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.

Last Game
It was like spring training baseball all over again last night. Not only was the game just as meaningless as pre-season contests, but also the Reds started off with their varsity players on the field and then pulled them one by one in favor of the JV.

Homer Bailey started for the Reds, but gave up a hit right away, so there was no need to hold out for a possible back-to-back no-hitter. Instead, he was pulled before he even qualified for the win so that some relievers could get some work in.

After seven and a half innings of scoreless baseball, Dusty Baker put in Tony Cingrani. At the time, I wondered whether he was doing it specifically to give up a run and prevent extras. I can’t say for sure if that was the case, but it is what happened. The Reds lost to the Cardinals 0-1. Oh no.

Next Game
I can’t believe we’re already entirely out of regular season games. Weren’t we just complaining about Cueto being snubbed for the All Star Game yesterday? Didn’t Chapman just do his forward roll? Wasn’t Latos’s rough start to the season just last week?

For a change, the end of the regular season doesn’t mean the end of baseball games for the Reds. They’re taking today, tomorrow, and most of Saturday off before taking the field in San Francisco at 9:30 p.m. Johnny Cueto (RHP, 0-0, — ERA) will toe the rubber for the Reds against TBA (probably Matt Cain) for the Giants.

Post-Season Roster to be Announced Friday
The Reds aren’t keeping everyone in suspense, but they aren’t announcing the final pieces of the first round roster just yet, either. According to John Fay’s blog, they’ve sent home Todd Redmond and Pedro Villarreal and sent Denis Phipps, Henry Rodrigues, and Didi Gregroius to Goodyear to stay fresh and hope/not hope for an injury to a starter.

The remaining 28 guys will head out to San Fran. I don’t know if they know who’s in or who’s out, but we probably won’t know until after the workout on Friday. But we can guess: Mike Leake isn’t likely to make it, nor is Logan Ondrusek. Devin Mesoraco might be the other one to draw the short straw, but he might not, since without him the team would be down to 2 catchers. Alfredo Simon might be the odd man out instead.

What to Say to Sound Smart at the Water Cooler
The Reds pitching staff logged 1,248 strike outs this season. That’s an average of 7.7 Ks per game. What is it they say about pitching and winning championships, again?

Last Game
The Reds continue to have a chance at the top seed in the National League after beating the Cardinals last night, 3-1. If the Reds win today and the Nationals lose, the Reds can claim the top spot for their own.

Mat Latos started and allowed the Cardinals’ 1 run during his brief 5 innings of work. I imagine his outing was so short just because they didn’t want to wear him out; he wasn’t pitching badly.

The trio of closers–Sean Marshall, Jonathan Broxton, and Aroldis Chapman–finished it out without allowing a run. I love to see them honing that blade.

Next Game
Though the Reds no longer play the very first game of the baseball season, this year they’re playing in the very last. Today, Homer Bailey (RHP, 13-10, 3.75 ERA) and the Reds face off against the Cardinals to close out the season at 8:15 p.m., which is no less than 5 minutes later than any other game.

Bailey is just coming off his no-hitter against the Pirates, but he doesn’t need to be wasting that kind of performance on the Cardinals today. Save that for the postseason.

Surprise, Surprise: Cueto to Pitch Game 1
Apparently Chris Speier wasn’t willing to disclose the team’s planned pitching rotation for the post-season while Dusty Baker was still on the mend, but now that Baker’s back, we get to find out that it is, indeed, Johnny Cueto that’s getting the call for game 1.

After that, it will be Bronson Arroyo, followed by Mat Latos. Homer Bailey is unlikely to pitch in the best-of-5 first round, but he’ll be there should one of those other guys find themselves suddenly snake-bitten and in need of long replacement. No one seems to be discussing whether Mike Leake might make the postseason roster anymore.

What to Say to Sound Smart at the Water Cooler
Last night, the Reds won their 97th game. They haven’t won that many since 1976 when they swept the World Series. I wouldn’t mind seeing that re-run.

Last Game
The Reds lost the series opener to the St. Louis Cardinals, 4-2, failing to be an obstacle to the Cardinals’ attempt to win the second wild card. The loss was partially due to Bronson Arroyo, who allowed 3 runs in his short 5 innings of work, and partially due to the offense, which again failed to score the runs required to win.

Next Game
The Reds remain tied with the Washington Nationals for the best record in the National League. To break the tie and get home-field advantage throughout the playoffs, they’ll turn to Mat Latos, who’s been outstanding down the stretch. The Cardinals will turn to Chris Carpenter, who will be making his third start of the season. The game starts at 8:15pm.

Rewarding a pitcher named Homer
At the start of the season, it seemed clear that this year would be an important one for Homer Bailey. After 5 seasons in the majors–the last three full-time–Bailey was well-positioned to become an important contributor to the team.

This week, Major League Baseball honored him with the National League Player of the Week award. The award was on the strength of his no-hitter against the Pirates.

Like all recipients of the award, Bailey will receive “a watch courtesy of Game Time, the leader in licensed sports watches.” It’s about time.

What to Say to Sound Smart at the Water Cooler
With Bronson Arroyo’s 5 innings last night, the Reds ended the season with 4 starters having pitched more than 200 innings. Johnny Cueto, Mat Latos, and Homer Bailey are the other 3. It’s the first time the Reds have done this since 1943. The last baseball team to accomplish this was the Chicago White Sox in 2006.