Orioles power past Reds, 7-5, to win series
Lee, Reynolds, Scott all homer to help Guthrie get first win since May 21

By Dan Connolly, The Baltimore Sun

4:53 p.m. EDT, June 26, 2011

It must officially be summer at Camden Yards, because the baseballs are suddenly flying out of the park.

After hitting four in a losing cause on Saturday, the Orioles slugged three more Sunday afternoon on their way to a 7-5 victory over the Cincinnati Reds.

The Orioles (35-40) had lost their previous four series before using long balls from Derrek Lee, Mark Reynolds and Luke Scott on Sunday in the rubber match against the Reds (40-39).

The announced crowd of 27,809 watched as Orioles starter Jeremy Guthrie picked up his first win since May 21 against Washington -- a span of six starts without a victory.

Guthrie (3-9) threw four scoreless innings before allowing a solo homer to Brandon Phillips in the fifth. Guthrie was chased with two outs in the sixth when he walked Phillips after nearly hitting him with two pitches.

He left the mound with the Orioles up 5-2, but lefty Clay Rapada walked the only batter he faced, Joey Votto, to load the bases and Jim Johnson issued run-scoring free passes to Jonny Gomes and Fred Lewis.

The last pitch to Lewis looked like a strike, but plate umpire Alan Porter, whose strike zone was questioned by both sides throughout the game, called it a ball. Nine of Johnson's first 11 pitches were balls, but he induced a ground out to escape the inning.

Guthrie, who threw 111 pitches in 5 2/3 innings, was charged with four runs on six hits and four walks.

Lee hit a three-run shot in the fourth, his sixth homer of the season and second of this series. Reynolds followed two batters later with a monstrous blast that landed near the visiting bullpen, an estimated distance of 443 feet.

It was Reynolds' 14th of the season, helping him recapture the team lead from Adam Jones. Scott also homered, a solo shot against rookie Aroldis Chapman, who had faced five previous batters this series and struck out all five.

The Orioles also scored single runs in the third and sixth, both on RBI singles by Nick Markakis, who had three hits and extended his hitting streak to a season- and team-high 16 games. Blake Davis, who reached base three times, scored on both of Markakis' RBI hits.

Five of the runs came against Bailey, who was activated from the disabled list Sunday morning after missing a month with a right shoulder injury.

Bailey (3-2) retired the first seven Orioles he faced but ran into trouble in the third, then fell victim to the suddenly powerful Orioles lineup in the four-run fourth.

Kevin Gregg notched his 14th save of the season but allowed a solo homer to Ramon Hernandez in the ninth.

It was the fifth homer Sunday and 14th in the past two games between the Orioles and Reds.

dan.connolly@baltsun.com

http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/oriol...7037.story

No movement on talks with top Draft pick
By Mark Sheldon / MLB.com | 06/26/11 2:01 PM ET

BALTIMORE -- It's been rather quiet of late with news regarding the Reds' first-round Draft pick, pitcher Robert Stephenson.

Stephenson was the 27th overall selection in the 2011 First-Year Player Draft out of Alhambra High School in Martinez, Calif. The deadline to sign all picks is Aug. 15. When might the Reds ink Stephenson? "Probably Aug. 13," Reds general manager Walt Jocketty joked.

The Reds' past few first-round picks were all signed right at or near the deadline. The 18-year-old Stephenson is represented by agent Matt Sosnick, who also handles Jay Bruce and Dontrelle Willis.

"[Stephenson] came out to the ballpark when we were in San Francisco," Jocketty said. "We've had very little discussions with him at this point. I don't know if we will for a while."

Reds sticking with shortstop duo for time being

BALTIMORE -- As the Reds' shortstop duo of Paul Janish and Edgar Renteria has struggled to hit this season, speculation about whether to promote shortstop prospect Zack Cozart has intensified in recent days.

Reds general manager Walt Jocketty has no immediate plans to make a change, however.

"Everybody has a spot on the club that may not be [getting] all the production they want," Jocketty said. "But we're still getting good defense from those guys. That is as critical as the offense for us, because of our pitching staff and the way we've built our club, defense is extremely important."

The Janish-Renteria combination came into Sunday batting .230 for the season, with zero home runs and 14 errors in the field. At Triple-A Louisville, Cozart was batting .318 with seven homers, 29 RBIs and eight errors entering Sunday.

Despite his six errors as the primary shortstop, Janish generally has an exceptional glove and is probably better defensively than Cozart. Janish came into the day batting .232 in 61 games, with 19 RBIs.

"We're willing to wait for a while," Jocketty said. "We still have faith in Janish. Right now, he's probably putting a lot of pressure on himself. He just needs to relax and play the type of game he's capable of playing."

Under-the-weather Bruce misses finale

BALTIMORE -- Wearing a hooded sweatshirt and sitting alone at his locker on Sunday, Reds right fielder Jay Bruce looked under the weather. He felt equally lousy, and did not start on Sunday against the Orioles because of a still undetermined illness.

Bruce was expected to visit the Orioles team doctor for a diagnosis.

"I don't feel good this morning," Bruce said. "I felt perfectly fine last night. But when I got back to the hotel and went to bed, I caught a chill and couldn't shake it."

Bruce was 2-for-10 in the first two games of the series, including an 0-for-5, three-strikeout game on Saturday. Because the team checked out of its hotel already, Bruce had to remain at the ballpark, instead of staying in bed.

"We're going to find a place to quarantine him if he's contagious, so he doesn't get anyone else sick," Reds manager Dusty Baker said.

Fisher optioned to make room for Bailey

BALTIMORE -- To clear roster space Sunday for the activation of starting pitcher Homer Bailey from the disabled list, the Reds optioned reliever Carlos Fisher to Triple-A Louisville.

Fisher is 0-3 with a 3.71 ERA in 10 games over two stints with Cincinnati. Although he had a 5.11 ERA in seven games during the second callup, that included a 95-pitch outing during the epic 19-inning game at Philadelphia on May 25. In one other game at Los Angeles, he gave up three runs over two-thirds of an inning to spike his ERA.

"Fish did a good job," Reds manager Dusty Baker said. "That's the best he's pitched this year. Other than the one game, he pitched great. He saved our bullpen in the extra-inning game, big time. Sometimes, it's a matter of numbers."

Mark Sheldon is a reporter for MLB.com. Read his blog, Mark My Word, and follow him on Twitter @m_sheldon. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=...Id=rss_cin

Reds keep treading along
by jfay

The Reds are one game over .500 (40-39) and have one series win in their last five. The plan?

“You got to keep treading water until you swim until you start swimming,” Reds manager Dusty Baker said. “It’s not through lack of effort. We’re in every ballgame. We’re so close to taking off. You just feel it. We’re one hit away, one play away, one something away. If you keep putting pressure like we have been, something’s going to break.”

With a tough road to until the All-Star Break — Tampa Bay, Cleveland, St. Louis and Milwaukee — the Reds are in a critical stretch.

“This team doesn’t panic,” Baker said. “We’re not even halfway yet. We haven’t had a period of good fortune where everyone’s playing their best baseball since the first six games of the season.”

The Reds are 34-39 since then.

It sounds like the Reds will try to turn it around with the current roster. Baker bristled at the mention of a personnel change.

“I’m not going to answer that,” Baker said. “It seems like everyone knows what we need. Let them keep saying that.”

Walt Jocketty reiterated to mlb.com that no change was coming at shortstop, despite the offensive struggles of Paul Janish and Edgar Renteria.

So what has to happen to turn it around with the current players?

“If I could answer the question correctly, it wouldn’t need to be asked,” third baseman Scott Rolen said. “I hate to say last year. I hate to say the year before that. We’re here. This is the personality of our club. This is team we cross the lines with. We have good players.

“We haven’t played our best baseball. We’re capable. I think everyone sees that. We’re fortunate that we’re right there. We could be 10 games back. We’re right there and we haven’t hit a stride yet. We’re trying to win series. We haven’t good at that recently.”

Rolen says it comes down to basics.

“The basics are go out and pitch, play defense and take good at-bats. That’s I look at world. You don’t control wins and losses and outcomes. You control what we’re doing to get to the outcome.”

Sunday, they didn’t pitch well, made one huge fielding blunder and didn’t hit when it counted. They were 1-for-11 with runners in the scoring position.

http://cincinnati.com/blogs/reds/2011/06...ing-along/

(06-26-2011 04:09 PM)Vottomatic Wrote:  Reds lookin' like contenders.

And the beat(ings) go on......

I listen to the games on the radio, and when Mark Sheldon and John Fay visit the radio booth and talk to Marty, you can hear the frustration in their voices that Reds management isn't making any moves. They seem as much in disbelief as the fans.

I think that Jocketty and Castellini being with the Cardinals while they were going to the playoffs every single year and not with the Reds through the endless losing seasons has given him a false sense of security. Fans will stop going to games in a hurry because we have seen our share of losing teams, that's old news. The Reds management needs to understand what they have right now. They have a very talented team which plays in a pathetic division. They should be capitalizing and adding the couple pieces necessary to put them over the top for the next few years. They need to understand that loyalty goes both ways, they cannot continue to demand fans show up to watch .500 team, they need to understand why the fans in Cincinnati are so anxious, because the fans see the talent and they are dying to have a winner. Reds fans like myself, 25 years old, only hear stories about the big red machine and so on and so on, but all I know is loser after loser. So when I see a player capable of winning multiple MVP's plus the best second baseman in the league plus a group of solid young starters plus a couple of very talented young outfielders capable of being consistent all stars PLUS a minor league team that is absolutely stacked with talent, I expect the management to do what is necessary to create a consistent contender because most of the pieces are there.

If there was one person that I could remove from the team, it would be Dusty. This team's stars are young and they need someone to push the right buttons not pat them on the butt and try to be their friends.

Oh well I guess I should be happy that I at least have seen the Bengals and the Reds make a playoff appearance...really what more can I ask for?

(06-26-2011 07:41 PM)BeerCat Wrote:  I think that Jocketty and Castellini being with the Cardinals while they were going to the playoffs every single year and not with the Reds through the endless losing seasons has given him a false sense of security. Fans will stop going to games in a hurry because we have seen our share of losing teams, that's old news. The Reds management needs to understand what they have right now. They have a very talented team which plays in a pathetic division. They should be capitalizing and adding the couple pieces necessary to put them over the top for the next few years. They need to understand that loyalty goes both ways, they cannot continue to demand fans show up to watch .500 team, they need to understand why the fans in Cincinnati are so anxious, because the fans see the talent and they are dying to have a winner. Reds fans like myself, 25 years old, only hear stories about the big red machine and so on and so on, but all I know is loser after loser. So when I see a player capable of winning multiple MVP's plus the best second baseman in the league plus a group of solid young starters plus a couple of very talented young outfielders capable of being consistent all stars PLUS a minor league team that is absolutely stacked with talent, I expect the management to do what is necessary to create a consistent contender because most of the pieces are there.

If there was one person that I could remove from the team, it would be Dusty. This team's stars are young and they need someone to push the right buttons not pat them on the butt and try to be their friends.

Oh well I guess I should be happy that I at least have seen the Bengals and the Reds make a playoff appearance...really what more can I ask for?

Good post.

My Dad bought our first color TV for the '75 playoffs. I still remember it to this day. We had season tickets to Riverfront Stadium until it closed..........and my Dad had them at Crosley Field before that.

I'm fortunate to have seen some great Reds teams.