Rest of the Cubs Series

Tuesday's game was pretty much a repeat of Monday, only with a 1 hour rain delay in the middle and one more run for the Cubs. Brandon Claussen looked good up until the break. Then he seemed to decide it would be fun to pitch with his eyes closed. The errors didn't help, either, but the Cubs had just as many, so I don't feel as bad about that as I could. It was, however, the 6th game in a row that the Reds committed at least one error. The bullpen looked pretty normal, too. Justin Germano did rather well in his first outing (1 inning, no hits, 1 walk) but to no avail. The end result was an 8-3 loss.

Wednesday was much, much better. Eric Milton (now goateed) started against Carlos Zambrano. It figures they'd win against the guy that's supposed to own them. Despite loading the bases in the 1st, the Reds failed to put up any runs until the 6th. Ken Griffey Jr. hit a lead-off home run. Afterward Austin Kearns came home on Jason LaRue's ground-out. The Reds put up another run in the 7th when Griffey singled in Ryan Freel.

Upon hindsight, it appears Milton should have been taken out after the 7th, but he was going through the lineup with such ease it probably would have seemed silly. However, when Milton came out for the 8th, Matt Murton promptly doubled and Jacque Jones followed with a home run. Perhaps the Milton faced a few more batters in order to give Todd Coffey ample time to warm up. Luckily no bad came of it and Todd Coffey shut down the potential rally and earned save number 2 this season. The Reds won 3-2.

Today we bid a very desperate adieu to May. Friday = Astros. Hopefully Aaron Harang > Wandy Rodriguez. For that matter, hopefully the Reds offense > Wandy Rodriguez.