Cincinnati Reds Press Clippings September 11, 2015 THIS DAY IN REDS HISTORY 1985-Pete Rose becomes the all-time hits leader with a single to left-center field off the Padres Eric Show for career hit 4,192. The hit comes 57 years to the day after Ty Cobb played his last major league game. CINCINNATI ENQUIRER BAR: If Votto suspended, ump should be too By C. Trent Rosecrans / Cincinnati Enquirer / [email protected] / @ctrent The Blog Above Replacement is Reds beat writer C. Trent Rosecrans' daily look at the Reds, their minor leagues and whatever else is on his mind. I really didn't want to get in this, because I really try to avoid the whole morality police conversation, but this tweet from reverse mortgage huckster Montel Williams was the dumbest thing I saw all of yesterday: Williams has since apparently deleted the tweet (but kept the Facebook post), and moved on to his political pandering, but linking Joey Votto yelling at an umpire to the attack on the referee in Texas? C'mon — that's a stretch. (And another thing I find funny — "no questions asked" — shouldn't we always ask questions to get a better understanding of the situation? The people who want to do something "no questions asked" are usually just grandstanding and want something done, not the best thing done.) The moralizing around this is sickening -- and its intentions of attracting attention are as transparent as they are effective (sadly). Neither Votto nor Welke were 100 percent correct, but Votto had to be upset with Welke doing his best umpshow and denying time out. I can't recall another time I've seen an umpire deny a time out in that situation. I've seen them not give it when a batter's in the box and a pitcher has begun his windup toward home, but never in that kind of situation. That was Welke taking center stage and being petty. Votto then went to his manager, and as he did, Welke tossed him. Bryan Price then came out and pretty much said to Welke, why wouldn't you give him time out? And Welke, if his intention was to speed up the game, failed, because that led to another ejection and more time wasted. Welke had a strange zone on Wednesday, but when I went back and looked at it, it wasn't as bad as I'd thought. There were some pretty bad calls, but for the most part, pitchers had more of a gripe than hitters on the day. Check out the strike zone map of the game from Brooke Baseball: Calling balls and strikes is an impossible job. I say this all the time and I mean it, I'm surprised umpires get as much right as they do — that's why I tend to give them some room on bad calls. But it's the umpshow tendencies, the arrogance and belligerence shown by the umpires when questioned that gets me. At no point did Welke try to walk away from Votto. I've had conversations about how one has to walk the fine line between standing up for yourself and not escalating a situation, and I know it's a difficult middle ground to find, especially in those high-stress circumstances. However, Welke has been a Major League umpire for 16 years and is a crew chief, he should know what to do in this situation. Welke's, 'you spit on me' defense is ludicrous, because Votto hardly intentionally spit on him, not like a Roberto Alomar. Quite honestly, if Votto is suspended, so too should Welke. Both are equally guilty here. For the record — since some have commented on this without know the facts or an attempt at the facts — I asked the Reds media relations if this was one of the situations where I could ask questions of the umpire (there are only certain situations where the media can request to talk to the umpires) and I was told it was not. So there was an attempt to speak to Welke. In the end, this was hardly unusual in baseball, and was as much the fault of the umpire as the player. It was interesting that Votto was so quick to apologize in Pittsburgh when he felt he was wrong, but offered no such apology on Thursday. Outside observers have damned Votto, comparing his outburst to a regular office setting, which is absurd, because that is hardly a regular office setting. It's not just apples and oranges, it's apples and cucumbers. MINOR LEAGUE ROUNDUP • Double-A: Biloxi 4, Pensacola 2: The Blue Wahoos were no-hit through five innings, losing the first game in the best-of-five series with Biloxi. Pensacola starter Daniel Wright allowed three runs on seven hits over 5.1 innings, with two walks and six strikeouts. Pensacola had a run before it had a hit, and finished with just three hits on the night. Lefty Cody Reed starts on Friday for the Blue Wahoos in Game 2 in Biloxi. • High-A: Charlotte 1, Daytona 0: Jackson Stephens allowed just one run on five hits and a walk over seven innings, but that was enough for Charlotte as Daytona failed to score. C Joe Hudson was 2-for-3 for the Tortugas. Game 2 of the best-of-five is Friday night with lefty Seth Varner taking the mound. Varner, a product of Clermont Northeastern and Miami University, enters the playoffs with a 19-inning scoreless streak. • Rookie: Missoula 7, Billings 5: 1B Reydel Medina was 4-for-4 with two doubles and two RBI for the Mustangs, as the best-of- three series heads to a third game on Friday. Reds rout Cardinals, 11-0, in Lamb's first win By John Fay / Cincinnati Enquirer / [email protected] / @Johnfayman Title John Lamb's performance "A Night of Living Dangerously." The Reds' rookie left-hander earned his first career win in the Reds' 11-0 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals before a crowd of 16,363 at Great American Ball Park. Lamb went five shutout innings, despite allowing three hits and walking six. Lamb avoided damage with six strikeouts and two double plays. “It was very impressive in an ugly way,” Reds manager Bryan Price said. “I feel like I got away with something tonight,” Lamb said. “Obviously, it helped me to have an offense swinging the sticks they way they did tonight. It was just a crazy game.” Lamb had not walked more than three in each his previous four starts. “He’s pitched a lot better games and didn’t get the win,” Price said. “Tonight was a battle. ... It wasn’t pretty. It was five innings. He was erratic with his command. He found a way to stay in there.” Tony Cingrani, Manny Parra, Sam LeCure and Ryan Mattheus finished up for the shutout. The Reds touched up left-hander Jaime Garcia, who came in with a 1.89 ERA, for six runs. Garcia had not allowed more than four runs in any of his previous 15 starts. He only gave up more than two in three of them. Brandon Phillips homered and drove in three runs. Todd Frazier went 3-for-5 with a home run, a double and three RBI. He became the third Red in modern history with 40 doubles and 30 home runs in the same season. The others: Bruce in 2013, Dave Parker in 1985 and Frank Robinson in 1962. “That’s pretty cool,” Frazier said. “It goes to show you how humbling this sport is. Still through it, I’m still having a pretty good season. I’m proud to have 40 doubles, over 30 home runs. It’s nice to be in some company like that. Frank Robinson, jeez.” Lamb walked the first two hitters of the game. He then struck out Jhonny Peralta and Jason Heyward on a total of seven pitches. Lamb got ahead of Yadier Molina 0-2 before getting him to pop up to second. A pattern was set: Pitch into trouble, pitch out of trouble. The Reds took a 1-0 lead in the second. Frazier led off with a single. After Frazier was eliminated on Jay Bruce's fielder's choice, Eugenio Suarez singled and Tucker Barnhart walked to load the bases. Lamb hit a chopper to short. The Cardinals were unable to turn two. Bruce scored on the play, giving Lamb his first career RBI. Lamb had to pull a great escape in the third to keep the lead. He walked leadoff man Matt Carpenter. Stephen Piscotty hit one to shortstop Suarez, who went to the bag, jumped to avoid Carpenter and threw a strike to complete the double play. Then Lamb got into real trouble. He gave up back-to-back hits to Peralta and Heyward and then walked Molina to load the bases. But Lamb struck out Mark Reynolds on the ninth pitch of his at-bat to leave them loaded. “It was a big out,” Lamb said. “I was certainly frustrated getting into that position. It happens.” Lamb knew he was off from the start. “It didn’t feel like I was executing pitches from start to finish repetitively,” Lamb said. “. I was frustrated. Just battling, trying to establish that strike zone, get those hitters swinging. It’s disappointing walking six guys. But there’s that bittersweet side — I got away with it.” The Reds added a run in the third. Jason Bourgeois walked. He went to third on Joey Votto's single.