Boxscore

Well, that was frustrating, as evidenced by my phone-post after a few beers yesterday.

Homer Bailey had a good start, allowing 3 runs over 7 innings. He allowed 7 hits and 4 walks, but minimized the damage. Of course, in a series where the Cincinnati Reds lost a game where the pitching allowed 1 run over the course of 9 innings, everyone knew there was no chance of the Reds retaking the lead.

The positives? As mentioned, Homer Bailey. This is an important year for him with this club. He’s young, but it feels like he’s not because he’s been around forever. He’s improved every year in the majors, but at a slow pace. After watching him in his two starts this year, I’m encouraged. Aside from one bad inning in each start, he’s been more calm. If he can remove that one bad inning and stay healthy, this could be his break-out year.

That’s the main positive. There is one other one: the Reds took an early lead. I’m not sure, but I believe that’s the first time this year they’ve been the first team to score. Of course, it took Miguel Cairo injuring his hamstring to achieve and trading players for runs probably isn’t the wisest way to spend your players. But it was an early lead.

The negatives? The offense. The team is in an offensive slump like none other to start this season. And I’m concerned that manager Dusty Baker isn’t being the help he could be. Not with quotes like this.

“We’re going to hit our way out of this slump, not walk out of it.”

Ugh. Why limit any of your weapons at this point. The offense is horrible. Let’s not hamstring them any further by emphasizing hitting over walking.

The Reds will try not to be swept by the Nationals today when they send out Mike Leake. The Nationals will send out…you know, what? It probably doesn’t matter.

Note: These are my thoughts as I sit several beers in at a bar in Las Vegas.

The Cincinnati Reds entered the 7th inning of the third of a four game serious against the Washington Nationals having scored just one run in the game and 4 in the series.

Again, the starting pitching was solid. Homer Bailey allowed 3 runs over 6 innings to qualify for that quality start. But the offense has so far managed the one run.

I know it’s too early for shake up of the roster, but does the free swinging of the Reds remind anyone of the Chicago Cubs under Dusty Baker’s last couple years?

I was against the Baker hire from the beginning, but backed off after the division win in 2010. Well, I’m going on record as being against him again. The 2012 squad is showing many of the same symptoms as the frustrating 2011 club.

When a team manages to perform at a sum of less than the trial of their parts for two years in a row, I blame the manager. This team needs to start performing better fast, or their will be no place for Baker on the all-in Reds.

Redleg Nation posted an entry that touched on some of the offensive frustrations I mentioned during yesterday’s game wrap. In short, they don’t think it’s anything to worry about this early in the season.

It hasn’t been pretty, but I’m not too concerned yet. Even though they’ve looked bad at the plate, Ryan Ludwick and Willie Harris historically walk significantly more than Chris Heisey and Brandon Phillips. Drew Stubbs and Jay Bruce, meanwhile, have shown willingness to lay off the low stuff – even if Stubbs in particular has not be rewarded for it by the umpiring crew.

Obviously, some of the players have started off cold and won’t hit that poorly over the course of the entire season. Ryan Hanigan will get his on-base percentage above .300. And Zack Cozart is likely to return to earth.

But on a night that sees the Reds playing in the 13th inning as I write this in a 1-1 game, knowing the sample size is small and likely to change with time doesn’t ease the annoyance that Reds’ games are becoming. Especially when that one run was driving in by Bronson Arroyo’s sacrifice fly.

Boxscore

The Cincinnati Reds had their second afternoon game in a row today, and like yesterday, it was a one-run game. Unfortunately, this time it went against the Reds, who fell to 3-4.

Mat Latos made his second start for Cincinnati and again had trouble in the 5th. This time, he made it through 5 innings and gave up only 2 runs. However, his pitch count was almost at 100, so he was done early. He had better command, but threw a lot of pitches to a lot of batters. Despite getting many batters to 2 strikes, he had a hard time putting them away.

The Reds’ bullpen was already short-staffed, thanks to Johnny Cueto’s short outing previously, and both Logan Ondrusek and Aroldis Chapman were deemed unavailable. Sam LeCure and Jose Arredondo threw 2 scoreless innings apiece, which gave the offense time to finally wake up.

I know it’s only been a week into the season, but the inconsistent offense is starting to remind me of last year. This time, they didn’t score until the bottom of the 9th, blowing Brad Lidge’s save chance thanks to a 2-run single from Ryan Ludwick.

That sent the game to extra innings. Instead of sending out good relief pitchers like Bill Bray or Sean Marshall, Dusty Baker sent out Alfredo Simon. Simon was a last-minute pick-up who has done nothing good with the team so far this year. He continued to unimpress today.

Simon hit the first batter he faced, and everyone knew bad things were in store. The next batter hit a foul pop-up that Scott Rolen caught.The next batter followed with a hit. Then Xavier Nady grounded out, but managed to advance both runners.

With runners on second and third and 2 outs, Simon threw a wild pitch that allowed the batter he’d hit with a pitch to score. Just the latest in the line of horrible outings from Simon.

Still, there’s plenty of ineptitude to go around this game. Much of that is with the offense. I mean, Simon was the only pitcher who didn’t do well. The others allowed just 2 runs during the 9 innings. And if you can’t win when your pitching staff allows only 2 runs, your offense has to be the one to take the blame.

The Reds break their string of day games tomorrow when Bronson Arroyo takes the mound at 7:05pm EDT.

Boxscore

The Reds avoided a series sweep at the hands of the Cardinals this afternoon by eking out a last minute win, 3-4.

Johnny Cueto took the mound for the Reds and added to his reputation of awesomeness. He allowed three runs (earned) on seven hits in seven innings. He also struck out three. Jose Arredondo, Bill Bray, and Logan Ondrusek took their scoreless turns, but it was Aroldis Chapman who really brought it all home, with his five strike-outs in two innings. Firey!

Joey Votto, Jay Bruce, Chris Heisey, and Wilson Valdez had an RBI apiece. Votto, in fact, went 4-for-5 with two runs scored.

Tomorrow the Reds play a rare second day game in a row as they visit the Washington Nationals. Mat Latos takes on Gio Gonzalez at 1:05 p.m. You can catch it on Fox Sports Ohio and MLB Network.