I am having one of those days where I feel like I'm always just a little bit out of whack. I just can't seem to pull it together, so if you see a bunch of split infinitives and dangling participles in my posts today, you'll have to forgive me.

In the morning, Jon noticed that I had been mentioned in this review of Reds blogs. I was encouraged to see that everything the review had to say about Red Hot Mama, whether he thought it was positive or negative, was exactly what I was going for. I was a tad distraught that he introduced me like this:

Red Hot Mama is the “woman” blogger of the Reds.

Why is “woman” in quotes? Is he suggesting that I'm not really a woman? To anyone out there who doubts my lack of phallus, let me tell you that I will hunt you down and beat you like the dog that you are, and when I'm done…wait, that doesn't sound very feminine. I'd better rethink this.

Like always, I spent my lunch hour at the gym and watched ESPN. I can't be the only one that has noticed that ESPN gives a disproportionately small amount of time to Reds coverage. Surely one of you stats guys has counted up how many minutes they spend on each team; are there numbers to back me up here?

After lunch, I got an email from Jon, whom I am up against in fantasy baseball this week, saying that he was never going to beat me if Freel keeps up these heroics. A wave of shock hit me as I realized I'd forgotten about the game and had missed the first six innings. I got the GameDay up ASAP and skimmed through to try to get caught up, but it took me even longer to realize that Harang should have been pitching and have to do the research into why he wasn't, adding to the feeling that I'm just not with it today.

And here it is, almost 7 p.m., and I'm just now getting my post up for the day. Time to go have some supper and a glass of wine to collect my wits before writing today's fake news story. Hopefully I'll have my split infinitive issues worked out by then.

Holey samoley, what a long game. Reminds me of the game on the day my son was born, a story about which I'll be posting this weekend. Tonight's game probably about as painful for the players as that game 4 years ago, but it is significantly less so for me, seeing as I'm not in labor.

Points that I thought were worthy of note:

• No television coverage tonight, so my mental acuity was again tested as I tried to keep track of where the heck everyone was playing. I was about lost after musical positions when Sean Casey left the game (I hope you're OK, Case). Adam Dunn from left to first, Ryan Freel from third to left, Luis Lopez from second to third, William Bergolla comes in at second. I thought they should have gone ahead and switched Austin Kearns and Ken Griffey, Jr, too, just for fun.
• On a related note, since there was no t.v. and the GameDay froze up in the third inning for the longest time, I really had to pay close attention to the radio broadcast. My goodness, Marty really is quite hard on Dunn, isn't he?
• Brandon Claussen turned in what can technically be called a quality start. It really wasn't too bad a start, I reckon: 2 runs over 6 innings, but thanks to the extra innings the bullpen went on to have a very long night anyway. They have to play an afternoon game tomorrow, but fortunately there were plenty of pitchers to share the burden. Carrying 13 pitchers looks pretty smart now, doesn't it? It still doesn't? Oh.
• Austin Kearns came up with a clutch hit in the first inning to score the three runs that were the Reds score for so long, plus a few other hits that looked good. This offense is waking up, but could still use a boost: how nice would it be to have been to have brought in Wily Mo Peña off the bench tonight?
• Suddenly the Reds have a running game. Ryan Freel was thrown out twice, Felipe Lopez was thrown out once. Lopez and Sean Casey, however, participated in a successful double-steal. Weird.
• Three Reds were hit by pitches, including Jason LaRue taking a pitch in the hand in the 11th. They'd already pinch hit with Javy Valentín, so if LaRue had had to come out of the game, it would have been Freel catching. I would have been really bummed not to have been able to see that first-hand.
• The new guy, Randy Keisler, not only pitched the last two scoreless innings to get the win, but also came up with the major clutch hit to knock in LaRue, the winning run. What a night for him.

This is fantastic. A few days ago, I never would have imagined these Reds would hang in there so long to win a game, to win the second game in a row, to win the series. Aaron Harang goes tomorrow: a sweep is a very real possibility.

Sleep tight, everyone.

I'm afraid to say it, afraid to believe it, but I can't deny that it's there: that sense that things are finally starting to roll. Today's game was freakin' awesome. Let's go on about it to some length:

• It all starts with Eric Milton. What a night for him, man. Eight innings with one earned run. Didn't give up his first homer until the sixth. Two hits, an RBI, and a run scored. I had a great fake news piece that would have only been really funny if Milton had sucked, but I'm plenty happy to never ever get the chance to use that one.
• Then there's Jason LaRue with his big hits, including his second homerun of the year. I have been bummin' too much lately to give LaRue his just props for improving his defensive game: according to Jon's calculations, LaRue had less than half the number of passed balls this year compared to this time last year. Now it looks like he's cleaning up those ugly at-bats and there's just nothing bad left to say about him.
• Austin Kearns demonstrated a serious slide to score the first run of the game in the second. Way to learn from other people's mistakes, Kearnsy. The Reds would go on to put together four consecutive scoring innings.
• William Bergolla and Ryan Freel each contributed a fantastical infield play of the type that keeps the excitement high and the energy flowing.
• David Weathers got 'em 1-2-3 in the ninth. When did we last see one of those? Seems like last year.

A lot of the guys were sad today to see Graves go, and I imagine that maybe a little part of some of them didn't want to succeed without him. But if the Reds can turn the loss of Graves into the galvanizing event that draws everything into focus, then he will have made a bigger contribution today than he could have all season on the field.

I look forward to seeing Brandon Claussen keep it rolling tomorrow.

I had a killer fake story planned about Graves, but in light of recent events, it seems too mean to post. I'll have to wait until someone else misbehaves themselves in public and use the idea for them instead.

You're probably not surprised that I think this was the right decision. Nevertheless, I'm going to miss Gravy. Not the Gravy of 2005 so much, but the Gravy of the past four years who was one of the building blocks in the foundation of my fandom. I think he's a swell guy, and I wish him the best of luck in his career and life.

That being said, it's time to get ready for tonight's game. A whole new series awaits.

Go Reds!

On Friday the Reds designated for assignment D'Angelo Jimenez as part of an effort to shake up the roster and get this team winning. The strategy looked like it might have met some success when the Reds won against the Indians on Friday. However, the Indians proceeded to take the next two games to win the series, and it now looks like the win on Friday had more to do with Aaron Harang's performance, Felipe Lopez's homerun, the phase of the moon, or just dumb luck than with the roster move.

While the move didn't exactly seem bad, it didn't address the pitching situation, which has consistently been the gimpy leg of this team. The move seemed arbitrary, especially when the Reds brought up Luis Lopez, a utility infielder who, no matter how you slice it, just isn't better than Jimenez. It looked like Jimenez was the odd-man out, the victim of a slow start and a desperate team's attempt to make a point by cutting a big contract.

Soon, though, media outlets began tell a very different story: true, Jimenez was starting slow, but he also wasn't trying very hard to get going. He was complacent, overweight, sullen, and mean: basically, he was the cantankerous uncle whom you never want to invite to family gatherings because he insults the cooking and picks his toes at the dinner table. Right after Jimenez was cut, each media outlet had quoted lip-service from someone about how now they suddenly realized that their jobs were not safe, but it had a hollow ring once we found out that the players probably agreed with the decision.

Here we are three games later, and it's clear that more needs to be done. Assuming all of the new revelations about Jimenez are true, then we can probably get behind the decision and encourage more along those lines.

What we're looking for is someone, preferably on the pitching staff this time, who is not performing to expectations. Someone who has used his time in the press to shift the focus away from his own shortcomings at every opportunity. Someone who has not managed to stay at the weight he was at when he was pitching great a few years ago. Someone who's making more money than he's worth. Someone who has buddies on the team who will be genuinely surprised, angered, and threatened to see him go. Someone who, no matter how much he pisses off the fans, has always appeared to be totally safe, until now.

Because that's the person the Reds are going to have to rid themselves of if they really want to make a point.

Does this person exist on the Reds? Yeah, I think so, but I'll let you draw your own conclusion. Disappointed that I won't just come out and say it? In that case, I encourage you to boo me.