Sean Casey had two home runs tonight in a losing effort as the Reds lost the game and the series to the Atlanta Braves 4-7 and 2-1, respectively. Go Casey. Tomorrow's casual Friday; I may just have to dust off the ol' #21 jersey in the morning.

In softball news, the Stars played well but were unable to avoid the big inning in the sixth inning in a 12-6 loss to the Rockies.

The Stars were hindered when the left fielder failed to appear for the game and we had no choice but to play one of our third basemen in left field. Robert has significantly more range than Joe, so Robert played in left; however, Robert's attitude does not make him the ideal choice to put into any position of real responsibility, which left field is.

For example, in his at-bat in the first inning, Robert laid down an easy grounder and knew the throw should have had him beat. As it turned out, the first basewoman on the opposing team was trying to go easy on the athletes and had already conceded the base to him, but he didn't know that and took her out at the bag. That earned the Stars a scolding from the umpire about running to the outside of the base and just general team-wide embarrassment because we knew he'd done it on purpose.

Robert's insistence on playing left field just 20 feet behind third base and his refusal to run after the balls that got past him played a big part in the 7-run sixth inning enjoyed by the Rockies.

Even so, there were many bright points to last night's game. Highlights included:

• A double play when our shortstop caught a line-drive and threw out the runner on first who had wandered too far off the bag.
• Two fly outs, one caught by Joe (who, as I mentioned, does not have the quickest feet ever) and Little Robert (not take-out-the-woman-at-first Robert) in left-center.
• A fantastic outing by our pitcher, Bobbi, who struck out four.
• A strong night at the plate by our right-center fielder, who knocked in a third of our runs on a monster hit a few feet into center field.

As I've mentioned before, a loss in the season just gets you better placement in the state tournament, so with the defeat the Stars improved their chances of medaling on August 21. If our regular left fielder shows up, we've got a real chance.

Go Stars!

Kidding! It's just a joke! Seriously people, I'm not quite that clueless.

It's too bad he won't be playing tonight, though.

PS -- Congrats to Adam Dunn.

I have places to drive every night this week, so I'm not going to catch a whole game on t.v. all week long. Argh!

Of course, if the whole week goes like tonight did, at least I won't be missing much in the way of fantastic baseball. I mean, I can stand to avoid watching:

• Another crappy start from Ramón Ortiz. Seriously: what's up with Ortiz? Have they MRI'd every cubic inch of him yet?
• The fantastic power of two whole runs from this Best Offensive Team In The Known Universe.
• Three errors out of Edwin Encarnación. To be fair, though, we all knew that was coming. The fact that he'd outrun the defensive errors over the last couple weeks deserves some praise, and the fact that they all caught up with him on the same night isn't really that bad, since the offense had already decided to take the night off from scoring. Maybe now he has them all out of his system.
• Luke Hudson pinch running for an Austin Kearns, whose hamstring issue is apparently more serious than originally thought. Can you say, “oh no, not again”? I knew you could.

No, thanks, I'll just do my driving if that's the caliber of stuff I'm going to miss.

In the mean time, I've been percolating on another one of those shamefully punny fake news stories that I just can't seem to resist grinding out on occasion, this time about Todd Coffey. Definitely stay tuned this week if you think that the best part of waking up is a horrible pun.

Forgive me, guys.

Most every weekday morning, I start my work day with a nice long trip 'round the Reds media. Well, the online media. That doesn't charge me. Or require me to sign up for an account. It's not really that long a trip 'round after all.

This morning, I saw this photo and made it my desktop wallpaper. It sat there for two hours before I noticed the ball. Ouch. I bet that left a welt.

The bit about Freel wanting to do it all himself in this story made me laugh out loud. This is the mindset he had when he tried to steal home in the first on Sunday. That was a play that none of the game wraps I read mentioned, which was disappointing. I was really interested to know whether a play was on or whether Freel had just had too many Skittles before the game.

I am extremely happy to see this:

CAMP KEARNS: Austin Kearns' workout regimen did not end when he returned to the Reds from Triple-A Louisville.

“No, I'm still doing it,” he said. “It's pretty much a daily thing. I get Sundays off.”

That's just fantastic. Good for Kearnsy. Next step: get Dunn to put down the xBox controller long enough to go along. Hell, send Casey too.

Lots about Aurilia's discontentment today. There was this story:

Ryan Freel's return from the disabled list coupled with Edwin Encarnacion's promotion has pushed Aurilia into a utility role.

“That's what I've been told,” Aurilia said.

Aurilia was the Reds' everyday second baseman while Freel was on the DL.

“I thought with the way I played, I earned the right to be in the lineup every day,” Aurilia said.

As well as quote from this story that made me raise my eyebrows.

If the Reds decide they're unhappy with Aurilia's attitude about the situation, they have the option to release him. It hasn't come to that point yet, though.

“I know [manager] Jerry [Narron] has explained to [Aurilia] what his role is, for the time being,” O'Brien said. “Ultimately, that's Jerry's decision, and I support him in whatever decision he makes.”

I've felt underappreciated and underutilized before, and I probably had less of an argument than Aurilia does. It sucks. I'm sorry that's how it is for him. I hope that there's an answer that works out for everyone. Until then, I hope he shuts up about it; he's not making things better.

And finally, a little bit about Luke Hudson from this story in The Post:

Probably because he has pitched better, Hudson was not pleased to be pushed back in the rotation. But he said he didn't want to comment on the change.

It's nice to see that not everyone feels the need to talk too much.

SAN DIEGO, CA -- Adam Dunn, recently lauded as a hero for his efforts to retrieve the ball from Edwin Encarnación's first home run, demonstrated his heroic traits again today during lunch.

“We were having roast chicken and mashed potatoes, but they were really bland,” said teammate Jason LaRue. “I looked around for some salt, but it was all the way at the other end of the table.”

LaRue mentioned the lack of seasoning in passing, but never expected Dunn, whom he was sitting next to, to step up the way he did.

“It was just amazing,” recalled LaRue. “He shouted down for the guys at the other end of the table to pass down the salt, and they did it.”

Dunn downplayed the incident. “I knew how important it was to him, and it was getting kind of late in the meal and you didn't want him to have to finish the potatoes bland.”

“I just called down to the end of the table -- I didn't know who was closest to it, but one of the guys heard me talking about the seasoning and the importance of enjoying your meal and blah, blah, blah. I asked if he could send down the salt and he said yeah, he would do it.”

Dunn also got the pepper.

“I hadn't even asked for it,” said LaRue. “That just shows what a heroic guy he is.”