John Clay is a sports columnist for the Lexington Herald-Leader. A native of Central Kentucky and graduate of UK, he covered UK football for 13 seasons before being promoted to columnist in 2000. He lives in Lexington with his wife and two sons.
Reds need a win
Cincinnati wraps up a once-promising now near-disastrous road trip with a 2:10 p.m. first-pitch today at Wrigley Field (WGN), and the Reds need a win in the worst way.
After starting off the nine-game trip by taking two of three at Milwaukee, Dusty Baker's club dropped three straight at Pittsburgh, and have been outscored 22-7 in two games at Chicago.
Notes:
- After allowing nine earned runs in just two-plus innings, Josh Fogg's ERA jumped to 13.09. With Homer Bailey (1.42 ERA at Louisville) and Matt Belisle (3-0 with 1.09 ERA in three re-hab starts) pitching well in the minors, Fogg has to be on a short leash. Fogg's next start would be next Monday against Los Angeles. It might be his last.
- With Alex Gonzalez still out thanks to a compression fracture in his knee, Lexington's own Andy Green might be a candidate for call-up. Thing is, Green is off to a .217 start with the AAA Louisville Bats.
- Adam Dunn is 12th in the NL in on-base percentage at .431.
Did anyone honestly expect quality starts out of Fogg? Or Jeremy what's his name, for that matter? Belisle is probably next up. Homer's Louisville stats are suspect, given that he can get by at AAA throwing just a heater and a change-up. Rumor is he's working on a slider but he needs to stay where he is, especially with Volquez' dominance and Cueto's good start. Now, if we could just get Arroyo to earn his keep and teach the 6-7, 275lb., Aaron Harang to actually put some of that bulk to use as leverage for more powerful pitching...
With Keppinger hitting so well, Encarnacion coming around, and Castro in reserve, calling up another infielder seems unlikely. Hairston, Jr. and Jolbert Cabrera are hitting the cover off the ball and would probably be next up.
Posted by:raindogzilla | Apr 18, 2008 at 10:21 AM