How Did We Win that One?

I’m scratching my head. I know the Reds won 5-4 today, but I’m kind of shocked to be perfectly honest with you. Happy and relieved. That’s now three in a row for the Redlegs.

There’s is a literal laundry list if things the Reds did today that, by all accounts, should have led to a loss. Here they are:

(I said it was a list…)
– Two errors. One was an unforeseen one by Paul Janish, who was once again paying at third (Don’t get me going on that either). Ball missed his glove, I guess. Speaking of Janish, he has dibs with the team medical staff after apparently twisting his ankle and then getting plunked by a Matt Garza pitch.
– The second error was courtesy of Edgar Renteria. After Garza had gotten his first MLB hit. Kosuke Fukudome hit a grounder to Joey Votto. Votto turned and fired to second only to have Renteria flat out miss the throw.
– Two wild pitches by Edinson Volquez.
– Passed ball by Ramon Hernandez resulting in a run…scored by Garza.
– HBP by Sam LeCure. I’ll cover the best part of this later though…
– Volquez faced the .169 hitting Carlos Pena three times…and walked him on all three plate appearances.
– A missed cutoff throw by Jonny Gomes allowing a runner to advance to third. Good thing that didn’t bite ’em in the butt.

But the good things have to outweigh the bad ones, right? Well, not really.
– Jay Bruce put the Reds up with a three-run homer of Garza. Renteria had singled and Joey Votto walked to begin the inning.
– Votto showed why he was the MVP in 2010 taking a Garza offering and striping it right back up the middle to plate Janish. Branson Phillips followed with a single of his own to score Renteria.
– Despite the major gaffe in the field by Renteria, he did have a good game at the plate. 1-3, 2 walks, and 2 runs scored.
– Brandon Phillips continues to produce defensive gem after defensive gem. Check out today’s (and many other Reds highlights) here.
– The bullpen. This is THE reason the Reds won today. Sam LeCure came in relief of Volquez and permitted a run scoring single to Geovany Soto to bring the Cubs within one at 5-4. LeCure promptly hit pinch-hitter Reed Johnson to load the bases…and no outs. Sam buckled down to strike out Fukudome, got Darwin Barney to pop out to Hernandez, and urged an inning-ending ground out to Renteria. That’s as big a gutcheck as you’ll ever see. Hat tip to Sam for battling through it. Make it two hat tips. More importantly, LeCure saved Dusty from having to use more guys out of the pen.

After that, Nick Masset and Francisco Cordero continued on with the silencing of the Cubs bats to preserve the 5-4 win.

I’m still shaking my head over this win. Throughout the season, you will lose games you should have won and you win games you should have lost. This was the latter.

Note: The Louisville Bats placed Dave Sappelt on the DL today with a strained oblique. Ouch…