Send Bailey up to bunt and he hacks one off foul, then pretends to bunt and tries to butcher boy the next two of them, clueless and incapable of doing anything but hitting into a DP. Either your pitcher is going to bunt or he isn't. Either way, he gets nothing done.
This is the Dusty Baker philosophy of moving runners along -- it's called luck.
Saturdays game might have been the worse played game all year. Why do these guys think, all they have to do is show up to win? You don't see the Cardinals doing that. I don't think the Reds are hungry enough
The Reds do better when the team they play makes enough mistakes that the Reds can't help but benefit from some of them. Sunday's game may say 1 error, but there were about 5 actual ones by the Blewers. There were some legit Reds runs, but it's clear why they score 5 against bad teams and 2 against better teams, and it's not all pitching. The Reds offense is profoundly low energy, like it's architects, Baker and Jacoby.
In his defense, Baker has employed a non- pitcher bunt or steal a couple of times lately, unfortunately usually against cellar dwelling teams with suspect defense. If the Reds can't out slug a plus .500 team, Dusty must not believe in any other tactics, because he sure hasn't shown the sensible use of many, and the profound ineptness of the base coaching and situational defense doesn't help the Reds take of advantage of opportunities they do get... and as our bullpen proves to be as human as most, THAT may hurt even more.
There are some bright spots to be optimistic about though-
Bruce has been more consistent this year, and a speedy switch hitting Robinson ( #2 hitter anyone ?) might inject a little life in to the stand and wait offense. Choo, BP and Votto are healthy. They've left Cingrani up to fill a lefty relief hole, at least until Marshall returns, and Cueto looks as devistating with 24 days rest as on 4.
Just gotta employ better sense against teams that look like they've won a game recently.
I just figured out a way to make other teams worse. Just suggest that they try to trade for these guys.
David DeJesus, anyone?
Meanwhile, we will see a Parrots team that doesn't score a lot of runs. GABP, however, tends to make that a moot discussion. I like the idea of scoring 4 in the first like the last time we played the Pigsburgers, but it would be all right to score 2 or 3 more later on in the game.
There's reason why teams play like they do over an extended time that isn't small sample size.