Recapping the Reds

Recapping a series is normally not a priority of mine, but this 5-game series (you read that right…game 3 was over 2 games long) against the Reds is definitely worthy of some thoughts. There is plenty to talk about – Utley’s return, the offense’s return, Cliff Lee coming up big when we needed him, the offense actually scoring when Cliff is on the mound, Hamels staying perfect against the Reds, Madson and Bastardo being slightly human, etc. Specifically, though, I guess I should talk about the 19-inning game on Wednesday night.

First of all, I did stay up to watch the whole game. That’s what sick days are for, right? (Note: I did not take a sick day because I watched the whole game. I watched the whole game because I took a sick day. Not as cool, but I cannot tell a lie). I dozed off during the 11th/12th maybe, but overall caught most of it.

So here are some random thoughts about the game:

-I might as well just get this out of the way, and it’s all already been said, but Wilson Valdez is the man. Seeing a non-pitcher pitch is pretty cool/weird, but I feel like it happens enough in baseball to not freak out about it too much. Especially because it usually means the game has become very crappy. For example: When Tomas Perez pitched for us in 2002 or whatever, it was a game we lost 17-3. But this one I definitely thought was super cool because Valdez actually got the win. There are a handful of position players that can say they’ve pitched in a game before, but how many have actually gotten a win? Awesome. Now on to the rest of the stuff that everyone has forgotten about.

-Roy Halladay is obviously an unbelievable pitcher, but I think he got a little lucky in this one. At a time when our offense was just figuring out how to score again, he gave up 11 hits in 7 innings. Although that only resulted in 3 runs, that is still scary for an offense trying to find itself. But it wasn’t all luck for him, because it takes some serious skill to only give up 3 runs on 11 hits.

-I should’ve turned the radio on at some point rather than listening to Christopher and Thomas talk for 13 STRAIGHT INNINGS. Ugh. They are the worst. What a field day Christopher Wheeler had with this one, too. He got to give a history lesson with every passing pitch. I hate him.

-Why is JC Romero a major league pitcher? Seriously, is there any reason for this? Is there any reason at all? If you played in the National League, would you EVER swing at a pitch from JC Romero? Screw taking one strike. My dad suggested that each hitter take until they have 2 strikes. I’ll go a step further and say take until he gets 3 outs. That inning would last forever.

-I will address my feelings towards Ibanez in the next post. We should’ve won the game way before he was up, and I still can’t stand him.

-We really shouldn’t have given up that run in the 9th inning. I told my mom after the 8th inning that Howard was going to hit a walk-off home run to lead off the 9th anyway so it didn’t matter that we didn’t score then. Then Jay Bruce (fantasy team!!) hits a home run and forces Ryan to only tie the game instead of win it.

-Back to Valdez for a second. Two of his three outs were the reigning NL MVP and a guy who had 11 RBI in this series. Say whaaattt?!

-Can you imagine leaving that game early? That just feels embarrassing to me to even think about. I really don’t understand leaving any sporting event early, but ESPECIALLY baseball. There’s no time limit in baseball. It is your fault if you lose. There is no running out of time. You had 27 opportunities in which you couldn’t get the job done. So until you waste all 27 (or 57) of them, the game is not over. So leaving before 9 innings was over would seem crazy to me. But leaving at any point after that makes very little sense. Where do you draw the line? At what point do you say, “Okay, I think we’ve had enough.” It doesn’t make sense to me. Something could always change right after you leave. Every pitch has an opportunity to change the game. So what if it’s 1 in the morning? Get over it, it’s one sleepy day in your life. You could be witnessing history.

-Lastly, Christopher Wheeler kept talking about how tired the other pitcher looked and how that’s the most exhausted he’s ever seen a pitcher. Oh Christopher. You know nothing of Mel Clark’s pain.

(I would say something to wrap up this post down here, but anytime an Angels in the Outfield clip is included in a post, it will not get any better from then on)