From the Reds marketing email this week:

Send your questions for Bronson Arroyo
Get your questions in now for our next Redlegs Q&A – this time with Reds pitcher Bronson Arroyo! Better Off Red’s Jamie Ramsey will sit down with Bronson later this month to get answers to questions from you. Send yours to redlegsnews@reds.com and be sure to include your name and where you’re from!

Corn rows, crappy ’90s guitar music, nutritional supplements, pining for Boston, the likelihood that he won’t be around next season…the list of potential topics for questions is practically limitless. Ask him how it feels to hang around with great starting pitchers for a change.

Boxscore

Brand new St. Louis Cardinals starter Jake Westbrook opened the series against the Houston Astros tonight and pitched good enough for the win. Unfortunately for the Cardinals, but fortunately for the Reds, the relievers didn’t get the memo.

Westbrook was good, allowing just 2 runs over 6 innings. He allowed 4 hits, but struck out 7. Once the game was turned over to the bullpen, the win Westbrook was in line for was stolen away.

Jason Motte pitched a scoreless 7th, but was taken out after he couldn’t get a batter out in the 8th. The 2 batters he did face both reached and later scored. Coming in to add gasoline to the fire were Mike MacDougal (1 run, 1 inning), Trever Miller (3 runs, 1/3 inning), and Blake Hawksworth (1 run, 2/3 inning).

Every Cardinals pitcher allowed runs, but only one of them pitched more innings than runs allowed. It was an ugly night for the bullpen, and the implosion knocked them out of first place, thanks to a Reds win. Cincinnati is now 1/2 game ahead, and at 13 games over .500, has the best record they’ve had since 1999.

After months of speculation, Roy Oswalt has finally been traded.

The winners of the disgruntled player sweepstakes were the Philadelphia Phillies. The Phillies, not the Cardinals, as had been rumored. As an aside, I’m not sure whether to be happy or sad about that for reasons Amanda stated here. It kind of would’ve been nice seeing the Cardinals raid an already weak farm system for this year. It sure would have set up the Reds nicely for the next few years.

But back to the trade. The Houston Astros sent Roy Oswalt, who waived his no-trade clause, to the Phillies for lefthander J.A. Happ, shortstop Jonathan Villar, and Anthony Gose, who was flipped to the Toronto Blue Jays for minor league first baseman Brett Wallace.

J. A. Happ was a runner-up in the rookie of the year voting last year, and looks to be a solid 3 or 4 starter in the Houston rotation. He’s no Oswalt, but he’ll be serviceable. According to the Crawfish Boxes, Jonathan Villar “has plus-plus speed coupled with a great arm. He has all of the tools to stick at shortstop and be a plus defender there, but needs to work on the skills aspect of his defense.” And Brett Wallace is one of the top first base prospects in the league. Which will be good for the NL Central, which is known for its shortage of awesome first basemen.

For the Reds, this trade means they will not face Roy Oswalt during the regular season again this year. The only way they would face him is if they made the playoffs. And with a first place lead 2 days shy of August, I’m feeling optimistic about the Reds’ chances.

Boxscore

Going into Thursday, the Cincinnati Reds were tied with the St. Louis Cardinals for first place of the National League Central. Thanks to the New York Mets and a great outing by knuckle-baller R.A. Dickey, the Reds are back in first.

A day after their extra-inning affair, the Cardinals’ offense played tired. They managed 4 hits and no runs. Albert Pujols played, despite being gimpy, and contributed nothing in what is shaping up to be the worst year of his career. (Of course, the vast majority of players would kill to have a year as “crappy” as Pujols is having. It’s nice having Joey Votto on the Reds.)

Blake Hawksworth wasn’t very good again in his start for St. Louis, getting his 7th loss. Over 6 innings, he allowed 4 runs on 7 hits, 3 walks, and 3 strikeouts.

After storming out of the break with a 7-game winning streak, the Cardinals have now lost 2 series in a row.

Daniel Ray Herrera, the diminutive left handed reliever that the Reds have on assignment down in AAA Louisville right now, was arrested last night for public intoxication. From WLKY.com:

Police said Herrera, 25, was walking along northbound US 31 when he was stopped by Indiana State Police at 4:18 a.m.

ISP arrested Herrera and charged him with public intoxication. When he arrived at the Clark County Jail, his blood alcohol level tested at 0.228.

Herrera is due to be released from the Clark County Jail at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday.

It’s been a while since anyone in the Cincinnati has been in trouble with the law. Didn’t used to be that way. I remember Brian Shackelford’s arrest on a Milwaukee road trip, and of course, Ryan Freel gave us not one, but two mug shots. Comparatively, wandering up the highway in the wee morning hours seems only LaRussa-esque.