Boxscore

The Cincinnati Reds are marching slowly back towards the land of the winning record. And they improved their record to 6-8 yesterday with the club’s 10,000th franchise victory.

The Reds are the 6th professional team to reach the 10,000 mark. Their opponents, the Chicago Cubs, had done it a while ago, as had the San Francisco Giants, the Los Angeles Dodgers, the St. Louis Cardinals, and the Atlanta Braves.

As big of a number as that is, it doesn’t really affect the 2012 season, one which has seen the Reds struggle offensively to start the season. That wasn’t the case on a windy day at Wrigley Field.

The Reds batted around in the first inning and dropped a nice, big 4-spot on the board. Homer Bailey contributed a quality start. The defense behind Bailey was uncharacteristically shaky, but Bailey kept his cool, going 7 innings and allowing 1 earned run (3 unearned) on 5 hits, no walks, and 2 strikeouts. It was a nice outing for Homer. After he left, the bullpen kept the Cubs scoreless, thanks to Aroldis Chapman–who should be starting–and Jose Arredondo.

The scoring had contributions from almost everyone. Joey Votto, Chris Heisey, Willie Harris, Drew Stubbs, Homer Bailey, and Todd Frazier all knocked in runs. Stubbs drove in 3 as he extended his hitting streak to 6 games.

The game against the Cubs made the Reds seem a completely different team than how they appeared against the Marlins, Nationals, and Cardinals. I knew the Reds had played only good teams so far, but it’s a little disconcerting to see that they couldn’t hang with good teams very well. Hopefully, beating up on teams worse than them will get the Reds the confidence they need the next time some good teams come around.