A Brucie Bonus
The Jay Bruce fairytale shows no signs of letting up just yet. After impressing everyone during his first four games in the Majors, he surpassed himself last night in game number five by delivering a walk-off solo home run in the tenth inning against the Braves.
There’s no doubt about it: the Reds needed a shot in the arm. Prior to their game against the Pittsburgh Pirates on Tuesday night, Cincinnati were looking up at the rest of the NL Central with a 23-28 record. Their 2008 season was beginning to look like a continuation of their disappointing form in 2007, despite the many changes that had been made in an attempt to avoid this fate.
The most significant change took place in the off-season when Dusty Baker was appointed as the Reds’ new manager. His track record gave their fans reason to hope that it would pay immediate dividends. In his first year as manager of the Giants in 1993, he guided the team to a 103-59 season, a thirty-one win improvement on their ’92 campaign. After taking San Francisco to the World Series in 2002, he jumped ship to the Cubs and immediately turned a 67-95 team into a NL Central division winner (88-74) before falling at the NLCS stage in their infamous loss to the Marlins. Could that Dusty magic work for a third time?
After just twenty-one games the answer appeared to be ‘no’ and Reds owner Bob Castellini decided to fire GM Wayne Krivsky on the back of a 9-12 start, replacing him with former Cardinals GM Walt Jocketty. The timing was a shock, but if the intention was to shake the roster out of its slumber then it failed to have the desired effect. The same can be said for the decision to recruit Baker’s favourite Corey Patterson to man centre field and be the lead-off hitter. After forty-five games of hitting .200/.240/.352, Patterson was finally demoted to Triple A this past week. Even the one certain bright spot for the Reds has failed to light up their season so far. Ken Griffey had only gone deep once since April 24th before number 599 went into the seats at the Great American ballpark last night. It seems like everything has been a struggle in Cincinnati.
Their hopes rest on an exciting crop of young players to lead this team to a brighter future. Jay Bruce was generally considered to be the top prospect in baseball and the Reds’ decision to send him to Triple A for more seasoning after Spring Training was called into question by many. Following Patterson’s struggles and Bruce’s domination of Triple A pitchers (.364 and 10 homers in 184 at-bats), the Reds could no longer keep him down and his early impact has been astonishing. Johnny Cueto has struggled of late, but he has the potential to be an excellent big league starter. First baseman Joey Votto is hitting .293 with ten homers after his impressive showing in September last year and shortstop Paul Janish made his Major League debut on 14 May. The biggest story of the season so far has been the outstanding performances of their twenty-five year old starter Edinson Volquez, who leads the Majors with a 1.46 ERA. The Reds had to give up Josh Hamilton (who is in MVP form) to obtain Volquez from the Rangers, but they were happy to make the deal in the knowledge that Jay Bruce was on hand to replace him in centre field.
The Reds are eight games behind the Cubs in the Central and the month of June may determine whether this team can make a run at the post-season this year. There have been many rumours of Griffey leaving the Reds once he has reached the 600 landmark and Adam Dunn’s impending free agency makes him a prime candidate to be traded if the Reds are out of contention by the All-Star break. If that is the case, fans in Cincinnati will be left lamenting another lost season, but thanks to Jay Bruce and his friends they will at least have genuine reasons to dream of better things to come.
Week nine wrap-up
The Chicago Cubs (35-21) finish May with the best record in baseball. That’s great news in itself, but when you consider that the last time this happened was in 1908 (i.e. the last time the Cubs won the World Series), you can understand the giddy excitement of their fans. The D-Backs (31-25) have come back down to earth, but their fast start still leaves them with a 3.5 game cushion over the Dodgers in the West. The current Marlins-Phillies series is a surprising top of the East battle. Florida’s (31-23) victory last night enabled them to snatch the top spot back from the Phillies.
If the Cubs are getting excited in the National League, how must fans in Tampa Bay be feeling right now? They lead the American League with a 34-22 record, an unprecedented achievement in their short franchise history. The White Sox (30-25) have lost two in a row to the Rays, but they retain a two game lead over the Twins who have dropped two to the Yankees. Elsewhere in the Central, the Royals snapped a twelve game losing streak last night by beating Cleveland. The Angels (33-24) are showing no signs of relinquishing first place in the West as they hold a 3.5 game lead over the slumping A’s.