Sonny Gray ‘makes room’ for Tony Santillan
By HAL McCOY Sonny Gray pitched seven strenuous but solid innings Wednesday afternoon in Kansas City. A few hours later, he landed on the injured list with a rib cage strain. With the All-Star break coming up after a four-game series in Milwaukee, Gray was not scheduled to pitch before the break. By placing Gray […]
Even Mother Nature won’t helps the Reds against the Padres
By HAL McCOY Not even Mother Nature cooperated to try to help the Cincinnati Reds extricate the anvil they carry on their backs against the San Diego Padres. With the Reds trailing the Padres, 7-5, in the sixth inning Tuesday night in Great American Ball Park, a loud and heavy thunderstorm attacked the area. After […]
Padres unleash power to pummel Reds, 8-2
By Hal McCoy The Sleeping Giant has awakened and the Cincinnati Reds are feeling the brunt. The San Diego Padres loaded up in the off-season via free agents and trades for pursuit of the Los Angeles Dodgers. But when the Reds came to town, the Padres were reeling under the load of a 4-and-13 record […]
OBSERVATIONS: A big, big day for Johnny Bench’s back-up
By Hal McCoy UNSOLICITED OBSERVATIONS from The Man Cave on a hot summer morning, sitting on the patio reading Cobra, the lengthy but fascinating autobiography of Dave Parker. He originally asked me to write it for him but I declined because I was writing my own book ‘The Real McCoy.’ —As the Cincinnati Reds punished […]
Castillo finally cranks up a good one
By Hal McCoy Luis Castillo stood tall on the Busch Stadium III mound in St. Louis on Friday night. The much-troubled, much-maligned Cincinnati Reds pitcher flicked aside the demons with a dominating performance against the St. Louis Cardinals, a 6-4 Reds victory. Castillo pitched six innings and gave up one run, three hits, one walk […]
OBSERVATIONS: The Cincinnati Reds are one big enigma
By Hal McCoy UNSOLICITED OBSERVATIONS from The Man Cave after a great weekend for left handed senior citizens. Thank you, Phillip Alfred Mickelson. —For the Cincinnati Reds, ‘E’ doesn’t stand for error. It stands for enigma. That, so far, describes the team on the banks of the Ohio River. And on their just-completed homestand, the […]
Reds survive 12-inning pitcher’s duel in Coors
By Hal McCoy Something as rare as an unassisted triple play played out Saturday night in Coors Field — a genuine pitcher’s duel. After the Cincinnati Reds and Colorado Rockies combined for 36 runs in the first two games of the series, only four runs were scored in the first 10 innings Friday, two by […]
Miley: From no-hitter to 11-hitter (in three innings)
By Hal McCoy Any thoughts Wade Miley harbored of becoming the second left-handed Cincinnati Reds pitcher to throw back-to-back no-hitters vaporized in the blink of a misplaced change-up. On Miley’s second pitch of Friday night’s game, his no-hitter was gone, a double by Colorado’s Garrett Hampson. And the Rockies never stopped en route to a […]
Reds score eight in one inning, still lose by five
By Hal McCoy It isn’t often a team scores eight runs in one inning. . .and loses by five. That was the scenario Thursday night for the Cincinnati Reds. Welcome to Coors Field, the world’s largest pinball machine. The Reds scored eight runs in the eighth inning, but lost, 13-8, to the Colorado Rockies. How […]