CLEVELAND — Your team can't win? Your team has lost eight of nine? In the span of 11 games your team has blown leads of five runs twice and seven runs once?

Who ya gonnaa call?

Slumpbusters. Or 1-800-REDS.

That's what the Cincinnati Reds did for the Kansas City Royals and that's what the Reds did for the last place Cleveland Indians Friday night in Progressive Field, losing to the Tribe, 9-2 — the team that had lost eight of nine and blew all those big, fat leads.

Slumpbusters. Or 1-800-REDS.

Oh, yeah. The Reds had one hit in six innings off lefthanded bean bag thrower Jeremy Sowers, 1-5 with a 5.25 earned run average when the night began. Remember Sowers? He was the kid who told every baseball team not to draft him out of high school because he was going to attend Vanderbilt University.

Reds general manager Jim Bowden, knowing the team had no money to pay a No. 1 draft pick, selected Sowers because Bowden knew Sowers wouldn't sign. And he didn't.

The Indians drafted him two years later and he has been pretty much a bust — until Friday.

Slumpbusters. Or 1-800-REDS.

As he has had to do so often lately when a mediocre pitcher turns into Grover Cleveland Alexander against his team, manager Dusty Baker praised Sowers.

"The main thing he did was get strike one on us with his first pitches," said Baker. "He cut some balls in us. What can you say? He threw a good game against us. I thought we'd fare better against him."

On the other side, Aaron Harang threw in a major clunker — seven runs (five earned) and 10 hits over 4 2/3 innings, with two of the runs coming because of a lazy rainbow one-hop throw by second baseman Brandon Phillips for an error.

Harang, the anointed ace of the staff, is winless in his last six starts (0-4, 5.08 earned run average).

"I'm pressing, trying to be too fine," said Harang. "That's when you get yourself in trouble and start making mistakes. You try not to think about it, but after a while it gets to you and you try to be perfect."

Slumpbusters. Or 1-800-Reds.

It got so bad that Baker removed Phillips and Ramon Hernandez from the game in the eighth.

"They've been playing a lot and we were getting our brains beat out," said Baker. "The game was ugly at that point. Ramon has been playing a lot and Brandon has been playing every day. Not a whole bunch to say. We got beat up and got beat up pretty good."

The Reds have lost five of six and nine of 12, making this battle for The Ohio Cup more like an argument over a Big Gulp.

In the not-so-merry month of June, the Reds have played 23 games andd scored three or less runs 10 times. They've scored two runs or less eight times.

The Reds are 4-9 against the American League and Baker knows why?

"When you are playing this American League, boy, like I've said before, they have some high octane teams and if you don't play well against them and don't score runs, you aren't going to win and I don't care what place they are in. They are all going to hit."

For the third straight night Jonny Gomes had two hits and said, "Those American League teams bash the ball. When I played in the American League (Tampa Bay) we loved playing the National League."



source : http://www.oxfordpress.com