Hard to believe that the Florida Marlins come into Cincinnati as one of the hottest teams in baseball right now having won 7 in a row. Not what the Reds needed right now. The Reds have a 7 day 7 game homestand this week against two of the better clubs in their divisions in the Marlins and Indians.
Game One: Burke Badenhop vs Aaron Harang. Simply put, The Reds need to score runs for Harang. He is getting less than three runs per game support. Burke Badenhop was acquired from Detroit in the Dontrelle Willis trade. He is 1-2 with a 6.31 ERA. The Reds need to jump on the Marlins early and not let up. Get at least eight innings out of Harang because it could be a long week for the overworked pen. Prediction Reds 14-6
Game Two: Mark Hendrickson vs Edison Volquez: Volquez has been the brightest suprise for the Reds so far this year. We need another solid outing from him. The Reds have beat up Mark Hendrickson in the past. Hendrickson is off to a 5-1 start, but has not fared well against Reds hitters even though he is left handed: Ken Griffey 5 for 8 with 1 HR. Brandon Phillips 7 for 11 with 2 HRs, Adam Dunn 4 for 8, Freel 3 for 8, and Hairston 5 for 13. Lets hope the Reds can find some success against the 6'9" lefty. Prediction Reds 3-2
Game Three: This is the most intriguing game for Reds fans. Who will toe the rubber for the Reds? Does Belisle get pounded one more time? Do they bring in Josh Fogg for the same effect as not to miss a Belisle like outing? Will Joke-ity or Crusty finally pull the trigger for Homer Bailey? We'll see. My best guess is they give Belisle another chance, uggggh!! The Reds will face Ricky Nolasco 2-3 5.35 ERA. The Reds have only faced him one time before. They didn't fare well against him. Only Javier Valentin and Corey Patterson have more than one hit against him. Not good news for Reds fans. Prediction Marlins 10-3
Game Four: Andrew Miller vs Bronson Arroyo (named for the famed "tough guy" Charles Bronson) (Arroyo, tough guy? lol.) Anyway! This is a night game. Bronson pitches better at night. The Reds will face Andrew Miller 3-2 6.52 ERA. Another unknown lefty that the Reds have to face. Only Jeff Keppinger has ever faced him and was 2-2 with 2 doubles. I don't like the Reds chances here. They make rookie pitchers look like Cy Young winners. Especially when left handed! Arroyo returns to his normal JTM meat throwing self. Prediction: Marlins 9-1
This is a seven game homestand that the Reds really need. They leave Sunday to start a 7 game west coast swing against the Dodgers and Padres. They need to string some wins together now. The bats need to come alive. Griffey needs to hit three home runs this week so he will get 600 out of the way in front of the home fans, and make room for the impending trade to Seatlle.
Simply put, the Reds to take 5 out of 7 this week to gain any respect in my book.
good info jzinger. i think games three and four are complete tossups. at least i definitely don't think the Marlins will blow us out by a combined score of 19-4 in those games.
i assume it will be belisle in game 3, versus Ricky Nolasco. complete tossup IMO. nolasco isn't that good, but he's had a few good starts mixed in with the bad. the Reds have a knack for making marginal pitchers look quite good, but the bats have been heating up a little bit recently, and let's hope that doesn't fall by the wayside. who knows what belisle will give us? probably not more than 6 innings, but if he can do that with less than 4 runs i think that's a win for the reds.
in game 4, another mystery outcome. Andrew Miller is a young lefty with good stuff (bad news for the reds, as they turn those types into stars), and he had a good outing his last time out. however, that was about the only bright spot for him so far, so maybe our bats can get some production. as for arroyo, obviously, who knows what we'll get? again, if we get something like 6 innings 3 runs, i think we win. if we get 3 innings and 6 runs, there is a minimal chance we pull out that slugfest i think.
as hot as the marlins are, i don't think i can possibly be the only one who still does not take them seriously. their rotation on paper should be the worst in baseball. will that bear out against us in the series? their bullpen is shaky too, so even if we are down in the later innings, we are not necessarily out of the game. i agree, we need to take 5 out of 7, but i will be OK with 4 wins. i'm worried about the Indians series because i think all it will take to awaken the indians bats this year will be a dose of reds pitching. hopefully i'm wrong.
I'd rather play a hot Marlins team than a cold Marlins team. They can't stay hot forever. I agree, if this Reds team is going anywhere, they'd better take five out of these next 7. That would put them at 20-25. Man, this is going to be an uphill struggle.
Thanks for putting this post together. I'm definitely intrigued to see how well we fare on such a long home-stand. I am also interested to see how Bronson does in order to see if he's refined his pitches or if he just got lucky last time. I sure hope we don't put Belisle out there again. The guy is just throwing grapefruits and we can't afford a beating in a 4 game series. It could just demoralize the team if we lost 14-2 or something.
I do agree that we definitely need to come away from this seven game stand as the winners... If we are ever going to get back into things this season we need to get a serious win-streak going and this would be the time to do it. We are surprisingly good against teams with good records so you never know. We could end up coming away with 6 wins... Here is to hoping.
Game Three:This is the most intriguing game for Reds fans. Who will toe the rubber for the Reds? Does Belisle get pounded one more time? Do they bring in Josh Fogg for the same effect as not to miss a Belisle like outing? Will Joke-ity or Crusty finally pull the trigger for Homer Bailey? We'll see. My best guess is they give Belisle another chance, uggggh!! The Reds will face Ricky Nolasco 2-3 5.35 ERA. The Reds have only faced him one time before. They didn't fare well against him. Only Javier Valentin and Corey Patterson have more than one hit against him. Not good news for Reds fans. Prediction Marlins 10-3
Homer just pitched on Saturday, so I would doubt they bring him up to pitch this game on short rest. Thursday would be his next available start day.
That would be okay by me. I'm going to the game on Thursday. I doubt it will happen though. They probably would have said something by now you would think.
What baffles me and gets me hot is the payroll of the Marlins. A-Rod makes more than the whole team!!! How is it these guys can compete and we just keep sinking. It is going to be a long May for the Reds if something doesn't happen soon. I don't want to stop watching baseball in June!!! Come on Reds, do something!!!
How is it these guys can compete and we just keep sinking.
they have a manager that isn't clueless and coaches that actually help players improve. Has anyone seen any Red improve over the last season? I don't think I have. Maybe EE defensively.
I don't know if EE's improvements are from coaching. I just think he's finally living up up to his potential. Instead of players improving there seems to be an epidemic of players playing under their potential. Griffey, Dunn, Patterson and even Phillips are playing under their potential. Phillips is doing alright but not great.
In listening to the broadcast tonight they were talking about the Marlins manager. Because their defense was so bad, he makes them take 30 minutes of ground ball and fly ball practice at home games before they can take batting practice. He also makes them wear their batting helmets during batting practice because he wants it to be like game situations. That is a manager! He is forcing his team to try and improve themselves. He not scared of the overprcied whiners! Though the Marlins don't really have any overpriced players.
Well it wasn't 14-6 but it was a win by an 8-7 margin. Pretty close on the 6 call being scored by the Marlins. This was really a gift from the Marlins. A throwing error and a wild pitch allowed runs to score. The Reds bullpen was dismal as usual. However, a win is a win. One in a row!
