Boxscore

Wasn’t that an amazing game yesterday that the Cincinnati Reds had against the Milwaukee Brewers? It had everything. Good pitching, Joey Votto being awesome, and a late comeback.

It didn’t look at first that the Reds would sweep the Brewers. Homer Bailey threw 30+ pitches and allowed a couple runs in the first inning, but he rebounded. Over the course of the rest of his 7-inning outing, he returned to the pitch-efficient, effective ways of his previous start. In total, he went 7 innings, allowing 2 runs, 4 hits, 2 walks, and struck out 4.

The bullpen came in then, to make things even harder for the offense. It’s been hard to get the relievers work lately, what with 3 complete games in the last week. It’s a good problem to have, and I expect that if all the starters start averaging 7 innings a start that we’ll see a reduction in the bullpen staff. There’s no need for 7 relievers when only 2 innings are needed most nights.

Despite Mike Lincoln charging in with the white flag of surrender, his damage to the game was limited. And Joey Votto and Scott Rolen were having none of it. Votto hit a 460ft solo shot in the 8th–one that landed in the faux riverboat beyond center field. Then in the 9th, Paul Janish singled to get things started off Trevor Hoffman. Scott Rolen followed with a pinch-hit homer to tie it. This was no rally-killing home run, though, because Chris Heisey followed with a double. After a walk to Brandon Phillips, Votto stepped to the plate and I knew the game was over. He quickly drove in Heisey and another last-at-bat win was added to the Reds 2010 total. (It’s 10 now, I think.)

Sure, there are problems with the Reds, and it’s hard to ignore that niggling voice in the back of your head that says, “They’ve done this before. May isn’t the same as September.” But I urge you to squash that little voice and enjoy this moment. It hasn’t been often that we’ve gotten to see competent, enjoyable play out of the Reds, and it would be a shame to miss it.

Woo-hoo! The Reds have taken over first place in the NLC, and while they’ve briefly held the top spot in the division early in the season before, the series to get them here was such a rush. My thoughts are too all-over-the-place for paragraphs, so you get them in bullet-point form:

• After the first game of the series, Jonny said the Cards really had Joey Votto’s number. That’s when I realized that–deep-down–I don’t really believe that anyone can stop Joey Votto except Joey Votto. He’s been trying real hard these last few games, but what he must realize is that he must do, or do not. There is no try.
• I think Bronson Arroyo is well-suited to the kind of atmosphere the team has right now, where he’s having to keep up with the kids in the rotation. It inspires Good-Royo and chases away Bad-Royo.
• Which is good, because the Reds will go as far as their starting rotation can take them. It doesn’t hurt that they actually have good defense for a change.
• I <3 Jonny Gomes. That super-intense, borderline-frenzied look he sometimes gets reminds me so fondly of Ryan Freel. I think he even says, “you know” a million times when interviewed after the game, just like Freel used to.
• The Cardinals don’t seem to realize what a serious problem they have. Carp getting huffy when someone shows frustration, Card bloggers saying Gomes shouldn’t flip his bat, Card commentators saying the umps should show respect to Pujols. It’s one thing to go onto the field expecting to win; it’s another thing to go onto the field expecting people to let you win. This sense of entitlement screams sick culture. If the Cards were a Fortune 500 company, they’d be on their way to hostile takeover.
• While I was at the game on Friday, the Civil Rights segments on the big board talked about not just race in baseball, but gender and sexuality, too. I don’t think that woman is going to make it into the big leagues any time soon, but it did occur to me that it’s going to be in my lifetime when we have the first openly gay active player. In fact, it may be in the next few years. Now it’s just a race to see who owns up first. Life will be tough for that guy in some ways, but he’ll also inspire a huge following and validate a lot of younger guys out there. Plus, he’ll go down in history. Maybe not quite Jackie Robinson level history, but still pretty bad-ass.

The Red Hot Family was in Cincinnati last night to see first hand the game that might have seen the Reds take over the NLC. While it didn’t turn out that way, it was still a helluva game and we immortalized some of the excitement for this installment of The 8th Inning Show.

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