All Things Bubba

Paul Janish made his major league debut tonight. There's a cute article here about how he found out. Also here.

He made quite a splash. He came in as a LIDR. It seemed like a safe move. The Reds were leading 6-0 in the 8th. Why not let the kid play in a low-pressure situation? The first two batters hit balls right at him, and he handled them well. His first at-bat wasn't that impressive. He popped out on the second pitch he saw.

But then the ninth inning turned into a nightmare. The Marlins scored six runs, and what had been looking like a blowout went to extra innings.

Janish, who is wearing #7, came to the plate again in the bottom of the 10th. Two outs, men on first and second. Foul, swinging strike...then a line drive up the first base line. Runner scores from second. Game over! In his first big league appearance, Janish wins it with a walkoff single.

And it was rookie pitcher Johnny Cueto who was on 2B and scored the winning run. He came in as a pinch-runner. Dusty was running out of players, I guess. He had two catchers in in the 10th, and both got on base. Not exactly speed on the basepaths. So he put a starting pitcher in as a pinch-runner. Shades of Jaret "Wheels" Wright being put in as a pinch-runner for Giambi a couple of years ago.


The post-game celebration was crazy. You'd think the Reds had just won the World Series or something. I guess it was a combination of the roller coaster of a game, and the fact that it was a rookie fresh from AAA who was the hero. Ryan Freel, who puts the wreck in reckless, actually kicked Janish in the face during the post-game celebration. You can see it on the video at Gameday. Poor Janish ended up with a bloody nose.

Freel gives Janish the game-winning ball.
Meanwhile, in Louisville...the Bats played a day game today. Andy Phillips was 2 for 3 with a walk. Both hits were doubles. He's now batting .327, and his hitting streak is at 17 games.