Cleveland Indians @ Cincinnati Reds, Friday May 22, 2009
Reyes (1-1, 6.88) vs. Arroyo (5-3, 6.56)
Interleague play is back. I personally don’t have a problem with it. It’s lost it’s luster for sure, but I don’t mind the change of pace for a handful of series during the year. At the same time if they got rid of it tomorrow, it wouldn’t bother me either. One thing that I’ll never feel different about is that I don’t see the Reds as a rival to the Indians. I would prefer to play the Pirates every year if we must do this interleague thing. This year the Indians do play Pittsburgh, but it’s been the Reds who are the annual National League opponent. Plus, it gives Cleveland fans at least one opportunity to say one of our teams beat a Pittsburgh team. I wish that I could say I was being sarcastic.
So we have a match up of two starters with ERA’s over six in a ballpark where the balls are prone to carry. This might not be as much of a factor as it was a few years ago when Travis Hafner was in his prime and Adam Dunn was still with the Reds, but look for Victor Martinez, Grady Sizemore, and Jay Bruce to find their power stroke during this series. And you can’t forget Brandon Phillips, I’m sure he will be swinging for the fences, and is always well aware of this series being on the horizon. Heck, at this point it might not be a bad thing for Grady to swing for the fences, connect on a couple at Great American Ballpark and get some confidence back. I mean how much more messed up at the plate could doing anything else get him? If you’re going to strikeout a lot, you might as well have the home runs to go with it.
Even though I’m so-so on the guy (kind of how I feel about interleague play), keep an eye on Mark DeRosa tonight, he’s hitting .429 (9 for 21) in his career vs. Bronson Arroyo and .346 (18 for 52 with 12 RBI‘s) in his career at Great American Ballpark. There’s not a big sample size of Reds hitters vs. Anthony Reyes, but watch the aforementioned Phillips who is 3 for 7 off Reyes in his career.
As much as I think Reyes is going to give up five or six runs tonight, I think the Indians offense is clicking and will provide him with enough support, whether or not he’ll still be in the game when it happens is a different story. A winning streak will not only be good for the Indians, but they HAVE to have one. Tonight will put them at three and counting. Indians 8, Reds 6.
Keywords: Cincinnati Reds, Cleveland Indians
