Bummer

The sky is falling.

Sometimes I wonder if it really is, if it’s just one giant ocean up there that has cracked and is unable to hold itself up any longer.

The Reds lost a pretty crappy game last night, crappy all the way through from the weather to the performance on the field with the exception of Jared Burton, who K’d four of his six batters. Stormy did his job, too, but it was all too little, too late, because Josh Couldn’t See through the Fogg and gave up six runs in four innings pitched. The Reds bats never caught up.

The bitter drear of a game started an hour and forty minutes late because the sky was falling down, crushing what is supposed to be spring and forcing androgyny upon the hooded masses who dared to brave the wintry weather plaguing this part of the world. (I wonder in what inning last call came after such a long delay…) They were not rewarded for their loyalty, for Mr. “I turned down a four million dollar contract thinking I could get more and had to sign for a million with the Reds” stunk.

His former Rockie teammate stunk a bit, too, giving up Chase Utley’s second homer of the night, which turned out to be the 100th of his career. Affeldt calmed down after that, but the three run deficit was never to be overcome. Indeed, it grew, for Todd Coffey made a couple mistakes in the ninth inning and gave up another run to seal the loss.

The mystery of the night – indeed, a move that was downright Morron-like – was when Dusty pulled Dunn in the sixth inning. I get the double switch idea. I realize the pitcher’s spot was up next. But pulling your big power hitter when you’re down three runs with four innings to go?

This game put me in a foul mood, no pun intended. The Reds had runners on base with zero or one outs several times but couldn’t get them in. Dunn grounded into a double play to kill a rally and missed two good pitches, turning hits into flyouts. Griffey had two hits and two RBI, passing Reggie Jackson to move into 19th on the all time RBI list. Mostly, though, the offense just stunk. Phillies pitcher Kyle Kendrick did not pitch well through five innings but managed to wiggle out of trouble nearly every inning.

George Grande was simply awful, which only exacerbated my irritation. For example, a flyball was hit to centerfield near the warning track and Grande said it went to second base without bothering to correct himself. There were so many of these little errors that you never knew if what he said were true or not.

So yeah, it’s game four. There are 158 more to play. The Chubs have lost three of their four; the Tigers have lost all of their games. We haven’t even played enough games to warrant a glance at the standings. Still, I feel like the sky is falling, like the season is lost because Edwin might lose his position and Votto might be sent to Louisville and Patterson played a whole game when Dunn was pulled and we have no catcher and we have no good fourth starter and I hope Chase Utley gets a both ends stomach flu tonight that lasts about four days.

I guess my disappointment stems from the feeling of invincibility I developed after watching Johnny Cueto dominate the defending NL West champs yesterday. May an outing by our stud ace Aaron Harang lift my spirits after today’s game!