In an uncharacteristic move, the Reds stopped considering Scott Rolen to be day-to-day and actually put him on the DL, retroactive to Saturday. If only that meant they could go back in time and play those games again with that roster spot filled by someone not suffering from spinning-world-syndrome.

Now, I don’t want it to sound like I begrudge Rolen taking time off for a head injury. It’s not as if he’s slacking off or something: dude can’t seem to shake headaches for days at a time. What I am saying is, “darn the luck.” Edwin Encarnación could have sat the DL just as well as Rolen, and it would have cost less. Either way, Adam “Goober Pyle” Rosales is the one on the field.

And win again, before losing. And hopefully not losing again this very afternoon.

Though, as the CTS pointed out referring to the first of those wins, against the Cubs, even the worst team in baseball wins at least 30% of their games. And as he further pointed out referring to the second, against the Giants, that was the most unlikely ninth inning ever. Jeez, one would hope a team with five errors in a game would lose.

Since then, the Reds lost the second in the series against the Giants, and now Brandon Phillips has tied Joey Votto with 17 home runs this season. It sure would have been great if one of the two guys ahead of him–Willy Taveras (.273 OBP) and Alex Gonzalez (.250 OBP)–had had a prayer of being on base when he did it.

Did you know that the Reds are tied for worst in OBP in the league? The Reds and Giants each get on base only 31% of the time. At least this ought to be a quick game.

The big news today is that the Reds have reached the 8-game mark in their titanic losing streak. But did you know that the win that preceded this losing streak was the same win that broke their previous 6-game losing streak? In fact, the Reds haven’t had two wins in a row since July 1 and 2, which was broken up by the same loss that was their last one-loss-in-a-row on July 3.

All this gets to be a little difficult for me to visualize, and even the calendar on Reds.com doesn’t bring it to life, so I added a little color to make it easier to see the wins and losses over the last four and a half weeks:

This demonstrates not just how horribly ineffective the Reds have been in the last month, but also that they’ve only recently dug themselves into this hole. 5 for their last 27 and only 12.5 games back. It’s a long shot, but it’s not impossible for the team to come back, given a little shake-up. I recommend removing the guy who doesn’t realize that low OBP at the top of the line-up are the reason Joey Votto came to the plate facing empty bases all night last night.

The Reds lost (again) last night–this time to the Chicago Cubs–to stretch out their losing streak to 8. Yes, that’s 8 games in a row they’ve lost.

It would be more if not for a fluke of a win a while back that ended their then season-longest losing streak of 6 games. That makes the Reds 1-14 over their last 15 games.

As the losses pile up, I can’t help but wonder, where are all the “Dusty Baker on the hot seat in Cincinnati” stories? The Reds had optimistic hopes of finishing above .500 and competing this year. Clearly, that’s not happening. Not anytime soon. But no one is getting fired.

Could it be that owner Bob Castellini’s macho stance against losing is nothing more than a PR move? Or is it really a St. Louis Cardinals conspiracy?

Methinks Castellini doth protest too much. Until some heads start rolling, I’ll be thinking that losing suits him just fine.

Before the Aaron Harang took the mound against the Cubs tonight, Thom Brennaman was heard to say on the pre-game show that this game is a “must-win” for the Reds. This got me to thinking: do the Reds need to win tonight’s game? It’s only the grace of the Pirates’ loss last night that the Reds are tied for fifth instead of in sole possession of dead last.

At 11 games back, it’s a little hard to imagine this game being of particular importance to the Reds as a team. To individual managers, sure, but not to the team as a whole.

At just half a game back and in second place, this game could be pretty darn important to the Cubs. That got me wondering whether the Reds shouldn’t go easy on the baby bears tonight. But no. That way madness lies.

On our way home from a particularly long weekend road trip yesterday, the Crack Technical Staff and I were talking about who should be to blame. One idea stuck with me, and I couldn’t shake it: why didn’t the change in ownership fix things? All those years of telling ourselves that if only the team had an owner that knew the game, that would invest a little, the team could win.

Along comes Bob Castellini and the current ownership group, and things did immediately improve. But as we chatted, we realized that “things” hadn’t improved, “marketing” had. The team harvested a lot of low-hanging fruit in packaging up shitty tix with opening day ones and bringing the Reds Caravan into Indianapolis, giving the illusion of a well-run team.

The one person they did invest in, Dusty Baker, might even have been a marketing decision. They hired him so quickly they couldn’t have actually interviewed a full panel of candidates, and my experience is that average fans–the kind who check out an occasional box score but don’t actually tune in for games–love him. “In Dusty We Trusty.”

And there’s been no talk of his job being on the line, despite the performance of the team, which really makes me wonder about the motivations of the management. At some point, though, I hope they’ll realize that “Muncie, Indiana Day” at the ballpark will convince some to come out, but a winning team is what will really put butts in the seats.

But they’re pretty far from that right now. Even the pitching staff that people are quick to defend is only good in comparison to the offense and to previous years: not to other teams’. League average runs allowed: 4.20. Reds’ average runs allowed: 4.48.

Admittedly, that number is influenced by the defense, too, but so what? Isn’t that the whole damn reason Alex Gonzales is on the roster?

So, regardless of whether this game actually is a “must win” for Cincinnati tonight, as they’re down 3-0 in the top of the sixth, it’s certainly not a “likely win.”