Cincinnati Reds pitcher Aroldis Chapman has been the definition of dominant so far this year. Over 21 innings, he has allowed 7 hits, walked 7, and struck out 38. Oh, yeah, and he’s not allowed a run.

A guy displaying excellent command and unhittability who becomes a mere mortal when used on back-to-back days would seem perfect to slip into the starting rotation. Mike Leake and his 6.21 ERA are a no-brainer target. But that would mean that the Reds are starting to figure out what to do with Chapman. And everybody knows that they are bound and determined to screw this up and waste his time as a Red.

“He’s been so good in the eighth,” Baker said. “Like I said, you’ve got to graduate to that position. Who knows maybe graduation time is here? We’re got to discuss it, talk about it. Matter of fact, we already talked to him about it.”

I can only shake my head and laugh at the Reds. The team as a whole has 4 blown saves: 1 from Chapman himself, 1 from a guy who was probably injured in Bill Bray, 1 from the closer Sean Marshall, and one from Logan Ondrusek. Moving Chapman into the closer’s role doesn’t help the team in any significant way. The bullpen is already very good, and the step up from Marshall to Chapman pales in comparison to the step up from Leake to Chapman.

It’s just stupefying how badly General Manager Walt Jocketty and manager Dusty Baker have handled Chapman. And clearly, the mishandling is going to continue.

Boxscore

The Cincinnati Reds showed that they do still know how to win a game of baseball, defeating the New York Yankees 6-5.

Homer Bailey turned in a quality start, pitching 6 1/3 innings while allowing 3 runs, 7 hits, 1 walk, and 7 strikeouts. Bailey has been pitching better lately, as that quality start was his 6th in his last 7 outings.

The offense got on the board early against Yankees’ starter Ivan Nova. In the first, Drew Stubbs and Joey Votto both walked, and in what has been a rare occurrence this year, the cleanup hitter, Brandon Phillips, drove one of them in. In the second, a very hot Chris Heisey doubled in Devin Mesoraco. And then in the 5th, Joey Votto was pitched to with runners on and made the Yankees pay with his 7th home run of the year, a 3-run shot that gave the Reds a 5-2 lead they would not relinquish.

Not that they didn’t try to. Sean Marshall has had some very wild appearances this year, and yesterday was no exception. Marshall allowed two runs in 1/3 of an inning before manager Dusty Baker pulled him for Jose Arredondo. Where Marshall couldn’t, Arredondo did and picked up his first career save in the process.

The Reds finish the series with the Yankees this afternoon at 1:05pm EDT when Johnny Cueto takes on C. C. Sabathia.