SUPPORT » The sight of Cincinnati’s Billy Hamilton speeding hom

CINCINNATI (AP) — e with the potential tying run didn’t shake up Yonder Alonso.Cleveland’s first baseman calmly fielded Joey Votto’s bouncer and made a strong throw to catcher Roberto Perez Greg Holland Jersey , cutting down Hamilton for the first out of the ninth inning. Just like that, the Reds went from second and third with nobody out to first and second with one out, and Cleveland held on for a 4-3 win on Wednesday night.“He’s a fast runner, so I had to make sure to not only throw with a lot of zip, but that it was accurate,” Alonso said. “It was huge. It gave us first and second with one out. That opens up a lot of different things.”Melky Cabrera lofted a go-ahead two-run homer into the left-field seats in the sixth inning, and the Indians extended their winning streak to five games.The Indians held the Reds scoreless after a three-run first. In the sixth, Cody Reed (0-1) walked Alonso before allowing Cabrera’s third homer of the season.“It’s nice,” Alonso said about having Cabrera in the lineup. “He enjoys the game. He plays with a chip on his shoulder.”Four relievers combined for 3 2/3 scoreless innings before Brad Hand escaped trouble with Alonso’s help in the ninth for his 28th save in 33 opportunities.“Hoo, boy,” Cleveland manager Terry Francona said. “I don’t know where to start. Cody Allen gave us two innings of high-leverage relief. A lot of good things happened in that game.”Reds interim manager Jim Riggleman had no problem with the decision by Hamilton, who reached third on Jose Peraza’s ground-rule double.“Billy was going on contact because it is Billy,” Riggleman said. “If Votto hit it in a position where he could score http://www.rockiesfanproshop.com/authentic-chad-bettis-jersey , it’s tied. What was supposed to happen if Billy’s out is I wanted Peraza to go to third. I know (Eugenio) Suarez had a rough night, but I want him up there with a man on third and less than two outs.”Suarez, second in the NL in RBIs going into the game, struck out five times, the last in the ninth.Greg Allen had two hits and drove in a run, helping the Indians finish their first sweep of a three-game series against the Reds since 2015 and the first in Cincinnati since 1999. The AL Central leaders have won seven of eight overall.The free-falling Reds were 1-for-13 with runners in scoring position and left 11 runners on base while slipping to 4-11 since winning three straight in late July over the Phillies.Shane Bieber allowed Scooter Gennett’s RBI single and Preston Tucker’s two-run homer in the first. It was Tucker’s first homer for Cincinnati since being acquired from Atlanta on July 30 as part of the package for Adam Duvall.Bieber regrouped from there and lasted 4 1/3 innings, allowing seven hits and two walks with five strikeouts and a wild pitch.Dan Otero (2-1) got Phillip Ervin to fly out with the bases loaded and two outs in the fifth to earn the win.After walking five in four innings of his season debut on Aug. 8, Reds starter Robert Stephenson walked four while giving up two hits and two runs with two strikeouts and a wild pitch in 1 2/3 innings. He threw 57 pitches, just 26 of them strikes.BEEN A WHILEThe Reds’ lead over the Indians was their first since they scored seven runs in the ninth inning of a 7-4 win at Cleveland on July 10. The Indians outscored Cincinnati by a combined 37-8 in between Reds leads.PITCH COUNTStephenson has needed a combined 133 pitches to get through 5 2/3 innings of his first two starts, issuing a total of nine walks along the way.MOPCleveland’s Jose Ramirez became the first unanimous winner of the Ohio Cup Most Outstanding Player award in voting by Cincinnati and Cleveland media. He hit five home runs and drove in 11 runs while the Indians were winning four of the six games in the intrastate rivalry.TRAINER’S ROOMIndians: RHP Josh Tomlin, out since July 16 with a right hamstring strain, will pitch on Saturday for either Triple-A Columbus or Double-A Akron. Tomlin threw 4 1/3 innings in a rehab appearance on Monday.UP NEXTIndians: RHP Carlos Carrasco (14-6, 3.50 ERA) is scheduled to start the opener of a brief three-game homestand against Baltimore on Friday.Reds: RHP Anthony DeSclafani (6-3 http://www.rockiesfanproshop.com/authentic-chad-bettis-jersey , 4.45) is 2-0 with a 0.64 ERA in three career starts against the Giants, his opponent in the opener of a three-game home series on Friday. For a complete history of the win, read Frank Vaccaro's piece for the Society for American Baseball Research. But the concern here is about the stat's origin.Hall of Fame writer Henry Chadwick invented the win in 1884 and began publishing individual totals in 1885.The Sporting News began to follow suit in 1888, but with a disclaimer (via Vaccaro):"[The win] seems to place the whole game upon the shoulders of the pitcher and I don't believe it will ever become popular even with so learned a gentleman as Mr. Chadwick to father it. Certain it is that many an execrable pitcher game is won by heavy hitting at the right moment after the pitcher has done his best to lose it."And yet, assigning wins and losses to individual pitchers made some sense initially.Through the first few decades of Major League Baseball's existence, it tended to be the responsibility of one pitcher to keep the opposing offense in check. He either did or didn't, and games were won and lost depending on his ability on a given day.But baseball isn't like that anymore. There's now a division of labor between starting pitchers and relief pitchers, and it's becoming more even with each passing year:Not surprisingly, the share of wins has followed the same pattern:There's no slowing this train down.On the contrary, it's speeding up.The 2016 (1,749) and 2017 (1,903) seasons produced more starts of five or fewer innings than any in history, and there have already been 1 Tyler Anderson Jersey ,437 such starts in 2018. This is largely reflective of how much teams value and trust their bullpens. And with the Tampa Bay Rays getting solid results from their beta test of using their bullpen to handle entire games, "bullpenning" is more a threat than ever to traditional pitching roles.The win isn't the only statistic which assigns individual credit to team-oriented feats that's holding steady in public discourse. The RBI and the save are as well. It would be best if they were downplayed, if not altogether ignored.But at this point, nothing is more antiquated than crediting individual pitchers with having "won" or "lost" a game. As the effort to keep the opposition in check becomes more and more of a team effort, it will become a downright stupid idea.The bright side, however, is that baseball seemed ready for the win to fall out of favor even before deGrom embarked on his strangely historic season.When FanGraphs' David Laurila surveyed players about killing the win in 2015, few went to bat for it. In 2017, even one guy who gets a lot of wins expressed his indifference."It's really not a good way to evaluate a pitcher," Max Scherzer, a three-time Cy Young Award winner and two-time 20-game winner, told Manny Randhawaof Sports on Earth. "You can be on a good or a bad team and that affects your win-loss record."For his part, deGrom appears to be on the same page. Following the Mets' 8-0 victory against the Cincinnati Reds on Aug. 8 http://www.rockiesfanproshop.com/authentic-chad-bettis-jersey , he told reportershis goal isn't to win games, but to "go out there and keep guys from getting around the bases."Not surprisingly, his manager is fine with this."I don't value win-loss record anymorer, as much," Mets skipper Mickey Callaway said, according to Tyler Kepner of the New York Times. "I think there is something to be said about run prevention when you're talking about pitching. That's what pitching's all about. And Jacob is probably the best in the big leagues this year at that."This doesn't mean deGrom has the National League Cy Young Award as good as won. If all things are roughly equal between him and Scherzerho's once again dominating with a 2.19 ERA and an MLB-high 227 strikeoutshe latter's record (currently 15-5) may be what sways voters.However, there's no time like the present for a win-loss record to be disregarded in favor of what actually matters.If that happens, the win may finally and rightfully be laid to rest. Stats courtesy of Baseball Reference and FanGraphs.