Reds Aggressive Play Has Them In The Hunt At The Break

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The Reds played a game in which the manager, thirdbase coach and the pitcher could have been second guessed based on the unfavorable outcome on Saturday with one game left until the All-Star break.


Bryan Price in his first year on the job is learning not to be as hard on himself as the fans are.


We've seen the good and the bad so far during the first 94 games of the season.  We've seen Billy Hamilton defy the odds at the leadoff spot.  We've seen the product of the coaches that have helped Hamilton's development and we've seen him use his athletic ability and instincts that simply can't be coached.

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The Reds started out the season with eigh.t players on the disabled list. We've seen them strand runners and fail to come back from deficits more than two runs.  Now we are seeing an aggressive team that has shown three times this week that they can overcome leads of four and five runs.


We seen injuries resurface but now Price sees the upside of them even.


"It has given other guys some opportunities and they have seized them," Price said.


On Saturday thirdbase coach Steve Smith sent Ramon Santiago, who is a fill in for the injured Brandon Phillips, sent home on a potential game winning hit by Jay Bruce only to be thrown out.


The play was aggressive, the Pirates had to make great plays on both ends to get Santiago at the plate. Rookie Gregory Polanco had to get to the ball quickly in position to throw, make a strong accurate throw.  Catcher Russell Martin had to catch the ball, looking away from the runner, then whirl, find the runner and make a swipe tag.


"It was a sweet play, a sweet throw and a sweet, swipe tag," Pittsburgh manager Clint Hurdle said.

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Andrew McCutchen hit two home runs, the last being the game winner off J.J. Hoover.


Hoover had an ERA of 10.03 on May 15.  Over the next 18 appearances Hoover had a 2.22 ERA.  Price has asked him to pitch more than one inning in his last three appearances in a span of four days.


"That's just not right that I've had to ask him to do that,"


Why pitch to McCutchen with two outs in the ninth after he had already homered to send the game to extra innings.?


McCutchen with a .324 batting average is such a good hitter that he will only make an out 68 percent of the time.  If a team wins 68 percent of its games, they walk away with the World Championship.  The odds are so much in the Reds favor that it would be foolish to put the winning run on base.


Then there is the mental side of the game.  When you're trying to develop a winning attitude, you can not be afraid to fail.  You have to believe that you are going to get the batter out regardless of who he is, knowing there are no guarantees and that he will beat you from time to time.


The fact that McCutchen defied those odds is a tribute to his ability.

"It's what elite players are capable of doing," Hurdle said.  "When you're six years old drawing up these scenarios, the elite players are the ones that actually go do it in front of a packed house, against number one and number two pitchers, closers. With him there is no bat flip just a handshake and touch homeplate, There is no signature move.  I love that. That's how we are as a team."

Price is learning to live with the difficult decisions he has to make on a daily basis.  His only regret other than having to use Hoover in a bad situation, with no margin for error was using three pitchers to stop a Pittsburgh threat in the eighth inning;.

"Probably not to over-critique my decisions," Price said. "Last night was a great example because there were a couple opportunities to bunt and I chose not to because our baserunners were not real speed guys and there was a chance we could bunt ourselves into a force out and waste an out. Bunt a below-average runner into scoring position. Use three pitchers to pitch the eighth inning in a game where we were up by a run. If it was a tie game I probably wouldn't have done that, I would've gone with Parra and not brought Diaz in. These are the things you think about over the course of time, be more active with the hit-and-run. You see all these with white hair in their 40s and 50s. I'm well on my way, but trying to keep the dark tint as long as possible. Even as a pitching coach, self-persecution is something you try not to do. I want to live a nice, long healthy life".


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