The Reds aren't putting a dent in that case.
No-hit by Roy Halladay in Game 1, the Reds showed up for Game 2 on Friday, went up by four runs, then turned into seventh-graders in the school play who, upon looking into the crowd, forget their lines.
Philadelphia claimed a 7-4 triumph that was just, but also felt like victory by default.
Starting in the fifth inning, poor Dusty Baker, the Reds manager, had to watch a series of goofs and gaffes that began with consecutive fielding errors by his two best infielders and ended with his right fielder losing a seventh-inning flyball in the lights to bring home the tying and go-ahead runs.
Between those blunders, there was a Red getting picked off first base by several feet, a leadoff walk issued with a two-run lead and a bases-loaded walk by a LaLoosh-like Reds reliever who also hit a Phillies batter, Ben Francisco, in the helmet bill.
The playoffs are a "whole different animal," Baker said.
He added, "I don't think it's the pressure, as much as the inexperience."
"Embarrassing," said the right fielder Jay Bruce, who didn't touch the flyball that he lost in the lights.
"You either tighten it up and fight harder, or you just quit and go home."
-- Dusty Baker When Bruce returned to the outfield an inning later, the home team led 7-4 and Phillies fans serenaded him with chants. "Thank you, Jay Bruce."
With the Reds making four errors and the Phillies making two, the result was a Division Series-record six errors.
A good defensive team during the season, the Reds veered so off course that second baseman Brandon Phillips laughed in seeming disbelief when he reviewed the game.
"It sucks real bad that we lost," he said, "but sometimes it goes down like that."
The Phils did well to keep a straight face from the fifth onward, but good ballplayers such as Chase Utley can stifle laughter even when umpires wrongly send them to first base. Gamesmanship, it's called, and the Phillies' Utley, like the Yankees' Derek Jeter a month ago, aced his gamesmanship exam when Reds pitcher Aroldis Chapman threw a 100-mph fastball in the vicinity of Utley's hands and head.
Maybe because he works around Phillies fans, Utley reacted liked he'd been Tasered in the right hand, raising up and wheeling toward first base, whereupon umpire Bruce Dreckman awarded him the free trip.
Asked by a reporter where the ball hit him, Utley smiled and said: "It was pretty close."
He added, "I felt like I thought it hit me."
So instead of Utley facing a 1-2 count, he was on first base with none out and the Phillies down 4-3 in the seventh.
"The ball did not hit him," Chapman said.
But then came another apparent blunder by an umpire -- Utley was ruled safe at second base by Ed Rapuano on a failed fielder's choice, although Rolen's throw from third to Phillips appeared to beat him.
Anticipating that he would be out, Utley angled his body in a semi-barrelslide to break up a double play bid.
"He was out," Phillips said.
Phillips added, "I was really sure about the play at second base more than anything. I really thought he was out."
Phillips also described Rapuano as a "great umpire" and said the mistake was part of the "human element," but for those who advocate the use of instant replay on baserunning plays, the two seventh-inning plays involving Utley will go onto what is already a lengthy list of dubious calls this postseason.
The human element was soon to meet the light-bulb element, and this time it was Bruce who bore the brunt, not even touching the one-out flyball by Jimmy Rollins to right-center field.
Now the Phillies had their first lead, 5-4, and Chapman had to be wondering why Americans think their baseball is the world's best.
.
Bruce described the lights at Philadelphia's ballpark as "extremely bright" and lamented not being able to align himself so he could see the ball from an angle. "As an outfielder, you've got to try to make sure the ball stays out of the lights," he said.
Utley figured that Bruce would catch the ball. Retreating toward second base, he pulled a wide U-turn that took him onto the infield grass. Utley stumbled as he neared third base, and it wasn't clear on the replays that he hit the bag en route to home.
"He definitely hit the base," said Rolen, who watches to see if runners touch third.
But with two outs, Gold Glovers Rolen and Phillips muffed two-out grounders.
Utley punished those mistakes by lining a two-run single, starting a stretch of seven unanswered runs.
Sunday in Cincinnati, the Reds will try to avert elimination.
"You either tighten it up and fight harder, or you just quit and go home," Baker said.
Comments (Page 1 of 1)
"The ball did not him," Chapman said. ??? Who's doing the proofreading over there at AOL, Stevie Wonder? On the front page, a link to another story refers to Albert Haynesworth as an "Ex" NFL star. Talk about a comedy of errors, you people are a riot!
Poor Dusty Baker? You are an idiot; he had no business pulling arroyo. Dusty cant handle pitchers, never has. Poor Reds for having that sack of crap for a manager. And poor readers, being subjected to a hack like yourself.