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Reds get blown out in Boston
Milton gives up 11 hits as Red Sox smack Cincinnati, 10-3
By Hal McCoy
Dayton Daily News
BOSTON | On a positive note, for only the second time in 12 starts this season, Cincinnati Reds pitcher Eric Milton did not give up a home run.
That's no home runs, zero, in Fenway Park, where if a gnat sneezes behind home plate the next pitch blows over the Green Monster.
On a negative note, Milton gave up 11 other types of hits — five doubles and six singles — and the result was much the same as with most of his starts.
He gave up nine runs and his earned run average combusted from 7.46 to 7.97 in a 10-3 loss to the Boston Red Sox
It was the first Reds-Red Sox game since the 1975 World Series and it wasn't anything that would make anybody forget Johnny Bench, Pete Rose, Ken Griffey Sr. and Tony Perez.
Asked if he is at the end of his rope, Milton quickly said, "You could say that. It's not fun. I've had a lot of starts and had a lot of losses, but I'm still confident I'm going to be a winner for this team."
He didn't say what year.
On the opposite side, Matt Clement, the man with the ugliest beard-goatee-scraggly hair this side of Harvard Square, held the Reds to three runs and six hits over eight innings to push his record to 7-1.
That's in contrast to Milton's 3-8 ... and $25.5 million doesn't get a team much these days.
Nonetheless, manager Dave Miley somehow sniffed out a few positives from the smoldering ashes.
"I thought he pitched better and made some positive steps, some improvement," said Miley.
The beleaguering manager cited two defensive snoozes that buried Milton after he retired the first seven Red Sox.
Curiously, the Reds made some strange and bizarre moves and decisions in the past couple of days that led to the game's determining foul-up for the Reds.
First, on the eve of playing three games in an American League park, where the designated hitter is required, the Reds sent outfielder Austin Kearns to Class AAA Louisville.
On Monday, they could have had sure-fingered Kearns in right field and clank-fingered outfielder Wily Mo Pena as the designated hitter. Instead, a ball slithered off the end of his glove and into the seats for a three-run home run by Manny Ramirez against Matt Belisle.
That, though, was pumping more water down the already drowned Reds lungs because those were the eighth, ninth and 10th runs.
Instead of using Ken Griffey Jr. in center field, where he played so many, many times while wearing a Seattle uniform, Miley used Griffey as DH and stuck Ryan Freel in center field, a patch of Boston acreage he had never covered.
As so often happens, the baseball found him quickly.
With the score 0-0 in the third with two outs and two on, Edgar Renteria lined one to center. Freel took a couple of steps forward, false steps, missteps. By the time he realized the ball was hit harder than he gauged, it was over his head and slithering to the wall, a two-run double that started the Red Sox on The Road to Rout.
"That ball Freel broke in on made all the difference, two runs in a 0-0 game with two outs," Miley said. "Who knows what would have happened."
They do know what did happen.
Milton gave up two runs on three hits in the third, three runs on five hits in the fourth and four runs on two hits and two walks in the sixth.
But no home runs.
When team medical director Dr. Tim Kremchek does exploratory surgery on pitcher Paul Wilson Friday, he should give the Reds a two-fer and do some exploring on Milton, too. Something is radically amiss.
There was another noteworthy mishap that made Milton's night even tougher to traverse.
Ramirez led the fourth with a double. With one out, catcher Javier Valentin returned a pitch to Milton high and wide. It bounced off his glove and Ramirez took third on the error.
Four of the next five Bosox hit safely and a 2-0 lead became 5-0.
"You can't fault Javier, the ball was slippery and a few slipped out of my hand, too," said Milton, referring to a night on which the temperature was 92 when the game began.
Asked if Milton would go back out there on his next turn, Miley said, "You guys will be the first to know if we make a change."
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Originally Posted by missionhockey21
