This episode is recorded live on location at beautiful Victory Field in Indianapolis, Indiana. The last place Indianapolis Indians (Pirates’ affiliate) hosted the division leading Louisville Bats (Reds’ affiliate) as they always do during the holiday weekends.

The Bats had long since clinched the division, so it was hard to imagine that they’d put too much effort into their last series: 4-games against the cellar-dwellers (and that was just in Indy; afterward, they immediately took off for two more games in Louisville). But it was a good time anyway, seeing the Reds and Pirates of the future (and past *cough*Chris Duffy*cough*) defining themselves on the field.

We attended all four games, but only stayed for the duration on Saturday (darn school nights), so this program is the culmination of four days and about 20 innings of baseball spectatorship.

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Boxscore

The Cubs faced their worst string of games over the weekend in a while. Not only did Carlos Zambrano miss a start due to a “tired” arm, but the team lost 3 in a row. Not that their lead in the Central was jeopardized, though. Neither the Brewers nor the Cardinals could capitalize.

Roy Oswalt continued his recent return to his old form. After struggling through the beginning of the year, Oswalt turned in numbers expected of him in August: a 2.97 ERA and 39 strikeouts in 39 innings. For his first start in September, he continued to dominate, shutting out Chicago for his 13th win.

Boxscore

Has there ever been a pitcher who completely pwned a team as much as Roy Oswalt pwns the Reds? I mean, it’s gone past coincidence to just bizarre. Oswalt now holds a record of 22-1 against Cincinnati. That’s. Just. Crazy.

The Reds did score a run in the first, and Josh Fogg pitched well, for a change, but the outcome of the game was never in doubt.

Boxscore

It took 132 games, but the Reds finally have a pitcher with a complete game. You can tell this team is no Milwaukee. You could also guess from that stat that Aaron Harang hasn’t been healthy this year. Of course, with a team record of 58-74, you could guess a lot of things, primarily that Dusty Baker is the “manager.”

Bronson Arroyo was the winner of the dubious honor of first complete game for 2008. It came against the Astros in a rather meaningless little game. Arroyo pitched well, better than he has all year, allowing 1 run over 9 innings.

Houston’s back at .500, but will be expecting to change that once notorious Reds-killer Roy Oswalt starts their next game.

Boxscore

It wasn’t that Manny Parra turned in an outstanding, dominant performance against the Astros, but it was good enough for a win, which is something he’ll take given his hard-luck performances of late.

Parra pitched 5 innings, allowing only 2 runs for his 10th win. But the Brewers offense was too much for the Astros to overcome, thanks to the middle of the Milwaukee lineup.

The Brewers gained a game on the Cubs, who surprisingly lost a game at Wrigley to the Reds, of all teams.