The San Francisco Giants are moving on in the 2012 MLB postseason. The Cincinnati Reds are going home. This just didn’t seem possible a few days ago.
It was just four days ago when Bronson Arroyo threw a seven inning gem leading to a 9-0 Cincinnati win and a commanding 2-0 lead in the National League Division Series. The Reds were feeling good about themselves, and rightly so. After the game Arroyo said:
“We couldn’t put ourselves in a better situation. It doesn’t mean you’re going to close it out, but for us personally, I know the fans are going to be as jacked as they have ever been in that ballpark since it has been built, which is going to be nice.” (ESPN.com)
It was true. The Reds could not have put themselves in a better position to close out the series. But some key errors and a few bad pitching performances turned those “jacked” fans into depressed fans.
Mat Latos took the mound for the Reds on Thursday afternoon and was effective for four innings but completely unraveled in the fifth. Gregor Blanco singled, Brandon Crawford tripled, Angel Pagan reached base on a fielding miscue by Zack Cozar, Marco Scutaro walked on four pitches, Pablo Sandoval singled and Buster Posey put the icing on the cake (or as a fellow Baseball Jerks writer might say, “put the peanut on top of the turd sundae”) with a grand slam.
The Reds would make a valiant attempt at a comeback but the fifth inning meltdown by Latos was just too much to overcome. They Reds went on to lose 6-4.
The Reds now find themselves as part of baseball lore for all of the wrong reasons.
Mark Sheldon of MLB.com noted:
“Since Division Series became a regular part of the playoffs in 1995, no NL team in 21 previous times had ever blown a 2-0 lead in a series. It’s now happened only five times out of 43 series.”
It was also the first time all season the Reds lost three straight home games. (ESPN)
So San Francisco moves on and the Reds go home—no one would have believed it just a few short days ago.
Series rundown and random notes:
Game one: CIN 5 SF 2
Game two: CIN 9 SF 0
Game three: SF 2 CIN 1
Game four: SF 8 CIN 3
Game five: SF 6 CIN 4
RUNS: CIN 22 SF 18
HITS: CIN 47 SF 32
ERRORS: CIN 3 SF 2
According to ESPN’s Stats and Info, Buster Posey’s HR was the 3rd grand slam by a catcher in MLB postseason history. Yogi Berra and Eddie Perez were the others.
