Cincinnati Reds Take Game Two Against San Francisco Giants

Baseball is a funny old game.  Isn’t it?  Take for example the Cincinnati Reds looked horrible Thursday night against the San Francisco Giants.  Just pitiful.  They managed only 1 hit and no runs against Madison Bumgarner.  Johnny Cueto was well off his game and the Reds lost 5-0.  Flash forward to Friday night.  Mike Leake was on the mound pitching like he was Cueto.  He was in command throughout the entire game and the Cincinnati Reds came away with a 5-1 victory.

Not only did the Cincinnati Reds find their bats, they used them extensively at AT&T Field.  All told, the Reds pounded out 12 hits, two of which were homeruns, and 5 runs.  All this came against the Giants’ All-Star Matt Cain.

Leading the way at the plate for the Cincinnati Reds was Jay Bruce, 4 for 4 with 3 RBI, and Joey Votto, 3 for 5, 1 run scored and improved his incredible batting average to .354.  Collectively, they accounted for over half of the Reds’ hits.

However, as good as those two were at the plate, it was the Mike Leake show Friday.  Leake, who in his last two starts has allowed only 3 runs and struck out 9, pitched brilliantly again.  Against the Giants, Leake scattered 9 hits, literally just about 1 hit per inning, allowed 1 run, 1 base-on-balls and 4 strike-outs to claim his first complete game victory of his career and lowering his ERA to 4.12.  Not only that, he went 2 for 4 at the plate, including hitting his second homerun of the season.  Amazingly, Leake is, statisically, the best hitter for the Cincinnati Reds.  He is sporting a .357 average.  When the Reds need a pinch hitter, Leake can clearly come in and do a very capable job.  To round out the best game Leake has ever played, he made several wonderful plays in the field.  One was stabbing a line drive hit straight up the middle to keep the Giants from getting anything started.

The two teams will go at it again on Saturday afternoon as the Cincinnati Reds (42-34) send Mat Latos and the Giants send Barry Zito to the mound.  It should be another great pitching match-up.  Hopefully, Latos will continue his 6-game winning streak.