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The Reds continued to display a complete lack of leadership and motivation yesterday as they lost to the Astros.

There was one thing about the game that stuck out to me that I think best exemplify why the Reds suck and what the solution is.

The Dusty-ball approach to batting does not work. After the Astros took a 5-0 lead, the Reds proceeded to swing at any and every pitch Astros ace Roy Oswalt tossed up to the plate. Oswalt had 3 consecutive innings where he threw fewer than 10 pitches. (6 in the 3rd, 8 in the 4th, and 6 again in the 5th.) He just missed a fourth in the 6th when it took a whopping 12 pitches to retire the haplessly managed Reds.

It seems to me that the better approach to coming back from a deficit might, just might, be to be more selective with what pitches you swing at. Make the pitcher work: he’ll get tired sooner and the chances of a mistake pitch increase. Or you can follow Dusty Baker’s wisdom and become the the 2006 Chicago Cubs.

You can see the frustration in the players. Jay Bruce fluffed a fairly easy fly-out to right field. (A play that was hilarious because it ended with Corey Patterson, a player who wasn’t even involved, flat on his ass.)

Hopefully, the Reds wise up before Bruce and the Reds other young talent, as well as the fans and blogger, give up hope.

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New Pirates pitcher Jeff Karstens almost perfected the art of pitching yesterday. Thankfully, he didn’t because the come-down from that high would be particularly devastating.

“All right, I pitched a perfect game!”

“Oh, no, it was for the Pirates.”

Talk about a meaningless effort right there. Karstens was very good in his second start, though, and hasn’t allowed a run yet as a Pirate. Pittsburgh can only hope that competency continues from Karstens and all the other players they received.

The perfect game bid was broken up in the 8th by Chris Young. Karstens’ final line was 9 innings, 0 runs, 2 hits, 1 walk, and 4 strikeouts.

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Zach Duke pitched very well last night, striking out 6 in 7 innings and allowing only 2 runs. Although it was among the best starts Duke’s provided this year, it wasn’t good enough. The Pirates managed only one measly run. The lone RBI was Doug Mientkiewicz’s, thanks to a hit in the 9th.

Of course, it’s not exactly an indictment of the Pirates that they scored only one run off of Brandon Webb, who has an ERA on the year of 2.93. Yeah, he doesn’t allow too many runs. Webb pitched the complete game for his 16th victory on the year, while Duke received his 10th loss.

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Chris Carpenter started his second game for the Cardinals since returning from the disabled list. Both starts have been good, although short. In his first outing, he lasted only 4 innings, but yesterday, he pitched 5. Carpenter probably would have gone longer had it not been for a rain delay.

All in all, Carpenter’s allowed 1 run in 9 innings, and that one run was in his first start. If he can increase his stamina, stay effective, and stay healthy, Carpenter might just give the Cardinals the shot in the arm they need.

He didn’t last night because St. Louis’ bullpen is having issues. With the team leading 4-0 in the 9th, things looked rosy. That is until Ron Villone faced the first batter of the inning, Andruw Jones, who homered. LaRussa immediately changed pitchers and brought in Jason Isringhausen. But this is still not the Izzy of old, as he allowed the game to be tied and sent it to extra innings.

So Carpenter remains winless since 2006, but the Cardinals did eventually win the game, thanks to a 2-run home run from Ryan Ludwick.

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The Astros beat off both the Cubs and the rain yesterday, as 4 pitchers combined to blank Chicago.

That bizarre trade for Latrell Hawkins is looking golden now. He pitched one-third of an inning for the save! One-third! That’s a whole out.

The game had two different rain delays. The first one lasted 2 hours and 45 minutes right after the 5th inning was completed. The second delay was in the bottom of the eighth and lasted only 39 minutes before the game was called.

The Astros have now won 4 in a row, while the Cubs modest 2-game winning streak was broken.