Cubs Have No Idea What They're Doing Out There, Reds 7-4

The Reds were gifted another win last night by the Cubs. I guess gifted is inaccurate as they are clearly the better team, Reds win with a Cubs assist is probably more accurate. The well-coached team from Chicago made four errors, three of which provided the Reds with all 7 of their runs, of the unearned variety. That's my favorite type of run.

After Volquez remembered how much he likes giving up runs in the first to put the team in a 3-0 hole via Carlos Pena's monster bomb, the Reds tied things up in the 4th. With two-outs Pena, feeling bad about that home run off his good pal Eddie, booted a surprisingly well-hit ball off Volquez's bat. The bases happened to be loaded. Two scored on Pena's error, then Garza threw the the ball into the camera well, knotting things up. Arredondo,filling in for the disabled Chapman, took over the role of throwing nothing but balls out of the strike zone. He walked 3 and gave up a hit, to give the Cubs a 4-3 and eventual 5-4 lead. But in the 8th, Kerry Wood, behaving exactly as he is taught in Cubs Spring Training, fielding Hanigan's bunt with runners on first and second and fired it down the left field line into the corner. Rolen and Lewis scored and Hanigan ended up on 3rd. He scored on Heisey's sac fly and Yanish-Janish scored an insurance run driven in by Votto.

Coco got the night off, having pitched in the four games prior, so, Masset got a little bit of the limelight. He was pretty good and picked up his first save of the season. Also of note was the strong start by Volquez. As the readers may have picked up, I am a Volquez supporter, so may be a little less hard on him than is appropriate. However, even with bias fully intact, 6 innings with 9 ks is pretty solid. Just 3 hits allowed and only 1 walk, if you can believe that. He did hit a batter but lasted 6 innings and wasn't a total drag on the organization, for a change. So, nice job Eddie. Things appear to be coming together. Reds now resume dominance of the Central against the Pirates, who are looking forward to extending their 6-game losing streak. I think you can do it guys. Reds! Reds! Reds!