Reds Happy to Disappoint Home Crowd, Pirates 7-6

The Reds surprised everyone with a poor showing this weekend at home versus the Pirates. At least they have one more tomorrow. Sure, they have a couple of young players who could add up to not the worst team in baseball in a couple of years but, that's still a couple of years from now. I liked Charlie Morton a lot better when his sinker didn't sink and he had an ERA at about 10 runs a game. He looked pretty good Friday. And, as Tim McCarver would say, as good as Morton was good that's as bad as Arroyo was bad. But, he's allowed a poor start every now and again. Especially when he works so hard to hit 88 on the radar gun that Dusty doesn't care about. It's not a consideration.

Saturday was better. The Reds hit a bunch of bombs - two by Gomes and one with the bases loaded by Hernandez. Leake was fine, picked up his second win of the season. Much better performance than his last try in Arizona. But, today was back to disappointment. Volquez didn't get a quality answer to why he's so bad in the 1st inning and until someone comes up with one, he's going to continue to be awful for the first frame. The Pirates made it through the order and the first two batters, which may remind you of opening day, McCutcheon and Tabata went deep back to back. He walked three, one with the bases loaded, and closed up the frame by allowing 4. The offense rebounded, again, giving him the lead in the 6th. But Garrett Jones, who I didn't even think made the team, took one into the opposite field fan box. After another Reds rally, Ondrusek picked up his first career loss with an error and then a two out hit. Tough break, especially with all of those runners on the Reds' bases. That seemed to be an important part of last season's wins compared to previous seasons' losses, hits with runners on base. There just weren't quite enough today. That will happen when you face a quality team like the Pirates.

The Reds plan a severe beating tomorrow, which should be a lot more fun. Maybe Phillips tweaked groin will allow him back into the game, though that Miguel Cairo bomb today was pretty sweet. There's a lot of the tweaked groin around. I suppose that's just the life of a professional athlete.