Reds Game Log
When I was commanding an Army infantry unit, we often had to host higher level leaders or VIPs. You always needed to prepare for these visits and make sure you had something of worth to show them -- a briefing or training, something. Some people refer to this as a "dog and pony show."
On one particular occasion, our battalion commander was bringing around a general officer and he had taken the general to another unit prior to coming to see us. That other unit did not do so well. Our battalion commander said, and I paraphrase, that a cage full of drunken monkeys with baseball bats couldn't have done any worse.
That is a pretty good way to describe the 2017 Cincinnati Reds. Well, they might even be incontinent drunken monkeys with baseball bats.
With all that said, my family was out of town this weekend and the Reds/Miami Marlins game was on FS1 Saturday night. What do you think I did with my time? Of course I watched the Cincinnati circus.
7:14 p.m. - The Reds came into the game 41-62 and on a five-game losing streak, so I am anticipating another poor showing. But Joey Votto jumps on the first pitch he saw in the top of the first inning and crushed it over the center field wall for a 1-0 Reds lead. I've said it before, Joey Votto is my man!
7:20 p.m. - Tim Adelman got the start for the Reds. As Tim Kurkjian said in the broadcast, starting pitching has been a real problem for the Reds. Adelman hasn't been very good, but maybe the most consistent starter the Reds have trotted out there. Even though Marlins second basemen Dee Gordon and center fielder Christian Yelich got great contact, Adelman got out of the first inning with a goose egg. That solid contact doesn't bode well, though.
7:32 p.m. - Old buddy from Indiana calls. We hammer out opinions like "Pacers should have picked up Vince Carter" and "Reds could have got more in the Brandon Phillips trade." I did not ask my friend about his family and he did not ask about mine - we only talked about sports. I know this can be seen as a deficiency when I tell my wife that so-and-so called and she asks me, "How are they doing?" This happens all the time.
7:54 p.m. - And there it is. Adelman gives up a three-run home run to Yelich on an 0-2 pitch. How do you leave a gopher ball over the plate in that count? Adelman has given up a home run in 12 straight starts. And he follows that with a walk. My goodness. You cannot win games like this.
8 p.m. - We have a great dog that we rescued. She is grateful and we all love her. I think the rest of the family being gone is stressing her out. When I have been in the house, she has never been more than 5 feet from me and often times less than 5 inches.
8:04 p.m. - Reds left fielder Adam Duvall mashes an Adam Conley pitch over the left field wall to pull the Reds within 3-2. OK, I guess we might compete tonight. How much do you want to bet that Adelman gets shelled before the end of the fifth? They have now shown the Hyundai "Sweet Caroline" commercial three times. I am super done with it at this point.
8:17 p.m. - They just showed Marlins manager Don Mattingly in the dugout. What a great Hoosier baseball player originally from Evansville in southwestern Indiana. I wonder if he and John Mellencamp get together to grill out on occasion. I would like to be there if they do.
8:21 p.m. - So here we are in the bottom of the fifth inning and Adelman faces the opposing pitcher to start the inning. This should be an easy out. He throws three straight balls to start the at bat and eventually walks him. For goodness sakes...you cannot win games like this. And Gordon follows that with a hit - two on, nobody out. What did I tell you about getting shelled in the fifth?
8:23 p.m. - Marlins right fielder Giancarlo Stanton hits a two-run double and the Marlins go up 5-2. I am not even that ticked off. The Reds have been awful and it just certified my prediction. Starting to think about channel surfing.
8:29 p.m. - Marlins left fielder Marcel Osuna hammers an Adelman pitch to the left field wall. Stanton scores from second and the Reds are now down 6-2. Adelman exits the game. This is where if we were in the same room, I would string together three expletives appropriately in front of the phrase "these damn Reds are awful." [Note: You must watch the link above, but it is NSFW. Specifically, see 1:16.]
8:42 p.m. - Fox is promoting the Big 3 basketball league in this broadcast. The Big 3 is 3-on-3 basketball between retired professional basketball players and there are some big names involved. Look, my parents came to watch me play basketball when I played in middle school. They wouldn't come to see me play against my peers now. I am not watching Allen Iverson in the Big 3.
8:50 p.m. - I left the room for a fairly brief restroom break. I come back and the dog is sitting at attention thinking, "Oh, F-town! I thought you were NEVER coming back." She is now two inches from me.
8:51 p.m. - Base hit Marlins. Maybe I will walk the dog soon.
8:57 p.m. - I just got distracted by Facebook. A dude I ran cross country with in high school posted a ton of scrapbook items from our time running together. And the Reds go down 1-2-3 in the 7th inning. Pffart (wet fart).
9:11 p.m. - Marlins catcher J.T. Realmuto knocks a run scoring single in the bottom of the seventh inning, 7-2 Marlins. I talked to my brother-in-law earlier today. He lives in northern Virginia, as well, and his wife and kids are up in New York this weekend, too. We both considered watching UFC together tonight, but decided against it since we didn't want to pay $50 or more. I wish we decided to get it. Watching the Reds is pointless.
9:15 p.m. - Reds center fielder Billy Hamilton gets an infield single to start the top of the eighth inning. Could this be the start of a five-run rally?
9:16 p.m. - Cincy third basemen Eugenio Suarez hits into a double play. Rally killed. Maybe I will watch that new FX series Snowfall once this ends.
9:18 p.m. - Kristen Wiig Pizza Hut commercial is aired for the umpteenth time. It makes fun of Crossfit, which I know is a cult, but I still like. She is comedy gold.
9:23 p.m. - Duvall is hammering pitches foul with a man on. He sends one at Reds third base coach Billy Hatcher, who was a Reds World Series hero in 1990. Hatcher does a two-step and avoids it. Duvall has this guy measured.
9:24 p.m. - Nope. Strike out. Rally killed. I am only here for the blog at this point. Let's go ahead and finish this off.
9:32 p.m. - Reds get through bottom half of eighth inning without giving up any runs. Still down 7-2. Will they get a five-run rally to tie the game in the top of the 9th? My magic eight ball says, "No."
9:37 p.m. - Reds right fielder Patrick Kivlehan starts the ninth inning with a double. Still thinking about watching Snowfall. I am already watching TNT's Animal Kingdom without my wife. Can you watch two series without your spouse? Seems like that would be excessive. I will watch the first episode and bring her in if it is good. I am not tired. Maybe I will watch the first two episodes.
9:43 p.m. - Something happened to allow the Marlins to get three outs - I wasn't really paying attention. And that's it. This one belongs to the Marlins.
I cheer the Reds, Colts and Pacers. The Colts won the Super Bowl following the 2006 season and the Reds won the World Series in 1990. Those are the only titles I have seen from my teams since I started following sports in 1980. That's two championships in 111 seasons.
There have been many times that someone has made some derogatory remark about the teams I follow and that was supposed to be a negative mark on me as well. I never truly got that. Are you a loser if you follow a loser?
I think it is precisely the opposite. I respect those that stink with their teams through the rough stuff. This game was fun for me. It is rare that I have an opportunity to focus so intently on one of my teams.
Anywho, the dog is snoring, and I still need to walk her.
On one particular occasion, our battalion commander was bringing around a general officer and he had taken the general to another unit prior to coming to see us. That other unit did not do so well. Our battalion commander said, and I paraphrase, that a cage full of drunken monkeys with baseball bats couldn't have done any worse.
That is a pretty good way to describe the 2017 Cincinnati Reds. Well, they might even be incontinent drunken monkeys with baseball bats.
With all that said, my family was out of town this weekend and the Reds/Miami Marlins game was on FS1 Saturday night. What do you think I did with my time? Of course I watched the Cincinnati circus.
7:14 p.m. - The Reds came into the game 41-62 and on a five-game losing streak, so I am anticipating another poor showing. But Joey Votto jumps on the first pitch he saw in the top of the first inning and crushed it over the center field wall for a 1-0 Reds lead. I've said it before, Joey Votto is my man!
7:20 p.m. - Tim Adelman got the start for the Reds. As Tim Kurkjian said in the broadcast, starting pitching has been a real problem for the Reds. Adelman hasn't been very good, but maybe the most consistent starter the Reds have trotted out there. Even though Marlins second basemen Dee Gordon and center fielder Christian Yelich got great contact, Adelman got out of the first inning with a goose egg. That solid contact doesn't bode well, though.
7:32 p.m. - Old buddy from Indiana calls. We hammer out opinions like "Pacers should have picked up Vince Carter" and "Reds could have got more in the Brandon Phillips trade." I did not ask my friend about his family and he did not ask about mine - we only talked about sports. I know this can be seen as a deficiency when I tell my wife that so-and-so called and she asks me, "How are they doing?" This happens all the time.
7:54 p.m. - And there it is. Adelman gives up a three-run home run to Yelich on an 0-2 pitch. How do you leave a gopher ball over the plate in that count? Adelman has given up a home run in 12 straight starts. And he follows that with a walk. My goodness. You cannot win games like this.
8 p.m. - We have a great dog that we rescued. She is grateful and we all love her. I think the rest of the family being gone is stressing her out. When I have been in the house, she has never been more than 5 feet from me and often times less than 5 inches.
8:04 p.m. - Reds left fielder Adam Duvall mashes an Adam Conley pitch over the left field wall to pull the Reds within 3-2. OK, I guess we might compete tonight. How much do you want to bet that Adelman gets shelled before the end of the fifth? They have now shown the Hyundai "Sweet Caroline" commercial three times. I am super done with it at this point.
8:17 p.m. - They just showed Marlins manager Don Mattingly in the dugout. What a great Hoosier baseball player originally from Evansville in southwestern Indiana. I wonder if he and John Mellencamp get together to grill out on occasion. I would like to be there if they do.
8:21 p.m. - So here we are in the bottom of the fifth inning and Adelman faces the opposing pitcher to start the inning. This should be an easy out. He throws three straight balls to start the at bat and eventually walks him. For goodness sakes...you cannot win games like this. And Gordon follows that with a hit - two on, nobody out. What did I tell you about getting shelled in the fifth?
8:23 p.m. - Marlins right fielder Giancarlo Stanton hits a two-run double and the Marlins go up 5-2. I am not even that ticked off. The Reds have been awful and it just certified my prediction. Starting to think about channel surfing.
8:29 p.m. - Marlins left fielder Marcel Osuna hammers an Adelman pitch to the left field wall. Stanton scores from second and the Reds are now down 6-2. Adelman exits the game. This is where if we were in the same room, I would string together three expletives appropriately in front of the phrase "these damn Reds are awful." [Note: You must watch the link above, but it is NSFW. Specifically, see 1:16.]
8:42 p.m. - Fox is promoting the Big 3 basketball league in this broadcast. The Big 3 is 3-on-3 basketball between retired professional basketball players and there are some big names involved. Look, my parents came to watch me play basketball when I played in middle school. They wouldn't come to see me play against my peers now. I am not watching Allen Iverson in the Big 3.
8:50 p.m. - I left the room for a fairly brief restroom break. I come back and the dog is sitting at attention thinking, "Oh, F-town! I thought you were NEVER coming back." She is now two inches from me.
8:51 p.m. - Base hit Marlins. Maybe I will walk the dog soon.
8:57 p.m. - I just got distracted by Facebook. A dude I ran cross country with in high school posted a ton of scrapbook items from our time running together. And the Reds go down 1-2-3 in the 7th inning. Pffart (wet fart).
9:11 p.m. - Marlins catcher J.T. Realmuto knocks a run scoring single in the bottom of the seventh inning, 7-2 Marlins. I talked to my brother-in-law earlier today. He lives in northern Virginia, as well, and his wife and kids are up in New York this weekend, too. We both considered watching UFC together tonight, but decided against it since we didn't want to pay $50 or more. I wish we decided to get it. Watching the Reds is pointless.
9:15 p.m. - Reds center fielder Billy Hamilton gets an infield single to start the top of the eighth inning. Could this be the start of a five-run rally?
9:16 p.m. - Cincy third basemen Eugenio Suarez hits into a double play. Rally killed. Maybe I will watch that new FX series Snowfall once this ends.
9:18 p.m. - Kristen Wiig Pizza Hut commercial is aired for the umpteenth time. It makes fun of Crossfit, which I know is a cult, but I still like. She is comedy gold.
9:23 p.m. - Duvall is hammering pitches foul with a man on. He sends one at Reds third base coach Billy Hatcher, who was a Reds World Series hero in 1990. Hatcher does a two-step and avoids it. Duvall has this guy measured.
9:24 p.m. - Nope. Strike out. Rally killed. I am only here for the blog at this point. Let's go ahead and finish this off.
9:32 p.m. - Reds get through bottom half of eighth inning without giving up any runs. Still down 7-2. Will they get a five-run rally to tie the game in the top of the 9th? My magic eight ball says, "No."
9:37 p.m. - Reds right fielder Patrick Kivlehan starts the ninth inning with a double. Still thinking about watching Snowfall. I am already watching TNT's Animal Kingdom without my wife. Can you watch two series without your spouse? Seems like that would be excessive. I will watch the first episode and bring her in if it is good. I am not tired. Maybe I will watch the first two episodes.
9:43 p.m. - Something happened to allow the Marlins to get three outs - I wasn't really paying attention. And that's it. This one belongs to the Marlins.
Reds fan and Richmond, Indiana native, Barry Hunt, attends Sunday's Reds/Marlins game in Miami. Hunt is one of my "contacts" that feeds me great sports data.
There have been many times that someone has made some derogatory remark about the teams I follow and that was supposed to be a negative mark on me as well. I never truly got that. Are you a loser if you follow a loser?
I think it is precisely the opposite. I respect those that stink with their teams through the rough stuff. This game was fun for me. It is rare that I have an opportunity to focus so intently on one of my teams.
Anywho, the dog is snoring, and I still need to walk her.
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