Last Game
Mike Leake, the Reds best starter so far this year, took to the mound in the deciding game of the Dodgers series yesterday, and had his worst start in his young career. So of course, he picked up his first–and the Reds rotation’s first–win. The offense and bullpen were stellar, too, with a home run by Jay Bruce to power the Reds to a 8-5 win.

Next Game
The Reds start a series against the San Diego Padres, with Kevin Correia taking the mound against Johnny Cueto at 7:10pm EDT.

Shuffling Relievers on the Titanic
With the Reds’ struggling, the idea of a major shake-up being used as a motivation tool isn’t outside the realms of probability. The team hasn’t done that, although there was a minor roster move yesterday. The Reds sent down rookie reliever Logan Ondrusek and called up Carlos Fisher.

Ondrusek was a long-shot to make the club in Spring Training, but pitched very well. Unfortunately, that hasn’t transferred over to the bigs, where he accrued an ERA of 11.25. Another reason not to base too much on Spring Training results. Ondrusek will head to the Louisville Bats where he’ll work on rediscovering how to throw strikes. I understand that’s important in baseball.

Fisher debuted with the Reds last year and was average. He’s been almost perfect in 8 innings with the Bats this year, but again, small sample sizes.

What to Say to Sound Smart at the Water Cooler
Drew Stubbs played his first game of 2010 where he wasn’t batting lead-off. He responded to the smaller amount of pressure by going 2-4 with an RBI and a run scored.