Published: June 17, 2009 10:44 am      

MARK MAYNARD: Punchless Reds need help 6/17/09

Punchless

Reds need

some help



I’m still getting used to these new Reds. Never in my history of following the Reds has there been such a premium on pitching or such inept hitting.

Leading the league in sacrifices?

Pashaw! What happened to home runs?

The Reds of my day — the Reds of the Big Red Machine — pounded opponents into oblivion. They had some pitching, but that wasn’t the forte.

It was offense. Big offense. Big boppers. Big run games.

It wasn’t anything like today’s pop gun attack that has produced 2.5 runs a game over the last 14 games and looked helpless against the Royals last weekend.

The Reds were back at it Tuesday with the stale taste of a 2-4 road trip in the rearview mirror. That’s 2-4 against the Nationals and Royals, teams the Reds have to beat to be considered a contender.

The Reds are 31-31 going into Tuesday night with 100 games to play.

The other night, Kansas City pitcher Luke Hochevar (who?) needed only 80 pitches to handle the Reds in a 4-1 victory. Eighty pitches. When is the last time that happened? That’s not even nine pitches an inning. This wasn’t Greg Maddux. This was Luke Hochevar.

While the improved pitching has been quite the pleasant change, I’m not sure the offensive frustrations haven’t outweighed things in my mind. I mean, the Reds lead the National League in sacrifice bunts. And how many times have they failed to move over a runner with a bunt or simply hitting behind the runner? What does that tell you about this offense? It tells me it’s not even the Little Red Machine. There’s absolutely nothing machine-like about this team.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not advocating for a return of Adam Dunn, even though his 40 home runs and 100 RBI seasons are kind of missed. No, Dunn wasn’t the answer to the Reds’ problems. They tried him and it didn’t work.

The Reds may have the answer in Joey Votto, but nobody seems to know why he’s out or when he’ll return. My guess is not real soon since the issue seems to be stress related. The Reds will only say there’s no timetable for his return.

I’m sure there’s plenty of stress being a major leaguer, too. And if you’re not able to handle that then by no means should Votto try to come back and play until he’s fully ready.

But the Reds sure do miss him and his booming bat in the lineup.

Cincinnati is doing everything it can to tread water until Votto can get back into the lineup. But what about other options? I’m sure General Manager Walt Jocketty is thinking about possibilities. He has to be after last weekend.

Willy Taveras is mired in one of the worst slumps of his career yet day after day he’s in the leadoff spot and starting in center field. It’s becoming last year’s Corey Patterson nightmare all over again.

If Taveras can’t hit, and it sure looks like that’s the case, then he needs to sit even though with his $4 million contract. Give Chris Dickerson the opportunity. Give anybody else the opportunity.

I guess it’s not time to hit the panic button — if the Reds swung at it they’d probably miss anyway — but a promising run toward being in the National League Central race at the All-Star break is starting to get away from them.

The pitching is good enough but the hitting has to find a way or it will be another long summer in Cincinnati.

It’s become obvious that these aren’t the Reds of old.

Their offense is downright offensive. Oh for the days of Rose, Bench, Perez and Morgan ...

MARK MAYNARD can be reached at mmaynard@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2648.