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Bullpen lone bright spot for Reds in NLDS Game 1 loss

By
Stephen Forsha-sforsha@gmail.com
If you were living under a rock Wednesday night, you might have missed the fact the Cincinnati Reds were no-hit by Roy Halladay in a 4-0 National League Division Series Game One loss in Philadelphia. 

You also might have missed that it was just the second time in MLB postseason history that feat was accomplished. The first time since 1956 in the World Series (Game 5) by Don Larsen. Somebody was due to get into that group. 

Plus it was the first time the Reds have been no-hit since 1971. Compare that streak to the Tampa Bay Rays. They were no-hit twice this season and three times in the past two seasons.

All of that is OK.  

It's just one game.  

The good thing about the playoffs is it will be a best-of-5 series: the first to win three games moves on, the loser gets ready for next season. 

Remember it was the first time the Reds had to play Game 163 since 1999 and their first "real" playoff appearance since 1995. 

There were probably some jitters, no matter what they are saying. How could there not be? 

But I'm not going to talk about the eight-strikeout, no-hit performance by Roy (who I refuse to ever call Doc) Halladay. We all know how that turned out. I will mention the only base runner was Jay Bruce, who forced a two-out walk in the fifth inning. 

I will also say it was fun to watch a pitcher force players to swing like they did. I'll leave it at that. He had 25 of the 28 batters he faced trailing with first-pitch strikes.  

That's amazing. In fact, it is historic. A thing of beauty. 

What I want to look at is the performance of the bullpen after the disaster 1.2 innings pitched by starter Edinson Volquez. Volquez allowed four earned runs on 56 pitches (32 for strikes). 

But if Reds fans want some hope (and I know you do), here is how the bullpen performed for 6.1 innings: one hit, no runs, one walk and four strikeouts. 

That is a positive, right? 

OK, you can move slowly and back away from the ledge. 

The combination of Travis Wood, Logan Ondrusek and Bill Bray allowed only one hit after replacing Volquez. Against the same Phillies line up who scored four runs against Volquez in under two complete innings. 

That's gotta be a positive for you, I hope.

Let's look at the Philadelphia batters after Volquez, or for the rest of this discussion,  AV. 

Philly batters AV

Chase Utley: 0-3 with two groundouts, fly out

Ryan Howard: 0-2, two strikeouts, fly out

Jayson Werth: 0-3, two strikeouts, fly out

Raul Ibanez: 1-3, double, error (1) and fly out

Carlos Ruiz: 0-1, with intentional walk and groundout

Wilson Valdez: 0-2, fly out, groundout

Roy Halladay: 0-2, fly out, groundout

Jimmy Rollins: 0-2, two fly outs

Shane Victorino: 0-2, two fly outs 


Here's what it looked like DV (During Volquez).

Jimmy Rollins: 0-1, walk

Shane Victorino: 2-2, double, single, two RBIs

Chase Utley: 0-0, sacrifice fly, RBI

Ryan Howard: 0-1, fly out

Jayson Werth: 0-1, groundout

Raul Ibanez: 0-1, fly out

Carlos Ruiz: 0-0, walk

Wilson Valdez:  1-1, single

Roy Halladay: 1-1, single, RBI 

Some you might be thinking, "Well they were up four runs and Halladay was un-hittable, maybe the Phillies weren't trying." 

To that I would say the Phillies want to win the World Series, so I think none of their guys are going to lie down once they got the damage done. 

Ondrusek had an error by overthrowing Joey Votto at first, and Wood allowed a two-out double to Ibanez, but other than that, the bullpen was perfect. Wood even inherited two runners and left them where they stood in the second inning. 

Wood faced 12 batters and Ondrusek had six. Bray pitched to four batters for a total of 20 batters faced. Also, it took the bullpen 84 pitches combined to retire one of the best lineups in not only the NL, but in baseball. Of those 84 pitches, 53 were for strikes. 

Their performance dropped the postseason team ERA from 21.60 (Volquez) to 4.50. 

From the third inning until the eighth inning, the bullpen of Cincinnati retired the Phillies 1-2-3 four times.  

So my thoughts on this is (take it for what it is): Volquez had a really bad night, the bullpen was awesome, and the Cincinnati batters couldn't get a hit, but, remember Halladay is really good. As in, the best pitcher playing in the game good. 

Now, let's all take a deep breath, and as Ramon Hernandez said on the radio, "get a nice dinner," and get ready for Friday. 

Stephen Forsha is the sports editor for The Highland County Press.
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