Baseball’s Big Bang Theory: ‘Home run, home run, home run’
By HAL McCOY CINCINNATI — ‘The Big Bang Theory’ owns a totally different meaning when it comes to Major League Baseball. The Big Bang in baseball is home run, home run, home run. On Thursday night in Oakland the Athletics and Houston Astros combined to hit 10 home runs in a 7-6 game. In New […]
Gray & Bullpen Company shut down Cardinals, 2-1
By HAL McCOY CINCINNATI — It took a lot of scribbling on his lineup card by Cincinnati Reds manager David Bell and several batting order explanations to home plate umpire Roberto Ortiz. All the manipulations, though, resulted in a two-hit 2-1 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals, a two-hitter painted by four Reds pitchers Thursday […]
Kuhnel: The new kid on the bullpen block, replacing Hughes
By HAL McCOY CINCINNATI — It is foolhardy to play the age-old ‘what if’ game because there is never a definitive answer to ‘what if.’ Nevertheless, with what has happened to the Cincinnati Reds’ bullpen this year, it is apropos to ask it. What if David Hernandez and Jared Hughes pitched this season the way […]
Bauer battered, bloodied in 10-run inning, Reds crushed, 17-7
By HAL McCOY As advertised, Cincinnati Reds starting pitcher Trevor Bauer and Washington Nationals pitcher Stephen Strasburg put on a chess-like pitching clinic. For four innings. Then it was a day for pitchers to pitch-and-duck, a 17-5 Washington beatdown of the Reds, losers of four straight. It was 1-1 after four innings and Bauer had […]
Another No-Name Pitcher Silences Reds, Nats win, 3-1
By HAL McCOY When the Cincinnati Reds arrived in the nation’s capital, it looked as if the only Washington Nationals pitcher to fear was the man pitching Game 3. That would be 14-game winner Stephen Strasburg. In Game 1 and Game 1 they would face a couple of no-names, Erick Fedde and Joe Ross. Who […]
Aquino homers (again), but Reds rally falls one-run short (again)
By HAL McCOY It was the ol’ Cincinnati Two-Step Monday night and the Washington Nationals did a Disco Dance on Anthony DeSclafani. For the Reds, it seems as if it is always two steps forward and two steps back. And they did another retreat in Nationals Park, a 7-6 defeat. DeSclafani, the man they call […]
Reds back on ‘Square One’ after loss to Cubs, 6-3
By HAL McCOY CINCINNATI — The Cincinnati Reds partied Sunday afternoon like it was 1969 — for six innings. Then it was back to the reality of 2019. While wearing 1969 throwback uniforms, the Reds and Luis Castillo took a two-run lead over the Chicago Cubs into the seventh inning in Great American Ball Park. […]
Votto: Now is the time for Reds to stake their claim
By HAL McCOY CINCINNATI — Prior to the first game the Cincinnati Reds played after the Oregon District tragedy, Joey Votto sat at his locker thinking about Dayton, “A city that has been very good to me,” he said. And he came up with an idea. He grabbed a Sharpie from his locker shelf and […]
Aquino’s three home runs helps bury Cubs, 10-1
By HAL McCOY CINCINNATI — While ‘The Punisher’ is a very cool nickname, Aristides Aquino has progressed far beyond that in 10 major league games. The Destroyer? Demolition Man? The Executioner? Nothing seems apropos for the 25-year-old Dominican rookie. He seems not of this earth, not of this universe as far as baseball is concerned. […]