Boxscore

The Cincinnati Reds showed that they do still know how to win a game of baseball, defeating the New York Yankees 6-5.

Homer Bailey turned in a quality start, pitching 6 1/3 innings while allowing 3 runs, 7 hits, 1 walk, and 7 strikeouts. Bailey has been pitching better lately, as that quality start was his 6th in his last 7 outings.

The offense got on the board early against Yankees’ starter Ivan Nova. In the first, Drew Stubbs and Joey Votto both walked, and in what has been a rare occurrence this year, the cleanup hitter, Brandon Phillips, drove one of them in. In the second, a very hot Chris Heisey doubled in Devin Mesoraco. And then in the 5th, Joey Votto was pitched to with runners on and made the Yankees pay with his 7th home run of the year, a 3-run shot that gave the Reds a 5-2 lead they would not relinquish.

Not that they didn’t try to. Sean Marshall has had some very wild appearances this year, and yesterday was no exception. Marshall allowed two runs in 1/3 of an inning before manager Dusty Baker pulled him for Jose Arredondo. Where Marshall couldn’t, Arredondo did and picked up his first career save in the process.

The Reds finish the series with the Yankees this afternoon at 1:05pm EDT when Johnny Cueto takes on C. C. Sabathia.

Boxscore

The Reds suffered a complete system failure about halfway through the game last night. Though they started out leading, they ended up losing an ugly, ugly game to the Mets, 4-9.

It was Mat Latos on the mound. Folks have been fond of saying how good Latos has been in the month of May, and while it’s true that he’s been a lot better in May than he was in April, he still seems to lose it in the fifth. Last night he gave up 3 runs (earned) on 7 hits and 3 walks through 5 innings of work. The Reds really need their starters to go longer than that.

They also needed their bullpen to continue to be all manner of awesome, but that sort of failed to happen last night as well. J.J. Hoover’s inning of relief was run free, but Aroldis Chapman gave up one on a hit and two walks to blow the save. It wasn’t an earned run for Chapman, so his ERA remains pristine, but it was a dispiriting outing anyway.

Not as bad as Logan Ondrusek, though, who allowed 5 runs (earned) on 4 hits and a walk in the last inning the Reds got to pitch.

On the offensive side, the Reds were looking pretty good through the fifth inning. They had a 4-0 lead before the Mets delivered their 9 unanswered. Joey Votto had a solo home run and Ryan Hannigan and Latos each contributed an RBI as well.

That ugliness ended the two-game series in a tie. Today they move across town to face the Yankees for a proper 3-game engagement at 7:05 p.m.

Boxscore

Now that’s what I’m talking about.

Mike Leake finally had an outing that was, without qualification, good. And Todd “The Crane” Frazier did what Scott Rolen cannot, and launched two home runs–a solo shot and a two-run homer–to propel the Cincinnati Reds to a 6-3 victory over the New York Mets.

Leake’s final line was 6 innings, 1 earned run, 7 hits, 3 walks, and 5 strikeouts. The bullpen trio of Jose Arredondo, Aroldis Chapman, and Sean Marshall entered the game after that to shut the Mets down while the offense battled back.

In many ways, that 4-run 8th inning is something that it feels like the Reds should put together at least once almost every game. It was very, very nice to see it tonight. I hope that Dusty Baker can stay out of the way enough to let it happen again tomorrow and get the Reds the sweep of the short series when Mat Latos starts against R. A. Dickey at 1:10pm EDT.

Boxscore

Well, that sucked.

Johnny Cueto turned in his worst start of the 2012 season for the Cincinnati Reds, lasting only 4 innings and allowing 6 runs–5 earned–while giving up 8 hits and 2 walks and striking out 2. His ERA ballooned to 1.89.

The offense turned in what you would expect from a Dusty Baker-led team: 2 runs. Those were driven in by Ryan Hanigan and Drew Stubbs in the 7th.

The Reds fell back to 1 game above .500, where I feel they will continue to flounder so long as Baker is the manager. Joey Votto can only hit so many walk-off grand slams. I’d really prefer they fired him now before too much more of the season is wasted.

The Reds split the short, 2-game series with the Atlanta Braves and fell 2.5 games behind the St. Louis Cardinals. Tomorrow, they travel to New York to take on the Mets at 7:10pm EDT. Mike Leake starts for the Reds, while the Mets counter with Johan Santana.

Boxscore

The Reds continued their role as NLE spoiler tonight by knocking the Braves back into second place behind the Nationals by winning 3-1.

It was Homer Bailey on the mound to start things off against a formidable Braves’ offense. He worked 6.2 innings, allowing 1 run (earned) on 6 hits and 2 walks. Logan Ondrusek and Aroldis Chapman then came on to put in .2 inning apiece, with Ondrusek being the lucky one to be on the mound when the win came. Sean Marshall closed it out for the save.

Though everyone was still talking about Joey Votto’s three-homer game, walk-off grand slam, and bat going into the Hall of Fame, it was the right-handers who knocked in the runs for a change. Brandon Phillips and Chris Heisey had an RBI apiece. In fact, Heisey went 3-for-3. Not bad.

Tomorrow the Reds and Braves finish out the two-game series. With Johnny Cueto (4-0, 1.12 ERA) taking the mound against Tim Hudson (1-1, 4.50 ERA), the chances for a sweep seem better than they have all season.