8-1 is Not a Score that Inspires Confidence, Cardinal Win and are A-holes

Reds didn't look great yesterday, not doing much with the bats and Volquez came down with a case of occasional-bad-pitch-location-itis. Fortunately, it's not terribly contagious but unpredictable. The disorder popped up on three pitches, two to Holiday (one with two men on base) and another to Berkman. That more or less summed up his start. He was relatively effective otherwise, minus the 5 runs allowed on home runs. So, maybe maybe that subtracts the 'relatively' modifier.

As eluded to, the offense was pretty bad again. Jaime Garcia is an above-average starter, however, if that makes you feel any better. It does me. I'm happy to rationalize any defeat. Marty is pretty confident Bruce is going to be batting .240 by the time the All Star Game rolls around. I'm not sure he'll dip that low but, to do my best Tim McCarver, as good as he was in May that's as bad as he is doing now. They'll need to put together a couple of hits today with Pujols supposedly making his return. If I'm Arroyo, I buzz his right in on the hands with some of that 85 mph cheese in his first at bat. The positive with Pujols return is that Berkman returns to right field where he is a major liability. You may recall him flailing his arms in a vain attempt to show effort during the Reds last series with the Cardinals.

Reds plan to get that 1 win tonight to push them back to .500. For all the doom talk, to only be one game below .500 with no one pulling away in the division (the Pirates are now in second place which is pretty unbelievable) is not too bad. Dusty is very wise and has the rest of the season charted out on his wrist bands. You just wait, unseen, hypothetical reader.