April 6, 2015
Column: Just one of 162 … and not all bad, actually
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The Reds’ Johnny Cueto fires the first pitch of 2015 to Josh Harrison at 4:10 p.m. today. — GETTY
BY DEJAN KOVACEVIC
CINCINNATI — “One game,” Starling Marte was saying at his stall tonight, speaking softly but still easily picked up in an otherwise silent visiting clubhouse at Great American Ball Park. “My God, I mean … it’s one game.”
He was right, of course. It was one game, with 161 to come.
So even with Marte’s left leg propped up on a folding chair and hurting almost as much as his 0-for-4 with three Ks, even with Francisco Liriano staring at a wall in the other corner after balking in one run and giving up a bomb for another, even with Tony Watson struggling to carry his chin high after … oh, you saw it … the Pirates’ 5-2 balloon-bursting at the hands of the Reds in their 2015 season opener still can’t count for any more than Marte’s math will corroborate.
“It’s no fun right now,” Andrew McCutchen said, “but it’s one game.”
“One game,” Andrew Lambo said, “and there’s another one Wednesday.”
Yep. And after that, there will be another. And another. And all of them, maybe all the way through September, will be accompanied by infinitely less fanfare, inside and outside the Pirates’ world.
As Clint Hurdle wonderfully stated before this one, “I always look forward to the opener. But I look forward that much more to the opener being over.”
Makes perfect sense. These events reverberate, even through a century-plus of history …
… but they’re also grossly overweighted, in general.
This made sense, too, also from the manager but afterward: “I liked a lot of what I saw out there.”
I did, too, in all honesty.
The offense did next to nothing against Johnny Cueto, who hasn’t come close to dropping the ball against the Pirates since the Blackout: He pitched seven scoreless innings, fanned 10 and, to be blunt, looked a bit bored doing it. But the Reds are now 7-0 in their past seven meetings with the Pirates when Cueto starts, and he conceded more than two earned runs only once in that span.
The guy is just really good, and not just against the uniform: For their careers, Marte is 1 for 23 against Cueto, Pedro Alvarez 6 for 33, Neil Walker 9 for 48 … and the only players who hit him at .300 or higher are McCutchen and Josh Harrison. That doesn’t cut it.
Not much to analyze here, is there?
This was the three-word assessment of Bryan Price, Cincinnati’s manager: “He was phenomenal.”
His counterpart actually wasn’t far behind. Liriano allowed two hits, half as many as Cueto, and pitched into the seventh inning after the standard slow spring buildup. He struck out seven and threw two-thirds of his semi-efficient 92 pitches for strikes.
Oh, and he balked in a run in the third when he began his motion with runners at the corners — neither he nor the Pirates disputed it — then left a fastball in Jay Bruce’s wheelhouse for a solo home run.
“I thought Frankie looked really strong,” Hurdle said.
“I felt good. I felt OK,” Liriano said. “I wish it could end better, but …”
No need to complete the thought. A hale, healthy Liriano is paramount to this team. This was a fine first step, especially considering his margin for error was close to zero.
The Pirates entered the eighth down two runs and, as with the local weathermen tracking the storm that caused a half-hour rain delay in the sixth, they correctly identified a window in which they’d have a chance to compete: Kevin Gregg would pitch the eighth for the Reds, with flamethrowing closer Aroldis Chapman saved for the ninth.
And with the first fair shot at swinging bats at a mortal, the Pirates did exactly that.
But only after Lambo’s 13-pitch at-bat that culminated with a scorched lineout to deep center, one that more than a few observers from the dugout thought was gone off the bat.
“I’m still shaking my head over that one,” Hurdle said.
Regardless, the damage was done. Gregg wasn’t good in the first place, and opening his first outing with a duel like that left him high and dry for anyone who followed.
“You just want to work him,” Lambo said. “That’s your thought process, to try to make something happen, get something going for your teammates.”
Sure enough, Harrison singled and, after Gregory Polanco was robbed by a wall-crashing Marlon Byrd in left, Cutch came up clutch with a two-run, no-doubt, two-run shot out toward the center-field smokestacks.
Andrew McCutchen launches a two-run home to center field to tie the score in the eighth inning. — GETTY
“We got to see everything he had from the dugout,” McCutchen said of Gregg vs. Lambo. “That helps a lot if you’re a hitter. We went up there aggressive.”
Just like that, it was 2-2. The possibility of a rousing opener suddenly was at hand.
Hurdle stayed aggressive, too, bringing on his setup man, Watson, in the tie, and it seemed the surest bet he could make. Watson was nothing less than one of the best lefty relievers in the game the past two seasons, and he looked no different in Bradenton.
But Billy Hamilton’s bouncer up the middle got Cincinnati going anew and, when third base umpire James Hoye stunningly took Joey Votto off the hook on a check-swing third strike — even Votto, blessed with the sharpest of eyes, had spun to return to the dugout — Votto sliced a single to left.
“I thought Tony struck out Votto,” Hurdle said.
He was far from alone, and not just on that side. Votto’s body language spoke for itself, and teammate Todd Frazier said the call “could have gone either way.” That’s pro-athlete code for getting away with one.
What happened next was as loud as it was decisive: Frazier absolutely annihilated Watson’s absolutely awful up-and-over fastball and … I’m not sure it’s landed yet.
That was 5-2.
And it was, let’s remind, one game.
Take a glimpse at the mood, this based on a various few questions to Hurdle and players …
They aren’t delighted, but neither are they despondent. It’s baseball. It washes off.
If the most compelling aspect of this game was that the offense couldn’t touch Cueto, or that Liriano made a couple of mistakes over seven strong innings, or that Watson didn’t get a call and didn’t make a pitch … then the Pirates are, indeed, in for an intriguing season. Because McCutchen will hit 162 home runs, Liriano will win the Cy Young, and Watson will be stocking grocery shelves by May.
And Frazier’s ball will have violated all manner of FAA regulations.
