Our Cincinnati Reds travel to St. Louis this evening to take on the team we all love to hate in the Cardinals. I'll be in and out with some smart alecry in between waves of nausea. I overdid it at the local pub last night.

Anyway…

Reds
Josh Hamilton CF
Alex Gonzalez SS
Ken Griffey, Jr RF
Brandon Phillips 2B
Adam Dunn LF
Javier Valentín C
Scott Hatteberg 1B
Edwin Encarnación 3B
Tom Shearn P

Those Other Guys
Eckstein ss
Ankiel rf
Pujols 1b
Edmonds cf
Duncan lf
Molina c
Miles 2b
Reyes p
Ryan 3b

On Tuesday, August 28, the Louisville Bats wore special pink jerseys in support of the fight against breast cancer. The jerseys have all been signed, and are now up for auction.

Ryan Jorgensen, Joey Votto, and Jay Bruce are tied for the lead at $260.

Ryan Jorgensen:

Mark Bellhorn's jersey is next, with a $245 bid, but don't count those chowderheads out yet. Bellhorn's item has gotten the highest bid in all Bats charity auctions this year, often with a late surge.

Paul Janish:

Joey Votto and Aaron Herr:

Marcus McBeth with the strikeout:

Jeff Bannon:

Anderson Machado:

Even Buddy Bat wore a pink jersey:

Proceeds will be donated to the Louisville chapter of Susan G. Komen for the Cure. Auction ends at midnight, Sept. 3.

I didn’t say it! It wasn’t me! Get off my freakin’ back, already!

Jonny, my beloved husband and Red Hot Mama’s own Crack Technical Staff, does not have the love for the Reds’ number one catcher and attributes their loss in the two games yesterday to his return from the DL. I think that’s probably going a bit far, myself, but I can’t deny that I loves to see the Latin Love Machine behind the plate.

Tonight on the podcast, in addition to the CTS’s ranting about the catching situation, we also rant about the management of the team, both on the field and in general. As it has been every single time an interim manager has done well, Red Hot Mama’s stance on the situation is to allow said interim manager to interview for the position, but not to remove the interim tag before the interviews. Will the team get it right this time? That alone is reason to keep watching.

Episode 74: David Ross Is Dragging the Reds Down (16.7MB, 24:21)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Lavar Burton has the golden touch. Everything he's ever done is fantastic.

It's only 8:40 p.m. and the Reds have already lost one game tonight. Now we've got Bronson Arroyo going in the second game (accompanied by David Ross, fresh of the DL) for the second half of the double-header, and I'm not feeling at all confident. It would be just like the Reds to go on a 6-game winning streak and then get immediately swept by the Pirates. At least it might take some of the air out of the idea of handing Pete Mackanin the manager position. Have him in the running, sure, but at least interview some guys.

Anyway, here's the line-up for our Reds tonight. I see that Norris Hopper was already caught stealing.

Reds
Norris Hopper, CF
Jeff Keppinger, RF
Brandon Phillips, 2B
Jorge Cantu, 1B
Adam Dunn, LF
Edwin Encarnación, 3B
Alex Gonzalez, SS
David Ross, C
Bronson Arroyo, P

Go Reds!