Having recovered from his back problems, Lugo is indeed back. (Shut up. I'm rather proud of that little bit of cleverness.) And he played pretty well for having been out so long. During his three at bats, he hit a double, a single, and struck out. He also stole third base in the first inning.
Lester started out well enough. During his first two innings he was throwing pitches for strikes. His first inning was three up-three down. He threw eight pitches and only two of them were balls. His second inning he threw thirteen pitches to four batters. The first two outs of the inning were pretty quick. He gave up a hit to the next batter but the runner was stranded on first when he struck out the last batter.
His next inning started out with a walk (Bako.) Perhaps he was rattled when the second hitter (Hairston) hit a double because his second pitch to the third hitter (Patterson) was a wild pitch that allowed Bako to score. Patterson then grounded to second and was out but Hairston came around to give the Reds another run. The second out of the inning was pretty simple-a ground ball hit to third. He finally got the last batter to strike out after throwing him eight pitches.
The fourth inning started out well-he got two strikes and then a fly ball to left field for the out. The second batter saw two balls and then hit a line drive to right for a double. To the third batter he threw two balls and then a strike. His next pitch, however, was his second wild pitch of the game and allowed the runner to advance to third. The batter hit the next pitch foul and the one after that between short and third for a single-and the Reds had another run. The fourth batter of the inning saw eight pitches before sending one out to right field where it was caught by Drew for the second out. He was able to strike out the last batter of the inning but only after some minor controversy. On his second pitch, the runner stole second base. The umpire called the pitch a strike; the guys on the radio called it a ball. Apparently the guy in charge of the scoreboard was listening to the radio and not to the umpire because he had it down as a ball.
He was relieved by Bryan Corey who went one and two-thirds of an inning. He gave up three hits but was throwing a lot of strikes (like twenty-five of them.) Aardsma came in to finish off the inning and had to throw six pitches before the batter hit a line drive to center for the out. Aardsma came back out for the first two outs of the seventh inning. The first batter was out after he hit the first pitch to third. The second batter hit a double. Aardsma struck out the third batter. The fourth batter hit a home run off the only pitch he saw-allowing the Reds to score two more runs. He walked the last batter that he faced. At that point, Lopez came in as the situational lefty, and much to my surprise, struck the batter out (and he only needed four pitches to do it!) Lopez was back on the mound for the eighth inning. He gave up two hits in the inning (one a double and the other a single) and allowed the last run that the Reds were to score.
Hansen came in for the ninth inning. Granted, it was only one inning but he did well. It was a 1-2-3 inning. He struck out the first two batters and the last batter sent one out to left for the out. I was impressed.
Interestingly, there was some offense to talk about today (I suppose there would have to be with sixteen runs scored.) If Joe Castiglione is to be believed, then Brandon Moss hit one of the most amazing home runs ever in the second inning. Varitek hit a three run home run in the fourth inning and minor-leaguer Andrew Pinckney hit a home run in the sixth inning. Reid Engel hit a triple in the sixth inning and a double in the eighth. Keith Ginter also hit a double in the eighth. Youkilis hit a double in the fourth inning. David Ortiz hit a double in the third inning. Lugo hit a double in the first inning.
Mike Lowell hit a single in the first inning, had a sacrifice fly in the third, and was hit by a pitch in the fourth inning. Drew had nice collection of singles; he hit three in his three at bats, knocking in two runs.
It was a long game. Maybe not the most exciting game ever played. There were some long at bats-the Reds have a very patient hitter in Jolbert Cabrera. I suppose it also shows some stick-to-it-tive-ness on the parts of Lester and Corey to keep pitching to him for strikes. It was good to see/hear some offense, though. People who are supposed to be able to hit are finding their swings. Good stuff.
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