Boxscore

From the start, everyone was afraid that the muffed kick on the point after touchdown would hurt the Reds; however, they never scored again, so the miss was moot. Oh, wait, this is baseball, not football. Cincinnati already has one mediocre football team. No need to add another one to the mix.

Despite the football-style score, the Cincinnati Reds did play yesterday. One wouldn’t typically call it baseball, at least, not good baseball.

Aaron Harang brought his typical F-game, providing the team with a terrible start. He allowed 7 runs–6 earned–in 5 1/3 innings. His ERA stands at 8.31. On the day the Chicago Cubs announced Carlos Zambrano’s move to the bullpen, I’m wondering if the Reds shouldn’t try the same with Harang. His suckitude, for whatever reason, is becoming comical.

Of course, Harang allowed only half of the Dodger runs. For the rest, we turn to the bullpen. Micah Owings couldn’t record an out, but could give up 2 runs. Logan Ondrusek got some outs–6 of them–but allowed 4 runs. And Mike Lincoln pitched the 9th and allowed 1 paltry run, showing that the Dodgers weren’t really trying by that point. The only reliever to escape unscathed was Daniel Herrera, who recorded one out in the 6th. Good job, Daniel! You’re the Reds star pitcher of the game!

The offense for the Reds was good, at least at the beginning. Harang gave up an early lead to the Dodgers, but in the bottom of the first, Joey Votto and Scott Rolen hit home runs, giving the Reds a 3-1 lead. It was the only lead the Reds had, and it lasted all the way from the bottom of the first to the top of the second.

The Reds did come back to tie it once, but it has to engender a feeling of pointlessness when your pitchers continue to make your job harder and harder. I mean, the Reds scored 6 runs. And it wasn’t enough. This is a team with pitching as its strength, right? Ouch.

Boxscore

When is a 6 run lead not enough? When you’re the Cincinnati Reds and you’re mired in your worst losing streak of the season.

One would think that with the way the offense exploded against the Dodgers, that maybe the pitching could step it up. But no. The starting and relief pitching continue to be black holes for the Reds. For one night, at least, the offense wasn’t.

Homer Bailey started for Cincinnati, and allowed 3 before his team had even batted. But the offense batted around in the 2nd inning, scoring an unprecedented 6 runs, only 1 from a homer. They added 3 more runs over the next 2 innings.

Bailey settled down until he tired in the 6th. On the night, he allowed 5 runs over 5 1/3 innings, with 8 hits, 3 walks, and 5 strikeouts. Thanks to the run-producing offense, though, he was in line for the win.

Until Nick Masset came in and let the Dodgers tie the game. The ending of the game followed the script for all the other 2010 Reds win, with the team scoring the eventual winning run in their final at bat, this time thanks to a single from Paul Janish.

Still, a win’s a win, and that 2nd inning was quite enjoyable to watch.

News broke this afternoon that injured Reds pitcher Edinson Volquez–you may remember him from one of the two awesome things about the 2008 Cincinnati Reds (Joey Votto was the other)–tested positive for performance enhancing drugs.

Edinson Volquez has failed a test for performance-enhancing drugs and will be suspended for 50 games, SI.com has learned.

Sigh. Just what the Reds need. There is one good bit of news to come from this. Well, good, if true. With breaking news on the internet, it’s hard to tell. According to C. Trent, Volquez can serve the suspension while on the disabled list. If that’s true, then Volquez’s suspension would be up sometime in June. July was the month that had been touted as a possible return, but that always felt overly optimistic to me.

There’s nothing but wild assumptions flying over Twitter and teh internets right now, but one thing I think we can look forward to: Volquez’s apology. Which of the options will he employ?

• Denial: “I didn’t do it.”
• Feigned Ignorance: “I didn’t know it was banned.”
• Competitive Excuse: “I wanted to return from my injury quickly.”
• Silence: No statements at all.

My money’s on Feigned Ignorance.