Boxscore

A day after Edgar Renteria provided a walk-off hit, the Cincinnati Reds were forced to attempt it again. But the comeback-magic wasn’t there this time.

Bronson Arroyo had one of his bad starts, but he changed it up this time. Instead of allowing a heapin’ helpin’ of runs early and leaving the game before the 3rd inning, this time he kept the Reds in the game until the 7th. Over 7 innings, he allowed 5 runs–all earned–and all on home runs. It was a windy day at Great American.

The real kicker came from reliever Nick Masset, though. The 4 runs he allowed in the 8th were really the nails in the coffin.

The offense ended up scoring 5 runs, and were a good hit from Joey Votto away from tying it in the 9th. But like so many games recently, the Reds missed the win by that much.

This team has been tough to watch, but watch I do, continuing to hope for the luck to change. With each loss being so close and due to one pitcher’s bad pitch or one hitter’s bad swing, it feels like the team is damn close to getting on a roll. It just hasn’t happened yet, and the team can’t seem to get above .500, let alone back to really competing for 1st place.

No, he’s not a Pokemon, but Cincinnati Reds fireballer Aroldis Chapman seems to add to his move set the more battles he’s victorious in.

Remember back to Saturday when the Reds beat the St. Louis Cardinals? Chapman got the win in that affair, shutting down the Cardinals in the 7th inning.

Yesterday, Chapman did it again, this time against the Milwaukee Brewers. He was brought in in the bottom of the 8th in a tie game with runners on first and second. He promptly hit the first batter he faced to load them, but after that, the Brewers didn’t have a chance. He struck out Carlos Gomez and then got Ryan Braun to ground weakly to third for the final out.

But he wasn’t done. The game was still tied heading into the bottom of the 9th, so rather than use his closer, Dusty Baker sent Chapman back out. Again, the Brewers didn’t have a chance. He made Prince Fielder look silly, striking him out, got a fly-out from Casey McGehee, and then picked off the one runner he did allow to reach. Oh, and all of this with his fastball consistently north of 100 miles per hour. John Fay described it as Chapman’s best game so far.

Chapman threw 19 pitches, 17 strikes.

“That was the best he’s looked,” Baker said. “He was throwing quality strikes and getting quality hitters out. … They got guys over there who can hit in the clutch.”

Obviously the guy would be more valuable in the starting rotation, but he sure is a nice option to have right now. And until then, he might just be making Baker a better, smarter manager.

Let’s hope he he’s not reached level 100 yet. I’d hate to see him maxed out so early.

Boxscore

Ah, at last: a Reds game without a rain delay. Sometimes that dome really pays off.

Tonight Bronson Arroyo took the mound for the Reds and put in a really good showing, giving up just 2 runs (1 earned) on 6 hits and two bases on balls through 6 and a third innings. Logan Ondrusek, Bill Bray, Nick Massett and Jordan Smith filled in the rest of the innings and gave up another three runs among them, but that’s OK when your offense has put together a six-run third.

From the offense, Dusty Baker changed the line-up to shake it up, to excellent results. Brandon Phillips knocked in three of the team’s six from the clean-up spot. Jay Bruce and Ryan Hannigan each contributed two more RBI from the two hole and seven hole respectively. Jonny Gomes and Arroyo filled out the rest of the RBI story.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a game wrap on Red Hot Mama without a mention of Joey “minor obsession” Votto: he went 1-for-5 to pull his average down to .383 but extend his on-base streak to something unholy like 40 games or something.

Tomorrow the Reds continue the series with the Brewers tomorrow in Milwaukee at 8:10 p.m. Mike Leake will take on Marco Estrada.

Boxscore

A day after the St. Louis Cardinals cheated themselves to an early advantage, the Cincinnati Reds finally got their bearings back and put away the Redbirds.

Things started very well, with Reds’ starter Travis Wood pitching a scoreless first inning. Let me repeat that. A Reds starter pitched a scoreless first inning. While it might seem a mundane thing, it’s something that hadn’t happened for 6 or seven games. Wood did allow runs in the 2nd, 3rd, and 6th, but he did turn in a quality start.

Chris Carpenter started for the Cardinals and was wild in the first, but managed to escape unscathed. The Reds continued to have solid at-bats against him, working up his pitch count. He left after 6 innings having thrown 103 pitches and allowed a couple of runs.

Those 2 runs for the Reds came when they were down 2-0 in the 6th. Joey Votto came to the plate with a runner on and deposited a 3-0 pitch over the outfield wall. That’s what an MVP does right there.

The Reds promptly gave up the lead in the bottom of the 6th, but their attitude seemed less defeated than before. RHM turned to me during the rain delay and said, “They’re going to win this one.”

And they did, thanks to the Cardinals’ crappy defense and Ryan Franklin. In the 8th, Miguel Batista was pitching. Drew Stubbs reached on an error, Brandon Phillips struck out, Joey Votto was intentionally walked, and Jonny Gomes was hit by a pitch. Trever Miller was brought in to face Jay Bruce, but Bruce worked a walk that brought in the tying run. Then the Cardinals turned to their former closer, Franklin, who promptly gave up a two-run single to Miguel Cairo.

That was enough for the Reds. Francisco Cordero came in for the Reds in the 9th and pitched a perfect inning for his 3rd save.

The Reds and Cardinals will play tomorrow night to see who wins the series. We’ll see if the Cardinals can go another game without cheating.