Saturday night the Crack Technical Staff and I, along with some other members of the Red Hot Family, headed out to a game at Great America Ball Park. We had every intention of drinking some beer, enjoying some baseball, and recording another episode of The Eighth Inning Show.

And then the rain came. Unprotected by roof, we were unwilling to sit in the rain or to stand in the concourse waiting through what turned out to be a 2-hour delay. Besides the pain in the neck it would be to entertain our 8-year old through that amount of time, there was also the fact that we were beat. It had been a long week.

The game took only 2 hours to resume, but our plans to record a podcast took all the way until today. Nevertheless, the CTS and I just recorded episode 111 in which we talk about our weekend trip to Cincinnati, my visit to Victory Field last night, the All-Star Game (plus my plan to get Votto voted in next year), whose on the DL, and Brandon Phillips nibbling on pretzels.

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Boxscore

In the first game after the All Star Break, the Cincinnati Reds played exactly as they had been prior to the break: badly. It’s not surprising, considering they’re a mediocre team lacking offense and managed by a buffoon. It’s still easy in baseball to be eternally optimistic and hope that things will bounce your team’s way.

Not this time. Homer Bailey, fresh off two of his best major league starts, regressed. He walked 4, struck out 3, and allowed 7 runs over 5 1/3 innings. His line should have been better, as the relief corps allowed all of the runners inherited to score. Still, it was a disappointing start after his recent success. Perhaps he rested too much. Either that, or the Milwaukee Brewers are just a really good team. It’s hard to know. Reds fans haven’t seen one this millennium.

On the offensive side, the Reds did well. 6 runs is a lot for them. The awesome Joey Votto drove in 2 with an unholy home run measuring 471 feet. He almost won someone a Toyota Tundra truck. The rest of the offense was provided by Edwin Encarnación. Yes, he’s still with the team. Apparently rest did improve his game.

The Reds were mounting a comeback until erstwhile Red–and Trekkie–Todd Coffey came in for Milwaukee. Remember when he was so good for the Reds that one year? Then remember when he was exactly the opposite? Chris Welsh might know why and who was responsible.

During the television broadcast, Welsh mentioned that the Reds refused to allow Coffey to throw his splitter. When he went to the Brewers, they allowed him to throw it again. The results? No runs in a short 9 1/3 innings last year, and an ERA of 2.76 so far this year. And his home run rate is way down, too.

I wasn’t the only one who caught this. Chad at Redleg Nation mentioned it, as well, and added that Homer Bailey had been prevented from throwing the same pitch. His recent success has to do with him throwing it again.

Developing pitchers is hard, but the Reds clearly need to do a better job. For once, they’ve got the talent.

Mike at Redleg Nation is on board the Dusty Baker is a clueless frickin’ idiot manager bandwagon. Welcome aboard! May us Reds fans soon no longer have to deal with his blithering incompetence and willful anti-intellectualism.

In his post, he cites Baker’s continued insistence to give away so many outs each game when he has Willy Taveras start and asks, “Is this the single worst thing a recent manager has done to hurt the Reds chances of winning?”

Now, I can’t tell if it’s a rhetorical question or not. In case it isn’t, let me go on record as saying, “Yes. Yes, it is.”

The Reds have reactivated 3B Edwin Encarnacion from the disabled list. He had been on the DL since April 28 due to a chip fracture in his left wrist. Encarnacion fills the roster spot opened when IF Danny Richar was placed on the 15-day DL with a torn labrum in his left shoulder.

Richar got hurt sliding head-first into home plate in the third inning of Wednesday’s 1-0 win against Arizona. That’s the same injury that ended Wilkin Castillo’s season last month, except Castillo got hurt sliding head-first into second base. This makes me wonder if somebody’s not teaching proper baserunning fundamentals to young players in the Reds’ farm system. With all due respect to Pete Rose, head-first is for diving back to the bag when you’re on base and they try to pick you off. If you’re at a dead run and you go head first, you’re begging for a lengthy stint on the DL.

Which is exactly what Castillo and Richar are getting for their efforts. If any of the Reds players are reading this, PLEASE get Billy Hatcher to show you the right way to slide, and don’t go head-first and get hurt!

Perhaps not in those exact words, but The Wall Street Journal did insult the Reds intelligence yesterday in a piece that examined the overall education levels of teams and their managers. The Reds were the 27th worst.

Dusty Baker responded to this by again slotting Willy Taveras and Alex Gonzalez in the top of the batting order. Yes, those with the mighty 27.0 and 25.6 Not Out Percentages, respectively. Of course, both failed to get hits, contributing 1/3 of the game’s outs.

It’s as if Baker were saying, I’m not stupid; I’m insane. That’s assuming he actually expected a different result, though.