After two straight days of the magic number poised on the precipice of single-digit-ness, we’re finally looking at a big, fat 8 up in the corner. As if the Cardinals blow out of the Padres last night jogged their memory (“now I remember…you are allowed to hit the ball over the wall!”), the Reds went to town on the Astros tonight, winning 11-1.

With a score like that, obviously the bullpen failed to give it up like a prom date. Together with some solid offense, it was the perfect storm of magic-number reduction. Somewhere in Australia a butterfly flapped its wings, and in Houston Jim Edmonds made his triumphant return.

Edmonds was not the only Red contributing to the score (though George Grande did sort of make it seem that way). Jay Bruce and Drew Stubbs also came through with a homer apiece, and Orlando Cabrera, Scott Rolen, Yonder Alonso, and even Bronson Arroyo earned RBI on the day.

Speaking of Arroyo, his win tonight brought his record to 16-10, giving him a career-high number of wins in a season. Of course, Arroyo’s personal record is just a bonus to the 84 team wins. That puts them seven games over the Cardinals with 13 games to go. And that, friends, is a bit of a relief to me.