After two spectacular defeats in the NLDS, Sunday night’s loss seemed pretty routine. No near-perfect game by the opposing pitcher, no defensive implosion on the Reds’ part, just a rough night where the team couldn’t get the bats going against another quality starter. Compared to games one and two, game three was nothing more than disappointing. The devastating part was its finality.
The Cincinnati Reds, who had bounced back from losses such as this all year, were now officially done. There would be no chance to use the short memory that had been such an asset to them since April. There would be no opportunity to erase this loss with a win tomorrow.
The way that the Reds were summarily dismissed from the postseason speaks to the difficulty involved in assembling a championship-caliber club. It’s not enough to grind it out through 162 games and end up on top. You also need to have what it takes to win short series where every pitch, every play, and every at bat have an extreme amount of significance.
We all must admit though, that the Reds surpassed our expectations this year. When Harang served up that meatball to Pujols on opening day-who thought we’d still be talking baseball in October? But the team had a great balance of talent and chemistry, of youth and experience, of teachers and students. With cool-headed Dusty at the helm they never let themselves get up too high, or down too low. The result was a regular season record (91-71) that was identical to that of the 1990 World Champion team that led the division from wire-to-wire.
One could argue that their regular season strengths proved to be their postseason downfall. Those young guys may not have had butterflies-but it is only human to get caught up in the moment. Jay Bruce makes that play in right any other night of the year-waving towels non-withstanding. At the same time, our gold-gloved veterans of the infield were simply out of gas by the time the NLDS rolled around. Cabrerra was clearly injured, and thus a shell of himself defensively. Rolen’s bat had been absent for the last month of the year (he hit only .209 over his final 43 ABs). 162 games take a toll on one’s body-especially if that body is over 35 years old.
This begs the question of whether this season was a precursor of better things to come, or if it was as good as it’s going to get. One would think the former-as the Reds have inched closer and closer to proficiency under Castellini’s reign. The hiring (and re-hiring) of Dusty, the guidance of Jocketty, and the priority that has been placed on young quality pitching all point toward a future full of Red Octobers. But the economics of baseball are brutal. Individual worth is easily quantifiable-and there is no limit on what a team can pay. It is a situation that makes it very difficult for small market teams to become and remain relevant. There is a very good chance that the Yankees and Phillies will play each other in the World Series this year. Their combined payroll is equal to ten times that of the Pittsburgh Pirates-a team that spent the fewest dollars, and consequently won the fewest games this year (57-105). Right now, the Reds are grossly under-paying Bruce and Votto so only time will tell whether or not The Architect will be able to hold the club together.
Right now though, we should not worry so much about the future and rather be thankful for the present. Despite their early dismissal from the playoffs, the 2010 Reds re-instilled baseball as a relevant part of our daily life from April to October. Throughout the past decade, the trend was to start looking forward to football by June. This year, we savored each day-digesting every inning while watching the scoreboard to see if we’d be picking up a game on the Cards.
The season-long road to the postseason was at least as impressive as the sweep was disappointing. Of course, everyone will remember Bruce’s ill-fated stab at the line drive and the way that Reds hitters couldn’t lay off of Hamels’s low breaking balls. But we will also remember the beautiful game-ending 7-6-2 tag out of Skip Schumacher at the plate (May 15th). We’ll remember how the Reds went behind 4-0 to the Giants on June 10th, only to score 3 runs in the bottom of the 8th to come back to win. These were games that gave us that inkling that this team was for real-by season’s end there would be many similar games that would confirm our suspicions.
Right now we are sad that our season is over. Not only are games still being played without us, but we feel like key component of our daily diet has been stripped away. Whether it be grilling out with Marty and Cowboy on the radio, sneaking airline bottles of liquor into GABP, or skipping work for a business day special-our Summer pastime will be severely missed. For now, we can only relish the strides that the Reds have made, and hope that when pitchers and catchers report-they are ready to pick up right where they left off.
The Cincinnati Reds, who had bounced back from losses such as this all year, were now officially done. There would be no chance to use the short memory that had been such an asset to them since April. There would be no opportunity to erase this loss with a win tomorrow.
The way that the Reds were summarily dismissed from the postseason speaks to the difficulty involved in assembling a championship-caliber club. It’s not enough to grind it out through 162 games and end up on top. You also need to have what it takes to win short series where every pitch, every play, and every at bat have an extreme amount of significance.
We all must admit though, that the Reds surpassed our expectations this year. When Harang served up that meatball to Pujols on opening day-who thought we’d still be talking baseball in October? But the team had a great balance of talent and chemistry, of youth and experience, of teachers and students. With cool-headed Dusty at the helm they never let themselves get up too high, or down too low. The result was a regular season record (91-71) that was identical to that of the 1990 World Champion team that led the division from wire-to-wire.
One could argue that their regular season strengths proved to be their postseason downfall. Those young guys may not have had butterflies-but it is only human to get caught up in the moment. Jay Bruce makes that play in right any other night of the year-waving towels non-withstanding. At the same time, our gold-gloved veterans of the infield were simply out of gas by the time the NLDS rolled around. Cabrerra was clearly injured, and thus a shell of himself defensively. Rolen’s bat had been absent for the last month of the year (he hit only .209 over his final 43 ABs). 162 games take a toll on one’s body-especially if that body is over 35 years old.
This begs the question of whether this season was a precursor of better things to come, or if it was as good as it’s going to get. One would think the former-as the Reds have inched closer and closer to proficiency under Castellini’s reign. The hiring (and re-hiring) of Dusty, the guidance of Jocketty, and the priority that has been placed on young quality pitching all point toward a future full of Red Octobers. But the economics of baseball are brutal. Individual worth is easily quantifiable-and there is no limit on what a team can pay. It is a situation that makes it very difficult for small market teams to become and remain relevant. There is a very good chance that the Yankees and Phillies will play each other in the World Series this year. Their combined payroll is equal to ten times that of the Pittsburgh Pirates-a team that spent the fewest dollars, and consequently won the fewest games this year (57-105). Right now, the Reds are grossly under-paying Bruce and Votto so only time will tell whether or not The Architect will be able to hold the club together.
Right now though, we should not worry so much about the future and rather be thankful for the present. Despite their early dismissal from the playoffs, the 2010 Reds re-instilled baseball as a relevant part of our daily life from April to October. Throughout the past decade, the trend was to start looking forward to football by June. This year, we savored each day-digesting every inning while watching the scoreboard to see if we’d be picking up a game on the Cards.
The season-long road to the postseason was at least as impressive as the sweep was disappointing. Of course, everyone will remember Bruce’s ill-fated stab at the line drive and the way that Reds hitters couldn’t lay off of Hamels’s low breaking balls. But we will also remember the beautiful game-ending 7-6-2 tag out of Skip Schumacher at the plate (May 15th). We’ll remember how the Reds went behind 4-0 to the Giants on June 10th, only to score 3 runs in the bottom of the 8th to come back to win. These were games that gave us that inkling that this team was for real-by season’s end there would be many similar games that would confirm our suspicions.
Right now we are sad that our season is over. Not only are games still being played without us, but we feel like key component of our daily diet has been stripped away. Whether it be grilling out with Marty and Cowboy on the radio, sneaking airline bottles of liquor into GABP, or skipping work for a business day special-our Summer pastime will be severely missed. For now, we can only relish the strides that the Reds have made, and hope that when pitchers and catchers report-they are ready to pick up right where they left off.
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