Reds Have Low Tolerance for Robbers on the High Seas, Reds 5-4

Reds finally decided it was time to take a road series, at the Pirates' expense. Tough break Pittsburgh. Votto had a big weekend, hitting two bombs and driving in many (my recollection is 7 - 2 Friday, 2 Saturday, and 3 Sunday. Feel free to check my math or recollection) Phillips continued to hit in the leadoff role. His average is sitting just a shade under .300 with an OBP at .340 and slugging in line with his career numbers (excepting 2007 when he hit the 30 bombs) at .430. So, he's looking like he'd like to make a substantial deposit into his purple-Audi purchasing account following the season. You can never have too many high performance automotive machines.

On both Friday and Sunday, the Reds jumped all over Joel Hanrahan who has been pretty pretty good for the majority of the season. After the 5 runs he allowed in 1 and 1/3, his ERA is all the way up to 1.76. So, that may indicate how selfish he has been towards his opposition this season. Though, I realize the error of looking at ERA only without knowing rest of the story and choose to proceed on those grounds anyway. Maybe some Pittsburghian would like to correct me. If not, I'll just assume that I'm not wrong - that he has been good. But, again, who cares about the Pirates. They are now wholly irrelevant, other than to say how bad they've been playing of late.

The pitching left a bit to be desired. Homeboy was pretty good Friday, though he did throw 96 pitches through 5 innings, but the bullpen let the Pirates back from a 6-3 deficit before the Reds pulled away for good in the 9th. Willis went 6 Saturday, also allowing 3 but Chapman allowed the deciding two runs in the 7th. At least Charlie Morton didn't through another shut out. Yesterday Leake gave up 4 over 6, which is fine but, likewise, not good enough to get a win. So, there's your lazy recap. Reds eat fish tomorrow through Thursday. Reds! Reds! Reds!