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Blogs: C. Trent Rosecrans

Lohse Baffles Cubs

By C. Trent Rosecrans Cincinnati Post 4/16/07 CHICAGO -- In the scorebook, David Ross had, in his words, "a really, really bad day" -- striking out three times in his three plate appearances. But after the game, he was smiling and happy with his performance. "It's fun for me on days like that, because I have to think, too," Ross said after calling Kyle Lohse's four-hit gem in the Reds' 1-0 victory over the Cubs. "We were right on the same page all day. I feel good about today, and nobody feels good about a hat trick. I feel good about the catching." Lohse, who struck out a career-high 12 batters, gave much of the credit to Ross, who has been struggling at the plate this season. With his 0-for-3 performance, Ross' average is down to .083. But during warm-ups, Lohse threw Ross a couple of backdoor sliders, and the catcher was impressed with the pitch. Sometime around the fourth or fifth inning, Ross remembered it and called it. It worked so well that he kept calling it. "He had good stuff period, but I called it about the fourth or fifth and he threw a really good one. So I wanted to see if he could keep doing that and he dang sure did," Ross said. "It's a credit to him. He had a lot of good pitches today. His changeup was really good. He did a good job of keeping them off balance." Lohse's most impressive effort came in the sixth inning when center fielder Alfonso Soriano doubled to lead off the inning and third baseman Ryan Theriot, who had three of the Cubs' four hits and half of the game's six hits, singled to center to give the home team runners on first and third with no outs. First up was Lohse's old Minnesota Twins teammate Jacque Jones. "With Jacque, he's a tough guy in that situation, you don't want to give," said Lohse, who got two quick strikes on Jones before he waved at the third one. "(It was a) changeup way out there. Once you get ahead of him, I've seen him enough to know if you put it in the zone, he's going to hurt you. Even if I walk him there, even after going ahead 0-2, I'll get the next guy." Even when that next guy is Derrek Lee. Lee, who entered the game batting .390, took a ball outside on the first pitch. But then Ross called the backdoor slider. It was called on the outside corner for a strike, so he called it again. Strike again. So he called it again. Strike three. "The dude's hitting .400 and he never moved the bat off his shoulder," Ross said. "That was just a good feeling." With the tying run 90 feet away and the Cubs' No. 3 and 4 hitters up, Lohse, who had only twice struck out as many as nine batters in his career, picked up big strikeouts to keep the run on third. Then with two outs, he tried the backdoor slider again to catcher Michael Barrett. "He was looking for it and laced one down the line foul, and then we went in," Ross said. "That's the one thing you've got to do, is use both sides. Some guys can pinpoint that ball away, when you have to come back in sometimes they have trouble. That's what (Lohse) was able to do." On an inside fastball, Barrett flied out to Ken Griffey Jr. in right field, ending the Cubs' threat. Barrett also struck out to end the first inning, the only other time the Cubs had more than one runner on base in the game. "There's no secrets to this game. If you throw strikes and throw something other than your fastball over the plate, you can have a pretty good time out there," said Reds pitching coach Dick Pole. "If not, it's not very much fun. With all these guys, I'm having a blast." So was Lohse, and it was a good thing, because Cubs starter Ted Lilly was just as good. Lilly, who dominated the Reds in the second game of the season, went six innings, giving up two hits and striking out 10. In all, the two teams combined to strike out 25, thanks in part to home plate umpire Doug Eddings' liberal strike zone. "He had a good zone, I thought. Except when I was hitting, I didn't like it," said Lohse, who was 0-for-3 with a strikeout looking in the fifth, lowering his season average from 1.000 to .250. "That's what's going to happen if you have pitchers hitting their spots, keeping the game going. It's not like we were missing our spots and the catcher is reaching across the plate. We were both hitting our location. Maybe he was giving us one here or there, but everybody knows that happens." The Reds had just two runners reach second, but made the most of their opportunity in the fourth inning. Brandon Phillips led off with a walk and after Phillips stole second and Josh Hamilton struck out looking, veteran first baseman Jeff Conine singled to left, scoring Phillips who was trying to steal third on the pitch. "We've got to run," said Reds manager Jerry Narron. "We've got to put guys in motion the best we can. We've got to be efficient in doing it. So far we've been able to do that." But the Reds were able to take two of three games in Chicago and only scored in two innings, Narron pointed out. Conine provided another clutch hit for the Reds. He is 3-for-4 with runners in scoring position with five RBIs. "This game's all about confidence. Some guys like being in those situations, some guys don't," Conine said. "That's why they pay us, to get the job done. And to me, it's an opportunity to get things done." And Conine delivered. So did Lohse. So did Ross -- no matter what the box score said. "That's the good thing about catching. When you're struggling hitting you still have another job to do and something to feel good about," Ross said. "I was 0-for-3 with three strikeouts. That's a really, really bad day. But I feel good helping (Lohse) do what he did. He pitched phenomenally. Not that I threw any pitches, but he threw a phenomenal game and I feel like I helped him do that."