That animated GIF in the last post is seriously annoying, so I’m going to push it off the front page. Five rapid fire posts coming up!

Speaking of races, why not start off this frenzy of posts with a flashback to an old race. You younguns may not remember that, back in 2006, the Reds did not have a regular second baseman. Back in those days, we had a handful of backup infielders who were all vying for the spot. So we here at RHM decided to create this highly scientific simulator to help the Reds’ brass choose a winner.

Go ahead, give it a click and run the race!

(Game modified from a Flash template provided at Flash Kit.)
Get the latest version of Flash here.

One month after this went up, the Reds traded for Brandon Phillips, and now he’s the second-longest tenured Red on the team (Bronson Arroyo has him beat by 18 days). Boy, doesn’t that just make you feel old?

Those darn Pirates have won 9 in a row to take a 2.0 game lead in the NLC and a 5.5 game lead on the Reds specifically. It’s hard to deal with, while the Reds have gone 3-7 in their west coast road trip. But you can indulge in a little schadenfreude by watching the Pirate Parrot fall over the railing trying to catch a foul ball.

It’s a stretch to call this a fail, especially since mascots are supposed to be silly and slapstick. But it’s the only thing going at all wrong for the Pirates right now, so I guess it’ll have to do.

Toward the end of June, the baseball season starts to take its toll. I’m not talking about the players, though that may be true as well. I’m talking about me. Many nights the chance to go to the frozen yogurt stand, drink beer during a free summer concert, or (in the case of these Pacific time zone games) go to sleep before dawn somehow just makes it seem less necessary to pay super-close attention to the Reds.

Come January, I’ll find it hard to believe that I ever felt this way.

As if the mid-season doldrums weren’t enough, the Reds are also going through a rough patch right now. They’re 4-6 in their last 10 games. Sure, the Cardinals have also gone 4-6, so the Reds haven’t lost any ground on them, but what about these Pirates? Those guys have put together an 8-2 performance and pulled themselves even with the Cards, leaving the poor Reds 3.5 games out.

The Reds are the defending NLC division champs, and I wondered how this season was looking compared to that one. Amazingly, despite how crummy it feels right now, the Reds actually have 4 more wins than they did on this date last year. In 2012: 41-34. Today: 45-34.

I guess it isn’t the Reds who have changed, so much as the division competition. What the hell is up with these teams? Last year the Pirates were 40-35 and the Cards were 40-36; today they’re both 48-30. A 62% winning percentage almost halfway through the season?? This just isn’t fair.

Even though the Reds are 3.5 games back and in third place their .570 record is bested in all of baseball only by the Cardinals, Pirates, Red Sox, A’s and Rangers. What a treat that the Reds get to face one of those teams this very night when they visit the Rangers. I might go get frozen yogurt. Wake me up when the Giants get to town.

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Reds (45-34)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	0
Athletics (46-34)	0	0	0	4	0	0	1	0	-	5	8	1

Boxscore

The Cincinnati Reds were swept by the Oakland A’s in their two-game series, the exact opposite of that great 1990 World Series. The loss drops the Reds’ record on the road trip out west to 1-4.

There were no stars of the game for the Reds. It was a terrible, uninspired, and boring game from start to finish.

Homer Bailey got the loss, giving up 4 runs over 6 innings. He struck out 7, which was nice, but those 4 runs. Ouch.

Not that it mattered. Even if he’d shutout the A’s, the Reds still would’ve lost. The bullpen gave up one run over its 3 innings. But the offense continued to fail to show up. In 9 innings, they managed no runs and just 2 hits.

The lack of passion the Reds have been playing with lately is difficult to watch. I hope they can turn it around. It’s no longer early.

After almost two months recovering from a hamstring issue, Chris Heisey has been activated and is back in the lineup as the designated hitter against the Oakland A’s tonight.

Heisey had been playing games with the AAA Louisville Bats for the last week, going 4 for 20.

“I felt really good at the plate,” he said. “I didn’t have the results to show for it, but I hit some balls hard. I saw a lot of pitches. I worked a lot of deep counts, which is something I want to get better at up here. It was a good little practice for me.”

Donald Lutz was sent down to AA to make room for Heisey’s return.

Heisey will be back, but the Reds will be without star second baseman Brandon Phillips, who was placed on the paternity list. I didn’t know that was a thing, but it’s apparently been there since 2011, added at the same time as the concussion list.

Players can miss one to three games, and Phillips is expected to miss the two-game series against the A’s. Infielder Henry Rodriguez was called up from Louisville to take his place.