Reds Drop Rubber Match Against Rockies

Wednesday night the Cincinnati Reds came to GABP fully expecting Johnny Cueto to be on the mound and in return expected a

Mandatory Credit: Frank Victores-USA TODAY Sports

great outing from the ace of the staff. Instead the Reds turned up to the park to discover Cueto had been scratched, placed on the 15-Day DL and replaced with Pedro Villarreal.

Pedro Villarreal’s start was not a pretty one for the club. The Reds lost 12-4 on a night where nearly every pitcher seemingly forgot how to pitch. In the process the Rockies also recorded 20 hits, I don’t even know the last time the Reds had 20 hits. Villarreal was just the start of the collapse.

Villarreal was pulled after 3.2 innings, pulled after giving up 3 runs in the fourth and the lead. Once he had given up the lead, that is when Dusty Baker decided it was time to pull the struggling right hander.

From there Logan Ondrusek was put in to finish out the inning and pitch the fifth. Ondrusek gave up no hits, no runs and only threw 15 pitches, yet that was enough for Dusty to pull him in favor of Alfredo Simon for the sixth and seventh innings. Bad move, Simon gave up three more runs in the seventh.

From there Dusty moved on to Manny Parra for the 8th, the same Manny Parra that recently had a total collapse on the mound before going to Louisville. So what did he do Wednesday night you ask? Only gave up three runs in the 8th off of four hits bringing his ERA to a reasonable 8.38, I say reasonable because it could be worse. On the bright side that ERA would be respectable in say a high school league.

Wednesday nigh was not a good night for the Reds, not even close. Everything that could have gone wrong did. The only way is up from here. The St. Louis Cardinals are coming to town this weekend, the Reds better get their act together, they can not afford a sweep.