CLEVELAND – The weather at Progressive Field was temperate and comfortable. Yet for the Indians fans in attendance, sitting through the three hours and two minutes that comprised Sunday afternoon’s series finale with Cincinnati was brutal.
The Reds whipped the Tribe decisively, 8-1, to win the Ohio Cup, four games to two, and took the series, 2-1. In the process, there was very little to be excited about from Cleveland’s perspective, as it dropped its 10th decision in 12 tries.
Oh, it started out all right. Asdrubal Cabrera, back from a shoulder injury, led off the first inning with a line single, went to third on Grady Sizemore’s bloop hit and came home on Victor Martinez’s sacrifice fly. The 1-0 advantage lasted into the third, at which point Cincinnati (37-37) started to hit David Huff.
By the time Huff (3-3, 6.26ERA) exited, he had given up seven runs on nine hits in five innings.
“David was good early, and then he started working from behind (in the count), and that was really the difference” manager Eric Wedge said. “He was working ahead early, being aggressive, putting them on the defense. Then it turned on him in a hurry. He started working from behind a little bit and he had to come back over the middle of the plate, and that’s when they started to get to him. And it just kind of dominoed from there.
“He had pretty good command early, but as the game wore on he seemed to lose that.”
“The first time (through the lineup) I was getting ahead of hitters,” Huff said. “Then in the third inning I started (falling behind), and I had to come in with a fastball. And those guys were just sitting (on my fastball).”
Meanwhile, Cincinnati starter Micah Owings (5-8,4.63) had not been scored upon again. Neither he, nor relievers Danny Herrera or Josh Roenicke, would give up another run, as the Red outhit the Indians, 15-7.
“(Owings) did a good job of staying out of the middle of the plate,” Wedge said. “He was working us away a little bit, and we had too many pull-side ground balls.
“I don’t think he made too many mistakes. He was throwing in to righties and working it away. He kind of short-arms the ball out of his jersey. He does a real good job of controlling the running game. He was effective today.”
The third inning saw the Reds score four times. Chris Dickerson led off with a hit, and Willy Taveras (3 hits) beat out a bunt. Jerry Hairston Jr. sacrificed the runners to second and third.
After Joey Votto walked to load the bases, Brandon Phillips lined the ball to right-center for a two-run single, his first of three hits. One out later, Ramon Hernandez hit only his seventh triple in 4,439 career at-bats, when his drive to left-center hit the wall and caromed away from Ben Francisco.
Hernandez had three hits to go 9-of-19 (.474) with a homer and 5 RBI in the Ohio Cup series, and was named its Most Outstanding Player.
Two innings later, Ryan Garko dropped a fly ball to deep left for a two-base error with one out. Phillips singled him home, and Jonny Gomes followed with an opposite-field homer to right.
Hernandez matched Phillips (3 runs) with three RBI when he singled in a run off Rafael Perez in the seventh.
Joe Smith and Kerry Wood also worked for Cleveland, which dropped to 31-46.
Goldman is a freelance writer from South Euclid.
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