Boxscore

I haven’t checked in on the Cubs in a while, but strangely, I’m not surprised to see them continuing to win. They won their weekend series against the Marlins, capping it off yesterday with another great outing from Ryan Dempster.

Chicago has tons of great players, but the roster isn’t that different from last year. The one major addition, Kosuke Fukodome, is mired in a terrible slump and hasn’t even been playing every day lately. I guess that just goes to show you what a competent manager with an expectation of winning and the knowledge of how to do it can get you. Piniella has done a good job this year.

Of course, getting a career year out of Dempster doesn’t hurt, either. (8-run innings from your offense never hurt, either.) He pitched for 6 innings, allowing only 2 runs and striking out 10. The chants of “Dumpster! Dumpster!” are not being heard this year. Well, maybe in the playoffs.

As much as this season sucks for Reds fans, it’s got to suck even harder for the players. I mean, sure, they’re making the big bucks, but I can escape the games by going to work. For them, the games are the work. When I’m in the office, only a handful of people give me grief about how bad the team is; for them, all 10,000 people who bother to show up let them know about it. And if I really need my decent-team fix, I can just look at the Cubs, Brewers, or Cardinals, all of whom are within the scope of my blog and none of whom are rotten. All the Reds players can do is hope to be traded to Arizona.

In fact, what I actually do is get so busy doing other things, that I end up stocking up almost a month’s worth of content to cram into on podcast. Enjoy!

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Boxscore

Chris Dickerson went 3-4 on the day after being “protected” by his “manager.” (Corey Patterson continued to play and would have screwed the Reds over again with a base-running blunder, had it not been for Dickerson saving his pathetic butt.) Javier Valentí­n added a solo shot along with the 2 RBI from Dickerson, and that was enough.

Johnny Cueto finally got a win again, and the Reds bullpen didn’t suck, despite the appearance of Magic Man Gary Majewski.

Ian Snell pitched okay for the Pirates, allowing 2 runs in 6 innings, but his team was unable to score.

The win gave the Reds the victory in the 3-game series.

Boxscore

The Astros won their 8th straight game last night, completing a 4-game sweep of the Giants.

Lance Berkman provided the heroics, breaking a tie in the bottom of the 8th with a 2-run home run.

The streak has sent Houston’s record to 3 games over .500 for the first time since the beginning of June.

The team is having a hard time explaining their recent success, though.

“There’s a little magic in the clubhouse,” manager Cecil Cooper said.

Well, that’s one explanation. But how about instead of pixie dust, we look at the two teams the Astros have played in this 8-game run? Aha, it’s the Giants and the Reds. That explains everything.

Boxscore

When your team is 5 zillion games out since 2001 and you’ve traded away your best hitters for prospects, that’s usually the time that a baseball team calls up its young players or the prospects it just received and plays them. A reasonable person could expect that, especially when the manager of the team has gone on record as saying he would love to play young players. Just give them to him.

Yeah, well, that wouldn’t be the Cincinnati Reds. In a pointless game yesterday, Dusty Baker didn’t play Chris Dickerson and Adam Rosales, favoring Corey Patterson and Andy Phillips. Josh Fogg started, too, instead of someone who might be with the team next year. Sigh. When will that man be fired.

The Reds lost, of course. Is it any coincidence that the Pirates had their shiny new young players, you know, playing?