When the Cincinnati Reds began their season, they were faced with a lot of injuries.

Johnny Cueto missed the first month, Bronson Arroyo had mononucleosis, and it felt like every other member of the team was dropping every other game.

Now that the 2011 season is wrapping up, the injury monster is hungry again.

Today it took a bite out of Dontrelle Willis’ back, making him unable to make his scheduled start Sunday.

In addition to Willis, the team also has several other players in a day-to-day state.

Cincinnati catchers Ramon Hernandez (bruised lower left leg) and Ryan Hanigan (back spasms) are banged up. Miguel Cairo has a sore shoulder. Johnny Cueto was knocked out of Monday’s start by a strained right lat.

And that neglects to mention infielder Chris Valaika who will have season-ending surgery to repair a torn ACL on Monday.

It does bring a certain sense of circularity to the season, though. The Reds are limping towards the finish line, much like they limped out of Spring Training.

Boxscore

Saturday night’s game between the Cincinnati Reds and the Milwaukee Brewers was unfortunately a bit of a snoozer. The Reds lost 10-1, with the only offense being a solo shot from Yonder Alonso.

The game was fun, though, despite that, with some great tweeting going on via all the Reds Tweetup guests. You can view the tweets here.

Before the event was also the unveiling of the new Johnny Bench statue. Bench spoke to the crowd before the game.

After that, Edinson Volquez took to the mound. He started well, but was probably left in too long and fell apart in the 7th. (No thanks to his bullpen, who allowed all inherited runners to score.)

The Reds’ batters had no luck either, aside from Alonso. The heart of the lineup was quiet, with Joey Votto and Jay Bruce combining for zero hits.

Yovani Gallardo was on his game for the Brewers, and the game was effectively over when Volquez and the bullpen imploded.

Volquez got the loss and Gallardo took the victory. It was a far cry from last September’s Tweetup, when the Reds clinched the division. And from the last Johnny Bench night, when Bench homered to lead the Reds to a win. Sadly, there were no fireworks from Reds catchers tonight.

Still, it was a fun event, and I’m looking forward to next year’s.

Conversation ’round the ol’ dinner table around here has been focusing more and more lately on who’s to blame for the utter free fall that we’ve endured the Reds suffering this season. All it takes is someone shaking their head and mutter, “remember at the beginning of the season when the Reds were good?” and off we go. It is only a matter of time till those sentiments overflow and the posts start taking on an indictment flavor.

But it’s the weekend and tomorrow there’s a tweet up and a Johnny Bench statue and a first place NLC team to check out. Why not let the vitriol simmer for another couple days while we take in the last home weekend game. Hell, Baker and Jocketty can wait; they will (probably) still be there on Monday.

Since the last time I posted, the Reds were eliminated from post-season contention, first thanks to a win by the Brewers to eliminate them from the possibility of winning in the NLC, and then thanks to a win by the Braves to eliminate them from the possibility of winning the NL wildcard.

If you pay close attention to the “Events” that we show over on the right side of the blog layout, you noticed about a week ago I predicted that the elimination day would be yesterday, September 14. And, as it turned out, both eliminations happened on that day, thanks to the Brewers having a long game that went just past midnight EDT.

So, tonight’s Reds-Cubs game is definitely among those lame duck events where we get to see the flashes of awesomeness from the young guys and think, “why couldn’t he have done that in July?” Among the awesomeness I’ve seen tonight has been Chris Heisey’s facial hair. Not only would it surely have made all the difference in July, but it’s also nice for making young Heisey look legal.

This weekend’s games are not quite as exhibition-y as tonight’s game, seeing as the Reds are hosting the Brewers and could do their part to…I don’t know. Give the Cardinals a chance? Tire out the team? Take Prince Fielder out to Boi Na Braza?

Whatever the team does, there’s going to be the big unveiling of the Johnny Bench statue to take in, plus the Tweet-up on Saturday. I understand there may be prizes for participating tweeters.

The Cincinnati Reds, fresh off of being eliminated in the 2011 season, have announced their 2012 schedule.

The Cincinnati Reds’ tentative 2012 schedule has been released by Major League Baseball. It is subject to change.

The 2012 campaign will begin with Opening Day on Friday, April 6 against the Miami Marlins at Great American Ball Park. After that 3-game series, the Reds will host the St. Louis Cardinals from Monday through Wednesday, April 9-11 to complete the first homestand of the season.

“The Reds already are working with the Findlay Market Parade organizers on Opening Day 2012,” said Reds Chief Operating Officer Phil Castellini. “No fans look forward to the start of baseball season more than ours.”

Other featured matchups at Great American Ball Park in 2012 include a pair of weekend series against the National League Central Division rival Cardinals (July 13-15, August 24-26), plus weekend battles with the Milwaukee Brewers (July 20-22), Chicago Cubs (August 17-19) and Los Angeles Dodgers (September 21-23).

Highlighting the Reds’ 15-game interleague schedule are home series against the Detroit Tigers (June 8-10), Cleveland Indians (June 12-14) and Minnesota Twins (June 22-24) and road visits to new Yankee Stadium (May 18-20) and Cleveland’s Progressive Field (June 18-20).

It sucks to already be thinking about next year. The full schedule is here.