Last game
At 5:30 p.m. yesterday the Reds and Phillies took the field to complete the game from the day before. Only the bottom of the ninth needed to be played for a regulation game, so the Reds were up to bat first in front of a crowd of literally tens of people. It makes sense that people didn’t come out: it might have taken a little as one pitch to finish off the game in a walk-off, and then they would have had nothing to do till the next game started but walk around trying to find signal for their phones.

It was more than one pitch, but it was still only about 10 minutes for Zack Cozart to single, Joey Votto to walk, Brandon Phillips to reach on an error, and Jay Bruce to single in the winning run. Do those other guys count as stranded runners?

That set up the Reds to try for the sweep an hour later. This match-up didn’t look as favorable, with Mike Leake going out against a pretty hot pitcher for Philly. But the offense put the hurt on John Lannan, touching him for 6 runs in 1.2 innings. Cozart and–get this–Leake each had 3-hit games and scored 6 of the Reds’ eventual 11 runs. Meanwhile, Reds pitching held the Phils to just 2.

Next game
It’s Johnny Cueto’s turn to pitch, but he’s hurt, remember? So they’ll be sending down young Justin Freeman who initially took Cueto’s roster spot and instead bring up Tony Cingrani (LHP, 0-0, -.– ERA).

Cingrani’s really been something special in the minors, but he’s going up against another young phenom in Jose Fernandez (RHP, 0-0, 0.82 ERA). Frenandez has been crazy-good for the Marlins so far, but he won’t even be drinking age until the end of July. It could be an unpredictable game.

First pitch at 7:10 p.m.

Things Joey Votto is not paid to do
Yesterday, the Cincinnati Enquirer’s Paul Daugherty told the world that Joey Votto is not paid to “get on base and score runs.” In response, Reds fans took to the Twitters during last night’s game, to list several other things that Joey Votto is not paid to do. Among them:

Joey Votto’s not paid to get hit by pitches! Right, @enquirerdoc?

— Red Reporter (@redreporter) April 17, 2013

and

Joey Votto does not get paid to do yoga in the batters box. @ctrent

— Doug Smith (@misterMRfresh) April 18, 2013

and of course

@ctrent “Joey Votto doesn’t get paid to be part of memes!”

— Joel Luckhaupt (@jluckhaupt) April 18, 2013

In the spirit of bandwagon jumping, we here at RHM have created the Things Joey Votto isn’t paid to do Tumblr. Go check out some of the ideas that are already out there and submit your own.

What to say to sound smart at the water cooler
With 427 wins, Dusty Baker is now the fifth winningest manager in Cincinnati Reds history, after

• Sparky Anderson (1970–1978, 863 wins)
• Bill McKechnie (1938–1946, 744 wins)
• Jack Hendricks (1924–1929, 469 wins)
• Fred Hutchinson (1959–1964, 443 wins)

He’s likely to get to #3 before this season is done. Dang, I never would have guessed that was going to happen 5 years ago.