According to Reds.com, owner Bob Castellni has extended the contracts of manager Jerry Narron and general manager Wayne Krivsky.

On Wednesday, Castellini announced that manager Jerry Narron received a two-year contract extension through the 2008 season, with a club option for 2009. General manager Wayne Krivsky's option for 2008 was also picked up.

Certainly the team's success this season has been pleasantly unexpected, but I'm still surprised to see this already. I mean, now where do they put Lou Piniella??

In all seriousness, though, it does seem a bit premature. Why pick up Krivsky's 2008 option before 2007? Why trust that Narron's success will continue? Miley's first season was pretty good, too, and that went ugly fast.

Of course, Bob's got the golden touch. Hopefully his hand in these contracts makes them all the more successful.

Our beloved Reds: Vastly improved starting rotation. Bullpen putting way fewer games out of reach. Most potent offense in the world. Complete powerhouse on the road.

Also our beloved Reds: A hair's breadth from 2005 Eric Milton. Coffey redeeming a rough outing he's been due for for a while. Offense out-homered by KC. Stumbling at home.

At least it's never boring.

If you don't frequent Red Reporter, you might not have noticed the writer of Royals Revue dropping a little smack talk in the diaries. Don't worry: I went over there and told them where to find the real smack.

So to you, Mr. Revue and to KC fans everywhere: welcome! We look forward to watching Aaron Harang and Bronson Arroyo take your fellas to school the next couple nights. If nothing else, I think you'll find that Mr. Red and the cheerleaders out-spirit your in-stadium entertainment any day of the week!

Matt Belisle is back after a lengthy exile to minor league rehab pergatory. Mike Burns was sent down to accommodate him.

Meanwhile, Edwin Encarnación is finally beginning his rehab assignment with Louisville. At the time of this writing, he had started at third base and was 1-for-2 with a run scored against Richmond.

On a slight tangent, Louisville is a half game back on Indianapolis in the International League standings. Is it any wonder with the likes of Dewayne Wise, Chris Denorfia, and Little Ray Ray taking the field.

Tonight the Reds take on the Royals. At first glance, you like the Reds' chances, but on the other hand it's impossible to forget their recent beatings at the hands of the Cubs. Milton's already given up a home run and is up to 32 pitches here in the second inning.

George Grande just said that Chris Welch is away because his father passed away this week. They gave the information on the visitation tomorrow morning, so if any of you are interested in paying your respects, you can probably find that out with a little research. Condolences to all the Welch's from Red Hot Mama.

How about them Cardinals, huh? They're currently on a seven-game losing streak, which has allowed the Reds to find themselves just one-and-a-half games back despite a rough-ish patch lately. Of course, even the Cardinals' recent doldrums can't compare to the skid by Pittsburgh. The Pirates' losing streak is 11.

Barry Larkin bobblehead night is tomorrow. It's apparently the second bobblehead in the series of three “Power of Tradition” figurines honoring three generations of short stops. If this information appears on Reds.com, I can't find it. I did find it on zipscene.com, if you'd like to get a little more information.

Milton's out of the top of the inning. Now Kearns is on first and Phillips is working the count. Go Reds!

Knock, knock, knock, knock. The Reds recover nicely from a rather lousy home stand to go 4-3 on a road trip where the opposition included their cross-state rivals, the Cleveland Indians - against whom they had not won a road series since 1997.

Knock, knock, knock. Tonight they begin a three-game series at home against the Royals, arguably the worst team in all of major league baseball. Eric Milton, who hasn't lost to the Royals since 1999 and is on a ten-game personal winning streak against KC, opens the series tonight against Mike Wood, who is 3-8 with a 5.24 ERA in 17 road starts and will be making his first appearance ever against the Reds. Wednesday it's Harang vs. Scott Elarton (3-8 this year), and Thursday it's Arroyo against Bobby Keppel, a rookie still looking for his first major league win.

Knock, knock, knock. After that the Indians come to town, and after that it's back on the road for series against first the Brewers and then the cellar-dwelling Atlanta Braves (hey, I've waited 16 years to call them that!). And after that, it's time for the All-Star Break. Yes, already. See how time flies when you're having fun?

Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang! The Cardinals are on a seven-game losing streak and just a game and a half ahead of the Reds in the division standings.

So what's all that noise and banging? It's opportunity knocking. When the new regime took over this ballclub, we were told that if the team could manage to stay in it this long, then management would go ahead and bite the bullet and bring in some help to keep them in it.

The players have done their part. Now it's management's turn.

Knock, knock, bang, bang. Hey, Wayne? Bob? You guys wanna answer that, please?

Don't know how many of you tune in for the USA Network's The 4400. The premise of the show is that people who have been disappearing over the last 75 years or so all suddenly reappear one day, with no memory of the intervening time and completely unchanged, except that they each manifest a supernatural power of some sort.

One of the 4400 introduced last night was one Mr. Ryan Freel. They apparently have a Reds' fan for a writer. Either that, or Mr. Freel's wait to make it to the majors was even longer than we once believed. His super power would clearly be the ability to talk to aquatic mammals. Or super speed or something.

After leaving Bronson Arroyo hanging on Saturday, the offense showed up for Elizardo Ramirez this afternoon, giving him a 4-2 win over the Indians.

The Lizard lasted six and one-third innings, allowing two runs (earned) on seven hits and one walk, earning him his third win of the season. Honestly, though, he's earned far more than three wins.

Chris Hammond, the one-or-two-batter-specialist, worked one an two-thirds innings, allowing zero runs on one hit. Todd Coffey had a bad-ass ninth, working three easy ground outs. He threw five pitches.

Adam Dunn and Ken Griffey, Jr. each hit two-run homers in the fourth inning to provide the Reds' RBI. All but three Reds had hits today, which is a refreshing change of pace. The three Reds who went hitless, Ryan Freel, Brandon Phillips, and Austin Kearns each had a walk, so every starter was on base at some point.

Like yesterday's game, I couldn't watch today's game either. This time I can't blame Fox, though: I had to make myself scarce while my Realtor® hosted an open house. Two people came, which is two more than I expected, so I'm psyched about that.

The win brings the Reds' record to 41-35 and gives them a winning road trip. Thanks to a rough patch for the St. Louis Cardinals, our boys are just two games out of first place in the NLC. They take Monday off before starting a homestand against the Kansas City Royals. Eric Milton takes on Mike Wood.

CINCINNATI, OH -- Manager Jerry Narron announced this afternoon that star pitcher Bronson Arroyo will move to the Cincinnati bullpen to bolster the relievers.

“One thing we're really lacking is a solid long reliever and spot starter,” said Narron. “It will be nice to finally have someone with some real relieving experience that we can count on out of the 'pen.”

Arroyo was an innings eater who notched a few key starts in the post-season for the Boston Red Sox. Boston traded him to Cincinnati for Wily Mo Peña just before the season began.

“He said he'd rather pitch out of the Boston bullpen than start for anyone else,” said Narron. “This move gets him halfway there.”

Elizardo Ramirez's traditional lack of offense came a day early and accidentally got all over the hallowed Bronson Arroyo on Saturday when his team was shut out on his watch, 0-4.

Arroyo lasted six innings, allowing three runs (earned) on five hits and two walks for the loss. Kent Mercker took over the seventh to allow another run (earned) on one hit. David Weathers allowed zero runs on one hit in the eighth.

Ryan Freel followed up his five-hit game with a 1-for-4 performance. Seeing as he was one of only four Reds to hit at all, that really doesn't look so bad. It did bring his average all the way down to .307, though.

Ken Griffey, Jr. was the only Red with more than one hit, going 2-for-4 on the night. Brandon Phillips and David Ross each provided a hit as well.

I couldn't watch the game on Saturday. It was not aired on FSN Ohio, but instead on Fox. Rather, for many people it was aired on Fox, for me it was aired nowhere. Fox carried the stupid White Sox game. However, a guy at Lowe's commented on my Reds' shirt while the game was going on, so that was practically the same thing.

The loss brought the Reds' record to 40-35. They'd go for the series win on Sunday when Elizardo Ramirez took on rookie Jeremy Sowers.

The Reds, fueled by a complete game shutout from Aaron Harang and a 5-for-5 night from Ryan Freel, opened the series against the Indians with a big win on Friday, 0-3 in Cleveland.

Harang allowed seven hits and two walks in his eighth win of the season. He struck out six.

Freel's five hits accounted for half of the team's total of ten. His two runs scored accounted for two-thirds of the team's total of three. His hyperactivity accounted for the cans of Jolt left all over the clubhouse floor.

This game wrap is only four paragraphs long so far, but what more is there to say? Maybe just “Yayyyyy!!”

The win brought the Reds' record to 40-34. They would continue the series against the Indians on Saturday when they sent Bronson Arroyo out to face Paul Byrd.