Workin' for the Weekend (and more)

I'm not used to this whole working during baseball thing. As it turns out, it sucks. I don't get to see anything. And apparently I'm going to whine about that all season, but I gots ta make a livin'. In the last several days the Reds have finally won a game against the Diamondbacks, won another series with the Cubs (though barely) and lost the first game of the series with the Brewers. The common theme of all the games (until today's) was pretty good pitching backed by crap at the plate. This is made all the more disappointing by the hot start last year. Granted, last year we had a few more big bats in the lineup. One that I still miss a great deal. Because, you know, I knew him personally and all (that was sarcasm in case you didn't get it. I feel like an ass explaining it, but no one ever gets it). DAMN YOU AOL AND YOUR RANDOM BIAS AGAINST PARAGRAPH BREAKS!! Tonight it seems the offense might finally have started putting things together, scoring 6 runs. Unfortunately, those 6 runs were less than the Brewers' 10. If Coffey hadn't blown up and given up those five runs, though, Cincy might have been able to pull off another victory. That is assuming, of course, that the rest of the game went the way it did. But if you've seen Back to the Future you know what happens if you change the past. Hamilton contributed two of the Reds' runs with his third homer of the season. Encarnacion and Griffey also helped the score. As for pitching, Milton did not have too terrible an outing. He only gave up one home run in his five innings, only three hits, and three runs. Santos and Saarloos allowed a run a piece. Coutlangus continued looking pretty darn awesome and allowed no runs on one hit. Coffey, however, allowed five runs, four earned (thanks mostly to a Bill Hall grand slam) in one-third of an inning. Tomorrow it's game two. Matt Belisle attempts to keep his good times rolling against Milwaukee's Dave Bush. The game's on FSN at 7:10. Guess where I'll be!

Mr. Giant Golf Club Inventor

That would be my new favorite Real Man of Genius and I just thought you all should know it, since I heard the commercial during tonight's game. FOUR!!!
Tonight was another 1 run loss for the Reds, this one coming at the end of 11 innings. Thanks to the extended nature of the game, I was able to hear/see more than the last inning of the game. Still, I was not able to bear witness to Josh Hamilton's first major league hit/homerun. I'm sorry to have missed it, but I'm sure I can find a number of replays. There's probably one up on Reds.com already. It's going to be quite the popular story in the Cincy area.
Kyle Lohse started the game for the Reds. The only players not to leave the bench or bullpen during the course of the game were Chad Moeller, Victor Santos and Jon Coutlangus.
Dunn started off his evening with a solo homer in the 1st. Hamilton's 2-run bomb came in the 3rd. Brandon Phillips finished out the scoring with his own solo shot, also in the 3rd.
Even with those three home runs, the Reds could not pull out a win. The Snakes jumped out to the lead in their half of the 1st on a 3-run homer from Chad Tracy. Hamilton and Phillips gave the Reds the lead in the 3rd, but Chris Snyder's home run in the 4th brought the game to a tie. It stayed that way until the bottom of the 11th, when Arizona finally managed to put the game out of its misery, handing the Reds loss number 4, with a score of 5-4.

Quadruple Header

Belated happy holidays and all that! Thanks to work and the rabbit I now have 4 games on which to catch you up (how strange, in order to avoid ending the sentence in a preposition, I rearranged it so that it ended in another preposition. Of course, to avoid it all together I'd have to have said something like "up on which to catch you," and that just sounds dumb). Seeing as that would take forever to do well, I'll do it short and crappy.

Game the first was the first of the series with the Pirates. Also a game my evil mother attended without me. Let it be known that I actually love my mother and do not think she is evil, but she never even asked if I wanted to go and now I am bitter. Though the cold was also bitter, the Reds won convincingly, by a score of 6 to 1. Matt Belisle pitched and did a bang up job, becoming the fourth pitcher in a row for the Reds to make it through at least 6 innings, which I think is pretty darn nifty. He also held the Pirates to just 1 run. Mom would also like you to know that she put her hot dog wrapper in her pocket rather than let if drift onto the field because she is a concerned citizen and fan and also because there were apparently no trash cans nearby. This is a situation I plan to look into next time I'm at Great American. I cannot recall ever seeing trash cans inside the park. That could be because the trash is not high on my list of Things I'm Excited to See. Or maybe there really aren't any. The investigation begins.

The second game was also against the Pirates (imagine that!). In order to avoid frostbite, the game was moved to 1:00 in the afternoon. Even with the short rest and the bitter cold the Reds came out on top once again, giving Harang his 2nd win of the year with a score of 7-5. Adam Dunn hit his 3rd home run of the season and also stole 2 bases. Jon Coutlangus's major league debut was rather successful, giving up no hits and striking out one in his 0.2 innings.

I pretty much missed Sunday's game due to family time. I played ImaginIff, Spoons and Shoot My Cousins with Foam Airplanes while the Reds were losing for the 2nd time this season. Eric Milton was the pitcher and earner of the big, ugly L. The defeat was pretty crushing, 6-3. The bullpen gave up more than 0 runs for the first time this season, with Coffey and Coutlangus both giving up solo homers. I was able to stop by the TV long enough to see both.

Tonight's game was in Arizona where it is much warmer. It always seems that the Reds have a hard time with the Diamondbacks, and so it was again today. Cincinnati's new away uniforms look a lot like the Phillie's, but I like them still. The D-backs also look different this year, sporting a surprising amount of red. Surprising to me, anyway. While I struggled through an evening of controling high school kids, Bronson Arroyo was working his way through 4 innings of no-hit baseball. The Snakes struck back, though, and took the lead in the 8th. I jumped in my car and turned on the radio in time for the top of the 9th, during which Josh Hamilton walked, making it on base for the first time this season (I think). Hatteberg's double play eliminated them both. Javy got on base with a single just before Phillips ended the game on a fly ball out, giving the Reds loss number 3.

The standings page is all kinds of messed up right now, but I believe Cincinnati and Pittsburgh are still tied for first in the division, both with a record of 4-3.

Number Three

The Reds squeaked out a win for their third game of the year. They put the Cubs down 5-2, but didn't manage to get the lead until the 7th inning. Kyle Lohse pitched for the Reds while Jason Marquis did the same for the Cubs. In his 6.1 innings, Lohse gave up 2 runs on 10 hits and struck out 3. He was replaced by a slew of relievers, including such memorable names as Victor Santos, Rheal Cormier, Kirk Saarloos, Mike Stanton and David Weathers. Their combined 2.2 innings pitched resulted in no more hits and no more runs. Santos got the win and Weathers earned his first save of the season.

The Cubs scored the first run in the 2nd, but the Reds came right back with their own in the 4th when Edwin Encarnacion singled in Brandon Phillips. LFC (Least Favorite Cub) Matt Murton was partly responsible for Chicago's 2nd run, coming home on Aramis Ramirez's double in the 5th. Luckily that was all the scoring the Cubbies would do. The Reds put up 2 more runs in the 7th on a Jeff Conine single and an Adam Dunn walk, at which point they took the lead for good. And just for good measure Scott Hatteberg put up a 2-run homer in the 8th. That all adds up to 5 runs for the good guys and 2 for the bad guys. Good guys win.

Cincinnati is currently tied with Milwaukee for 2nd in the division, just behind the surprising Pittsburgh Pirates, who somehow swept Houston. The Pirates come to town this weekend, and my mother is going to the game tonight without me. How rude.

In Case You Hadn't Noticed

Thom Brennaman would like you to know that it is cold outside today and also that it was not cold outside yesterday. For those of you not living in the eastern half of the US, I suppose that could be news to you, but I'm assuming the vast majority of the people who watched the game tonight probably already know that it's snowing, even though it was almost 80 yesterday.

While Thom talked about the weather there was an actual game going on. Bronson Arroyo's 2007 debut was not quite as clean and shiny as his 2006 debut, but it wasn't too bad. Sure, it ended in a 4-1 loss to the Cubs, but who wants to play baseball when it's 20 degrees and snowing anyway? Perhaps things would have gone better for Arroyo if he had worn long sleeves. He gave up 8 hits and 4 earned runs through 7 plus innings. He did strike out 9, though. Mike Stanton and Todd Coffey combined their efforts for the 8th inning, giving up a hit and no runs. Jared Burton and Victor Santos covered the 9th. Burton's major league debut was not exactly stellar. While he gave up no hits, he walked all three batters he faced. I'd be a nervous wreck, too, though, so no judgment here.

The offense was apparently frozen tonight, scoring just 1 run on 3 hits. The lone RBI goes to none other than Adam Dunn, who probably would have added a few more home runs to his record tonight had the weather been a bit more baseball-like. Or at least that's what Thom said on TV. I really don't know much about how temperature affects a ball's ability to travel, but that's why I'm not a physicist.

On a completely different note, did you know that Jeff Conine is an accomplished racquetball player? If you didn't, now you do.

Startin' Out Right

I get some crazy amount of joy out of kicking Carlos Zambrano's butt. I would if I had the opportunity, anyway. Short of that, the Reds kicking his butt on Opening Day is pretty darn good, too. Being able to see more of the game would have been great, but work has this annoying habit of always starting in the middle of games. Since the score when I left was 5-1, though, I suppose I didn't miss a whole lot of consequence.

Adam Dunn earned himself the position of Hero of the Day quite early in the game. He got Zambrano all in a tizzy after hitting home runs off of him in each of his first two appearances. Number two also earned him his 200th career homer. What a nice milestone to reach on Opening Day.

The only run the Cubs managed to score was due to an error by Ryan Freel. Freel was just a little extra excited to be playing and missed his target, allowing my Least Favorite Cub for two seasons running (Matt Murton) to score.

The last I saw of the game was poor little Carlos's meltdown in the 5th, which helped to add a couple more runs to the 3 Dunn contributed. With the bases loaded, Zambrano walked Scott Hatteberg, scoring Brandon Phillips. Shortly thereafter Ken Griffey, Jr. scored on Alex Gonzalez's sacrifice fly, which brought the score to its final 5-1, which means the Reds are currently a team with a 1.000 record. Woohoo!

Also of note:

• The Reds, thanks to the magic of alphabetical listing (and also due to their win today) are in theoretical first place and the Cardinals are in theoretical last place. Ha!
• Gameday looks super awesome cool this year.

Wow!

Since I have failed to report on anything in a while, let it be known that the days that I did not write contained mostly humiliating losses to the lowly last place Cubs and the not-so-lowly Wild Card leading Padres, along with a loss to the Astros. The one win over the Cubs in the duration was once again behind Bronson Arroyo's recently fantastic pitching.

Now onto something I actually saw (on TV) and can actually write about.

Holy crap! They won! Harang has 14 W's! The bullpen tried to keep it familiar, though. They certainly tried their darn'dest to blow the lead. Stormy came through to preserve the win, though, a 5-4 win. After Sunday's debacle it seemed impossible that the Reds would ever win again, but they did. Barely.

Houston scored first, when Luke Scott's RBI triple tried to kill Brandon Phillips (sure, it might actually have been Freel's throw that hit him in the eye, but I'm blaming Scott). Denorfia would have none of it, though, and quickly responded with his first Major League homer, a 2-run affair that put the Reds up by 1. They continued the scoring in the 5th, and by the middle of the inning Cincinnati was up 5-1. The Reds, however, failed to score again, and Cincinnati fans spent the rest of the game holding their breath.

Harang gave up a run in each of the 5th and 6th innings, bringing the score to 5-3. He ran into heaps of trouble in the 8th and handed the ball over to Schoeneweis, who allowed 1 run (credited to Harang) and didn't get anyone out. Weathers stepped in to finish the 8th and 9th rather uneventfully. The Reds scraped out a win and their fans finally breathed again. Is "breathed" a word? It sounds very wrong, but dictionary.com says it is right. Of course, some things that are right sound wrong anyway. Like "dived." Apparently "dove" is no longer a word, so instead of saying, "I dove into the water," you must now say, "I dived into the water." Who decides these things? I want to be on that committee. "Oscillate" must go.

Right, back to baseball. Bronson Arroyo takes the mound in Houston today at 2:05. It's on ESPN! Go Reds!

One Game Closer

That was a close one. For some reason, though, I never felt like the Reds were going to lose. That could be because I didn't get to actually see Franklin blow yet another lead. Brandon Phillips and Jason LaRue get big kudos for their efforts. LaRue did not look very excited about winning the game, though. In fact, he looked a little po-ed. But maybe he's just like that; all business and no fun.

The Reds chipped away at the Padres hold on the Wild Card in what I'm sure was heartbreaking fashion for San Diego. After jumping all the way out to a 1 run lead in the 2nd, the Padres hopes were dimmed a bit when Rich Aurilia smashed a 3-run homer in the 3rd. Cincinnati retained the lead until the 6th, when Ryan Franklin decided to make things interesting (I suppose I should point out that Eric Milton was the starting pitcher. He went 5 innings and gave up one run before leaving with a sore elbow). After Franklin allowed 3 runs on 3 hits in 2/3 innings, the Padres were back on top, 4-3.

In the 8th, however, Brandon Phillips's grounder got Edwin Encarnacion home from 3rd and tied the game at 4's. Neither team scored again until the 11th. Jason LaRue came up to bat with nobody on and 1 out in the 11th for the Reds. He swung at and missed the first pitch, but the second was sent sailing into the stands in left field, fair by mere feet. LaRue came home to the traditional beating and marched his way straight to the dugout, no smiles, though he did take the time to hit a few rocks on his way. When all was said and done, the Reds had won 5-4 and taken a small step closer to making it to October.

Bronson Wins 3 in a Row

It's amazing! Bronson Arroyo is determined to own the world for the rest of September. He's had 3 great games in a row, all of which led to W's. We like W's! That's why the blog starts with one. Okay, not really. Arroyo pitched 8 innings and allowed only 2 runs. Scott Schoeneweis pitched the 9th, giving up a hit and no runs.

During the 2nd inning, Gameday says Juan Castillo grounded out, and was also out on batter interference. I have no idea what that means. He was batting, he grounded out, he was the 3rd out, and then he was out again? Obviously, this is a baseball concept I do not understand. It'd probably make more sense if I knew what actually happened. Other than that, there wasn't much action until the 6th inning.

In the top of the 6th, Chris Duffy and Jack Wilson singled for the Pirates, and later scored on Freddy Sanchez's single. The Reds responded with 3 runs in the bottom of the 6th. Aurilia, Encarnacion and Dunn all scored a run to put the Reds up 3-2. Royce Clayton doubled in the 7th and Aurilia brought him home with a single to bring the score to its final 4-2.

The Reds now sit just below .500 with a record of 71-72. They are 4 1/2 games behind the Cardinals in the NL Central (just barely holding onto 2nd place), and 3 1/2 games behind the Padres in the Wild Card (just barely holding onto 5th place). That's still better than a lot of the early predictions.

Reds Beat Stuffing out of Pirates

Take your best record in the NL Central since the All-Star break and shove it, Pirates! Your bad assness was not strong enough to overcome the power of Kyle Lohse's unusually pronounced name, or Freel's lead off home run, or Javy's multiple home runs, or Dunn's 40th home run (for the 3rd straight year). Winning 9-1 last night makes me kind of sad that we decided against the game tonight. But, if we did go, I'd just have to listen to my mother complaining that she's missing the Ohio State/Texas game.

Lohse looked grand once again, with 7 innings pitched and 1 run earned (on 7 hits). Todd Coffey and Gary Majewski (who has been out so long I couldn't remember his first name) finished out the 8th and 9th innings respectively without allowing any more runs.

As previously mentioned, it was all about home runs for the Reds last night. It was all about home runs for the Pirates, too. Their one run was scored on a homer from Ryan Doumit. If the Reds can just do that every night for the rest of the month, maybe there's still hope. The Cardinals were soundly thrashed by the Diamondbacks last night. That helps.

1 Down, 9 to Go

The Reds are tied for first place again! Yay! I tried to watch the game. I got through the first 3 or 4 innings and then fell asleep. Unfortunately I missed the good part. I saw Eric Milton giving up home runs all over the place despite the pitcher-friendly nature of AT&T Park. I saw Brad Hennessey mowing down our lineup like it was his job (haha. I'm funny). I saw a 3 next to SF and a 0 next to CIN on the TV screen.

I did not see Encarnacion's RBI single that started off the Reds' scoring. I did not see the Reds' bullpen mow down the Giants like it was their job. I did not see Ross's solo home run in the 8th that broke the 3-3 tie. I did not see the 2 insurance runs they put up in the 9th. But all of these things happened, and Cincinnati won 6-3.

Dave Williams helped the Mets demolish the Cardinals, and in so doing helped the Reds into the first place tie. Way to still be a team player, Dave!

Aaron Harang looks to keep the good times rolling tonight. It's another 10:15 game.

Coffey Gets to Eat his Jell-O Early

I had been kind of upset earlier that I didn't get to see what got Coffey thrown out of the game this afternoon. Happily, there is a replay of it on the Reds' site. I don't think it warranted getting tossed. That was a bad time to toss the guy, too. I can't imagine what kind of pressure Franklin must have been feeling, having to come in to a 3-1 count with the bases loaded. And a tied score, no less.

I didn't think Coffey was the kind of guy that would react in a way that would get him ejected. I don't think he did, either. All he said was "Right down the middle" or something to that effect. Can't be positive because I'm basing it on lip reading. On the other hand, his gesture, while probably meant to show the ump where the ball was, kinda looked a little more like where the ump should shove it. However, I maintain that Mr. Bell was just pissy. I did not see these pitches, so I cannot comment on the accuracy of the calls, but I really don't think ejecting Coffey was necessary. Ross was in his face, but he got to stay in the game (not that I'm complaining).

Anyway, though the Reds jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the 1st inning (off Roy Oswalt, no less), a whole lot of bullpen mess later in the game resulted in a 7-3 loss for the good team. I can't say that Coffey remaining in the game would have changed the result, but I'd like to believe that he would have had a better shot at striking out Ensberg than Franklin had at that point.

Chris Michalak started and had a pretty good game, allowing only 1 run in 6 1/3 innings. Coffey came out for the rest of the 7th, walked some people to load the bases, and we know how that one ended. Franklin succeeded in walking Ensberg, and was then taken out in favor of Rheal Cormier, who allowed some runs, but at least finished out the 7th inning. Bray and Belisle allowed 1 hit and no runs between them in the 8th and 9th innings. Cincinnati's 3 RBI were courtesy of Griffey, Hatteberg and Hollandsworth.

So, not the exciting finish I had been hoping for in Houston, but the Reds still won the series. And we can look back fondly on the thrashing they gave the Astros yesterday.

Up next is a little trip out West, starting with San Francisco and their Giants (who just swept the Diamondbacks, which is kind of scary). I'm not a big fan of staying up until 1 in the morning anymore, so I probably won't be seeing the ends of many of these games. But who knows? Tomorrow is my last day of college for the rest of forever (or at least until I finally accept the fact that I'm going to need a Masters degree to get any kind of liveable salary). Maybe I'll celebrate by staying up super late every night until I get a real-life job. Because that's smart.

Eric Milton against Brad Hennessey at 10:15 tomorrow night. Go Reds!

Hot Doggie!

The Reds asserted their dominance over the Astros in the most thrilling way possible tonight. Kyle Lohse finally got his much deserved win, holding the Astros to just 4 hits and no runs through 8 innings. Matt Belisle closed it out with a hitless 9th. Meanwhile, the offense was lighting up Jason Hirsh, who allowed 10 runs in his 2 2/3 innings for Houston. Dave Borkowski had a slightly less unpleasant evening, giving up another 4 runs through 4 1/3 innings. The remaining inning was handled by Brad Lidge, who had a much better night than the other two, though it didn't matter at that point, as the score was already 14-0.

Brandon Phillips, Scott Hatteberg, Adam Dunn and David Ross all hit home runs for the good guys. The homers accounted for 8 of the Reds' 14 runs. Ken Griffey Jr. and Rich Aurilia were both pulled from the game after the 4th, because it's nice to let some of the other guys play when you're up by 13 runs. Norris Hopper and Juan Castro took their places in the lineup. Dunn was pulled in the 7th and replaced by Todd Hollandsworth. Even Jason LaRue came in to catch for the 9th. Just about every position player got in the game (except Javy and McClayton (I don't know who first started calling him that, but I can't not call him McClayton anymore (also, I move that double negatives be acceptable when you actually mean it to come out that way))). Every starter contributed to the hit parade, save Griffey, who was walked in every at-bat he had. Every starter scored a run and 6 of them contributed RBI. What a night for the offense and the pitching. It's great when everything comes together like that.

Here's the box for your viewing pleasure.

Tomorrow it's Chris Michalak against Roy Oswalt. The game's at 12:35, so of course it won't be on TV. There's always Gameday and the radio, though. Give Marty and Steve some love.

Three in a Row

Three posts in one day AND three wins in a row for the Reds! Amazing!

I suppose if I don't like how a game is going I should just write about it on here. I did not like seeing guys strike out with the bases loaded with 2 outs. I wrote about it, and TADA! Rich Aurilia hits a 3-run homer in the 8th to tie the game. Brandon Phillips and Todd Hollandsworth followed with singles and Royce Clayton, of all people, hit the game-winning RBI single. Unfortunately for Bronson, he had already left the game behind 2-0, and so he starts a new chase for another win. Scott Schoeneweis looked awfully good playing closer tonight. He gets the save and Ryan Franklin gets the win. Arroyo actually had a pretty decent outing, going 6 innings and only giving up 2 runs. The offense was just a little slow in backing him up.

Cincinnati's record now stands at 65-60, 2 games behind the Cardinals, who did not play today. Still leading the Wild Card by 2 1/2 games. Tomorrow Kyle Lohse goes against Jason Hirsh. Unless the Astros do something crazy and use Roy Oswalt instead. He's slated for Wednesday, but who knows what's going to happen?

Cardinals and Pirates

Check it out! Another week without posting! I'm slacking.

Anyway, down to business. I'm not exactly sure where I left off in the games, so I will just point out that the Reds only managed to win one of the three games against the Cardinals. No matter, though, we are still winning in the games won category, 9-6. The two don't play each other again during the regular season, so, if nothing else, the Reds have succeeded in beating the Cardinals more than the other way around. The most interesting news to come out of the series could perhaps be that Bronson finally has win number 10 under his belt.

Harang did not look so awesome on Tuesday as the Reds were shut out 5-0. Wednesday was way cool, with Griffey, Dunn and Aurilia all hitting a home run a piece, not to mention EdE's two. Combined with Arroyo's 7 innings of 1 run baseball, Cincinnati pulled off the win by a score of 7-2. Kyle Lohse looked grand again on Thursday, also pitching 7 innings and giving up only 1 run (on a home run to Rolen). Unfortunately, Jeff Weaver also only allowed 1 run (a home run to Griffey). Then, to make things interesting, Ryan Franklin allowed a run to the Cardinals in the 9th, forgetting that they were in St. Louis and the offense did not get a chance to make up for it. Or at least, that's what I'm pretending happened. The Cardinals would go on to beat up on the Cubbies like they haven't all year, so maybe we can take solace in the fact that they may not have lost the series to the slumping Stupid Birds, but to the recovering Stupid Birds.

Bring in the Pirates. Game one on Friday, Chris Michalak did not live up to my hopes born of reckless optimism and instead looked about like everyone else thought he would. But he still had that one great game. He'll always get to remember that. Michalak gave up 6 earned runs in his 4+ innings. The offense never really got much going, and despite a credible attempt at a 9th inning rally (which included another late-game home run from the only Javier Valentin), the Reds went down 7-3. Saturday was much more exciting. After the Reds went up 6-0 in the 1st inning, the Pirates came back in a frightening fashion and by the 7th inning the score was tied at 7's. Our heroes, however, would have none of that, and put up 7 more runs in the bottom of the 7th. What a day for the number 7. Freel also attempted to take out Ronnie Paulino while running to home plate, which was rather humorous, given that Paulino is fairly large and Freel is not at all. Cincinnati won 14-7. The game ended on a bit of a sour note, though, as Eddie Guardado left the game with what turns out to be a pretty nasty case of tendinitis and has been placed on the 15-day DL. The Reds are now without a designated closer once again. Matt Belisle has been recalled to take his place on the roster. It's about time. The Reds scored first on Sunday despite the Pirates best efforts to take the lead early (including a few attempts at bunting with Freddie "I Lead the League in Hitting" Sanchez). The Reds scored first in a big way, thanks to 2 2-run homers from Hatteberg and Dunn in the 3rd. Harang had an awesome day and got himself his 13th win, allowing just one run in his 7 innings. Schoeneweis (turns out I can pronounce his name, just can't spell it) and Weathers both kept the Pirates hitless and Cincinnati won 5-1. Hooray!

Reds Finally Defeat Phillies

After some really boring games the last time the two teams met up, the Reds and Phillies actually provided some edge-of-your-seat entertainment in this series. 14 innings for Friday, which were exciting until the Phillies had to go and win the game. Using every available pitcher in the bullpen plus a few starters was also entertaining, though ultimately problematic for Elizardo Ramirez. Saturday, after a very disappointing inning and a third for the Lizard Man, Chris Michalak (I feel compelled to inform you that the "c" in his name is a mirage, because everyone else mentioned it, too) put on one heck of a show. It seems most people don't think he'll repeat the performance. I'm going to err on the side of reckless optimism and assume he'll do it a few more times. Sunday was another extra-innings nail biter, punctuated by battles between my uncle and I over whether or not the Reds suck. The Reds won the battle for me in the 11th inning, also winning the game and thus the series. Wahoo!

Now you get recaps of some sort because I get some kind of extra joy out of beating the Phillies compared to beating any other team (save the Cardinals and the Yankees).

Friday Kyle Lohse, who also spells his name differently than he pronounces it (as if I have room to talk about funny name spellings), gave up just one run over 6 1/3 innings and struck out 8. Good job Kyle! Bill Bray, unfortunately, got knocked around a bit, giving up 3 runs in his 2/3 of an inning. Not so good a job Bill! Eddie Guardado and Elizardo Ramirez gave up a run each, Ramirez got stuck with the eventual loss, as his one run was the Phillies' winning run in the 14th inning. Encarnacion had 2 home runs and Valentin had another (something he's been very good at lately). All of the Reds runs were scored on these home runs. Unfortunately, the Phillies had one more run up their sleeves than the Reds. They held onto it until the 14th inning, when Aaron Rowand hit one to center off Ramirez and David Dellucci scored.

Ramirez came back on Saturday to start, which turned out to be a bad idea. Brave and commendable in theory on his part to even try, but very bad in practice. After 1 1/3 innings and 5 runs, poor Mr. Lizard was pulled from the game and shortly returned to Louisville. Chris Michalak came to the rescue, and rescue the Reds he did. The Phillies managed just one run off of him in 6 2/3 innings. Quite a Reds debut for him. The offense was alive once again, scoring 6 runs in the first 4 innings. With the exceptions of Dunn and Griffey, everybody had a hit. Freel, Hatteberg, Valentin and Phillips all had multiple hits. One of Phillips's was a home run in the 4th. The Reds entered the bottom of the 8th up 6-5, where Michalak gave up his one run, a home run to reigning Home Run Derby King Ryan Howard. Tied at 6 going into the 9th, the Reds decided they wanted to win this one within 9 innings. Luckily the Phillies used Rick White to pitch and the Reds put up 3 runs on singles from Encarnacion, Valentin and Phillips. Eddie Guardado gave up a run in the bottom of the 9th, and then with 2 on and Ryan Howard batting, it appeared that all might be lost, but Howard failed to work his home run magic and instead struck out, giving Cincinnati their first win against the Phillies this year, a 9-7 victory.

Today Eric Milton took on Brett Myers. It seems that I was playing the part of bad luck charm today, as every bit of the game I saw was something good happening for the Phillies, and thus bad for the Reds. So, I watched a bit of everything else that was on television (including NASCAR) to avoid feeling responsible for a loss I really had no control over. It worked, as the Reds won 7-5 in 11 innings. Encarnacion, Dunn and Aurilia hit back-to-back-to-back home runs in the 6th (which is something ESPNews failed to mention in their little story, I might add). The Reds were up 5-3 in the 9th, when Eddie Guardado allowed 2 runs, and the Phillies tied the game, and it went to extra innings for the second time in the series. This time Cincinnati came out the winners, scoring 2 runs on a double from pinch hitting Juan Castro. Interesting choice for pinch hitter if you ask me, but it worked, so no complaints. It seems Milton had a not too awful start again, though he only made it through 5 1/3 innings, so maybe it was kind of awful. I didn't really see him. Coffey, Cormier, Weathers and Bray all worked hitless innings or parts thereof. I seem to recall hearing that Brett Myers is a bit of a Reds killer in the pitching department, so it's nice to see that he didn't do that today.

Now, thanks to the Pirates' sweep of the Cardinals (HAHAHA!), the Reds are a mere game and a half back of 1st place going into another series with St. Louis. The ESPN types seem to think Cincinnati has a pretty good shot at overtaking the Cardinals in the division (glad to see they're finally on board, bandwagon bunch of jerks (I've got a thing against national media, just so you all know)). Hopefully they are entirely demoralized and falling apart because of the sweep, and not about to become a holy terror born of vengeance. We find out on Tuesday, when Harang and Carpenter face off in St. Louis.

Oh yes! Along with Elizardo going back to Louisville, Mr. Kent Mercker has been put on the DL yet again (the reason Michalak is with the Reds), and this time it might be the end of the road for his career. That's too bad.

Boo Cardinals

I guess we knew the Cardinals had to come out of their hideous slump sometime, but did it have to be last night? And like that? Couldn't they have waited just 4 more games? Poor Lizard Man. It was just not a good night for him, though it was a short one. Thanks to paper writing I missed the last three runs the Stupid Birds scored, but it didn't really matter. The game was over in the 1st, if you can call that a game. 13-1 is pretty darn bad. Especially against Jeff Weaver, who is supposed to suck.

At least Javy did something with his rare start. He was responsible for the Reds' lone run, a solo home run in the second. At that point, the game didn't seem lost, but it didn't take long to get there. Freel, Griffey, Encarnacion, Hatteberg, Valentin and Clayton all had hits, but it didn't produce much. Just a bunch of runners left on base.

It's okay, though. The Cardinals spent all of their energy yesterday. And remember that time when the Brewers won 11-0 and the Reds won 11-0 the very next day? Maybe they'll do that again and we can take joy in knowing that we got the last laugh. Even though there are two more games after tonight.

Oh! Also, since I have failed to mention it yet, the Reds took two of three from the Braves over the weekend. Gary Majewski is pretty much the reason for the loss on Sunday, and he's on the DL with inflammation in his right shoulder now, so at least we have a reason. Also, it looks like Brandon Claussen won't be returning this year. Mercker has finally escaped from the DL and pitched a scoreless inning last night to celebrate his return. I think Matt Belisle is also off the DL, but hasn't been reinstated for some reason. That's what I read in graphics on TV, anyway. The Reds also picked up Ryan Franklin from Philadelphia, who pitched quite a few innings last night due to Ramirez's early leave. He did alright. It's probably not best to judge his performance based on last night, though. That was a bad night all around.

Hump Day Sadness

Wednesday's loss can pretty much be blamed on Bronson Arroyo. After leading 5-1, the Reds were treated to quite an implosive spectacle. Rather uncharateristically, at least this year, Bronson lost his head in the 5th and gave up 6 runs in one inning. Not something I've come to expect from him. Given his last few outings, though, I think I'll be much less surprised if it happens again. Narron, in a less surprising but still highly disappointing move, brought him back for the 6th and 7th innings. The 6th wasn't so bad, but Arroyo served up a longball in the 7th, putting the Astros up 8-5.

Aurilia and Dunn carried the offense. Aurilia was 3-5, contributed a run and scored 3 himself. One of his 3 hits was a home run in the 2nd inning. Dunn, continuing to be much more awesome lately, was 4-4 with an RBI and a run. Our beloved EdE was actually in the lineup, and contributed a run as well. Unfortunately, all their hard work was for naught. Though Shackelford and Weathers both held the Astros hitless, there was no more offensive display of power and the Reds went down, 8-5.

The third and final game of the series is on TV right now. The Lizard is pitching, and Encarnacion is once again sitting on the bench. Seriously, the kid's not going to get any better on defense by sitting around watching everyone else. And I can call him a kid. He's all of 14 days younger than me.

Reds on TV and They Win!

In lieu of going to sleep, I bring you the story of Tuesday's game, told only through my thoughts at the time. Because it's fun. For me.

Oh crap! They're on TV tonight. Finally! Oh yay! Dunn scores! Hooray for Hatteberg! They're totally gonna own Clemens. Maybe I shouldn't say that. It could jinx them. Okay, I won't say it out loud, but they're totally going to own him.

Inning two! Clayton and Freel on base. Hooray! No! Clayton, you're a bonehead! That wouldn't have happened to Lopez! <--- See the bitter?

The next four innings pass in relative obscurity.

Inning 7! Harang's the man again! Way to help yourself!

No, no, no, Narron. You've tried using Coffey as the closer before. You know it doesn't work very well. Told you! Now where's that Guardado character? Bill Bray? Okay, I'll take it. Yay Bray! Reds win 2-0.

------------------------BREAKING NEWS----------------------------

Okay, not so breaking. It's a few hours old, but anyway. Joe Mays DFA'd?!?! Can it be? Yes! Don't know who's going to start Saturday. Sounds like it could be anybody. Mays was designated for assignment to make room for Ross's return from the DL.

Off Day Madness

Madness only in that since I have neglected the blog for a while again, this is probably going to be maddeningly long.

First off, TheBaseballReport.com is giving away copies of "Tales From the Reds Dugout," (Tom Browning's book). The e-mail said they hoped I could put in a few lines about it, so here's those few lines. If you don't already have the book, you can register here to win it. I have not read the book, nor do I have it, but I hear it's an interesting read. It is Tom Browning, after all.

To The Games!!!

Thursday Bronson Arroyo failed yet again to secure win number 10. To be fair, it wasn't exactly his fault. He only allowed the Mets 2 runs in 8 innings, it's just that Tom Glavine also only allowed 2 runs. Majewski got the official loss. The game went into extra innings with the score tied at 2. Majewski gave up 2 more runs in the 10th. The Reds failed to respond, losing 4-2. They also lost the series to the Mets.

The Brewers strolled into town on Friday. With so few of these games on TV I've had a hard time keeping up. It sounds like the Reds made a heck of a comeback Friday night, though. The Lizard got pounded in his 5 innings for 5 earned runs on 11 hits. When Elizardo left the game the Reds were down 5-0. Jason LaRue belted out a home run in the bottom of the 5th to get the Reds on the board. Encarnacion's 2-run homer brought the Reds to within 2. Since he contributed so nicely, he got to sit out the next game. In the bottom of the 9th, with Phillips and Hatteberg on base, Derrick Turnbow walked Freel to load the bases. Dana Eveland replaced Turnbow, he then walked pinch hitting Valentin to give the Reds another run. Griffey chose this day for another dramatic game-ender; a walk-off 2-run single. The Reds won 6-5.

The Reds also won on Saturday despite Joe Mays. Freel's two home runs as well as Hatteberg's just being plain awesome these days really helped. Freel hit a solo shot to lead off the 1st. Later in the same inning Hatteberg smacked a two-run homer. Unfortunately, Mays decided the Brewers needed to have 3 runs as well, which he promptly gave them in the top of the 2nd. After much battling, 6 pitchers for the Reds, and an 8th inning solo home run from Freel, Cincinnati came out on top 8-7. Standridge, it must be noted, had now made it through two consecutive appearances without allowing a single run or hit. Amazing!

Sunday was a sad day. Milton got a bad break on the numbers. Though it shows 4 runs, only 2 of them crossed the plate while he was still out there. Things looked bad for him from the beginning. He loaded the bases in the 2nd, from the which the Brewers gained 2 runs on the Reds' 0. The only run for the Reds came in the form of a Brandon Phillips home run, which I hadn't seen in a while. It was apparently his 8th this year. Majewski inherited some runners from Milton in the 7th (I still don't think he should be out there past the 6th) and allowed two of Milton's guys to score. Coffey worked the 9th, where no runs scored. All in all, a sad day for the Reds, as they lost 4-1.

In notes of presumed interest, Kent Mercker found himself on the 15-day DL with an inflamed elbow, retroactive to Friday, I believe. Retroactive is such a great word, don't you think? I love saying it. Man of Misfortune, Brian Shackelford, came back from Louisville to take his place. I have heard rumblings that David Ross might be back in the rotation as early as Wednesday this week. He was to be having a rehab assignment in Chattanooga today.

Tuesday Cincinnati starts a series in Houston, where Aaron Harang faces off against Roger Clemens. Scary scary. Clemens's record of 2-3 isn't so scary, but his 2.43 ERA is a little. And his picture is a lot.