Cincinnati Reds'

Cincinnati Reds Press Clippings September 10, 2015 THIS DAY IN REDS HISTORY 1883-John Reilly becomes the first player in club history to hit two home runs in a game. Both were inside-the-park home runs. CINCINNATI ENQUIRER Votto explodes in Reds' loss to Pirates By C. Trent Rosecrans / Cincinnati Enquirer / [email protected] / @ctrent Well, you can't argue the passion of Joey Votto. Even as the Reds were on their way to their 81st loss of the season, the team's best player showed a level of intensity few could match. Votto was ejected in the eighth inning of Wednesday's 5-4 loss to the Pirates after arguing with home-plate umpire Bill Welke. Votto had watched strike two – a ball all replays and tracking systems showed was outside – and then turned to discuss it with Welke. Votto then pointed toward the Reds' dugout and appeared to say, "I had asked for time." As soon as Votto said something to the bench, Welke signaled that Votto had been ejected. “When Joey looked over, that, to me, was my sign to get out there and make sure I had an understanding of what was going on in that situation. By the time I got there, Joey had been ejected,” manager Bryan Price said. “At that point in time, I did not know, but by the time I got isolated with Bill at home plate, we did both come to the conclusion that Joey had asked for time out, and Bill didn’t feel like he was going to give him time out for whatever – due to whatever history had happened. So our argument is, of course, a guy asks for time out, you give him time out, and then you give him a certain period of time out of the box, and then you insist he gets back in the box or you put the ball in play. Those are some of the options." Votto then slammed his helmet and went nose to nose with Welke. At one point, Welke pointed to his cheek and seemed to mouth, "you spit on me." At that point, Price came out of the Reds' dugout and third-base coach Jim Riggleman and first-base umpire Laz Diaz, a former Marine, tried to hold Votto back. As Price argued, he, too, was ejected. “I wasn’t at home plate, but I do know that Joey has a good rapport with the umpires. I think when he talks, he talks respectfully, and obviously something got sideways there between the two of them, and it went into a direction we had hoped it wouldn’t," Price said. "I think Joey handled himself professionally up until the ejection and then was rightfully upset. How do you qualify what’s the right way to be upset? He was upset. Bill was upset. I was upset. There was a lot of upset people today. You know, and that’s – we felt it was warranted.” Votto had already left the Reds clubhouse by the time the media was allowed to enter after the game. It was the third ejection for both Votto and Price this season. In May, Votto was ejected by home-plate umpire Chris Conroy during a game in Pittsburgh and was suspended one game for bumping Conroy. Votto later apologized. Votto's ejection Wednesday night came in the middle of a Reds rally, with two runners on, one out and the Reds trailing 5-3. Instead of Votto, the hottest hitter in baseball since the All-Star break, rookie Ramon Cabrera was sent up to the plate not only searching for his first big-league hit, but doing so with a 1-2 count. Cabrera came through, hitting the first pitch he saw from Tony Watson into right field to load the bases. Ryan LaMarre scored on Brandon Phillips' ground out, and then after an intentional walk to Todd Frazier, Jay Bruce struck out to end the Reds' threat. With Brayan Pena having already left the game due to injury and Adam Duvall having been used to pinch-hit, Ivan De Jesus Jr. moved to first, Cabrera stayed behind the plate, and Jason Bourgeois – who started the rally with a single off of Watson in the eighth – stayed in the game. Pedro Villarreal gave up two hits but got a double play in the bottom of the eighth to keep the Reds within a run going to the bottom of the ninth. Pirates closer Mark Melancon gave up a walk but nothing else to earn his 44th save of the season. Votto's outburst overshadowed an up-and-down start for rookie Keyvius Sampson, who fell to 2-4 on the season. Twice through the Pirates lineup, Sampson more or less held Pittsburgh at bay. He allowed a run on just two hits and a walk through five innings – but he then gave up three hits and two walks, as well as four runs on a single swing of the bat in front of an announced crowd of 19,620 at Great American Ball Park. Gregory Polanco, who led off the game with a double, led off the sixth with a single and stole second. In the first, the Pirates had Polanco on second and no outs, and Sampson got out of it allowing just a single run. He wouldn't be so lucky in the sixth. After Polanco singled and Starling Marte popped up to short for the first out, Sampson walked Andrew McCutchen, and then gave up a single to Aramis Ramirez to load the bases. Pirates third baseman Jung Ho Kang, who hit a 447-foot home run on Tuesday, hit a 2-2 pitch not as far, but just as gone, to give Pittsburgh a 5-1 lead and changing the narrative of Sampson's outing from a young pitcher learning from his lumps to one of another beatings applied to a rookie pitcher. “(Sampson) had thrown five really nice innings with a low pitch count. Kang, up to that point, was 0-for-4 in his career against him, and I let him face him. That didn’t work out well. And that’s on me,” Price said. “It’s my decision, and I own that. I still felt like Keyvius was the guy for that at-bat. We had Sam LeCure ready, and that was another option. He was ready to go, and I stuck with Keyvius. It was as well as he’s thrown the ball in a long time. It didn’t work out that inning, but I was really happy with how he threw the ball.” Following the grand slam, Sampson walked Neil Walker and out came Price to end his night after 90 pitches in 5 1/3 innings. In the first, the Pirates helped Sampson out by giving him his first out, as Marte sacrificed Polanco to third. McCutchen followed with a fly ball to center for another out, but a 1-0 Pirates lead. Sampson followed that with a strikeout of Ramirez. After Polanco's double, Sampson would go on to retire 15 of his next 17, allowing a walk in the second and lead-off single to Walker in the fifth, but that was all the Pirates got until the sixth. “We can look at it a lot of different ways in retrospect. The kid threw five beautiful innings with 65 pitches. It’s always 'when do you get him out?' ” Price said. “That would have been his last inning. We were in agreement with that, just to get him a good feeling. At some point, there has to be an expectation for a quality start. When I say quality, I don’t mean six innings and three runs. It starts with six innings, and we don’t want the feel-good moment to be he threw five good innings. That doesn’t satisfy anyone. It certainly doesn’t satisfy our club and our needs or Keyvius with his development. “It was a situation where I felt he deserved an opportunity to face Kang in that situation, and it didn’t work out. If things go the way as planned, I hope to see Keyvius in a lot more of those situations with the opportunity to pitch through a tough spot in the middle of a ballgame and get it done.” Frazier blasted his 31st home run of the season, a solo shot, in the second to tie the game, but Pirates starter J.A. Happ was even more effective than Sampson – albeit aided in part by Welke, whose strike zone was called into question by several Reds throughout the evening even before Votto's explosion. The Reds added another run in the seventh when Votto doubled and Phillips reached on an error. That ended Happ's night, as Clint Hurdle brought in Joakim Soria to face Frazier. Frazier hit a sacrifice fly to right to make it 5-2. The Reds threatened in the eighth against lefty Tony Watson. First Bourgeois, pinch-hitting for Tucker Barnhart, singled, and then another pinch hitter, Pena, doubled. Pena pulled up lame rounding first and was replaced by pinch runner LaMarre. Watson walked Billy Hamilton to load the bases with no outs. De Jesus hit a long sacrifice fly to right, scoring Bourgeois, but LaMarre didn't tag up on the play, leaving runners at first and second for Votto with one out. Shoulder injury ends Reds' Negron's season By C. Trent Rosecrans / Cincinnati Enquirer / [email protected] / @ctrent His arm in a sling and surgery scheduled for next week, Reds utility man Kristopher Negron still wore a smile on Wednesday, the day he learned his season was over.

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