Reds Don't Care for the Interleague Play, Orioles Take Series

As you've probably gathered, I like pictures of the real life counterpart of team mascots, especially when they're birds. Here is an oriole eating an orange. I don't know why, but by far the majority of the picture Google offered of orioles featured them eating oranges. Maybe they have blood sugar problems. I went to high school with a kid who had hypoglycemia. We all thought his requirement that he eat an orange before gym class was pretty funny. It turns out it was actually very funny.

The Reds did not play terrible but also didn't play terribly well against the O's over the weekend. Volquez flamed out after 4 and 1/3 on Friday but the bullpen was solid. The offense tied things up but a couple of bad bounces (Bruce's double over the wall in the 8th where Rolen would have scored if it just leaned up against the wall) and Bruce again in the 12th when the ball trickled about 2 feet from Adam Jones after he dove and missed and he was able to get up and throw Votto out at the plate. There was also a bad call on Gomes' dribbler in the 7th. Sure looked like he beat that throw. All of the three would have allowed to the Reds to put a run on the board before Derrick Lee his a rocket shot off Arredondo in the 12th to win it. Saturday was better. Votto bombed twice and drove in 5. Gomes and Rolen also did some yard work. The offense piled up some runs for Arroyo, who took home the win despite giving up 4 home runs of his own. Yesterday, Bailey had essentially one bad inning, the 4th. Adam Jones reached when Votto lost a popup on the infield in the sun. Guerrero singled and then D. Lee hit his second bomb of the series. He loves hitting Reds pitching. And I know Chris Welch was going crazy about not pitching him inside but he sure doesn't look like he can reach those pitches. That's where I'd want to pitch him as well. Anyway, back to yesterday, the Reds left guys all over the bases and the Orioles did their best to let them back in with a bunch of walks, two with the bases loaded in the 6th to make it a 5-4 Orioles lead, but just couldn't catch up. Due in part to some suspect relief work, Arredondo and Chapman both gave up runs. The electroshock does appear to have fixed Chapman's brain as he was throwing a lot of strikes and missing a lot of bats. That will be of benefit should it continue.

Reds head to Tampa today. I just read an interesting story about the Marriott where the team stays in Tampa being haunted. Ex-Red Scott Williamson was featured prominently in the article as stating, on record, that he believes some entity sat on top of him when he was in bed and tried to crush the life out of him. That hotel sounds pretty alright. I picture Dusty's reaction to seeing a ghost to be on par to Shaggy from Scooby Doo - Ghoooosssstttttt!!! Good luck to you guys and how about playing a little better.