The Cincinnati Reds are dipping their toes into the social media promotions arena. Today they announced a TweetUp event for the Tuesday, September 28 game against the Houston Astros.

The Cincinnati Reds have a special evening planned for our Twitter fans during the final home stand of the season. Catch the Reds vs. Astros on Tuesday, September 28th in our special TweetUp Section at Great American Ball Park along with several of Cincinnati’s favorite Sports Bloggers and Tweeters. The group will be located in the Sun/Moon Deck seats (section 145) where seats are only $11 (regularly $22). There will be many “celebrity tweeters” on hand to participate in the night’s festivities and greet fans.

I wonder if they’re going to do anything to address the piss-poor reception AT&T has at the park. I know that every time I’ve been to a Reds game this year that Twitter and the internet has been inaccessible. If reception isn’t improved, they’d better be ready with a Fail Whale poster.

If you’re in the area and have a Twitter account, it sounds like a good time. Tickets can be purchased here.

The Reds are going to the playoffs.

It’s been so long, but with the St. Louis Cardinals loss yesterday coupled with the Cincinnati Reds win, the magic number is down to 6. I keep running the numbers over and over in my head, for certainly I’ve missed something. The Reds lead is back to 8 games, and they have just 11 games left. Meanwhile, the Cardinals have 13 games left.

I know the Reds haven’t clinched yet, but with each game played, it becomes ever more harder and unlikely for the Cardinals to pull off the miraculous comeback. Or, as we Reds fans are used to, the spectacular collapse by Cincinnati. This 2010 edition has had its share of spectacular failure, but I don’t think there’ll be anything on that order of magnitude.

Just think, if the Reds 4-7, the Cardinals have to go 13-0 just to tie. Does anyone think that either of those teams has either of those records in them? Sure the Reds have had a losing streak here and there and could pull off a 4-7 record over the last 11 in a pinch, but there’s no way I can see St. Louis going undefeated for the rest of the season. They’re just a bad team.

Face it, Reds fans. Pinch yourself or whatever you need to do to believe that you’re not dreaming. For the first time since 1995, we’re going to the playoffs. We’re going to see October baseball that matters.

Brandon Phillips, winner of the winningest smile award and second baseman to the stars, has been hitting like Royce Clayton ever since he hurt his wrist. I understand wanting to wait till they clinch the division to start giving guys days off, but BP might not actually be making that happen faster in this condition. Maybe a couple days off and a strict prohibition on Guitar Hero is in order.

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.