Cincinnati’s Offence Sputters Against Rockies
Chris Iannetta homered off left-hander Travis Wood, who was coming off a nearly perfect performance, and Aaron Cook got a breakthrough win on the road during Sunday afternoon's 1-0 victory over the National League Central-leading Cincinnati Reds.
"I hate shutouts," Reds manager Dusty Baker said. "I hate that more than anything. It means you don't have a chance to win. You score one, at least you might have had a chance."
Rockies catcher Iannetta connected in the sixth, one of only three hits off Wood, and that was the difference in this low scoring match.
"I thought it was a pretty good pitch," said Wood referring to the lone run of the game when Iannetta hit a 2-2 change-up over the left-field wall.
"He put a pretty good swing on a good pitch and it went out. Would I have changed it now knowing that we lost 1-0? Maybe. But he put a good swing on a good pitch," Wood added.
Two of the National League's top offenses had trouble scoring in this one. Rockies pitcher Cook pitched seven innings and allowed only six hits, while Wood allowed just three hits in six innings.
Cook (4-5), who struck out five and issued just one intentional walk, put an end to his win-less streak on the road. He was 0-5 with a 6.70 ERA in nine games away from Coors Field before Sunday.
Cook's seven scoreless innings put Colorado in an excellent position to win the final game of the series.
“Cook's tough -- when he's on, he's on," said Baker. "He did the same thing to us last year here. The thing that he changed some is he was elevating his fastball against the lefties. ...I tried to get in as many lefties in there as I could because usually lefties hit him pretty good, at a .300 clip, but he was throwing the ball up against the lefties. Most lefties don't like the ball up. He did a good job of neutralizing our strengths."
A day after scoring eight runs on five hits, the Reds didn't cross the plate once despite eight hits. They left 10 base runners, including multiple runners in the first, third and ninth innings.
"It's baseball, it's going to happen," Wood said. "We're a great hitting team, we're going to have our slumps where we have to scratch and claw to get a run. Today we just fell a little short."
In the third, the Reds nearly got on the board after Jonny Gomes hit a ball, which looked like it was going to be a base hit, but Rockies second baseman Jonathan Herrera made a diving stop up the middle to prevent Orlando Cabrera from rounding third. Laynce Nix was intentionally walked to load the bases with two outs, but Miguel Cairo hit a slow roller in front of the plate to end the scoring chance and the inning.
The Reds are getting used to losing close games. Last Saturday, at Philadelphia, the Reds lost 1-0 in extra innings.
The silver lining in all this is that Wood's is pitching very well and has almost had a perfect game twice in the past few days. In four career starts, Wood is 0-1 with a 2.02 ERA.
The starting pitching has been there for the Reds lately and is not much of a concern for the coaching staff. Now, it's about getting consistency in the run production.
"The pitching's been great," Baker said. "We score one day and don't score the next day. We had some opportunities, and it just seems like when we score runs we score a lot and when we don't we don't hardly score at all. The key is to have the opportunities to score, and we certainly had some opportunities. We've just got to stay after it."
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