|
San Francisco
Giants' Buster Posey hits a grand slam off
Cincinnati Reds starting pitcher Mat Latos in the fifth inning of Game
5 of the National League division baseball series, Thursday in
Cincinnati. The Giants beat the Reds 6-4 to advance to the NLCS.
Bleacher Report...
Reds bow out of
post season play
Cincy makes history
CINCINNATI- The Reds made history Thursday — not the kind of history
you want to make. They became the first National League team to fail to
advance to the NL Championship Series after winning the first two games
of the Division Series.
They are only the fifth team out of 43 overall that went up 2-0 not to
advance.
And they did it by losing at home in three straight games. They had not
lost three in a row at home until Thursday.
Mat Latos put the Reds in a 6-0 hole. They fought back. They had
chances. They brought the winning run to the plate twice in the ninth.
But, in the end, they couldn’t get it done.
The Reds made it dramatic. Zack Cozart walked with one out in the
ninth. Joey Votto followed with a single. Ryan Ludwick singled to score
Cozart. Jay Bruce fell behind 0-2. He battled for 12 pitches before
flying out to left. Scott Rolen struck out to end it.
Latos was cruising until the fifth.
Gregor Blanco singled to start the inning. Brandon Crawford lifted one
into the corner in right for a triple. Latos got Matt Cain to bounce
back to the mound for the first out. Angel Pagan hit a chopper with the
infield draw in. Zack Cozart fielded it. He had a play at the plate,
but he couldn’t get the ball out of his glove. Crawford scored to make
it 2-0.
Latos walked Marco Scutaro on four pitches. Pitching coach Bryan Price
visited the mound at that point.
Pablo Sandoval singled to load the bases. That brought up batting champ
Buster Posey. He hit a 2-2, 94 mph fastball off the facing in left for
a grand slam to make it 6-0.
That was it for Latos.
He went 4 1/3 innings and allowed six runs (five earned) on seven hits.
He walked one and struck out four.
The Reds, meanwhile, had two hits off Cain and had only advanced one
runner to second.
The Reds got to Cain in the bottom of the fifth. Ryan Hanigan was hit
by a pitch to lead off. Drew Stubbs followed with a single. Chris
Heisey popped to first. Brandon Phillips doubled into the right-center
gap to score Hanigan and Stubbs. Cain got Zack Cozart and Joey Votto to
keep it at 6-2.
Ryan Ludwick led off the sixth for the Reds with his third home run of
the series. Jay Bruce followed with a walk. Scott Rolen singled. Ryan
Hanigan worked the count to 3-2. With the runners going, he took a
called third strike. Posey threw Bruce out at third to complete the
double play. Hanigan argued the call.
Read the rest of the article at Bleacher Report |
|
|
|
