In yesterday’s Reds Notebook, Mark Sheldon wrote about a few interesting things Cincinnati Reds pitching coach Bryan Price had to say about Aroldis Chapman.

“With all the question marks on who’s going to be with us going into next season, it’s hard to say for sure,” Reds pitching coach Bryan Price said on Wednesday. “I would be very confident in saying that he will absolutely get a chance to start, maybe as early as next season.”

This sounds good to me. Chapman may not work out as a starter, but given how much more valuable good starters are, he certainly deserves a chance. And this is the first time I’ve heard a Reds manager mention that in a while.

“There are a lot of benefits to him starting. No. 1, I think his growth as a pitcher will increase at a faster pace when he gets more time, more innings, more bullpen time to really focus and work on his delivery and his pitches and situational baseball.”

Given how dominant Chapman can be when he’s consistently delivering his pitches, seeing that as a starter would be amazing.

The Reds will be tempted to try Chapman as the closer, depending upon how they deal with Francisco Cordero, but I hope they resist that temptation. Chapman needs to spend some time in the Reds’ rotation.

Most pitchers would be pretty happy with 2 runs in nine innings of work. But Mike Leake’s stellar start ended in the ninth inning when he served up a towering 2-run pinch-hit homer to Bryan LaHair. That one insidious swing of the bat tied the game and broke up Leake’s would-have-been complete-game shutout.

And geez, you’ve got to feel for the kid. Seeing him sitting there in the dugout after the hit you could just feel the shock and trauma, not yet turned to self-flagellation and regret. But it’s coming. Oh, it’s coming.

Chris Welsh said that that pitch will haunt Leake, keeping him from getting to sleep and causing him to wake up in the middle of the night.

But we know it goes beyond that, don’t we? The human brain loves those little gems of regret and brings them out to fondle them, like perverse trophies, at the most inopportune times. Whether it’s a mistake pitch at just the wrong moment or that time in fifth grade you unwittingly asked the kid whose father had just died what he’d planned for Fathers’ Day, our brains choose the worst possible moments–during a boring meeting, in the shower, at the altar–to drag these trophies out and shame us to such a severe degree that we just want to jump off a cliff.

But don’t do that, Mike Leake. It was a great outing, even if your brain will conveniently ignore that part.

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Bats	2	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	7	12	2
Indians	3	2	0	0	0	0	3	9	0	8	11	0

Boxscore

Over the Labor Day weekend on Saturday, we made it out to the final home game for Pittsburgh Pirates AAA affiliate the Indianapolis Indians. And the Cincinnati Reds AAA affiliate the Louisville Bats were in town.

It was an exciting game, with the teams combining for 10 runs in just the first two innings–two innings that take well more than an hour to play. It was looking like a long game, but both teams settled down after that, until the Indians took the lead for good in the 7th.

We sat in the Captain’s Cove, an excellent bar with comfy chairs in left field. I can’t recommend this place highly enough.

Former Cardinal Ryan Ludwick was manning left field for the Indians and had a solid game, going 3-4 with 2 RBI.

Travis Wood pitched for the Bats.

Now that Devin Mesoraco has been called up, the Reds new catcher of the future is in AAA: Yasmani Grandal.

Matt Hague, winner of the Indians 2011 MVP, at the plate.

The Indians players exchanging high-fives after the win.

After every home win, the Indians ring the Victory Bell. This was the last time this season.

The final scoreboard of 2011 at Victory Field.

And with that, the 2011 home season for the Indians was over. It passed by way too quickly. At least there’s almost a month left of major league ball to enjoy.

This happened last Thursday, but the Cincinnati Reds did make several moves to add players when rosters expanded. And some of those players have already come up big in the just completed series win over the St. Louis Cardinals.

Chris Heisey was activated from the disabled list, while Juan Francisco, Chris Valaika, Jared Burton, Carlos Fisher, Jeremy Horst, and Matt Maloney were all called up. Top prospect Devin Mesoraco had his contract purchased and was brought up, as well.

Fred Lewis was sent down Louisville.

“It’s never easy to do,” Baker said of Lewis’ departure. “Things didn’t really work out the second half as well as we thought they possibly would. And we got Heisey back. You hate to have to tell somebody, but it’s a tough part of the game.”

Hopefully, this means we’ll be seeing a lot more of Chris Heisey and Yonder Alonso in left field for the rest of the season.

Tonight the Indianapolis Indians hosted their last game at Victory Field in downtown Indianapolis. At the start of the game, they were still in the wildcard race, but it was a long shot. Though they did finally defeat Travis Wood and the Louisville Bats, the win by the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs sealed the deal before we finished our first post-game drink at the bar across the street from the ball park.

We may still have a month of major league baseball left to go, plus another six months of post-season play, but bidding farewell to your local AAA team on a balmy late summer night is a special kind of sadness. Till next year, oh boys of summer!