Voting for the All Star game has ended, and the last time Major League Baseball released the vote totals, Cincinnati Reds first baseman Joey Votto was far-and-away the overall vote leader for the National League. He’s set to join a list of some impressive Reds.

He will join Johnny Bench, Joe Morgan and Ken Griffey Jr. as Reds who have won the overall NL vote.

“That would an enormous deal for me,” Votto said.

Votto leads St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Lance Berkman by 3 million votes. When Votto wins, this will be his third All-Star game, but his first as a starter.

“It means a lot,” he said. “We’re a small-market team. For the fans to think I worthy of garnering so many votes is a great honor. If I win the NL vote, it will be one of the cooler things that has happened for me.”

It sounds like the rest of the baseball world is starting to wake up and realize the awesomeness that is a grown man named Joey. The Reds better hurry and lock up this guy to a long-term contract soon.

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Reds (42-34)	3	0	0	0	0	1	1	0	0	5	13	0
Giants (44-34)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	9	1

Boxscore

After two games in the series between the division leading Cincinnati Reds and San Francisco Giants, the Reds have been outscored 6-5. But thanks to not scoring at all during the first game and saving those runs for the second, the series is tied and the Reds have a chance at the series win today.

From looking at the pitching match-up beforehand, it wasn’t the outcome I expected. Matt Cain, he of the recent perfect game and with an ERA in the 2s, against Mike Leake, who struggled at the beginning of the season but has made signs of improvement lately.

Instead of another shutout for the Giants–it would’ve been a 5th straight–the Reds jumped on Cain early. As-early -as-you-can early. Zach Cozart lead off the game with a solo shot, and before the inning was over the Reds added two more, giving Leake a 3-0 lead before setting foot on the mound.

Mike Leake was excellent with that lead. It took 111 pitches, but he accomplished his first complete game. And if it weren’t for a mistake pitch to Pablo Sandoval in the bottom of the 9th–Sandoval kindly deposited that into the right field seats–Leake would have had his first shut-out, too.

In his 9 innings, Leake allowed 1 run, 9 hits, 1 walk, and struck out 4. Oh, and he joined Pete Harnisch in becoming just the second Reds pitcher to pitch a complete game and hit a home run in the same game. It was Leake’s second home run on the season.

Clearly, Leake was the primary Reds’ star of the game. But Joey Votto and Jay Bruce showed some excellence, too. Votto went 3-5, with his 33rd double, and scored a run, while Bruce may just be getting on another of his patented streaks again. He went 4-4 and drove in 3 runs. Maybe that will make Thom Brennaman swallow some of his disgust for Bruce for a while.

The two teams finish the series this afternoon at 4:05pm EDT. Mat Latos goes to the mound for the Reds, with everyone hoping that his excellent outing last time was a sign that he’s settled down and will start pitching the way he knows how. The Giants will counter with Barry Zito.

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Reds	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	2
Giants	2	0	0	0	0	1	2	0	-	5	9	0

Boxscore

I stayed up until 1 a.m., but then turned it off after the 8th and missed all the excitement. Oh wait, there was no excitement. The Reds were shut-out and 1-hit. Final score: Reds 0, Giants 5.

Johnny Cueto took the mound for the Reds, but he got touched early and his team never recovered. In 6.0 innings pitched he allowed 3 runs (2 earned) on 6 hits and 4 walks. I’m not sure what to think about all those walks, but he did pick off two runners in the fourth inning. That was a meager bright spot.

Sam LeCure came in for an inning and gave up the other runs, and Jose Arredondo finished it out with a scoreless inning, but the game could have ended after the first inning with the same result.

There’s not much to say about the Reds’ offense: they had three baserunners on the whole night. Drew Stubbs drew walks twice and successfully stole once. Ryan Hannigan broke up the no-hitter (reducing it to a mere 1-hitter) in the sixth. And that’s it.

The pain is unlikely to end as the series continues tonight. Mike Leake (2-5, 4.46 ERA) goes against Matt Cain (9-2, 2.27 ERA) who isn’t far removed from a perfect game and has gone 4-0 with a 1.25 ERA in June. It’s another late one, with the first pitch at 10:15 p.m. ET

Brandon Phillips, who turns 31 today, was a late scratch from the Reds’ line-up tonight against the San Francisco Giants. He’s still not 100% after Aramis Ramirez kneed him in the head while getting caught stealing in the third inning of last night’s game.

Phillips was on the line-up early in the day and went to AT&T Park to take batting practice and fielding practice. He described himself as “OK,” but an infielder needs to be pretty darn sharp or risk getting a line-drive to the skull, so Baker put in Miguel Cairo instead.

According to John Fay’s blog, Phillips did admit that the possibility that he has a mild concussion has been discussed. But in true BP style, he’s not letting it get him down:

To tell the truth, that word came up yesterday. I’m trying to stay positive. I’ve never felt like this before…It’s my birthday and I’m happy.