Reds Celebrate Gomes' Departure with Awful Defense, Mets 8-6

Just prior to the start of yesterday's game, the Reds said goodbye to adopted son Jonny Gomes. Gomes was shipped to Washington for a carton of cigarettes and a low minors reliever. There was maybe a minor league outfielder in there too. In a corresponding move, Cincinnati called up Yonder Alonso to, conceivably, play a little left field in Gomes' stead. Heisey's a little banged up after attacked Drew Stubbs while chasing a fly ball on Sunday against the Braves, so, there's a change Alonso gets a little time in the next couple of days. He looked pretty inept in left when I saw him in Spring Training but that could have been from my small sample size and I guess he's had half a season to work on it.

The Reds defense suffered from a systematic breakdown last night. Starting chronologically - Votto made an error in the 1st; Bruce failed to catch a catchable fly ball to right, resulting in a run in the first - officially scored a hit; Phillips led the 3rd off with an error on a Reyes grounder, Reyes scored; Cairo failed to field a potential double play ball in the 3rd (to which Brantley stated 'Cueto was hotter than a match head); after the Reds came all the way back to take a 5-4 lead in the 5th (courtesy of a Renteria two-run double and Votto's 14th bomb of the year to left) Cairo erred on a force attempt with a runner on first, allowing runners on 2nd and 3rd, both scored. There may have been more, but I'm tired of writing about them. And, I think the Reds' poor defense yesterday gave me a cold. The Reds Rocket will require Halls cough drops with no less than three type of menthylyptis. All of Cueto's six runs allowed were of the unearned variety, so he actually lowered his ERA. Good for him. Masset turned in a second straight (I guess third, as he pitched to just one batter on Saturday and couldn't get him out) subpar performance. He padded the Mets lead by allowed 2 runs in .2 innings. Not great.

The team takes a third try at the Mets today, hopefully with better results. Good luck to Jonny Gomes in Washington. He can say hello to former Reds loyalist Laynce Nix. They both have non-traditionally spelled first names. They have a deep bond.