When Daedalus called Bronson Arroyo our savior, I didn't realize she meant it so literally.

Girlfriend, you got some mad photoshoppin' skillz.

On a mediocre pitching staff, Dave Williams has achieved new heights of…

sucking.

I was watching syndicated Friends this afternoon. Can you tell?

Dave Williams did, indeed, take the mound of this first contest of the series against Milwaukee, and did, indeed, suck. He lasted just three innings, giving up six runs (earned) on eight runs. He also issued four walks.

Matt Belisle took over for the beleaguered Williams and lasted four innings, yielding two runs (earned) on five hits and getting the win. The freshly-brought-up Brian “Radio” Shackelford held the Brewers hitless for his one batter faced. And Todd Coffey finished it out, blanking the Brewers on three hits through the final one and two-thirds innings.

Woo, the offense made itself known last night. They scored in five different innings. But the big star of the night was Brandon Phillips. He had six of the Reds' nine RBI, including a grand slam in the sixth inning. What with Freel in center, Aurilia at first, and Womack in no-man's land, it suddenly seems like we don't have too many second basemen at all. It suddenly seems like we have just the one.

The win brings the Reds' record to 10-6. They continue the series in Milwaukee in a little less than an hour. Bronson Arroyo takes the field for the Reds to face Ben Sheets for the Brewers.

Reds Perspective
Jacci at We Heart the Reds says Coffey played no games in shutting down the Brewers. Hell yeah. Did you see the look on his face? Coffey's gone totally bad-ass.

Shawn at Cincinnati Reds Blog points out that after Williams was removed early from last night's game, Matt Belisle was left in too long. I'd like for that to be the biggest pitching problem we had.

In JD's link dump, he talks about Tony Womack being out soon. I hope they can find something to do with him other than just release him. It's not his fault that Dan O'Brien stupidly signed him to begin with.

Bill at Redleg Nation says the Reds released Mark Schramek, a 2002 number 1 draft pick.

Daedalus of Church of Baseball continues the super-creative Photoshopping. Poor, poor sausages.

The Big Red Mechanic admires the power of youth. There certainly is a lot to admire.

Brewers Perspective
The Brewers blogs in my sidebar didn't have anything to say about yesterday's game at the time of this writing. If you want to scroll down in the game thread on Brew Crew Ball, you can see a rather non-sassy comment from yours truly. You can also see the nice things that Bill Batterman at Brewerfan.net had to say about RHM. Even nicer than last year.

This is the stupidest thing I've read all season, though admittedly, I haven't had much time to keep up with Lonnie Wheeler lately.

Kevin Hench of FoxSports.com uses his on-line forum to describe how both the Reds and the Red Sox must be regretting the Peña-Arroyo trade by now, what with Ken Griffey, Jr. and David Wells now injured. Wouldn't it be nice if we could take it all back?

Um, no. Hello?

Number 1, Griffey isn't even going to be out that long. Number 2, his absence has had no bigger impact than to provide playing time for Ryan Freel. Number 3, without Arroyo, Williams would be our number four pitcher, and shudder to think who would be fifth. Number 4, Arroyo in center field would be better than Peña there.

OK, that may be going a little far. But you know what I'm saying.

It would have taken Hench the effort of talking to any one Reds fan to know that none of us would undo this trade, but I doubt that he could find one at FoxSports.com.

He makes up for his lack of research into the Reds' actual response to the trade by instead discussing how certainly Peña wouldn't mind a break from the pressure of Boston. He was a Red once; I guess that's the same as representing the viewpoint of the current team.

Whatever. They can take their stupid coastal bias and stick it up next to Hench's head. Arroyo goes this weekend, and I don't think I'll be longing for Peña.