Last Game
It seemed like it took forever, but the Cincinnati Reds finally clinched first place in the National League Central last night, winning in, what else, walk-off fashion. Jay Bruce was the hero, hitting the first pitch he saw in the 9th inning out of the park to straight-away center field to give the Reds the 3-2 win over the Houston Astros and the Reds their first division title since 1995. And then there was a lot of partying in and around Cincinnati.

Next Game
Now that the Reds have clinched, they’re back to playing meaningless games at the end of September, right? No? Ok. Well, the Reds still have 5 more games to play before the season’s over, and they’ll be trying to secure home-field advantage for at least the first round of the playoffs. Johnny Cueto starts tonight against Nelson Figueroa at 7:10pm EDT.

What to Say to Sound Smart at the Water Cooler
Jay Bruce’s walk-off, first-place clinching home run last night was only the 5th such shot in all of Major League Baseball history. The four others were Bobby Thomson for the 1951 Giants, Hank Aaron for the 1957 Milwaukee Braves, Alfonso Soriano for the 1999 Yankees, and Steven Finley for the 2004 Dodgers.

Last Game
The Reds were unable to sweep the Milwaukee Brewers on Wednesday, taking a shellacking and losing 13-1 instead. The lone Reds run was driven in by Jonny Gomes. Johnny Cueto had his worst outing of the year, if not his career, and took the loss by allowing 8 runs in 1 1/3 innings.

Next Game
After a day off for travel yesterday, the Reds open a three-game series against the San Diego Padres tonight. This is the last contending team the Reds will play before the post-season and has all kinds of playoff overtones, with the Padres half a game back in both the West and the wild card. Plus, the Reds continue to want to improve their record and get some home-field advantage for at least the first round of the playoffs. Bronson Arroyo will take on Chris Young tonight at 10:05 EDT.

Fire Joe Morgan Day at Deadspin
I somehow missed this the day it was going on, but Deadspin got the FireJoeMorgan gang together again for just one day earlier this week. As expected, there was a post about Mr. Morgan. This one takes on the weird scene described in a sports article last month about Mike Leake slapping Joe Morgan’s naked ass in the clubhouse. The FJM guys apparently thought that was weird. You definitely don’t want to miss the “actual transcript of a real thing that definitely happened in a real game recently” at the end of the post.

They also did a brief dissection of one of Morgan’s ESPN online chats, taking exception to his claiming that there was no debate in who should win the American League Cy Young Award: Felix Hernandez or C. C. Sabathia. Morgan included this little gem.

I don’t buy into the point that if Felix is pitching for someone else he’d have more wins.

This leads FJM into one of the better arguments I’ve read as to why starting pitchers should never be measured by wins.

Felix has thrown more innings than Sabathia. And his job is not to win the game. His job is to help the defense prevent the other team from winning, which he has done better than anyone. The job of winning the game comes from the offense, which is about to set a 40-year low-water mark.

The Reds-related ones are entertaining, but all of the others are as well, especially the tearing apart of the cliche article about David Eckstein getting so much out of his talents. What is it sportswriters love so much about scrappy white guys?

What to Say to Sound Smart at the Water Cooler
With 86 wins, the Reds have their highest win total since 1999, when they went 96-67. The Reds cannot better that this year because only 9 games remain in the season.

Last Game
Edinson Volquez blew away the last of the cobwebs from his Tommy John surgery recovery last night, pitching 8 innings of 1-run baseball against the Milwaukee Brewers. The 4-3 win increased the Reds lead over the losing Cardinals to 8 games and the elimination number to 4. Volquez also made an excellent claim to a postseason start with his excellent outing. The game would have been almost drama free, had it not been for Francisco Cordero and the defense being less than solid in the 9th. Cordero did pull himself together to strike out Carlos Gomez to end the game.

Next Game
Johnny Cueto goes to the mound tonight to try to decrease the magic number further. His opponent will be Randy Wolf. Game-time is 8:10pm EDT.

Edmonds and Dickerson Tied Together Again
During last night’s game, Jim Edmonds was a late replacement for Joey Votto, who was taken out of the lineup thanks to a sinus infection. Edmonds hit a solo homerun, but injured himself running the bases. He may be out for the rest of the season.

In the trade that brought him from the Brewers to the Reds, Cincinnati sent Chris Dickerson. In a nice bit of symmetry, Dickerson also left last night’s game with a leg injury. He strained a hamstring.

What to Say to Sound Smart at the Water Cooler
Dusty Baker won his 1,400th game as a manager last night. He’s 238-238 with the Reds, and 1400-1279 overall.