Ain't What She Used To Be

Jason Standridge's nickname might be The Stallion, but last night he was the Old Gray Mare. After 12 1/2 innings of rather frustrating baseball, Standridge finally threw in the Reds' towel and gave the Brewers the win and the sweep without getting a single out in the bottom of the 13th. Everybody's allowed an off day once in a while, but what a bad day to choose. I even stayed up for the end of the game thinking that if it had gone on this long the Reds were sure to win. Adam Dunn's 10th inning home run and especially Juan Castro's run in the 13th had me believing the deal was sealed. But every time someone just had to go and let the Brewers catch up. Elizardo had yet another quality start that he won't get a W for.

Milwaukee put up 3 runs in the 3rd. Cincinnati took a few innings to catch up, but by the end of the 6th they were tied at 3. In the 7th, Corey Koskie and Bill Hall combined for one of the craziest defensive plays ever. Felipe Lopez hit a short fly ball to left, Koskie had it, but when he hit the ground it popped out of his glove. Bill Hall, with his Reds killing psychic super powers, knew this was going to happen and was right there to catch the ball before it hit the ground. So awesome was the play that even Felipe applauded the catch. The 9th inning ended with the score still tied.

Each team put up a run in the 10th, both on home runs, the Reds' from Dunn and the Brewers' from Jenkins (who, by the way, was also pretty much the sole reason the game went into extra innings in the first place. Making that ridiculous diving catch). No score in the 11th and 12th innings brought the game to the 13th, where Castro scored from second on Aurilia's sacrifice bunt. Impossible, no? Apparently not. So, here are the Reds, in the bottom of the 13th, up 5-4. Standridge, who had come in for the last out of the 12th, comes back. After a single, a walk, and two more singles, the Reds had lost, 6-5. Standridge failed to get anyone out in the 13th. And so, at 12:30 in the morning, after 4 1/2 hours of baseball, the city of Cincinnati went to bed crushed. On the bright side, if you ignore Standridge and the home run off Coffey, the bullpen did very well last night. Lots of zeros for Weathers (despite loading the bases), Mercker, Yan and Shackelford (who has been arrested?), especially in that all important "R" column.