Reds Purchase Several Finely Crafted, Hand Made Brooms, Reds 4-2

Reds swept away the A-holes last night behind another fine performance by a starting pitcher, this time Charles Bronson Arroyo. After burdening the bullpen and the rest of the team for the first three weeks of the season, the starters have decided that they have an obligation, under their contracts, to assist the team in winning ballgames. Leake, being the rookie that he is, didn't just ignore the paperwork that was shoved in his face but actually read things over. The rest of the jabronies didn't give it any real consideration.

Arroyo went 6 and a couple of outs last night, with the 6 being real good. No runs and only a couple of hits. But following Votto's two-run shot in the top of the 6th, he starting thumbing it up there which resulted in a couple of hard hit ball. One by Pence left the ballpark and Michael  Bourne drove in the other on a double down the line. Fortunately, that was it. Danny Ray got the Reds out of the 7th and new, certainly reliable set-up man Mike Lincoln handed the lead, which had been supplemented by a Bruce homer, over to Coco who picked up another big, fat save. Prior to Bruce's home run, which came on the first pitch that he saw from Tim Byrdak, he, as color man extraordinaire Chris Welsh astutely pointed out, he'd taken a first pitch fastball for a strike in all of his prior at bats. He's just being selective.

The Reds, for the first time in four year and the second time ever, beat Roy Oswalt. Nice job gang. He, Oswalt, didn't pitch particularly poorly but deserved a loss after all those years of domination. It's his time. He was also thinking about driving that tractor that team management gave him is association with his last contract. I think that would also make it hard to concentrate.

Reds head to St. Louis tonight and are met by the completely unanticipated dominance of Brad Penney. That guy has been lights out but that mean, just like Oswalt, that he's due for a beating. The Reds have thought things over and have decided that they will take this series from the Cardinals just like the one from the A-holes. They will be, apparently, without Dickerson for a little while as he hurt his wrist putting a poor swing on an Oswalt fastball. That means Drew Stubbs gets sole possession of leadoff hitter/out factory. He did get a hit last night, so maybe things are turning around. I'm certainly not a genius like Dusty but the Reds Rocket is in favor of putting someone who gets on base on a regular basis at the top of the order. But again, I'm not genius. Reds! Reds! Reds!