After Johnny Cueto’s string of bad starts–the most recent being Saturday’s loss to the Marlins–the Cincinnati Reds announced that the order of the rotation is going to change.

Oddly, though, instead of getting rest, Cueto has moved up a day in his position.

Instead of Mike Leake, Homer Bailey, Bronson Arroyo, Johnny Cueto and Mat Latos, it’s now Bailey, Leake, Cueto, Arroyo and Latos.

John Fay speculates that the shuffling will set the postseason rotation as Cueto, Arroyo, Latos, and Bailey. Separating the two hard-throwing starters of Cueto and Latos with the soft-tossing Arroyo makes a lot of sense. Those are the four guys likely to get starts during the playoffs, so it’s not a stretch to assume it’s true.

However, I’m surprised to see Cueto not getting another day of rest. Before the switch, Cueto would’ve had 6 days of rest between his starts. Now he’ll have 5. While it is one more day off than normal thanks to the off day Monday, given how Cueto’s struggled this month, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to give him more rest. At 197 innings pitched, he’s 11 1/3 innings past his previous high in 2010. Some fatigue from all that isn’t surprising.

It’ll be interesting to see how Cueto performs on his next start. I expect the Reds will be watching his inning and pitch count closely. And once the division is clinched–their magic number is 5–I expect all the starters will get some rest.

Boxscore

Perhaps it’s the 4 pints of beer talking, but the Cincinnati Reds are playing like I feel when I watch them: I’ve already entered the play-off tickets sweepstakes, let’s get the season over with already.

The Reds lost the series to the Florida Miami Marlins today when Johnny Cueto had another crappy start. When Cueto doesn’t win the Cy Young award, look back to this start as the the reason. Cueto didn’t make it out of the 5th inning, allowing 6 runs on 9 hits, 2 walks, and only 2 strikeouts.

The Reds’ offense was more up to the task than the day before when they were shutout, but they still managed only 4 runs, half of which were provided by a 2-run home run from Ryan Ludwick. The others were driven in by Wilson Valdez and Scott Rolen. Joey Votto scored one of those, of course.

The Reds’ magic number is currently at 7 and the St. Louis Cardinals are winning as I write this. It’s unlikely the number will go down tonight.

But I hope it does soon. And that Cueto gets past his September dead-arm phase. The playoffs are coming, and the Reds need to be ready.

I am.

Boxscore

Just when everyone was starting to really worry, the Reds swept the Pirates, finishing them off last night.

Homer Bailey took the ball for the Reds and had a very, very nice outing. In 7.0 innings, he allowed just 1 run (earned) on 6 hits and 2 walks. You get the feeling this guy wants to make the play-off roster or something.

Sam LeCure pitched a perfect eighth inning before J.J. Hoover took over in the ninth. Hoover allowed a baserunner with 2 outs in the inning, but it didn’t go any further than that.

The first Reds run scored in the third inning when Ryan Hanigan and Brandon Phillips each singled and then advanced on a wild pitch. Wilson Valdez then grounded out, but it was enough to bring in Hanigan.

The Reds’ winning run came in the sixth when Scott Rolen sacrificed in Ryan Ludwick. All the scoring on productive outs. That’s weird. But it does make a little more sense when you consider who’s credited with the RBI in this game.

The win brings the Reds’ record to 87-57. They lead the NLC by 11.5 and the magic number is 8. There are fewer than 20 regular season games, which makes me kind of sad, but they’re stretching it out by taking today off.

Tomorrow they’ll resume play in steamy Miami. Bronson Arroyo (RHP, 12-7, 3.66 ERA) will face off against Jacob Turner (RHP, 0-2, 5.29 ERA). First pitch at 7:10 p.m.