If you are walking the streets of St. Louis and a stranger walks up to you and says pinch me, don’t be alarmed, this will most definitely be a Reds fan. Can you blame fans for being in complete disbelief at the recent happenings with their beloved Ball club? When people in St. Louis tell you they were just happy to make the playoffs, they are telling you the truth. The Reds could have been swept in the first round and lost every game by 10 runs and people would have been happy – ecstatic even.
But then surprisingly the Reds, on the back of 2 wins by Herman Robinson took a two game to one lead on Pittsburgh, fans got a smidgen hopeful. They were afraid to hope – could we actually be playing for the Legacy Cup??? When Pittsburgh took care of the Reds 4-1 in game 3 that hope, that dream ended. Game 5 meant they would be up against then Western League’s best pitcher, John Oxendon and the Ox was well rested. The same John Oxendon who had won 18 consecutive starts and had dominated the Reds this season with 5 wins against them. Who was on the mound for the Reds? The veteran Herman Robinson, the man who was an afterthought for the Reds rotation this year. Sure he had a great season and had already beat Pittsburgh twice in the playoffs but no way he could pull off a third.
Somehow, Some way. Robinson pitched the game of his life, giving up only 3 hits and 1 run over 8.2 innings. The Reds offense managed to scrape together 3 runs of support and now Herman Robinson’s name will be forever etched in St. Louis Red lore.
Now if the Red fans were over the moon about a playoff appearance they are downright giddy about being in the Legacy Cup. Amazingly their dream hasn’t ended quite yet and neither has the Summer of Herman. Despite being underdogs, the Reds won the first 2 games of the series and have a 2-1 lead going into game 4. Guess what – Robinson pitched well in game 2 to improve his postseason record to 4-0 with a 1.07 Era. And by the way he is hitting .364 as well.
The downside is the Reds lost their legend and best player, Golden Reeves to a broken elbow so the Reds face the daunting challenge of beating Brooklyn 3 more times without their best hitter and pitcher.
But who knows, George Cook is hitting .414 this postseason. Rookie.Frank Butler has continued his amazing season. Fellow rookie Edward Cook has 6 Rbi and there have been countless great plays by the defense.
And of course they still have Herman Robinson, so anything is possible…right?