game lead, and as long as we can win one game this series, we’ll stay five games up.

So… how’s Joey Votto doing, again?

BRUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCE! (Photo by Trev Stair/Flickr)

Through a long, yet low-scoring game tonight, the Reds continually put base-runners on without driving them in. In fact, the Reds combined for 9 hits and 6 walks in the first eight innings of play against the New York Mets, and that even included four doubles, yet no runs driven in – mostly because the doubles all happened when the bases were clear. That, and we did have some serious RISP issues.

If not for Mat Latos, Bruce doesn’t get so much of a chance to be a hero. Even though he allowed quite a fair number of base-runners in the first couple innings he pitched, running up his pitch count to the 70′s by the fourth inning, he kept the runs from getting in, and eventually turned in a line of 7.0 IP, 5 H, 2 BB, 4 K – with only one of those hits going for extra bases. The poor guy just gets no mercy when he has a rough night because of his bad start – but he’s been pretty awesome lately. Tonight he dropped his ERA to 3.63.

In relief, Marshall was solid after walking David Wright in the 8th inning, and Arredondo was shaky, but prevailed in the 9th. That makes this the 10th (team) shutout of 2012 – compare that to only 5 shutouts in all of 2011.

Before the 9th inning, Bruce was looking at being the scapegoat of this game – although he hit a nice double in his first plate-appearance, he also bore the biggest left-on-base burden, with three runners left on. Of course, it’s not like anyone else had any ribbies thus far – but it’s been a pretty long time since Jay’s last hot streak, which makes him a lightning rod for fan (and Brennaman) disapproval.

That’s why I think most of us were extremely pleased (well, more so than usual) when, after fouling off three third strikes, Jay Bruce lifted a fastball just over the wall into left-center, driving in Ryan Ludwick and Brandon Phillips (who walked three times tonight, BTW). It was Jay Bruce’s 23rd home run of the season, it was his fourth walk-off homer ever, and hopefully it was just what he needed. It was our fourth win in a row, it gives us a six game lead over the Pirates, and puts us 24 games over .500.

In a word: Hooray!

…Him? (Photo by Wilfredor, via Wikimedia Commons)

When the best part of my night is realizing that Sean Marshall is sort of the Irish translation of Juan Marichal, (Sean and Juan both translate to John! It’s true, I read it on Wikipedia!) you know it hasn’t been a good day for the Redlegs. This game marked our third straight loss – something we haven’t done since July 3rd, 4th, and 5th, at the end of a series we lost to the Dodgers, and the beginning of an eventually winning Padres series. That wasn’t the last series we lost though – we lost two games out of three against Arizona in mid-July.

At least we can say we didn’t get no-hit, or worse, the victim of a perfect game, which Brewers starter Mike Fiers had, running into the seventh inning. Thankfully, Zack Cozart broke it up with a double, and was batted in by Brandon Phillips – who otherwise looked a little rough in his second day back in the lineup. Otherwise, though, the lineup was iffy, first against Mike Fiers (74 previous total innings), and then in the 9th against side-arm relief pitcher Jim Henderson. (5 previous total innings)

And Cueto really had a decent game. Three runs in seven innings should have been good enough. Johnny was excellent outside the first inning – racking up 9 strikeouts with no walks and only six hits total. It was actually a lot like Cueto’s last start against the Padres – where he was pretty good, but ran into a little trouble with home runs. Of course, we won THAT game, thanks to some excellent hitting.

Amazingly, I’m still feeling good about this team. We’ve really been lifted up lately by some phenomenal pitching, clutch hitting, and a healthy dose of extraordinary luck. I’ve always known that this team wasn’t really 20-3 good. But the fact that a little luck can raise us to such lofty heights is really a good thing  - even knowing that sometime we’ll be a bit mediocre. And tonight we were pretty mediocre. But sometimes lineups suck. Remember when Travis Wood nearly perfecto’d against the Phillies? That team had one of the best offenses in the league. Just…. not that night.

Tomorrow, we’ll be better. And if not, there’s a game the next day too. Isn’t baseball great?

(Photo by DavidMeyersPhotos on Flickr)

Ok, so, maybe it’s more like Bronson: 2; Coors Field: 3, because Arroyo has a slightly terrible history in Coors.

I have to admit, of the next few series, this game was on of the games I was most concerned about. Arroyo has been much better this year – and his HR/9 is back into line with his career norms – making last year’s 2.1 HR/9 seem like a terrible, terrible nightmare. Still, notwithstanding Coors deep fences, that atmosphere is no joke – and Bronson’s ERA in that ballpark was 8.84, over 18 innings in four starts.

It was sort of a not-so-old-timers game, as all our younglings were all but a  pile of 0-fer , while the over-30 crowd made the magic happen: Rolen, Ludwick, and Hanigan all had two hits.

Of the youngsters, Drew Stubbs probably had the least bad game – as he at least made a couple nifty defensive plays in the enormous centerfield at Coors. In fact, Stubbs was the only outfielder to record a putout in the first seven innings. But Cozart did get a hit in the ninth inning, and Xavier Paul got a single as a pinch hitter immediately before that.

Also, generous props to Alfredo Simon, who has gotten a bad rap after a rough first few outings, but had a great game today, recording 4 outs, and escaping two separate runners in scoring position problems – though neither of them were exactly of his making. And then of course, came the Aroldis Chapman experience. 8 wins in a row feels … nice.

I don't blame you Brian Kenny, this is pretty dreamy. (Photo by Keith Allison/flickr)

It’s sort of like a prequel to Red Dawn, but with Last of the Mohicans. And the USSR wins. Summer Blockbuster, starring Zac Efron, or something. (Unless Zefron is no longer a thing. If not, some other young actor who is currently the thing with teenagers.)

The Reds didn’t need Efron to beat the Indians tonight, assuring a win of the three-game series, and cementing a two run lead over Pittsburgh in the central. Things were a little iffy in the first half of the game, as the Reds scored only sparingly at first, while the Indians threatened multiple times, loading the bases, and getting in a run here, and there.

But Latos did a good job getting out of a lot of tough jams with minimal damage: 7 IP with 2 ER and 7 Ks should be  a good solid confidence builder for him.

Offensively speaking, it was really the Votto and Phillips show. I’ve been loving all the national attention Votto is getting right now (although that also comes with downsides: “WHAT WHY AREN’T YOU TALKING ABOUT ADRIAN GONZALEZ RIGHT NOW?! YOU NEVER TALK ABOUT ADRIAN GONZALEZ. I’VE NEVER HEARD OF VOTTO BEFORE TALK MORE ABOUT ADRIAN GONZALEZ.” But as far as downsides go, internet commenter stupidity is hardly a downside at all.) During MLB Tonight, they talked a lot about Votto’s second at-bat, in which he never left the batter’s box, and barely even blinked while working a walk off Derek Lowe. I think Brian Kenny swooned.

But Phillips had a really excellent game, too- hitting two singles in addition to adding two insurances runs with a homer off Nick Hagadone.

Now, all that’s left is to take game three from the Indians before heading up to New York for a series with the Mets.

Ryan Ludwick, sigh, star of the game. Photo by SD Dirk/Flickr

Tonight, the Reds eked out a close one, narrowly avoiding what might’ve been their first consecutive loss in two weeks. Johnny Cueto got off to a good start, but ended up allowing three runs after getting two outs in the 8th inning.

Of course, he had help from Logan Ondrusek, who allowed a three-run home run immediately upon entering the game. Not Ondrusexy’s best work, but I’m not worried – Ondrusek just needs to be solid right-handed set-up man, and we already know he’s the third best reliever in the pen. Those guys give up runs. Thankfully, we had Marshall and Chapman to get the rest of the last five outs.

Chapman continued his closination domination – in the 9th inning, he struck out two, and got through the inning on 9 pitches total. He probably needed to throw a bullpen session after the game just to get his work in. Crazy.

It was, after all, a good thing that we scored one more run in this game than we allowed in that disastrous 8th inning. (Begrudging props to Ryan Ludwick!) This game also featured Todd Frazier’s first career stolen base. Hooray Todd Frazier!