Intangiball by Lonnie Wheeler

Author:Lonnie Wheeler
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster

NINE

EXPECTATION AND PUJOLS

THE REDS OPENED THEIR 2011 schedule against the fashionable favorites in the NL Central, Milwaukee’s Brewers, whose status resulted from a loaded lineup (Ryan Braun, Prince Fielder, etc.) and a pitching rotation reconfigured by trades for a premier starter (Zack Greinke) and a very good one (Shaun Marcum). The defending division champions were not so bold in their off-season activity but considered themselves upgraded by the return of right-hander Edinson Volquez, which they celebrated by naming him the Opening Day starter.

The Brewers celebrated the very same thing with long home runs by their very first batter, Rickie Weeks, and second, Carlos Gomez. While Volquez ultimately lasted for six innings, Milwaukee got six better ones from Yovani Gallardo, and the Brewers took a 6-3 lead into the bottom of the ninth. It was 6-4, with two outs and Votto and Rolen on base, when Ramon Hernandez, the Reds’ veteran and generally unspectacular catcher, shot a line drive down the right-field line that cleared the fence and, after the smoke from the fireworks had abated, the premises. Cincinnati also won the next two against the Brewers, and the following two against Houston. Just like that, the Reds’ magic number was down to 156.

Time-sharing his position with Ryan Hanigan, Hernandez brought along an evident advantage in power and a less conspicuous one in veteranness. The latter quality, though, was caught on camera one mid-April afternoon in San Diego. Aroldis Chapman, summoned in the eighth inning to protect a 2-1 lead, was throwing less blurry fastballs than usual, and when he walked the first batter, it prompted a visit from Hernandez, who turned to the dugout and called for the trainer. Chapman assured everyone that he was fine, threw wildly to first base, faced one more batter, and was replaced in a double switch by Nick Masset. Hanigan entered, as well, with Hernandez joining Chapman in the dugout, where he turned to the Cuban Missile and verbally cut loose, the veins popping out visibly in his thick neck. The catcher’s message had to do with more honesty, less machismo, and the foolishness of pitching hurt in the first weeks of a long season.

Masset took the loss in the ninth inning, and with the squandered lead went the inertia that had carried the club two and a half games ahead of the rest of the division. In an extra-inning victory just the night before, game-saving plays had been made in the eighth inning by Phillips, who ranged far to his right, barehanded a ground ball hit by the swift Will Venable, and, throwing across his body as his momentum carried him toward left field, nipped his man at first by half a step; 1 in the ninth by Jay Bruce, who with the bases loaded and two outs had picked off a line drive on the run; and, in the tenth, by Gomes, who leaped to snare a screaming bullet. While it was far too early to reach conclusions about a club’s character,

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