Reds Determine It's Too Early to Make Push Towards Top of Division, Cards 10-1

Dusty has the troops lying back, one game under .500, like a team full of snakes lying in the tall grass. He wants to lull the rest of the division to sleep, so when they make their inevitable late season push towards the playoffs, teams won't be expecting it. A key element of this strategy was implemented yesterday. Rather than recall games one, where Bailey was dominant and a rare late inning implosion kept the Reds from victory, and two, where Owings demonstrated that he's not only a quality bat but can throw a little bit too, the Cardinals will recall the beating they laid on Arroyo yesterday. It's too bad that Arroyo had to take another one for the team but he's a team guy. He knows and understands the importance of following, unquestionably, the lead of skip. Yesterday will prove to be an important day over the course of the long season.

Since the Reds Rocket was shut down Friday, there was no write up about the finale with the Snakes. The Reds was quiet for the majority of the day making it look, to Diamondbacks supporters anyway, the Harang was on his way to another well-pitched loss. Sure, the Diamondbacks being generally terrible helped but the Reds showed a little bit of heart. Putting together a late rally off Snake "closer" Chad Qualls, then sending everyone home with a series victory in the 10th. Votto picked up four hits in an otherwise uneventful offensive showing. Nice job team.

Also over the weekend, we received word on the lone Reds All-Star representative, Coco Cordero. Coco really has had a nice season, especially when pitching with a lead. He has less interest when entering a tied game. His only blown save was the Nationals game where he was able to strong arm management into letting him return to the hill after a rain delay. Nice job Coco. Way to earn that closer's salary.