CAN EMBARASSED REDS BOUNCE BACK?
On a night when the Reds were hoping to make their return to the postseason a memorable one, after a 15-year hiatus, they did exactly that!
There was only one trouble. It was memorable for all the wrong reasons.
To say the team from the Queen City laid a colossal egg would be an understatement. Their performance, if you could even call it that, was an all-time stinker. It sucked beyond belief. More to the point, it reeked!
Flat out, the Reds humiliated themselves. What they produced was disgraceful and a pathetic joke. They proved themselves to be the ultimate masochists. They couldn't have embarrassed themselves any more than if they had appeared on the field wearing nothing more than ill fitting Speedos. Come to think about it, that would have amounted to an improvement over what little the Reds brought to bare, no pun intended.
If you happen to get no-hit, you should feel nothing but shame. If you have a no-no tossed against you in a postseason game, you should slink off and find the nearest rock to crawl under. Consider the Reds residing beneath the handiest boulder or stone.
Philly right-hander Roy Halladay inflicted the most demeaning punishment a pitcher can deal out to an opponent. He held the clueless Reds hitless, marking only the second time in baseball history that a team failed to get a single safety in a postseason contest. This was historic stuff and the stain it leaves on the Reds' franchise is as black as they come. No matter what the Reds do throughout the rest of these playoffs or in the future, they'll never live down this degradation. You just can't sink any lower.
Harsh as it may sound, the Reds stunning ineptitude on Wednesday debased everyone with a vested interest in the club including management, the city of Cincy, the fans and obviously the players themselves. The fallout from this debacle has smut and dirt smeared all over those mentioned above.
What makes this capitulation even more galling is that numerous pundits were confidently predicting Halladay would stifle the Reds with ease. Who would have thought that those prognostications weren't strong enough? Halladay's toying of the Reds went beyond ease, it was downright cake with Cincy offering not even a whimper of protest. The Reds reacted like a well trained dog. They rolled over on command and totally played dead, for nine agonizing innings. After they were done defiling themselves, a pooper scooper was required to scrape up all the crap they'd left behind.
No doubt in the coming days Halladay will be saluted for his mastery and accomplishment. He'll be hyped to the max and his feat will take on mythical proportions. His gem will be hailed as one for the ages. And while no one can deny Halladay's greatness on this night, don't think for a moment that the Phil hurler didn't have some help. Halladay couldn't have done this on his own. He got plenty of assistance from an all too compliant Reds' outfit.
Yes, Halladay was dealing with terrific effect but Cincy was making his chore ridiculously simple. Overanxious, lacking in plate discipline, bereft of aggressiveness and completely intimidated and buffaloed by Halladay's imposing rep, the Red hitters demonstrated no fight, grit or smarts. Instead of manning up and returning Halladay's competitive fire with some of their own, the emasculated Cincy batsmen caved in and bowed out. It was surrender at its worst. Hell, even the hapless French put up more of a struggle when they meekly yielded to the Germans in World War Two.
If the Reds have any self respect, they won't dare leave their hotel digs until Game 2 Friday night. They should be content to just order room service and make sure they don't show their faces for the next 42 hours or so.
Or if they should have the temerity to venture outside, they best don sunglasses, fake beards and any disguises that can help mask their identities. Better yet, maybe Dusty Baker's boys can temporarily join the government's Witness Protection Program. The way the hometown fans feel now, their lives might not be worth a plug nickle if they show themselves in public again.
Every member of the Reds that had a hand in this damning defeat will have to live with the ignominy and dishonor of it for the rest of their lives. They're scarred forever. This is a stain that won't ever go away.
But the question now looms, where does Cincy go from here? The hangover from such a monumental loss and embarrassment can linger and demoralize a club, particularly in a short series. It's very possible that the Reds will remain dazed and never recover from this devastating blow. It could be three and out. Right now, Cincy's prospects seem bleak and greatly diminished.
But despite the urge to write the Reds off after such an unmitigated disaster, a key consideration can't be dismissed. If this current version of the Reds has shown anything, it's been a remarkable and admirable resiliency. Multiple times in 2010, it seemed as if this team was primed to go under, only to see them rally with a flourish. Counted out on many occasions, the Reds battled, persevered and found a way to survive and succeed. Cincy has shown it can dig deep and be tenacious.
That's why it was so unexpected, so startling to see that same team that has displayed such heart and passion in the recent past, go belly-up and offer no resistance when they met up with Halladay. It was as if the Reds had changed their DNA overnight. This wasn't the same spirited club that drove itself to 91 wins.
Well, what's done is done. Thanks to Halladay and their own futility, these Reds are saddled with the sort of infamy no team ever wants to be associated with. Being no-hit in the playoffs is the ultimate slap in the face and the Reds will be forever stuck with that embarrassment.
One can only hope that the Reds can quickly forget, move on and concentrate on the task at hand.
Because of Halladay, Cincy surely lost the battle on Wednesday but the war has yet to be decided. There's still time for salvation and redemption. There's still time to turn a bitter downer into something much more positive.
The Reds have already suffered the indignity of one massive disgrace. Going out tamely in the postseason would be another one equally as difficult to swallow.