Cincinnati Reds and Cleveland Indians A Budding Rivalry

When we think of inter-league play, the first match-ups that come to mind are New York Yankees against the New York Mets, the Chicago Cubs against the Chicago White Sox and the Los Angeles Dodgers against the Los Angeles Angels.

Those rivals are seriously intense, with the dichotomy of allegiances splitting fans who are neighbors in the same cities. Less dramatic is the annual fight for supremacy of Ohio. In an inter-league series that has been termed “The Battle of Ohio,” each year the Cincinnati Reds from the left half of the state geographically meet the Cleveland Indians from the right half of the state.

The phrase “Battle of Ohio” does not spill off the tongue of every fan, but it is catching on a little bit. The teams were meeting a couple of times this week to sort out the best Major League team in Ohio, but it’s not as if the showdowns are as bitter as USC-UCLA football or Duke-North Carolina basketball. This is a rivalry in progress.

Long-time Reds second baseman Brandon Phillips did not sense an uptick in emotion before Cincinnati and Cleveland met for the first time this week on Tuesday night.

“They call it the Battle of Ohio,” he said, “but I’m just trying to win as many games as possible.”

He certainly sounded jazzed. Oh well, it is kind of an artificial rivalry between an American League and a National League team, but it’s possible the feeling surrounding the annual meetings will ratchet up gradually and eventually.

Phillips figured out one way that would happen.

“It would be nice to play them in the World Series,” he said.

Now you’re talking. Ohioans would definitely take sides in that kind of encounter.

One reason the Reds might not have sounded overcome by emotion before the series opener was that half of them were sick. The Cincinnati side already had a list of casualties before the Battle of Ohio. Virus, flu, whatever the diagnosis, (apparently eventually called 24-hour stomach virus) nobody was hiding the drug-taking in the clubhouse. Guys were hooked up to IVs to gain fluids because they were out of sorts, though by the second game Wednesday they had moved on to chicken soup.

Sick bay or not, it didn’t seem to hinder the Reds too much in the opener. Center fielder Chris Heisey cracked two hits and scored two runs. Shortstop Wilson Valdez collected three hits because usual starter Zack Cozart was one of the sickest players and couldn’t go. Joey Votto, who by game’s end was batting .357, also contributed two hits despite feeling worse than the pleasant night-time weather. Nobody on the Indians had more than one hit.

Reds right-hander Johnny Cueto went the distance, giving up six hits and one earned run in the 7-1 Reds victory, striking out seven and issuing nary a walk. “Right before the game I saw all those IV’s hanging around and I’m like, ‘What’s going on?’” Cueto said. “I knew we didn’t have a bench, so I told myself, ‘Tonight, I’ve got to go all the way.’”

Cueto was so sharp you could say he made the Indians look sickly.