Well, we watched the taped game in its entirety. It's painful, painful entirety.

I guess I'm not surprised that the Astros swept the Reds after the Reds sudden incapacity to convert their hits to runs, but I'm still disappointed. I especially love it when the backups come in to win where the starters cannot; it feeds my fantasy that even I could come in to be the hero. If only they let girls play.

I was interested and intrigued by moving Joe Randa up to hit clean-up. Yesterday the Astros intentionally walked Randa twice, which did a surprisingly effective job at neutralizing the offense. It put me in the mind of last season when the Reds moved Wily Mo Pena up to clean-up when he was hot and needed some protection. Unlike Pena, though, Randa continued to hit well in the fourth spot today, a testament to the benefit of having a few people kicking around on the team who aren't intimidated by their own abilities.

I'm bummin'. It's already looking like the brief flirtation with greatness is already being crushed under the startling weight of reality. I think I'll stop dwelling on this by writing up on of my spring training memories instead. Here's hoping I don't have too many more of the opportunities to participate in this kind of denial.

Yesterday, the Reds lost for the second time to the Astros in unspectacular fashion. After Paul Wilson helped himself out with an RBI single to make the score 3-0 in the top of the sixth, he proceeded to give up three runs in the bottom of the inning. Joe Valentine came on to hold the Astros, but the offense just wasn't able to convert and over the course of the game left 13 runners. After a respectable showing in the 8th, Wagner came on in the 9th and failed to get a single out in the inning before allowing Jose Vizcaino to double-in the game-winning run.

Wilson tried to take all of the blame on himself, but no one was buying it. Like usual, the blame was a commodity to be shared by all.

I'm finding it hard to find anything cute or witty to say about it, mostly because, at this very moment, the Reds are trying to avoid a sweep. We missed the first part of the game for my brother-in-law's birthday party, and we're waiting until the game is all the way done to watch the tape and pretend like it's happening real-time. It's making me fidgity and crabby to have to avoid all my Reds news when I know how much is out there, waiting to be read.

It's time to see what the tape will reveal. Hopefully, this evening there will be reason to be funny again.