Last Game
The Reds had yesterday off to make the trip home, but there was still a game of some interest to the Reds happening. The Cardinals hosted the Nationals for game two of their series. The Cardinals do not have the home-field advantage and had squandered their first chance in front of the “best fans in baseball” so it was particularly urgent to them to get the second game in the win column.

Jaime Garcia started for the Cardinals but only went 2 innings due to arm problems. He underwent an MRI tonight, and the team will make a statement about the results tomorrow. I doubt they’ll tell us that they’re big freaking copycat fakers, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the MRI had some mysterious shadows on it that made it hard to see.

Five relievers finished off the game, including 3 innings from Lance Lynn. But it wasn’t about the pitching for the Cardinals; they gave up 4 runs to the Nats. Fortunately, the offense came through with slightly more than that–3 times more than that to be precise.

Now, normally we at RHM aren’t big St. Louis fans, but we love a turn of events that ensures no fewer than 4 games will be played by the team that will be facing the Reds next. Now I’m just hoping they can manage a few extra innings in the next couple games.

Next Game
Tonight Homer Bailey pitches at home for the first time since his no-hitter. We’ve all seen how much better Bailey is away than he is at home, but I’m hopeful that his confidence is high as is the team’s momentum and all that fear of giving up the long ball won’t inhibit his inner awesomeness.

A Game 4 Means More than Extra Beer Sales
Also, getting this series over with today would be good for another reason: it would save Johnny Cueto from having to pitch until the next round and give him the maximum amount of time to rest up before then.

Unless you’ve been living in a cave, you know that Cueto came out of game one in the first inning with back spasms. The team rallied and won it anyway, thanks in large part to Mat Latos coming in on short rest to save the day. And if you *have* been living in a cave, that comment about the Cardinals being copycat fakers probably didn’t make sense until just now.

The Reds aren’t willing to say that Cueto is ready to come back to pitch a possible game 4, just that they’re “cautiously optimistic.” They’ve also said that they’ll do what’s best for the man and hope it jibes with what’s best for the team.

Cueto can be replaced on the roster by another pitcher, but if that happens, he becomes ineligible to pitch in the next series. They could replace someone else on the roster, I guess, but whom would they bring in? It would have to be Mike Leake, and I think Mat Latos on short rest again would be better than that.

What to Say to Sound Smart at the Water Cooler
According to Elias Sports Bureau, since the division series began in 1995, 42 teams have gotten off to 2-0 starts. Of those, 38 advanced to the next round.

Last Game
The Reds had an authoritative victory over the Giants last night, 9-0. The win gives them Ws in the first 2 games and puts them in a real nice situation as they come home to finish out the series: 3 more chances to get 1 more win, all in the comfort of their own home field.

Bronson Arroyo was the winner, and he definitely earned the title. He allowed just 1 hit and 1 walk in 7.0 innings, all in just 91 pitches. His velocity was all over the place, as was his placement, so the Giants never could figure out what he was going to do next. Dude made it look easy.

Next Game
The Reds are off today to travel home to claim their “home field advantage.” They’re back in action tomorrow at the strange start time of 5:30 p.m. Homer Bailey was already home, though, seeing as he got the call to start game 3 for the Reds. He’ll be facing off against Ryan Vogelsong for the Giants.

Votto’s Awesomeness Confounds Commentators
If you’ve been watching the first two games of this series, you know that the commentators simply cannot get over the fact that Joey Votto hasn’t hit a zillion home runs this year. “He’s just not the hitter he was before the surgery,” they say, shaking their heads as if Votto’s turned out to be some tragic disappointment to Cincinnati.

I guess the baseball generalist with a shallow understanding of the team just doesn’t get it. It must seem impossible for a guy who is as central to the organization (and as well-paid) as Votto is can possibly be a humble on-base machine. It probably didn’t help when he went 0-for-3 in game 1. But he went 3-for-4 in game 2, bringing his post-season stats nicely in line.

It’s not as annoying as some things, but it sure would be nice to have someone who has some respect for a .337/.474/.567 line calling the game. Not every valuable player has to hit 40 over the wall every year. Cincy has had plenty of those in the last 17 years, but these have been the first post-season games we’ve won in that amount of time.

What to Say to Sound Smart at the Water Cooler
Johnny Cueto faced just 1 batter in game 1 of this series, which is the fewest batters faced by a starting pitcher in any MLB postseason game ever. Prior to Cueto, the record was held by Curly Odgen, who faced only 2 batters as the starter for Washington in game 7 of the 1924 World Series, also against the Giants–the New York Giants.

The two shortest post-season starts, both against the same organization (albeit in 2 different cities). If you’d like to run with this parallelism, the Senators *did* win the World Series in 1924.