Sports Today: Reds overcome earthquake but not bad pitching in San Francisco

Credit: Thearon W. Henderson

Credit: Thearon W. Henderson

Monday night in San Francisco the Reds had their starter knocked out of the game early, their six-game winning streak snapped and their best player leave early with back tightness.

Also: There was an earthquake.

Other than that, the 10-7 loss to the Giants went pretty well.

Sure the good times weren't going to last forever, but that is an awful lot to take in one evening, isn't it?

I thought Reds fans had earned at least a little more time to bask in the however brief resurgence of their team.

RELATED: Reds ‘machine’-like in sweeping Dodgers

On the bright side, Joey Votto doesn’t seem overly concerned about a back issue that caused Jim Riggleman to pull him from the game, and there should be better days ahead for Sal Romano, who gave up six runs on eight hits in 2.1 innings.

Reliever Dylan Floro, who was guilty of letting the Giants extend their lead to double digits, still looks like a keeper, too. His ERA rose to only 1.69 in 11 appearances despite giving up three runs (two earned) last night.

(He was also the victim of poor defense as Jose Peraza committed two miscues behind him.)

There will probably be more earthquakes, but maybe not before the Reds get out of town.

At least this one gave Votto something to joke about:

"I was feeling pretty good and then that earthquake hit and all of a sudden everything got thrown off right around 7:18 p.m. in the middle of my first at-bat," Votto joked. "Oh, I got taken out of the game because of it, are you kidding me? I'm a sensitive soul."

I wouldn't be surprised if Riggleman holds him out Tuesday night, but maybe that will be it.

"He'll be working with the trainer tonight," Riggleman said. "When he comes in tomorrow (Tuesday), we'll re-evaluate it. We might end up giving him the day tomorrow."

Even without Votto on Monday night, the Reds put up more fight than we were seeing in the first month or so of the season.

Tucker Barnhart, Scott Schebler and Adam Duvall all hit home runs. If return of the power stroke is permanent, this team will score runs… which means they are again just decent starting pitching away from having a solid year.

Despite the short start, Riggleman still has some of his best relievers rested for game two…

In other Reds news, Scooter Gennett was named the National League Player of the Week, and some reinforcements could be on the way for the pitching staff.

Riggleman told reporters Michael Lorenzen could be back in the big leagues in a week to 10 days while starter Anthony DeSclafani could follow late this month or in early June.

Both have started minor-league rehab assignments…

Back home in Ohio, the Cincinnati Bengals are still going through voluntary workouts at Paul Brown Stadium before organized team activities (OTAs) begin next week.

A.J. Green gave reporters a few minutes of his time in the locker room, offering support for young receiver John Ross and saying he expects a better season from himself in 2018, too.

On the other side of the ball, rookie safety Jessie Bates felt welcomed by veterans.

"The first team meeting all the rookies are to the side, waiting to see where they should sit down and don't want to step on anyone's toes and stuff like that, but once we got out there, the vets were very interactive with us," Bates said. "It's a really good locker room, really good guys, so that helps the rookies with the transition."

He is one of several young defensive players who could give the depth chart a different look this fall…

I didn’t get to see all of game one of the NBA Western Conference Finals because of some technical issues, but I did catch an interesting nugget during the broadcast. 

NBA reporter David Aldridge said Kevin Durant told him the key to the Warriors’ tendency to blow teams out in the third quarter is their consistency.

(They beat the Rockets 119-106, by the way.)

Yes, they can out-talent pretty much everyone, but they are dominant because they maintain their intensity from start to finish.

When the other guy blinks, they usually find it’s too late to recover.

I thought that was interesting because it’s pretty much exactly the same explanation UConn women’s basketball coach Geno Auriemma has given when asked how his Huskies always (well, almost) seem to have a knockout run in them.

As the saying goes, basketball is a game of runs.

Sometimes it’s more about avoiding lulls than getting on hot streaks, especially in today’s NBA when there are so many explosive offensive players that the latter is inevitable.

About the Author