Reds Have No Respect for Nation's Capital, Take Series, Reds 5-4

The Reds rebounded nicely from a loss Friday night to take both the Saturday and Sunday opportunities presented by the Nationals. Today, they took the National's opportunity, doubled it, gave it back to them, then won in extra innings. Drew Stubbs, fortunately, made a very strange face and was able to propel the team to victory.

Friday, Harang wore himself out over 4 innings of mediocre work, turning things over to the cow pen. Owings wasn't awful, but made sure the Nats had plenty of baserunners and chances to score. They finally did when Gomes and Stubbs bumbled into one another allowing what turned out to be the difference score. 4-2, was the final and everyone was quite disappointed.

Saturday, fortunately, Leake hit the bump and was quite disrespectful to the Nationals' bats. He went 7, picked up two more hits and the offense waited around for a while but finally decided to get things going late. Phillips crushed the Nationals' catcher (that's right, I'm not even going to bother looking up his name, want to fight about it?) which was awesome. He was actually on 3rd thanks to a little baserunner interference courtesy of Ian Desmond. Miguel Bautista, opted to drill Phillips for adhering to the rules of baseball, leading off the 9th. He was repaid today, allowing to game loser for the Nats. Nice job Miguel, hit the showers.

Today, as mentioned, the Reds won in extras but not prior to Rolen hitting another late inning bomb. This one in the 9th, with a man aboard. It followed Stubbs' double, which preceded Gomes double. For those unaware, Rolen currently leads the NL in bombs and slugging percentage. I think it's being closer to the Rolen family which is making the difference. Right now, Jocketty is looking pretty smart for bring in the old guys currently occupying the infield. Back to the recap, after being provided with a two-run lead, Coco blew the big, fat save opportunity. He was thinking that he doesn't have an opportunity to pick up very many wins, just about the same time that Masset was thinking that he doesn't have the opportunity to pick up very many saves. Thanks to Drew Stubbs making weird faces and knocking the game winner in the 10th, every one was rewarded for their actions, including Coco and his poor closing.

Reds get to go back home and beat on the Gigantes starting tomorrow. Zito is on the hill and, though he has been surprisingly decent this year, the Reds typically handle him pretty well. That and Lincecum pitched today. Hooray Reds! Reds! Reds!