Random Bored Thoughts

OH MY GOD I'M BORED! I'm watching the Indians pound on the Red Sox in hopes of seeing Wily Mo for the first time this year but I haven't yet. He's playing but he must be keeping quiet about it. I'm still mad that the Indians get their own network but FSN still can't play more Reds games. I was even more upset when I saw an Indians game on ESPN and poker on FSN yesterday when either could have been playing the Reds.

On the reading front, here's a feature on Brandon Phillips from the Reds official site. He's really enjoying himself in Cincinnati. I'd guess that's partly the cause for his awesome performace of late. I didn't really know anything about him before he came here, and I thought he must not have had much going for him if Cleveland gave up on him so early in his career. His "impossible to coach" reputation probably had something to do with that. It sounds like he's really settled in here, though. I'm liking him more and more all the time. It's going to be quite the struggle for me when Griffey comes back and Freel goes back to the infield. I don't know if I'd rather see Freel or Phillips.

Oh! I saw something on TV the other day about whether or not MLB should switch to aluminum bats. The constant pinging I hear from the fields next door have made up my mind on that issue. I love the crack of ball on wood. It's one of my favorite parts of baseball.

Blogging Elsewhere

Here's a bit of what's going on with other Reds blogs.

Daedalus at Church of Baseball went to see the team in person in D.C. She's got in-person insight here, here and here with lovely Photoshop creations. Really like Arroyo's.

Shawn deliberates on who's going to be sent away when Griffey comes off the DL.

Red Hot Mama's checking out the Luncheon for the Ladies next month.

JD at Red Reporter discusses the ban on press passes to bloggers. I don't have much of an opinion on that one. It's certainly not something I'd want, but I'm sure some other bloggers' interviews and what-have-you would be highly entertaining.

Speaking of interviews, Redleg Nation has a pseudo interview with Wayne Krivsky. Pseudo in that the interview took place, but due to technological malfunction, there's no audio proof.

Scott at Reds (and Blues) has a game wrap, some info about the minor league umpire strike and a minor league recap. He's quite the busy bee.

Big Red Mechanic loves Coffey, too. He nominates him for MVP for now. I'm torn between Coffey and Arroyo.

Hooray for Bronson!

Bronson Arroyo did it again. He put up 8 shutout innings with just one hit in leading the Reds to victory over the Nationals this afternoon. Finally! A sweep! Not only was it a good day for Arroyo, but Dunn finally hit something today. Three somethings, in fact. David Ross smacked a ball into the upper deck for the Reds only home run of the series. These are always the games you want to see on TV and they are always the games that aren't on.

Ross's homer in the 3rd was the first run of the game. Rather surprising with Ramon Ortiz pitching. It's nice to see him helping the Reds for once. In the 4th, Felipe Lopez scored on one of Ortiz's famous errors. He was followed by Dunn and Kearns when Encarnacion singled. The 5th and 6th innings passed with no change (though Dave Ross the Mighty was intentionally walked). The Reds added one more run in the 7th just for fun. Reds win 5 to 0!

A Win For Williams

The Reds won again! Despite Dave Williams, who really didn't have too bad a night. Spectacular compared with his last two. After the first inning the game seemed rather dull to me. Cincinnati went up 4 to 0 in the 1st, then the Nationals added two on Zimmerman's home run in the 2nd. A gaggle of geese laid eggs in the 3rd and 4th innings. There was slightly more action in the 5th, with the Reds scoring two and the Nats scoring 1 on Soriano's home run. In a vain attempt to catch up, Washington scored a run in the 6th and 7th innings also, but it was not enough. The final score was 6-5. In winning this game, the Reds have secured a series win. Isn't it nice to know that before the last game is played?

Dave Williams outlasted Nationals starter Billy Traber by nearly 4 innings. Traber must not have been in a baseball playing mood and left shortly after the 2nd inning began. Williams pitched 5 innings with 9 hits, 4 runs and a walk. Todd Coffey hung out for the 6th and 7th innings, during which a run scored, credited to Felipe Lopez's error and not Coffey's unusual slightly-less-than-total awesomeness (oops, better make that two runs. The other was an inherited runner from Williams). Kent Mercker pitched a shutout 8th and Weathers pitched a shutout 9th, earning his 6th save.

The final game of the series takes place in about half an hour. Bronson Arroyo vs. Ramon Ortiz. I shall have my broom cautiously and optimistically placed just inside the closet but within easy reach.

And now story time because I remembered something from first grade that is Reds related and I'm amazed I remember it. Sometime in first grade we were supposed to write a letter to our favorite athlete or team. I chose to write to the Reds (I'm sure you're shocked). I have no idea what I wrote. It was probably something like, "Hi Reds, I'm Jacci. You're my favorite team. Bye." I was only 6, after all. The teacher sent our letters and in a few weeks people started getting letters back from their various people. Pretty soon everyone had a letter but me, and mine never came. So, 1989 Reds, though this had absolutely no impact on my fandom, where's my damn letter?

The Lizard Wins!

Elizardo Ramirez did a fantastic job of filling in for Milton last night. Only 6 hits, 2 runs and a walk in 7 innings. I seem to recall not being a big fan of his last year. He changed my mind last night. It's also nice to see the Reds go into the 9th with a small lead and come out with the same lead. The final score was Reds 4, Nationals 2.

Cincinnati got to work early with three runs in the in 1st. Felipe Lopez doubled in Ryan Freel and moved to third on an error. Lopez scored on Adam Dunn's groundout, and Austin Kearns was brought in by Edwin Encarnacion's double. That was about the last time Dunn and Kearns did anything productive. It makes me very sad. :( See how sad?

The Nationals thought they were going to play, too, and added a run of their own in the 1st. Alfonso Soriano came in on Nick Johnson's single. Then the Nats bats were quiet for quite some time.

In the 2nd, Javier Valentin pulled off a triple and later scored on Lopez's single. That would be the end of the scoring for the Reds, but it was all they needed.

In the 6th Jose Vidro came home when Jose Guillen singled, bringing the score to its final 4-2. Shortly after, Brandon Phillips showed off some defensive (and just downright athletic) prowess and leapt 208 feet in the air to get Ryan Church out. I'm pretty sure that's what happened, anyway.

Nothing much of consequence happened in the remaining innings. Elizardo did get his first major league hit in the 7th. It came to nothing, but he did it. Ramirez made it through the 7th. He came back for the 8th, but after Soriano made it to 1st he was replaced by Brian Shackelford, who got an out and then beaned Johnson. He was booed (because, you know, he did it on purpose), and then Todd Coffey charged to the mound. I love watching him run out of the bullpen. He needs a jouster on his back. Coffey finished out the 8th and David Weathers came in for the 9th. Though I didn't really want to see Weathers out there for some reason, and though he walked the first batter post-haste, he managed to get rid of the next three and get the save.

Cincinnati now has a record of 13 and 7, which, I have been told, is their best start since 1994. Go Reds!

And happy birthday to Christina!!

Tidbits of News

Several little bits of news to relate.

1. The Reds picked up a guy named Cody Ross from the Dodgers. He comes at the expense of a player to be named later. ESPN says later is Monday, but now is also Monday so I'm not sure when exactly "later" is.
2. Tony Womack will not be that player I guess, as he was DFA'ed today. He never gave me any real solid reason to dislike him, but he never gave me one to like him, either, so I guess I'll just be happy that the 2nd base issue is getting closer to solved.
3. Brandon Phillips was named the National League Player of the Week. With 17 RBI in a single week (including three home runs, one of which was a grand slam), it's really not a surprise. Well, it kind of is, seeing as no one respects the Reds. Worst team in baseball my ass. Anyway, as per the Reds' site, Tourneau (who is apparently connected to this Player of the Week thing) is going to give him a "luxury Swiss timepiece." Wonder why they couldn't just say "watch."
4. Eric Milton had surgery on his knee today. I think he did, anyway. He's got a lovely stint on the DL to look forward to, now. In his place we get to see Elizardo Ramirez tonight. Ramirez does not look as much like a lizard as his name might lead you to believe. Rumor has it he's been pitching well in Louisville, though.

Try, Try, Try Again

Blogger's big on eating posts today. I'm going to try this one last time.

For your viewing pleasure, stuff from elsewhere!

• Daedalus has this week's wrap-up. Be on the lookout for her head to explode tonight when the Reds play the Nationals.
• Shawn's got a couple of different renditions of his take on Sunday's game. I've chosen this one for ya.
• Red Hot Mama got a sweet interview with Tom Browning. How cool is that?
• JD says the Reds and Red Sox both have the fourth best record in baseball. Also very cool.

Yay! It worked!

Weekend Update

The Reds are leaving Wisconsin with a 3-1 record against the Brewers for the year. That's even better than what I was hoping for! The weekend was unfortunately marred by Saturday's fiasco, but since the Reds pulled a 180 today I guess I'll let it slide.

Bronson Arroyo threw the ball for a bit on Friday. By "a bit" I mean "8 innings." He gave up a home run on his first pitch, but it was okay. He just did that so the Brewers didn't feel too bad when they lost. He's a nice guy like that. TV called the game a pitching duel, which I suppose it was. The score was 3 to 1, so nobody's offense was really ripping it up. Ben Sheets pitched for Milwaukee. I was going to be really upset with him, but since the boys won that night and (though I didn't know it at the time) Dave Bush made such a mockery of their power the next day, I let him off easy. Sheets had something like 10 strike-outs and almost became my Least Favorite Brewer until the next day introduced the bat of Damian Miller.

All I'm going to mention about Saturday is that Brandon Claussen and Milwaukee do not get along, Damian Miller is my Least Favorite Brewer, I'd almost like the Brewers to have Overbay instead of Bush, and the Reds threw the game because they didn't want the Brewers to be embarrassed in front of what was, according to FSN, the biggest non-opening day crowd they'd had since the stadium opened (they just took it a little too far). Oh, also, the score was 11-0 for the Brewers.

Crap, more to mention about Saturday. In giving up 5 homeruns in the fourth inning, the Reds made a bit of history, becoming only the fourth team to accomplish such a feat, and the first in 40 years (and, since that's some stat quoting, here's where I got the numbers).

Sunday was probably a lot of fun. I was driving back to Athens and since some asshat stole the antenna off my car there was little to no radio signal for me, and thus no game for me. It was probably the same asshat that tried to break off the drivers' side mirror. One of these days they'll get theirs.

The Brewers returned all 11 runs the Reds had given them the day before, and the Reds returned the favor. Aaron Harang, filling in for the inevitably injured Eric Milton on just three days rest, had the first complete game for Cincinnati this year (a shutout, no less). He really is a beast.

All the scoring was thanks to 3 men; Austin Kearns (3 RBI), Edwin Encarnacion (also 3 RBI), and Brandon Phillips (4 RBI). Actually, make that 7 men. Doug Davis and company made it a lot easier by walking 13. Only one home run today, from one Mr. Phillips (whom I heart nearly as much as Pigpen), a three-run homer in the 9th. The end result was an 11-0 beating.

Tomorrow it's off to DC to play with the Nationals.

Brew Crew Goes Down

12-8 was not at all what I expected last night. After seeing the Reds struggle against the Marlins for two days I was quite concerned that the Brewers were going to pound them. Luckily, the Reds pounded the Brewers. Dave Williams, who has to be better than this, gave up 8 hits, 6 runs and 4 walks in something like 86 pitches through 3 innings. He left the game shortly thereafter. Jerry Narron got himself ejected (arguing an out that may or may not have been an out) so Dave wouldn't have to be the only one that left early.

Williams was replaced by Matt Belisle, who did a pretty darn good job for his 4 innings. He got the other two runs, but all in all, a pretty solid performance. Which is good. He was starting to worry me.

Up next was Brian Shackleford, who I really didn't see. Probably because he was only out there for three pitches. In the 8th, after Belisle gave up a homerun to Chad Moeller, nailed Brady Clark and JJ Hardy singled, Shackleford came in for one batter, Geoff Jenkins, who flied out.

Enter Todd Coffey. After an RBI single (run credited to Mr. Belisle), Coffey played no more games and shut the Brewers down.

After Williams's shaky start the offense totally bailed us out. The Reds scored a run in both the 1st and 2nd innings. The Brewers tacked on three in their half of the 2nd and also in the 3rd, making it 6 to 2 Milwaukee. Brandon Phillips (3 for 5 for the night) began his one-man show in the fourth with a two-run homer, which was followed by Felipe Lopez scoring on Tomo Ohka's error. We're making up ground, it's 6 to 5 Milwaukee. Edwin Encarnacion homered in the 5th to add two more to the total. 7 to 6 for the Reds!

With the bases loaded in the 6th, Mike Adams walked Austin Kearns to bring in Lopez. Phillips followed with his first career grand slam. Now we have 12 to 6 Reds. No more offensive wonders to behold on the Cincinnati side. The Brewers got two more, but no one cares. Final score: 12-8.

Tonight they're in Milwaukee again. Bronson Arroyo vs. Ben Sheets. 8:05 on FSN Ohio and probably on the radio, too.

I almost forgot! Big blow to the Cubbies yesterday. It seems one Derrek Lee broke his wrist and will be out for 8 to 10 weeks. Or maybe indefinitely. Everything says something different. No matter what it is, sucks to be the Cubs.

What's Going On?

I wouldn't mind if this camera crew figured out how to follow the game. I had no idea if that was a homerun or an out there at the end of the 1st. I just saw Dunn quit running.

Whew

Blogger apparently has an outage scheduled in about an hour so I better get this in now.

Despite the Fishies' learning how to both hit and field the ball, they failed to overcome the Reds obvious supremacy. Okay, so it wasn't so obvious. In fact, they barely scraped out this win. But, seeing as they had a previous record of 0-4 against Dontrelle Willis, I guess any win is cause for celebration. Plus, everyone loves a comeback. Everyone but the Marlins, anyway.

I tuned into the game in the bottom of the 2nd, when the Marlins were already up 2-0 thanks to some home runs from Miguel Cabrera and Miguel Olivo. It was not a good day for Aaron Harang at all. I forgive him, though. He's still a hoss. In the 4th (what was to be the last inning for Harang), Dan Uggla (now officially my Least Favorite Marlin) rocked his own socks with a three-run bomb to put the Fish up 5-0.

The bottom of the 4th brought something that resembled a miracle. Willis apparently lost his head or his arm or something and allowed 4 runs, all from walks and singles. The wild pitch helped, too. Ryan Freel singled to score Edwin Encarnacion. Willis's wild pitch to everyone's favorite newbie (Brandon Phillips) brought newly activated Jason LaRue home. Phillips then singled for to score David Ross and Freel. 5-4 Marlins now.

Angered by this, Reggie Abercrombie Kids threw in a homer and Josh Willingham singled in Willis and Uggla-Butt in the 6th. 8-4 Marlins. Yay! Oh wait, no. Boo!

Determined not to lose to what is projected to be the worst team in the NL this year, the Reds put up four more runs over the next two innings while the Marlins did nothing. Score's tied at 8 to end the 8th. 8 is great!

But 9 is better. Todd Coffey owned the world again and kept Florida scoreless in the top of the 9th. In the bottom, with Adam Dunn on 2nd and Scott Hatteberg on 1st, Encarnacion hit a walk-off double to send Dunn plateward and win the game!

Thursday the boys are in Milwaukee for a four game stint. Overbay's not there anymore so we'll have to find a new Least Favorite Brewer, too. Here's a random fact. Did you know that a stint is a bird?

What An Uggla Game

I couldn't resist the title. Everyone else was doing it and I'm feeling a bit like a lemming. Off the cliff I go!

I'm not even dignifying this game with a wrap (that should speak worlds about how high my hopes are for this season. I certainly learned a lot about them from my reaction to this). All you get is the score: Reds 6, Marlins 12.

Didn't that hurt?

Fine, you can have a link. In case you really do want to know what happened.

Tomorrow. Fish fry. 12:30ish.

Enough of That

I'm done with feeling sorry for the Marlins.

Argh! I need to yell at someone. I want to yell at Mike Burns, who is doing nothing to get on my good side tonight, but I think the neighbors would start to talk if I started yelling at the radio.

I didn't think I'd have a Least Favorite Marlin, but Uggla is dangerously close to earning that title.

Poor Fishies

It's not as much fun to clobber a team, like the Reds did to the Marlins last night, when you feel sorry for them. But, I push through and laugh all the same, just slightly ashamed of myself.

The poor Marlins looked like they'd never played baseball before. They were only credited with one error. I'm going to assume the game itself was counted as one error. There were dropped balls all over the place (part of the reason the Reds had so many extra base hits). My sister and I declared it a holiday the first time we saw an outfielder catch and maintain possession of a fly ball. We called it That Marlins Dude Caught the Ball Day.

The Reds, on the other hand, looked great. But then, they should look great playing a team that can hardly be considered a major league team.

Brandon Claussen had a good night. 7 innings, no runs, 5 hits. I don't think I'm going to be a big fan of Mike Burns (1 inning, 1 run), but he's got ample time to change my mind. Chris Hammond surprised me once again with a shutout inning of his own.

As for the offense, there were yet more home runs. Adam Dunn hit another 1st inning home run. It seems like he's done that in every game. This one, his 8th so far this year, was a 2-run homer. Austin Kearns added one in the 6th, making that 5 for him. Lots of doubles on the evening as well. The final score was 9 to 1.

Like many other people, I am really liking Brandon Phillips. He was 3 for 4 last night with 4 RBI and a run scored. I enjoyed watching him play, I enjoyed the brief interview with him after the game. If ever granted the opportunity to talk to the man, I'd probably enjoy that, too.

Oh yes! And Griffey the Junior was put on the 15-day DL. Much speculation about that one. A lot of it revolving around the return of Jason Larue and the possible impending release of Tony Womack.

The Tale of Sir Casey (or I Have a Lot of Trinkets)

The following is a product of boredom and an excess of cute decorative items:

Once upon a time there was a peaceful land.



One day the peaceful land was invaded by an evil dragon.

The valiant but diminutive Sir Casey, with his shining foil armor, came to save the day.

There was a tremendous battle (in my kitchen).

The brave Sir Casey's back was injured. Luckily he escaped with only a few fractured vertebrae, but will be out of action for 6 to 8 weeks.

In the end, the dragon was vanquished...

And Tiny Sir Casey got all the ladies.

THE END

Coming up next, the Marlins at the Reds.

Linking Fun

For a more in-depth look at the excitement of the weekend, check these out.

1. Daedalus at the Church of Baseball has week 2's wrap-up. She's also having fun with Photoshop.
2. Shawn's got wraps of Friday, Saturday and Sunday's games.
3. Here are JD's thoughts on Sunday's game.
4. JP at Reds (And Blues) discusses two kinds of ugly, both of which were witnessed this weekend.
5. The Mechanic isn't a big fan of the umps.

Real Quick-Like

Here's a weekend recap all short and sweet style. Playing crazy games like Run Around the House Every Time a Silver Car Drives By with the 12 year old cousin for three hours leaves one rather exhausted. Anyway, here we go!

Friday: Aaron Harang and Chris Carpenter pitching. Still no Griffey. Todd Coffey is a hoss (so is Harang). Reds win 1 to 0. Albert Poo-Holes (creative, mature and original name, huh?) is a jerk.

Saturday: Dave Williams and Sidney Ponson pitching. Still no Griffey. The game was tough to watch. Cards win 9 to 3. Albert Poo-Holes continues to be a jerk.

Sunday: Bronson Arroyo and Mark Mulder pitching. Still no Griffey. The lead was changed many times. Cards win 8 to 7. Albert Poo-Holes surpasses previous jerk level records and steals the game with a walk-off homer in the 9th. I also think he has planted remote controls in all the balls so he can either send them out of the park or easily guide them to his glove and make it look like he has talent. Because he's a jerk.

>:(

Albert Pujols = My Enemy

Reds Take the Series

I smashed my thumb into the wall the other day. It looks pretty gross. Gross, however, is not how I would describe the final game of the series in Chicago. Once again the Reds slapped the Cubs in the face. It may not have been 6 home runs, but 3’s pretty good, too. Dunn, Lopez and Kearns all went deep. Lopez and Kearnsy’s were for three (which reminds me of high school basketball games where the announcer always yelled, “Ben Rrrrramsey for tha-REEEEEEE!” Just in case you wanted to know that). Milton even had a triple. A triple! Now if only we could get Harang to start hitting this well.

Dunn started the day off right with a solo homer in the first. Even though I was here and sitting in front of the TV for the first inning I somehow missed it. Shortly after this I was called away to learn about the biological basis of altruism. The Cubs were quite altruistic while I was gone. The Reds were up 5 to 3 by the top of the eighth thanks to Lopez’s home run and I think Milton’s triple. I can’t figure out exactly how we got the run in the fifth, but Gameday says we got one. I got home just in time to see Kearnsy put the cap on the day with his three-run homer in the eighth.

Best of all, the bullpen didn’t self-destruct! I guess they didn’t self-destruct yesterday, either, but no one notices that when you lose 4 to 1 anyway. Todd Coffey came in for the last out of the seventh and allowed no runs through the eighth, though he and new acquisition Brandon Phillips did try to make it interesting with an error for Phillips and a wild pitch for Coffey. Mercker also allowed no runs in the ninth.

Final score today: 8 to 3.

Now on to a more pressing matter. Since when has Eric Milton’s hair been that dark? I won’t pretend to know everything about the man, but I swear his hair was much lighter last year. I also think he should get rid of that ugly beard.

Bird hunting in St. Louis tomorrow! Harang takes the lead.

Blaaaaaaah

Today's game in Chicago was depressing in a few ways. Losing, of course, is always sad, but all I got to see of the game was some Cub get on base in the first and then Javy fly out to end the game. The final score was 4 to 1. The Reds had a grand total of four hits. So stark a contrast to yesterday it hurts.

Keeping with the topics of contrast and hurt, when checking on the Reds official site, I saw two stories of interest. Story number one: "Griffey Hopes to Keep Rolling." Story number two: "Griffey Exits Early With Stiffness in Knee." I suppose it shouldn't surprise me, being Griffey and all, but that just sucks. He's listed as day to day, so I guess we could see him back soon. Freel came into the game playing center field for him. There's a good mark. We got to see Freel and Womack at the same time.

Five errors on the day. Three of them from Encarnacion. He seems to like the triple error days.

At least it sounds like Claussen looked good today. And, if the games in the series were cumulative, the Reds would still be winning 10 to 6.

6

What a way to show the Cubs how to play baseball. Shoving 6 home runs (including a grand slam) down their throats is fun. I guess that's why the game wasn't on TV today. It was too much awesome for the box to handle. I was shocked to find a radio station in Athens carrying the game. That's good for future reference, though.

Griffey of the Junior variety started off the party with his solo shot in the 1st. Dunn added his own in the 2nd. Arroyo, proving himself the better end of the Pena trade every time we see him, joined the party in the 3rd, also a solo. Laughing may not be the appropriate response to that, but that's what I did. Dunn threw in another homer in the 4th. So far it's 4 to 0 Reds.

The 5th wasn't quite as fun. No one really did much. Well, that's not quite true. Arroyo continued some pretty darn good pitching. In the 6th the Reds decided it was about time to put the hurt on the Cubs. Griffey and Aurilia singled and Dunn walked to load the bases. Then comes Edwin Encarnacion, striding to the plate (I imagine he did this with quite the arrogant swagger because that just makes it all the better). Mr. Encarnacion then procedes to pick up his first home run of the season, and the first grand slam of his career. Yeah buddy! Reds are up 8-0. How embarassing for those Cubbies.

Right after this Kearns added yet another solo to the tally, bringing the home run count for the day up to 6, all of them for Cincinnati.

Arroyo pitched 7 innings (no runs), a very good day for him all around. Chris Hammond came in for the 8th, managed to get two outs, but still allowed one run. Rick White came in and got the final out for him, returned for the 9th, allowed another run (the 7th home run of the day, from Barrett), then closed out the inning without further scoring.

Reds win, 9-2. Woo!

What other people say:

• Daedalus
• Shawn
• Red Hot Mama
• Red Reporter
• Reds (and Blues)

Also, check out the standings. Cincinnati's first in the division! Sure, it's a three-way tie, but Cincinnati is first alphabetically, so it looks really good.

Bronson Arroyo is the Man

Hahaha! Bronson Arroyo homers again!

And what the hell is Freel doing getting caught stealing 2nd? That's just silliness.

Gah!

Forgot to link you crazy again! So, for further insight into Sunday's game:

• Check out Shawn's wrap
• Or you could visit RHM (and, for saying I'm cooler than Edwin Encarnacion, here's a flying LLM for ya!)
• Next up we have Redleg Nation. No game wrap, but they managed to finangle an exclusive interview with Jay Bruce
• Reds (and Blues) has got some love for my Pigpen
• Big Red Mechanic is back!
• And then you can go check out Blade's new wrapping system

Put Away the Brooms

No Pirate sweeping this time. Pittsburgh finally found their first victory of the season at the expense of the Reds on Sunday. They narrowly avoided defeat three times, but I guess four was just too much to ask. Hatteberg and Valentin, not to be outdone by Casey and Cota, tried to pull off the same Catch and Crash show from the previous day. Unfortunately, Hatteberg didn't come up with the ball in this rendition. Dave Williams had a decent outing, but it couldn't make up for the defense and the Reds came away with a 5 to 3 loss. The game ended streaks for both teams. The Reds' winning streak stopped at 4 and the Pirates' losing streak stopped at 6 (an interesting side note, as of Saturday, Pittsburgh had more losses than the rest of the NL Central combined. We had a good laugh at that). The results of today's games leave the Reds sitting in 4th place in the division, ahead of St. Louis and Pittsburgh. Good to see those stupid birds behind us.

No game for the Reds today. Tomorrow they'll be in Chicago beating up on some Cubs.

Speaking of the Cubs, Ruz at The Cub Reporter has identified us as an enemy. I feel so formidable! And legitimate!

I'm Still Not Properly Warm

Getting to Saturday's game was quite an adventure. We lost Christina before the trip even started because she apparently likes being sick or something. So, one person down and one ticket up, we set off for Cincinnati. Finding our friend's house in Cincinnati was great. Either he gave us incomplete directions or we can't read, but first we missed the road we were supposed to turn on and then, once we found it, we turned the wrong direction. We finally found him, went and had lunch, got rid of the extra ticket, and then arrived at the game only slightly late.

At this point it is important to note that a temperature of 50 degrees with sun means nothing when put together with gale force winds off the Ohio River. It was freaking COLD. I should definitely have worn more than a t-shirt and light jacket. The people that sat way up at the top for the whole game are either the most badass group of people ever or the biggest idiots ever. It was cold enough down where we were sitting. The place was pretty empty by the 4th or 5th inning and yet they continued to sit up there and freeze.

Anyway, the actual game. Ryan Freel continued his quest to earn my undying love by being a super awesome baseball machine. He stole about a bazillion bases, as well as a sac fly for Dunn (who, I am told, tracked him down in the dugout and gave him a great, big bear hug for it).

In the first, after Freel and Lopez stole 3rd and 2nd respectively simultaneously, Aurilia knocked one out for 3 runs. Fantastic start to the day. The Pirates even tried to help out when Casey and I guess it was Cota went for a popup at the same time and crashed into each other. Though Casey knocked him down, Cota failed to help the Reds when he didn't drop the ball.

I was paying a lot more attention to the fact that I was freezing than I was to the game, so the details on exactly what happened when are quite fuzzy, but it was a darn good game. Kearns had a homerun to go along with Aurilia's. As I said earlier, Freel tore the place up with stolen bases. Harang had a much better day than Monday, and even had a hit. Technically it was ruled an error and so it doesn't count as a hit, but the man got on base. He even got to score a run.

By the end of the 8th the Reds were up 11 to 6. In the 9th they tried their best to ruin the game by allowing the Pirates many hits and 3 runs. Lucky for us, the scoring stopped there and the Reds finally won it 11-9. For the first time, I actually forgot to take a picture of the scoreboard at the end.

Now, here's an interesting new addition. It seems the Reds have cheerleaders now. I do not share JD's opinion on this matter. But then, I'm female and really don't see the draw. All they really inspired me to do was wonder about how cold they must have been.

And now to make up for some slacking in the generosity department. Everybody else has been all cool and linking to us all week, so I guess it's about time we returned the favor. Here's what we've got for Saturday's game.

• Shawn's excellent take on Saturday's game
• Here we have RHM's fantabulous game wrap
• Mr. McIntyre at exciting Reds (and Blues) says this
• And here's a splendid wrap of the first week of the season from the Church of Baseball

Sorry that wasn't presented in a more entertaining or informative manner. My brain seems to have died.

Backtrack

I guess the Reds won Friday night. I didn't see the game on TV, nor did I have any internet access, but the newspaper told me that the game happened and that the Reds won. It also says the score was 7 to 6. I heard that Eric Milton pitched and that Casey had a homerun for the Pirates. That's about all I know. I was pleasantly surprised they managed to get the game in at all. The storms were quite nasty.

Got to see Saturday's game in person. I'll get that exciting tale up here in the next hour or so. Can you handle the suspense?

Thank You, Thank You

I am going to take sole responsibility for Dunn's nearly stolen RBI single in the 8th this evening. He was obviously inspired by my fantastic, spinning "Hit another homerun, please" dance. The dance didn't work out quite like it was supposed to, but that 6th run was all they needed anyway. My "Throw out Jim Tracy" dance worked pretty well, too. I don't think that one needed my help, though. He was not a happy camper.

The eventual score was 6-5, but tomorrow no one's really going to care about that. They'll care about Chris Duffy nearly pulling off the "I totally caught that" act and stealing the game (I do give him kudos for the effort), and Dunn's field-goalesque homer in the 6th.

I was trying to keep track of all the extraneous Sean Casey mentions. Not that I don't love the guy no matter who he plays for, we just all saw it coming. I stopped counting around 12 or 13.

Some Nifty Coolness

Check out this chica. Marty mentioned her on the radio! Isn't that awesome?

A Win

The Reds stuck it to the Cubs with an 8 to 6 defeat today. I suppose that's not really sticking it to them, but, since they so thoroughly trounced the Reds on Monday, it works for me. Bronson Arroyo (who I keep trying to call Arroya) looked good. He even hit a homerun, which the guys on ESPN tell us was his first major league homer ever. Aurilia and Griffey joined him in the homerunning as well. Griffey's (number 537) bumped him up on the all-time list to 12th, just ahead of one Mr. Mickey Mantle.

Now to the real story. I loves me some Pigpen. Ryan Freel is the most awesome man ever. EVER.

Hitting the Big Time

The boys are on ESPN today, folks. Movin' on up!

Oh yes, the game's at 12:35. You better hurry up and go find a TV.

Silver Lining

Totally lame title. I know, I know. It goes perfectly with what I'm trying to write here. No matter what I write it comes out ultra lame.

Anyway, in light of all the negativity floating about THE INTERNET, here are some good points (in bulleted list form because I can't make them sound better any other way):

• Homeruns! Two of them!
• Coffey and Belisle had good innings
• I'll leave this one in Griffey's words: "You'd rather have everything go wrong on one day than things go wrong on a bunch of days. Hopefully, we got all that stuff out of the way and we'll come back the next game and have some fun."
• Seeing as this is the opposite of how the season started last year, maybe the end result will be the opposite of last season, too
• All of the Opening Day excitement boosted the crap out of our traffic (that doesn't sound right at all)
• Opening Day! Baseball is back! It's exciting no matter what happens!

So there's that. See, not all bad.

Now to go indulge my ultra girliness and watch some Sex and the City reruns.

Opening Day

That was not at all the glorious debut of the 2006 Reds I was hoping for. I held out hope throughout the entire game (regardless of how that last post sounds), but it didn't do much good. So, lets get down to the business of recapping the events I didn't block from memory.

The top of the first should have been my clue to stop watching and go to class. But no, Harang's 35 pitches and Chicago's 5 runs were not enough to deter me. I sat on the couch, talking Harang through the inning (because he can totally hear me) and contemplating whether or not I should start bawling. Matt Murton is now my official Least Favorite Cub. I called Christina 19 minutes into the game and left her a message to let her know how splendidly it was going.

The bottom of the 1st brought Adam Dunn's sac fly for the year. It was good of him to get that over with early. It did, however, bring on a lot of talk about how long it took him to hit one last year. The sac fly got Tony Womack (I think I'm going to call him T-Wo) home, bringing the score to 5-1 Cubbies.

A bathroom break caused me to miss the entirety of the top of the 2nd, so it must have been a pretty good one for Harang. It also caused me to miss an interesting call about having been drawn as a finalist in a contest to win a new Cadillac Escalade. I didn't enter any contest to win a new Escalade, so I'm not calling back. There wasn't much action in the bottom of the 2nd. Or at least, if there was, it's in the "blocked memory" section.

Scott Hatteberg got himself a nice 3-run homer in the 3rd, cutting the Cubs down to just a one-run lead. Dunn hit one out of the park (which we almost missed thanks to Bud Selig's incessant blabbering) in the 5th to get the score tied. Unfortunately, that was the closest the Reds got to victory today. Through a series of crap (contained mostly within that most painful 6th inning), the score ended up 16-7, with the Cubs thoroughly embarassing our Reds.

Dunn's defensive skills certainly didn't help today. He had a couple of nice plays, and he did have a sac fly and a homerun, but then there was the rest of the game. He ran into the outfield wall only to come up empty-handed a few times, and also took a less-than-spectacular spill trying to get to a ball he shouldn't have missed. I've seen him play better than that, so I'm gonna blame that mostly on the wind. It was pretty nasty today. Or perhaps, as the TV personalities said, he was just having one of those days you'd rather forget.

Maybe the whole loss can be chalked up to the Cubs fancy batting helmets, with their obvious aerodynamic superiority. They have airholes! How can the hole-less-helmeted Reds compete with that?

At least it didn't get rained out.

Anyway, on to the next game! And in the mean time, check out RHM's new Cub's game.

Oh Boy

Obviously my hopes were set WAY too high. Granted, it's only the bottom of the 6th, but I'm about ready to quit watching this game. I must have been expecting the Reds to come in and stomp on the Cubs from the start, because this has got me all upset. At least Denorfia's socks make me feel a little better.

More to come later.