Full credit to the Detroit Tigers, but that wasn’t the opening weekend I anticipated.
No matter how great it was for the neutral fan to see future Hall-of-Famer Miguel Cabrera wind back the years, it would have been preferable if he’d done it against someone else.
He had Michael Lorenzen’s number, taking him deep with a lead-snatching home run in Saturday’s game, and then grinding out a ninth-inning walk which was converted into the winning run on Sunday.
It wasn’t a great series for the Reds bullpen with Lorenzen and Raisel Iglesias both taking an L, while Robert Stephenson heads into the Cubs series with an ERA of 54.00.
In contrast, the Tigers’ two 25-year-old relievers, Gregory Soto and Joe Jimenez, looked very impressive.
Cincinnati tied an MLB record of 33 strikeouts in the first three games of a season, which makes the two defeats even more frustrating.
Apart from the wind being taken from our sails, the biggest blow was losing Mike Moustakas. 10-day IL stints will have a far more significant impact on teams than in a usual season. Fingers-crossed for him.
What else happened? Joey Votto hit his second homer. Pedro Strop struck out two on his Reds debut. There was an addition to the Barnhart family. Eugenio Suarez has yet to register a hit. Shogo Akiyama’s slap-hitting/base-stealing skills could work well in conjunction with our sluggers. Curt Casali leads the team in walks.
I’m looking forward to watching Wade Miley on the mound as we take on the Cubs.
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4000 miles from Ohio 