Boxscore

First place, bitches!

That’s right. The Cincinnati Reds won for the 6th time in a row last night, sweeping the four game series against the Atlanta Braves. And thanks to the St. Louis Cardinals losing 10-9 against the Philadelphia Phillies, the Reds moved into sole possession of first place by half a game.

Boy, this team is playing well right now. The pitching is awesome, the defense is awesome, and the hitting is…getting the job done.

Homer Bailey started and turned in a better-than-quality start. He pitched 6 innings of 2-run baseball, striking out 6 along the way.

The game was scoreless until the 4th when Todd Frazier doubled in Chris Heisey. But the very next inning, Bailey gave up the lead thanks to a 2-run shot from Michael Bourne. The score remained 2-1 until the bottom of the 6th when rookie catcher Devin Mesoraco came to the plate with the bases loaded and hit his first career grand slam home run. That gave the Reds a lead they wouldn’t give up, as well as Bailey’s 3rd win.

The bullpen trio of Sam LeCure, Sean Marshall, and Logan Ondrusek closed the game out. Ondrusek made it interesting in the 9th when he allowed 2 hits to bring former Red Juan Francisco to the plate as the potential tying run. But a sharp grounder to Joey Votto at first base lead to a nice double play to end the game.

The Reds continue their homestand when the Colorado Rockies come to town tonight. Johnny Cueto will go against Christian Friedrich at 7:10pm EDT.

Boxscore

The Reds assured a win in the series by taking the third of the four games against the Braves last night. It was a real pitchers’ duel with a final score of 1-2.

Bronson Arroyo went for the Reds and turned in a keen performance. He worked 6.2 innings and allowed just 1 run (earned) on 4 hits and two walks. That one run was a home run allowed to notorious Reds killer Dan Uggla to lead off the fourth inning. That’s always a little disheartening, but it didn’t go any further than that.

Jose Arredondo and Aroldis Chapman finished out the game with a couple scoreless innings, and because Arroyo got pulled when the game was still tied, it was Chapman who got the win. I’d like to see Chapman get a whole lot more wins, myself, but more as a starter rather than as the guy who happened to be the most recent guy on the mound when the walk-off happened.

On the offensive side, it was Jay Bruce was credited with the RBI for the run in the 6th, even though he was 0-for-4 on the day. In fact, only Zack Cozart and Chris Heisey has multiple hits, both of them going 2-for-4. They weren’t the story, though, what with Todd Frazier and his big walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth. On this team, everyone gets a turn being the hero!

The win brings the Reds’ record to 24-19 and their winning streak to 5. Damn those Cardinals, though, who are rocking a 3-game winning streak that has kept them in first place in the NLC by half a game. Tonight the Reds try to sweep the four-game series. Homer Bailey (2-3, 4.34 ERA) takes on Randall Delgado (2-4, 4.26 ERA) at 7:10 p.m.

Boxscore

The Cincinnati Reds have a winning streak. Sure, it might end with their next game, but right now, they’ve won 4 games in a row for their longest such streak of 2012. The streak has also pushed them to their best record: 23-19, 4 games over .500.

Tonight Mat Latos turned in another fine outing to pick up his 3rd win. If he can pitch like this on a regular basis, the 2012 Reds are going to look very good. Over 7 innings, Latos allowed 5 hits, 2 walks, and 2 runs. Oh, and he struck out 8. A very impressive night.

The offense was impressive, too. The Atlanta Braves sent out Brandon Beachy to start, he of the lowest ERA in the majors. Probably not any more, not after the Reds connected for 3 home runs and 4 runs off of him.

Brandon Phillips had a multi-home run game, hitting a 2-run shot in the 1st and a solo shot in the 4th. Zack Cozart contributed his own solo home run off Beachy in the 3rd.

That was all the offense the Reds got, and it was all they needed, thanks to Latos, Logan Ondrusek, and new closer Aroldis Chapman. I’ve written about how I think the Reds are mishandling Chapman, but even I can admit that Chapman’s likely to be very, very good in that game finishing role. He was against the Braves last night when he picked up his second save. His line? 1 inning, 2 strikeouts, no hits, and no runs. And lots of pitches at 100 miles per hour. He’s so much fun to watch. And clearly, that arrest had no affect on his ability.

The Reds play the third of four against the Braves today at 7:10pm EDT. Tommy Hanson will start against Bronson Arroyo.

Boxscore

Mike Leake turned in his best outing of 2012 for the Cincinnati Reds last night, and it’s a good thing, too. With a record of 0-5 and an ERA of 6.21 heading into the game, Leake was decidedly the Reds’ worst starter. Leake responded by going 8 innings, allowing 1 run on 2 hits, a walk, and 6 strikeouts. And he lowered his ERA to a much more respectable 5.32.

In addition to picking up his first win, Leake also picked up his first career home run. With 2 outs in the bottom of the 4th inning, Leake came to the plate against his rival, Mike Minor, and launched a solo shot to left-center field to break a 1-1 tie. The next batter, Zack Cozart, hit a solo shot to the exact same spot in left-center. It was so much the same spot that it was caught by the same fan as Leake’s. The fan was even brought up into the broadcast booth to be tortured by Thom Brennaman’s voice. After that, Drew Stubbs hit his second shot of the game to make it a back-to-back-to-back inning and give the Reds a 4-1 lead they would not relinquish.

After Leake pitched the 8th, Jose Arredondo was brought out to close out the game. He started off well, getting the first two outs on a fly out and a strikeout. But then he lost the strike zone, and walked the next two batters. Manager Dusty Baker has shown he has a short string with his relievers lately, and last night was no exception.

Baker brought in Sean Marshall, who closed out the game and picked up his 8th save. Not bad for a guy who just lost the closer’s job.

Today, Mat Latos will try again to make it past the 5th inning when he starts against Brandon Beachy. The first pitch is 7:10pm EDT.

Boxscore

The Reds strolled to a game- and series-victory yesterday, beating the Yankees 5-2.

Johnny Cueto took the mound, and if you can’t win behind him, you can’t win behind anyone. Cueto put in 7 innings of work, allowing 2 runs (earned) on 8 hits and 2 walks. He gave up 1 home run, but struck out 5.

Sean Marshall came in to be the lefty specialist, which is way insulting for his level of skill. I know he hasn’t been awesome his last couple times out in the closer role, but .1 innings? That’s a non-Dusty-like level of humiliation. To Marshall’s credit, he struck that one guy out.

Logan Ondrusek took over for the other .2 in the eighth and put up a line of all zeroes in preparation to hand the ball over to Aroldis Chapman, the apparent new closer.

Now we all love Aroldis Chapman, but his qualifications don’t exactly match up with his new role. Yeah, he strikes guys out, but he needs rest between outings. Now he’s going to get inconsistent work and only come in when the team has a lead? That’s our manager: always doing the wrong thing. It worked out OK this time, though, as Chapman put in a hitless ninth to close out the game.

On the offensive side, Ryan Ludwick took to his role as DH nicely and knocked in 3 of the Reds’ 5 runs with two solo shots and a double. Ryan Hanigan and Brandon Phillips brought in the other 2 runs.

Bullets of randomness:

• Hanigan is awesome.
• Joey Votto’s average is all the way down to .301.
• For some reason, Wilson Valdez played yesterday.

Tonight the Reds return home to host the Atlanta Braves. Mike Leake (6.21) takes on what must be one of the few starters to have a higher ERA than him at this point in the season, Mike Minor (7.09). With two highly capable offenses behind them, this ought to be a slugfest. First pitch at 7:10 p.m. ET. First home run at 7:25 p.m. ET.