Gotta Wait Till 5:30 Tomorrow to See If Someone Actually Scores in This Reds-Phillies Game

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There have been 51 outs, just six base-runners, and zero runs scored in
tonight's Reds-Phillies game, and it looks like it's gonna stay that way
for a while. The scoreless pitchers' duel in Cincinnati, which began
over an hour late after a rain delay, has now been postponed altogether,
to be rebooted tomorrow at 5:30 PM EST. We'll pick it up in the bottom
of the ninth, with a mystery Phils pitcher (Papelbon? Aumont?) to face
Reds shortstop Zack Cozart, in a baseball coda that should conjure
memories of Geoff Jenkins and Pat Burrell for the Philly faithful.

The
good news for the Phils from this game is that our starting pitching
officially appears to have come around, with Kyle Kendrick (7 IP, 2H,
2BB, 4K) keeping the Reds off-balance all game, looking as good with his
pitch selection and command as he did in his excellent finish to last
season, and now marking the fifth consecutive Phillies starter (one full
turn around the rotation) to go at least six innings while letting up
just two runs or less. The defense was solid, and after threatening a
couple times early, the Reds never really came close to scoring for most
of the game.

The less-than-good news from this one is that the
offense has really sputtered. Chase Utley and Michael Young had the only
two base knocks of the game, and Dom Brown and Ryan Howard both came a
couple feet short of round-trippers, but otherwise there was just
nothing going on for the Phillies' bats, with Cincy starter Homer Bailey
racking up 10 K's in eight innings (each Philly starter struck out at
least once tonight) and not walking a batter. Ben Revere has been
especially deadly in the leadoff spot, worm-killing his way to an 0-4
night, dropping his average to .207 for the season.

Tune back in
at 5:30 tomorrow to see what cracks first between the Phillies' fine
pitching and turgid hitting. It'll be like a double-header, if the first
game could conceivably last just one swing.

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