Boxscore

That was an awesome way to end a baseball game against the St. Louis Cardinals.

The Cincinnati Reds first baseball game after the All Star break started well. Johnny Cueto was cruising and mowing down the Cardinals. Even with some shaky defense behind him, he emerged with 7 innings of 3-run ball, 2 of them earned. He left with the lead, but the bullpen failed again.

This is where the game took a turn for the ugly. Aroldis Chapman entered the game and was unable to record an out. Two runs ended up scoring in the 8th before Nick Massett was able to finish the inning.

The Reds had lots of scoring opportunities, but were never able to break the game open. They continued to fail to achieve that 2-out hit.

Until the 9th. Down by 1 run, Zach Cozart got a one-out single. It was his third hit of the game and set the stage for Joey Votto to do something great. Sadly, his best pitch was a line drive straight into the right fielder’s glove.

But that was okay. The next batter was Brandon Phillips, who took a big swing and sent a ball into the seats in left field. The Reds had won their first game in what felt like an age. I mean, the Harry Potter movie series finished since the last time the Reds won.

The win moves the Reds to 3 games back of first and 1 game under .500. The Cardinals losing drops them into a tie for first with the Pittsburgh Pirates. (That was a weird thing to type. The Pirates in first place after the All Star break? What a strange season this is shaping up to be.)

Awful Announcing is running a fun little competition where they’re searching for a new awful announcer’s face to put on their site’s masthead. Up until this point, Joe Morgan had been prominently featured, but now that he’s retired from broadcasting and gone into the business of selling Hondas to Ohioans, they need somebody new.

The first round of 32 has already completed, and I have my personal favorites that I want to see in the finals. Yes, I want to see a fight to the death between the two sons of great baseball announcers who are the opposite of their fathers: Joe Buck versus Thom Brennaman. And Brennaman should win.

Thom beat out some guy named Jon Gruden in the first round. For his next battle, he’ll be going against Jim Gray on Saturday. I know who I’ll be voting for.

So far, it’s not looking good.

The Cleveland Indians swept the Cincinnati Reds in Cleveland earlier this season. The best the Reds could hope for was a share of the Ohio Cup. Alas, that was not to be, as even the Reds TweetUp wasn’t enough to overcome the appearance of Bronson Bad-rroyo.

The TweetUp itself made for a great time, and I’ll have some pictures up later. The game, not so much.

The Reds lost 8-2, dooming them to a losing record against Cleveland in 2011. The Reds’ next chance to win their first game of the year against the Indians is this afternoon. Homer Bailey takes the mound at 4:10pm. This time, the Reds will be looking to the totem that is Dusty Baker’s toothpick holding bobble head to provide them with the power to vanquish the Indians. We’ll see if that’s enough.

Boxscore

Okay, this is getting old. The Cincinnati Reds lost to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays tonight, dropping their record to 41-40.

That’s 81 games total: the halfway point. Feeling good about the prospects of this team for the rest of the season? Because Walt Jocketty has shown his complete lack of ideas on what to do to improve the .500 team. And manager Dusty Baker’s calm, toothpick-chewing ways aren’t exactly lighting a fire under the under-performing team’s ass.

Tonight, the Reds wasted another brilliant start by Johnny Cueto. Cueto went 7 2/3 innings, allowing 3 runs–two of which were allowed to score thanks to a rare bad appearance from Bill Bray. And then Logan Ondrusek allowed a walk-off home run to lose it in the 9th.

The Reds continue to be a tough team to watch, and the lack of apparent caring by anyone in charge of the team doesn’t make it any easier. I’m not one to panic, but 81 games into the season is no longer early. That’s a long enough time to get a good idea about the team’s problem areas. And the 2011 Reds are weak on starting pitching and have gotten no offense and not good enough defense from shortstop. Waiting and seeing isn’t going to make things any better.

Boxscore

Wait, what?

I know what you’re thinking, looking at the title of this post, but it’s true. The Cincinnati Reds actually won an interleague game! And this was the first game of the series against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

Mike Leake started for the Reds and did very well, going 6 shutout innings, allowing 4 hits, walking 2, and striking out 3. He picked up his 7th win. The bullpen closed out the shutout and the game, thanks to Sam LeCure and Nick Masset.

The offense still left 8 players on base, but they did drive in 5. Brandon Phillips was the hero, going 4-5, driving in 2 and scoring 2. Jonny Gomes returned to his former ballpark and did well, too, hitting a home run in the 4th.

All that added up to a shutout win. And it gives the Reds two chances to win their first series in about a million years.