When Homer Bailey threw his last no hitter (last Tuesday), the Reds were 7-3 in their last 10. Today, they’re 5-5. It doesn’t sound like much of a jump-start, but maybe it’ll just take a second in a row to really get the team going.

Already, Bailey is the owner of the two most-recent no-hitters in baseball: last Tuesday and September 28 of last year. It got him half of the Player of the Week award (shared with Braves catcher Brian McCann, who got a lot of hits or something). All he has to do is throw another one tonight and he can join the likes of Johnny Vander Meer who was the last one to throw back-to-back no-hitters–only 75 years ago.

Bailey will be taking on the Brewers tonight at 8:10 pm ET at Miller Park. The Brewers are in a sore state: 35-52 and dead last in the NLC. But it’s Kyle Lohse (RHP, 4-6, 3.43 ERA) going for the Brewers, the former Red that they signed when they were overly optimistic about how this season was going to turn out. Lohse is a pretty tough cookie, and if the Reds’ recent performance against Aaron Harang is any indication, facing former teammates doesn’t lead to good offense for the good guys.

As the guys on the radio are so fond of saying, these are the games that the Reds simply need to win. A no-hitter doesn’t guarantee that, I guess, but if the offense can’t get it together then, they never can.

In case you missed it last night, Homer Bailey threw the second no-hitter of his career.

The last time, it was against the Pittsburgh Pirates last year on September 28. This time, it was against the World Series defending champions San Francisco Giants.

This time, Bailey was slightly more effective, needing only 109 pitches–6 fewer than last year–to dispatch the Giants. In his 9 innings, he struck out 9, walked one, and allowed no hits and no runs.

Now that he has two no-hitters, Bailey joins some prestigious company. There are only 5 pitchers in Major League history with more than 2 no-hitters.

• Nolan Ryan (7)
• Sandy Koufax (4)
• Bob Feller (3)
• Cy Young (3)
• Larry Corcooran (3)

Bailey’s got some opportunity to join them. Until then, he’ll have to console himself with being the equal of guys such as Justin Verlander, Roy Halladay, and Randy Johnson. Tough company to keep.

Last night’s game was rained out, but most people didn’t this view. Manny Parra posted this picture on Twitter:

I don't understand why the game was called. Wow pic.twitter.com/oUQxh61JeZ

— Manny Parra (@MannyParra26) July 2, 2013

It’s looking better today, as we can see in these photos that @ctrent tweeted:

what a difference 14 hours make #reds #sfgiants pic.twitter.com/bFtDg2Ntao

— ctrent (@ctrent) July 2, 2013

There’s a 60% chance of rain during the hours the game would be played tonight. If this happens again, they should just switch to water polo instead.

In eight years of blogging, it’s amazing how much Reds-inspired music I have seen. Of course we know all Bronson Arroyo wants to be a rock star and you’ve probably heard tracks from Cincinnati Clutch hits, but it goes beyond that. The latest of these is the new offering from The Cincinnati Reds Wooo guy.

I think it’s pretty good, myself. Totally get-stuck-in-your-head-able.

Voting for the 2013 All-Star game will finally close on Thursday at 11:59 p.m. I believe it started sometime in January.

It’s looking good for Reds’ first baseman Joey Votto. According to the story on Reds.com, when the tallies were last announced Votto had 3,622,608 votes, which is more than a half-million ahead of his closest competition, Paul Goldschmidt of the Diamondbacks. It’s simply a fact that Votto is the All-Star first baseman of the NL. This vote doesn’t prove it; it just reflects it.

But while Votto’s lead is increasing, Brandon Phillips’ lead at second base is actually shrinking. Phillips’ 3,411,839 votes only puts him a quarter of a million ahead of the Cardinals’ Matt Carpenter. Now, I appreciate that some people, especially Cardinals’ fans, really hate Phillips, but BP is the most fun second baseman to watch–maybe ever. It would be worth putting in a few minutes to cast your votes for Phillips just to give the rest of the country the treat that we all get most every day.

And that does it for the Reds’ starters you’re going to see on the team. Jay Bruce and Shin-Soo Choo are All-Stars in our hearts, but back-up is the best they can hope for this year. I don’t know if it might be different if they voted by position instead of lumping all the outfielders together. This one-outfield-position-fits-all system that they have going is just weird to me.

The rosters will be announced Saturday at 6:30 p.m. on a special All-Star Selection Show they’re airing on FOX. It’s sure to be unnecessarily long and overdramatic. You still have time affect those rosters: go to the All Star Game Ballot to cast your vote.