Well, guys, it was yet another losing effort. But we're trying to stay positive, right? We know that there's always a silver lining. Let's see, it's gotta be around here somewhere:

• Ramón Ortiz allowed two runs over seven innings. Too bad it was twice as many as his offense would provide by way of support and he ended up with the loss.

Let's keep looking.

• Kent Mercker allowed zero runs. That is downright phenomenal for a Red reliever. He did, however, almost overthrow Javy Valentín on the intentional walk of Mike Piazza. I guess that's one of the hazards of having a catcher who's four and a half feet tall.

I don't think that's the silver lining either.

• The bullpen should be very rested now. The starters have been going longer (even Paul Wilson ate up six innings with his spectacle yesterday). Plus, these games have been eight innings long from the pitching staff's point of view. And a rested bullpen has to be a good thing; fresh crap beats exhausted crap, right?

Hm. Maybe not.

• Griffey's diving catch was cool. It wasn't a very difficult diving catch, but it's way more than I've seen out of him since…well, maybe ever. I haven't been watching that long.

That silver lining is close; I can feel it.

• Aha, here we go: D'Angelo Jimenez pinch-popped-out from the left side to make sure that Jacob Cruz was allowed to save his energy for full-time coaching of other guys who get more playing time than him.

You see? There's something to feel positive about. Plus, now that we've found this silver lining, maybe I can use it to make something nice, like a poncho to keep the fallout from this continuing shit storm out of my eyes.