"The world breaks everyone, and afterwards many are strong at the breaking point. But those that will not break, it kills."

We get swept by these assholes in 12 hours and we’ll be able to point to this series as the one that destroyed 2009.

16 innings? Ye gods.

And Owings pitched 5.2 innings. Yikes.

Janish doesn’t even get into a 16 inning game. He’s dead and buried in a shallow grave, isn’t he?

and I was about make a comment about how this team has been really good at bouncing back from tough losses so far.

Today might be the most important game of our young season.

All refreshed after a little baseball last night…I’m still amazed that after the grinding effort by the Reds that their ‘manager’ left a totally out of gas Owings in the game while Coco sat.. Also frustrating was the number of times Dusty had Cordero up and throwing ( 3 or 4).

I am a little concerned about Votto’s dizziness..he’s going to miss today’s game. So presume that means Hernia at 1st, HaniganMan at C. Meanwhile Kudos to Rosy for coming and playing a decent 1st base and actually getting on base…of course he’s no Alex Gonzales, And how about that Jannish guy,,,,it must have really been a confidence booster to sit through all those innings and not be asked to contribute in any way, I’m sure Dusty was thinking, What if this goes 17 or 18 inings and someone gets hurt, and of course you must always have a catcher on the bench, especially if he’s hitting like .360 .

Dusty is Dusty, he’s not going to change things very quickly, if at all. And then there’s his dying father. I know form experience how it eats away at you when you’re watching a parent go through an extended illness with (apparently) no hope of recovery. It is draining emotionally in many many ways,

I hope the Reds win one today.
I hope that Dusty’s dad is resting comfortably and that Dusty and his family make it through this time as best they can, with love and support from each other and from the entire Red’s and baseball community. I like Dusty Baker in general and wish him God speed.

stayed up past his bedtime to post this report:

Joey Votto is unavailable after leaving Saturday’s game with dizziness. Nick Masset is out with a side strain and headed for the DL. Jared Burton threw two innings Saturday.

But with Louisville playing in Durham, the Reds won’t be able to get a player to San Diego in time for today’s game.

"They’re all the way on the East Coast," Dusty Baker said. "We’re going to have to go with what we’ve got.

"Go Bronson."

Bronson Arroyo is scheduled to start Sunday. The game will begin less than 13 hours after the Saturday’s game ended.

Owings probably won’t be able to start Wednesday. He threw 5 2/3 innings Saturday.

“He was out of gas,” Baker said. “But we didn’t have much choice. We were down to (Coco) Cordero. It was (Owings’) last inning. We were go with Cordero as long as could.”

Uh, boy. If Bronson went out partying after the game last night, we’re doomed.

This is NOT going fuck up the Reds. Bullet point time:

- There is an off day Monday

- Owings is not as critical to our success as Harang was last year

- The reason for this is because there are 2 pitchers at AAA who seem capable of throwing at least average innings (Homer and Maloney)

- Admiral Rubber Arm of the HMS Nasty Hook is throwing today, and given his recent pattern he’s a lock to go 7 innings.

- And finally, even if the Reds lose today, it’s a .500 road trip, which I think nearly everyone would have taken given the team’s history of West Coast struggles.

If there’s reason to be concerned, it’s this dizziness Votto keeps reporting.

woke up at three am to feed the newborn and was quoted as saying, “ah hell not this again.” dusty, you left micah out there two innings too long with coco and janish available to pitch. screw you.

in reasonably important situations? I know that Rhodes and Weathers didn’t look great, either, but I don’t understand using Lincoln then. At all.

And I agree with the above comments. Alex Gonzalez went ZERO FOR SIX (okay, with a walk), and Dusty couldn’t find a way to get Janish in the game? FTH?

To see the pitch track or gamecast or whatever for the calls that Weathers was crying about? At the bar I was at, the pitch he left on seemed at least 3 inches off the plate, but I was drunk and it was loud.

Who gots the goods?

went 0-7 with 2 Ks. im not concerned.

one of our starters threw more than 70 pitches on 3 days rest. im not concerned.

Dusty completely misused his closer. im not concerned.

two of our best players left the game. im not concerned.

but seriously, i dont think it’s as bad as it could be. Owings can be skipped in the rotation because of the off day. if the Reds know whats up, he wont start until next Saturday. it is frustrating that they couldnt get an arm on a plane this morning. that should not have been difficult. im actually pretty proud of Dusty for his handling of the pen yesterday. Owings was the long man, with the off-day coming up and Masset down, and he pitched more than 1 inning. and he still had 2 bench players left and a reliever left if it had gone on longer. awful way to lose a game though. and i stayed up that late like a fool.

I haven’t been truly frustrated with any of Dusty’s moves this season until we got to San Diego. This series, of course, came immediately after he went to visit his very sick father in Sacramento on the off day. I have no idea if it’s the case, but it seems reasonable to speculate that his mind isn’t 100% on baseball games. Can we give him a brief leave of absence and let Speiers try running the show?

Or is it just some kind of strange aura about San Diego that no matter how shitty the Padres are, we just can’t take care of business against them.

but not on the DL?

I understand Votto, and we’ll wait and see with Volquez. But there’s Masset, right? And probably Gonzalez, too. Anybody else?

Notice that Hanigan also never came in. Hernandez played 16 innings at catcher.

I guess at least with Arroyo pitching today, Hanigan will start…and Hernandez will be at first, right? I know playing Rosales or Janish and not Gonzalez is too much to ask.

that Owings didn’t hit for himself when he came in (at least, not the first AB). Instead, Dusty PH’d McDonald.

Seriously?

Is Alex is the new scapegoat for everything? Jeez, dudes, it’s like reading Fay’s blog: every loss is Dusty’s loss and some chosen whipping boy. This was a team loss.

thats the first one in quite some time that outlasted me, I had to turn in.

I had the DVR set to tape until 3, so I missed the ending, but it sounds like I didn’t miss much. The fact that Viola isn’t on a plane to SD right now is bullshit.

Most tins of SPAM consumed in one sitting?