Last Game
I hope you didn’t stay up late for last night’s game. It wasn’t pretty. Edinson Volquez couldn’t get out of the first inning, and the bullpen was never able to stop the blowout. In addition, Laynce Nix sprained his ankle and Jim Edmonds strained his right oblique. All in all, an ugly 11-2 loss.

Next Game
It’s game 2 of the series against the San Francisco Giants. The Cincinnati Reds have secured a winning record on this West Coast trip, but it would still be nice to take the series from the Giants. They have to win today to do that, and they’ll be sending out Travis Wood. The Giants counter with Jonathan Sanchez. Game-time is 10:15pm EDT.

Extending Baker One Year at a Time
Some more details have come out about the extension the Reds have offered Dusty Baker, primarily that it’s only for one year.

Dusty Baker is prepared to take his time weighing an offer to manage the Reds again next season.

The Reds have offered Baker a one-year contract extension for the 2011 campaign, but he has yet to give the club an answer and certainly wants to weigh his options.

Many managers are retiring after this season, so the article posits that Baker may have other suitors. It would make sense for him to see what other interest there is, and I wouldn’t hate for the Reds to lose him. Winning clears up a lot of things, but even so, Baker’s managing can still annoy and possibly rob the team of a few wins that a more modern manager wouldn’t.

The one-year offer is a prudent strategy, though. Don’t forget that the Reds were losers for the first 2 years under Baker.

What to Say to Sound Smart at the Water Cooler
In the final game of the Los Angeles Dodgers series, Bronson Arroyo picked up his 100th career win. He is 100-90 for his career.