Reds Offense Takes Boom Stick to Indians, 8-1

After beginning the series in forgettable fashion, Harang getting shelled and offense, or awfense as I just put together, failed to put much together for the final two games of the series with the Indians, Reds looked pretty, pretty good. And they've got three with the Snakes at home coming up. Look out three games over .500.

Chris Welsh just couldn't say enough about Homeboy's start on Saturday. He doesn't care about the walks, even if there were seven of them against just two strikeouts, as long as the final result is in the Reds favor. The Reds Rocket agrees with that sentiment to some extent but still feels that seven walks doesn't necessarily qualify as a quality start. At least he only gave up the three hits and did get his first win in two years. Nice job Homer. I know they have an off day today, obviously, so, am not sure when the fifth starting position is going to roll around again. I am interested in seeing one more start from Bailey with his new splitter. Is there anything that Justin Lehr doesn't know? Other than how Major Leagues that is.

The picture above is from Jonny Gomes' days with the Rays. Nice hat. I believe you call that a sombrero in Spanish. Uno sombrero. Gomes went deep Sunday and seems to be enjoying the DH role. It's too bad he is so below average in the field, or he could be a real asset. I suspect we'll still see a good amount of Jonny in left, just don't ask Laynce Nix about it. He doesn't care for latin headwear or people who take playing time away from him. Phillips also had a nice day yesterday and and Bruce, over Saturday and Sunday, was 3 for 8 with a bomb off Tomo Ohka, which should realistically only count 1/2. I had to tally those numbers myself, so check the math. For your daily Ray Jay average update, that is now .214. Pretty soon you're going to look up there and see .230 and be very impressed. Micah Owings decided to show up yesterday and threw 6 solid innings. His pitch count was still near 110 but at least he made it through 6.

Reds have Haren tomorrow and he's been pitching well but Arroyo is also on the hill and he's always lights out. The Reds Rocket expects nothing less than a sweep. The Snakes are horrible. On a brief sidenote, just to demonstrate Arizona's general ineptness, yesterday during the 5th inning the Diamondbacks had a dropped routine fly ball in left by Upton, a ball roll through the legs of Felipe Lopez at second and a first baseman, Mark Reynolds superstar yesterday, simply miss a throw from a fielded groundball to second, which hit him in the chest. All in one inning. I think you're going to like what you see on Tuesday. Reds! Reds! Reds!

Reds Play Good, Then Bad, Then Good Again, Reds 7-5

Votto appears to be fully recovered from the mental health month he took. He was out there raking last night in front of his home town fans. Pretty impressive line, 4 for 5 with a bomb and three driven in. When the boxscore shows two guys in the middle of the order with averages over .350, the reds offense looks a little less poor. I am certain that Gomes is, in fact, a .350 hitter and will be there for the rest of the year.

The entire offense looked pretty good last night, with the exception of Phillips. But he's generally pretty reliable, so he can take a night off when the rest of those jokers decide to pick up some hits. And let me tell you bout Willy Taveras, three hits? That guy can flat out concentrate at the plate. I think it's all the private tutoring with Dusty. 'Willy, put on your swimming suit and get in the hot tub.' That squeeze bunt was pretty sweet.

Cueto, as Cowboy discussed for about three innings, seems to lose focus when the Reds present him with too big of lead. He was dominant for 5 of the 6 innings he pitched last night but walked two guys and gave up three hits in the 5th to allow the Jays to slime back into it. But Votto's bomb picked him up and Cueto was given his seventh win of the season. The Reds need to remember not to give him more than a two run cushion, then he will pitch effectively. Any more than that and he's giving up bombs to Scott Podsednik.

Reds start things up with the Redmen today, so, expect a sweep. I know I am. I already have a picture of a broom tricking some Native Americans out of their land. They don't understand the concept of land ownership but that broom sure does. Reds! Reds! Reds!

Reds Play Quite Well - Not, Blue Jays 8-2

Arroyo returned to his favorite venue last night and got lit up again by the Blue Jays. It was 5-0 before he recorded an out. He did manage to go 3 and 2/3rds, which is an improvement over last year. So, maybe next time he's in Toronto he'll go 5 and only give up 6 runs. At least, as pointed out by a comment to the last post, he spreads a lot of seed and appears, at least by big league pitcher standards, to be relatively fit. He's really got a lot going for him. Now if he could just quit tipping his curveball to the Blue Jays, he'd really have it all.

The offense was, what's the word, awful, again. Four hits off Scott/Larry/Pepe Richmond is simply unacceptable. Not that they're necessarily going to come back from the deep hole they found themselves in, but how about sprinkling in a couple of hits here and there. The foregoing, of course, does not apply to mainman Jonny Gomes. We here at the Reds Rocket have learned to overlook the lack of 'h' in your name, in fact this is the last time we'll draw attention to it. Two more hits last night and he's looking like a borderline viable power option in the outfield. Danny Richar also got a chance to play and picked up a hit. Looks like Dusty's decided, in likely a very unpopular decision, that Tavares should not be out there every day. Dickerson has gotten two consecutive starts and looks suspiciously like he may have figured some things out after his rough patch in the beginning of the season. But, I'm sure Dusty has everything under control. No reason for me to put any more thought into it.

Reds wrap things up in Toronto today. Someone ask Joey Votto about his family, see what he says. Play better today Reds.

Reds Lose to Pederast, Jays 7-4

Good news, however, is Joey Votto has returned to the lineup. But the continued bad news is the Reds' offense, aside from the 7th didn't look any better than they did in Joey's absence. You choose: inept or impotent. I'll go with impotent because it conotes that the Reds offense cannot get an erection, which is too bad because that is an important part of a happy existence. Regardless, Votto had one hit, weakly the other way but it was his first game back. Bruce doubled in two in the 7th with a shot off a lefty. Actually looked like he knew what he was doing. Everyone's friend Hal McCoy said that of everyone, Bruce missed Votto the most because they're batting practice partners and Votto's absence directly corresponded with Bruce's major slump. Hopefully that's not the case, the Reds already have enough sensitive players.

Owings was not very good last night. Without his bat in the lineup there isn't much of which to look forward every fifth day. He heads out there, throws a ton of pitches and if the ball isn't diving he gets hits hard. Yesterday he gave up a home run to Marco Scutero, which hurts. And Rod Barajas. Maybe the old Dusty Bottoms should consider a three-man rotation until Volquez is back, which actually, may be pretty soon. Talk it over with Dick Pole, he is very insightful.

Arroyo takes the hill today. Last year, as you likely recall, he pitched a very fine ballgame. Just to 10 earned in 1 plus innings. Not bad at all. The Reds official site already had an article about it. Arroyo says he hopes to give up 20 in one-third of an inning today. I think he can do it.

Reds Lose but Look Good Doing it, White Sox 4-1

The Reds looked pretty solid for about 12 of the 27 innings at home against the Cracker Sox. Arroyo pitched pretty well in the opener and the Reds offense staked Cueto to a five-run lead on Saturday before he handed it all back. Nobody showed up yesterday, they were out late the night before celebrating the 8 runs scored. It happens some times, nice effort you guys.

That marks two consecutive not excellent starts by Cueto. Sure, the line against the Royals featured no earned runs due to some White Sox-like defense, but he got knocked around a little bit and gave up 6. Saturday he gave up not only career home run number one to Gordon Beckham but Scott Podsednik, or Scotty Pods, took him out of the yard. Podsednik is scheduled for about 3 homers this season and he had one coming in. He'll need to spread those out or there are going to be some disappointed Chicagoans.

Harang had a tough first inning but straightened out and ended up pitching pretty well over seven, with only the 3 earned. He wasn't featuring the 93-94 mph fastball that he had during his rain-shortened outing versus Atlanta but that's okay, he threw pretty well. And the Chicago announcers' comments that with Volquez out, the Reds don't have any 'good right-handed pitchers' isn't going to work for Aaron Harang. He monitors tapes all broadcasts, even the spanish ones, and adds names accordingly to his slow, painful death list.

Reds travel out of the country for Tuesday's game. Hal McCoy has predicted we see the return of Votto. They've drilled a small whole in his skull to let out all of the demons. He should be ready to go. Featured below is the starting pitcher for Toronto. Coincidentally, it's kids night at the ballpark.

Reds Ambushed By Proud Native People, Braves 7-0

Reds saved all of their suck for yesterday's game, underperforming both on the mound and at the plate. That allowed the savages to sneak back into the tall grass with a lone victory from the series. But still a series win and the Reds Rocket remains optimistic.

Baloney wasn't all that great and Fisher certainly didn't help him out by allowing the guys he left behind to cross the plate. Get the pitcher out is the general rule for relievers. And I certainly don't want to imply that Baloney isn't great, because he is, really great but that may have been his last start in Cincinnati for a while. Tough break for the big old salad tosser.

In addition to the traitorous bullpen, the offense didn't help Baloney out either. Five hits all day again a guy who'd been pretty good in the minors but awful in his first two starts and some guy from Australia? That is not the powerful Reds offense I've been so used to for these past two weeks. Evidently, Votto's brain is slowly on the mend, as he headed to Floriday to start with his rehab. Though, I'm unsure how you mend a broken brain. His return should help quite a bit. And, apparently, Eddie Encarnacion is taking some batting practice and is on the right path back to return. I can't remember if everyone still hates him during Rosales' extended struggles. Probably, that guy's a real asshole.

Marty had the day off yesterday, so Thombo filled in on the radio and lost interest in calling the game about the 4th inning. He sure does have a lot of opinions. Especially about flying on private jets. For those of you who have moved into the current century and do not listen to the games on this thing called "the radio", Thom Brennaman is employed by a company which provides private airline flights to 'average people.' It is both cost efficient and allows you to spend more time with your horrible wife. So, think about that next time you're driving to Dayton, you could be flying with Thom Brennaman.

Micah Owings Does Bat With Balls, Reds 4-3

Reds won their second in a row last night (hot streak!) over the Savages. Sure they only got four hits all night and one of them, which may have lead to the winning margin, was by the starting pitcher, but its still a win. And Ray Jay tied a season high with a two-game hitting streak when he took one out of the yard in the second.

Aside from Owings ripping the three-run shot out to right, he didn't pitch all that poorly, comparatively anyway. He was able to last 6 innings, which is positive. The fact he didn't strike anyone out and it still took him 107 pitches to make it that far is moderately troubling but still, quality start. Masset was poor for the second consecutive outing, but his ERA is still under 1.50 and the rest of the pen was pretty good. Coco went with his trademark walk before retiring the side. Baloney gets his first win today and the sweep is secured. Reds! Reds! Reds!

Last night while watching Baseball Tonight, I saw a familiar face, or photo, underneath the telephone section of the program. Dusty Baker. They were asking him questions about steroids, whether or not all of the names should be released. He said as long as there aren't any current Reds on that list, he's cool with that. As the person most-knowledgeable on all subjects, the Reds Rocket was not surprised that ESPN would be interested in what Dusty had to say.