Votto Can't Hang Around His Mama 'Cause He Scares Her, Reds 5-2

She of course scared of his powerful bat, not his explosive violent temper. He keeps that in check around family. Thanks to Joey Jo-Jo, Reds went home with a big ol' victory over the Brewers, which was nice because the team hasn't exactly being rolling teams over down the stretch. The Cardinals were shut out earlier in the day, they had the great misfortune of having to face Chris Volstead, who's lights out, so that had to lessen the pressure on the club somewhat. Or maybe they don't even know or care.

The Reds got on the board first, on Stubbs' 20th bomb of the season with a runner on board, to right field this time.  At the time I was trying to think if I have seen him hit a bomb that direction this season. I decided that I can't remember and it was giving me a headache thinking so hard. So, I will guess that that was the first one this season but who can be sure about these things. After that the offense went dormant. Homeboy, apparently not dizzy this time out, pitched a pretty nice ballgame. He went 6, allowed just the two runs and struck out 7. It's good to see a guy who touches 98 strike out a few batters. He usually shies away from the strikeouts. Must be that old Bull Durham mentality, doesn't want to take all of the glory from his teammates. Even with the strong performance, he was already back in the clubhouse thinking about killing deer by the time the Reds went back on top. With a runner on and three poor at bats preceding it (two strike outs looking, one GDP), Votto hit a bomb to left providing the advantage. Rolen followed it up with a bomb to right. That gives Votto 35 and Rolen 20. Remember when Rolen was leading the league in bombs? Actually, remember when he hit his last home run? It was about a month ago. I didn't remember until reading the recap.

Everyone goes home happy. The Brewers because they lost to such a high quality team and the Reds because they only need 6 more Cardinals' losses and then this whole thing is over. I think the Cards can handle that, irrespective of how the Reds play. Getting pretty close to playoff time. Reds! Reds! Reds!