Reds Stick with Strategy to Win One Out of Every Three, 4-1

Bailey was sharp yesterday, throwing 7 innings against a Pittsburgh offense who is there only to be exploited by opposing pitchers. Despite the performances in games one and two of the series, the Reds Rocket stands by the preceding sentence. Bailey worked 7 nice innings, only confronted with trouble in the first, in picking up his third win of the season. He now has that ERA down to the more appropriate mid-6.00 range. That's what everyone was expecting with his draft selection.

I hadn't gotten around to commenting on the final game of the Giants' series last Thursday, the one where Harang pitched very well and Stubbs won it with his first career home run, a walk-off. Everyone seemed pretty excited that day. Especially after I had mentioned, in passing, that Stubbs has not developed the power stroke he demonstrated in the mid-minors. He showed me. So exhausted after the celebration at home plate, was the team, that they were unable to do anything against Pirates pitching on Friday and Saturday. And speaking of Harang, his appendix was about to explode, so he'll be taking the rest of the season off. Too bad for the big guy, another disappointing stat line, 6-14 with a 4.21 ERA. That ERA's not bad but it appeared to be on its way back down after a series of mediocre starts. Little known fact, the appendix is used to break down harder substances in the digestive system, like tree bark or bones. And with Harang's regular diet of human bones, it just couldn't hold up. He is scheduled to be the recipient of an experimental appendix transplant procedure. The doctor behind it, Dr. Allen Allen, his friends and colleagues call him Al, is confident that Harang's new appendix will work just as well as his previous, inflamed one.

The team also said so long to Chris Dickerson. He'd been back for about 10 days before getting injured trying to return to first base on a pick-off throw. Looks like Stubbs is going to be the every day centerfielder for a while. We'll just have to see if he can provide Tavares-like numbers. That's a hard act to follow. Team heads to Milwaukee for a big game tomorrow. Everyone tune it. Reds! Reds! Reds!