Two Homer Bailey Photos in Two Starts Means Things are Going According to Plans, Reds 7-3

The Reds continued their dominance of one of the worst teams in baseball last night. Houston knew it was coming. The national nerd baseball counsel, Baseball Prospectus, has been saying for three years that the wheels were going to fall off the Astros - with the questionable off-season deals and close to no development internally but they really haven't lived up to the terrible expectations and, I suppose, may not this year. But they're off to a pretty good start. If only the Reds could face Brett Myers every start. Though he settled in after the second, the Reds laid 6 on him in innings 1 and 2. Votto collected a couple of doubles, looking invigorated after his first day off of the season, and Bruce went yard. Cairo had three hits, filling in at third again, and Jonny Gomes even had two bringing his average up to a blistering .192. At least he struck out his other three at bats or else the steam coming out of our ears, due to the surprise, would push the hats right off our heads and into the air. The hat would probably spin in a circle and make a noise like Curly from the Three Stooges. Woo-woo-woo-woo-wooo.

Bailey didn't need all of the support but still appreciated it. He went 7 and was generally dominant. His line showcased just 5 hits and he struck out 5 in throwing 95 pitches and picking up win number 2. The recent question mark has become Chapman who seems to prefer walking and hitting guys to any other course of action. Sure, it's fun to drill a batter with a 102 mph fastball, probably a lot of fun, but that's not always the best option over  an entire baseball game. He only stuck around for 4 batters last night. He put them all on base, 3 via walk, one HBP, and Masset was nice enough to let the other two score. You have to teach young players to be responsible for their actions. Fortunately the Reds were up by 7 at the time. And they were playing the Astros. So, no real damage done. Masset retired the rest of his batters and Bray finished the game. Once Chapman remembers his dominance, this is potentially a pretty good bullpen.

Final game of the series today with Volquez still trying to recall 2007. I think he's ready. He's figured out the first inning, now he needs to focus on innings 2-6. He and his weave have been thinking hard about it and think they have a solution. So, that's good news. Reds! Reds! Reds!