Boxscore

All good things must come to an end, and that applied to the Cincinnati Reds’ winning streak yesterday. Despite sending out their best starter against a Colorado Rockies team that hasn’t been very good this year, the Reds lost, ending the streak at 6.

Johnny Cueto started and had his second bad start out of his last three. Hopefully it’s not a harbinger of things to come. Last night, he allowed 5 runs in 4 2/3 innings. There was nothing good about that.

The bullpen took over and were scoreless the rest of the game until the 9th, when Jose Arredondo coughed up a run. Other than that, J. J. Hoover and Alfredo Simon were very good. Simon, after a rough start to the season, has come on strong lately. His 2 innings of scoreless relief last night brought his ERA down to 2.04.

Despite the effectiveness of the bullpen, the 5 runs allowed by Cueto was too much for the offense. They scored just 3 runs, all in the 4th, which tied the game at 3. Unfortunately, Cueto gave up 2 more runs in the very next inning, and the Reds never touched home plate again.

The Reds’ 3 runs came from something the Reds haven’t done lately: stringing hits together. Joey Votto led off with a single–1 of his 4 hits on the day. Brandon Phillips singled before Chris Heisey made an out. Then Ryan Ludwick doubled off the right-field wall to score Votto. Then Todd Frazier tied it by driving in Phillips and Ludwick.

The Reds do keep their place in first for another day, despite the loss. The St. Louis Cardinals dropped one in extras to the Philadelphia Phillies.

The Reds start their next winning streak tonight at 7:15pm EDT when the Rockies send out Jeremy Guthrie to face Mike Leake.

Boxscore

First place, bitches!

That’s right. The Cincinnati Reds won for the 6th time in a row last night, sweeping the four game series against the Atlanta Braves. And thanks to the St. Louis Cardinals losing 10-9 against the Philadelphia Phillies, the Reds moved into sole possession of first place by half a game.

Boy, this team is playing well right now. The pitching is awesome, the defense is awesome, and the hitting is…getting the job done.

Homer Bailey started and turned in a better-than-quality start. He pitched 6 innings of 2-run baseball, striking out 6 along the way.

The game was scoreless until the 4th when Todd Frazier doubled in Chris Heisey. But the very next inning, Bailey gave up the lead thanks to a 2-run shot from Michael Bourne. The score remained 2-1 until the bottom of the 6th when rookie catcher Devin Mesoraco came to the plate with the bases loaded and hit his first career grand slam home run. That gave the Reds a lead they wouldn’t give up, as well as Bailey’s 3rd win.

The bullpen trio of Sam LeCure, Sean Marshall, and Logan Ondrusek closed the game out. Ondrusek made it interesting in the 9th when he allowed 2 hits to bring former Red Juan Francisco to the plate as the potential tying run. But a sharp grounder to Joey Votto at first base lead to a nice double play to end the game.

The Reds continue their homestand when the Colorado Rockies come to town tonight. Johnny Cueto will go against Christian Friedrich at 7:10pm EDT.

The fine folks over at Chris Sabo’s Goggles have arranged for you to be the lucky recipient of one Team Latos shirt, if you can guess (in advance) the number of strike outs Latos will get in the month of June. From the blog post about the contest:

All you have to do is guess the number of strikeouts Latos will have in the month of June. This includes every start he makes between—and including—June 1 and June 30. The person closest to the actual total number of strikeouts wins the shirt.

I assume these are the strike outs Latos induces by way of pitching to batters, not the ones he personally commits at the plate. I mean, a contest that is apparently in honor of a guy probably does not really want to go out of its way to draw attention to his 12 strike outs in 18 plate appearances.

But that’s not for me to say. You’ll want to go over to Chris Sabo’s Goggles personally to argue semantics and then put in your guess. By Independence Day, you too could be a member of Team Latos.

Boxscore

The Reds assured a win in the series by taking the third of the four games against the Braves last night. It was a real pitchers’ duel with a final score of 1-2.

Bronson Arroyo went for the Reds and turned in a keen performance. He worked 6.2 innings and allowed just 1 run (earned) on 4 hits and two walks. That one run was a home run allowed to notorious Reds killer Dan Uggla to lead off the fourth inning. That’s always a little disheartening, but it didn’t go any further than that.

Jose Arredondo and Aroldis Chapman finished out the game with a couple scoreless innings, and because Arroyo got pulled when the game was still tied, it was Chapman who got the win. I’d like to see Chapman get a whole lot more wins, myself, but more as a starter rather than as the guy who happened to be the most recent guy on the mound when the walk-off happened.

On the offensive side, it was Jay Bruce was credited with the RBI for the run in the 6th, even though he was 0-for-4 on the day. In fact, only Zack Cozart and Chris Heisey has multiple hits, both of them going 2-for-4. They weren’t the story, though, what with Todd Frazier and his big walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth. On this team, everyone gets a turn being the hero!

The win brings the Reds’ record to 24-19 and their winning streak to 5. Damn those Cardinals, though, who are rocking a 3-game winning streak that has kept them in first place in the NLC by half a game. Tonight the Reds try to sweep the four-game series. Homer Bailey (2-3, 4.34 ERA) takes on Randall Delgado (2-4, 4.26 ERA) at 7:10 p.m.