Welcome to the series premiere (and perhaps finale) of "Edinson Volquez Loses Sight Of Reality, Along With His Spot In The Rotation And All of His Friends On The Cincinnati Reds."
Despite getting roughed up again Sunday to the tune of six earned runs over 2 2/3 innings in a 12-4 Reds loss to the Indians, Volquez had the nerve to blame Cincy's offense for not covering his sorry behind by scoring more runs.
As Reds manager Dusty Baker likely considers removing him from the rotation, here's what Volquez said to reporters, as recorded by John Fay on the Reds Blog at Cincinnati.com:
"Everybody has to step up," he said, "start to score some runs. In the last five games, how many runs have we scored? Like 13? That's not the way we were playing last year. We're better than that."
As the man in the coffee shop said to Dirty Harry, "Who's we, sucka?" Also, as CBS's C. Trent Rosecrans points out at Eye on Baseball, Volquez is mistaken about the Big Red 'O.':
He's not wrong ? well, except that it's 12 runs in the last five games ? but he's not exactly earned the right to bring that message.
That's because Volquez has a 6.35 ERA, has walked 38 and allowed nine homers in 51 innings. His expected fielder independent pitching coming into Sunday was 3.95, so he has pitched better than some of the traditional stats show, but he's ... yeah. You just don't come out and blast your teammates for your own poor performance, especially when he could pin the blame on any number of credible sources, it's gutless.
Bad luck? Yes. Umpires got you down? YES! Maceo made me do it for a music video? Of course. Mismanagement by Dusty? Why not, who can't relate to that? Poor pitch-calling by the catcher? I guess ? at least it has to do with your side of the ball.
It doesn't appear Volquez's quote was taken out of context, if that's what you're hoping for. Mark Sheldon at MLB.com called Volquez's diatribe "unprovoked." It appears he was just being a sourpuss.
C. Trent continues:
The Reds have trailed in all 11 of Volquez's starts this season and he's given up 21 first-inning runs this season. He's usually settled down (as his total of 38 runs allowed shows). On Sunday he didn't, allowing another run in the second and two more in the third.
The Reds still rank second in the majors in runs scored. Joey Votto, Brandon Phillips, Jay Bruce and the gang have gotten and will get it going again. And even if they don't, Volquez should just worry about Edinson Volquez throwing the ball better.
He's not going to skate by on his cool-sounding name and awesome Predator haircut for much longer unless he zips it and pitches better. This seems obvious, right?
But if so, then why can't Volquez grasp it?
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