The Cincinnati Reds are 33-21. Their .611 winning percentage would be enough to lead the NLE and the NLW, but here in the NLC, they’re a sad third place.

They can’t all three keep this up, can they? Surely someone’s got to crack.

At the time of this writing, after the Pirates won, but while the Cards were still delayed, the Reds trail them by 1.0 and 3.0 games, respectively. Sure, it’s not at all fair that the Reds drew the Indians for their inter-squad weekend while the Cards were beating up on the abysmal Royals, but the Pirates didn’t have it any easier against the Tigers and they still managed to gain a half game on the good guys.

And things are about to get real in this division. If the Cards haven’t fallen back to earth by next weekend, the Reds will be chipping away at their lead.

But before then, and even now, the Reds are headed to Pittsburgh to start a three game series there. Johnny Cueto (RHP, 2-0, 2.76 ERA) will face off against a familiar foe in Wandy Rodriguez (LHP, 6-2, 3.58 ERA). With that 3.58 ERA, Rodriguez ranks near the bottom of the Pirates’ starters, so now is the time to strike.

On Sunday, in the Reds’ last game of a series against the Cubs, many less-than-ideal things happened: Logan Ondrusek blew the save, Joey Votto didn’t have any RBI, and the Reds lost in extras. But the one thing that made the news was a sixth-inning pitch Johnny Cueto let fly that didn’t pass by in front of Cubs’ centerfielder David DeJesus so much as three feet over him.

I had the good fortune to actually be at that game, and I didn’t think much of the pitch. The Cubs had already hit Todd Frazier in the fourth, so I wasn’t surprised when the umpire warned both benches. I was surprised when Shin-Soo Choo got hit in the bottom of the ninth and the Cubs’ reliever wasn’t ejected; I though there was a rule now that said any HBP after a warning was automatic ejection.

But neither of those plunks made the news because Cubs’ starter Matt Garza was spouting off to the media about Cueto’s not-so-near miss:

I took total disrespect out of that. [DeJesus] has never done anything wrong, he just plays the game the right way. If Cueto has any problem, he can throw at me, and I’ll definitely return the favor. I didn’t like that one bit. We don’t retaliate. We take it game by game. Hopefully, he learns to grow the hell up. That’s totally uncalled for.

Here’s a video of the whole comment. The media outlets cut out the rambling, so you really need to see it for yourself to get the full experience of a grown man calling another grown man “totally immature.”

I first found out about this story on a Cubs blog, and I saw in the comments someone bringing up the brawl with St. Louis lo these many years ago. In fact, that brawl was a theme that came up in the comments on EVERY story about this non-incident. It’s like a guy can’t even miss you by a mile without everyone bringing up the time he kicked someone in the head and that guy didn’t play anymore.

I’m not going to be another person pointing out that Cueto was pinned against the wall or that Jason LaRue knew full well what he was getting in to by piling on. I might point out that LaRue’s career was really over already, and that it wouldn’t be out of character for Tony LaRussa to use the incident as an excuse to vilify Cueto, fire up the rivalry, and give them an easy way to let LaRue go, but that’s not what has me noodling on this either.

No, the reason I’m still thinking about these comments a full three days after the batter wasn’t hit is that I’m wondering how long the statute of limitations is on a brawl. That brawl happened in 2010–that’s three years ago now–but nothing else that Cueto has done in that amount of time seems to count when these people evaluate his character.

I don’t like the implications. I’ve pulled some real bonehead move in my time, and the fear that I can’t ever escape them keeps me up at night. Maybe it’s naive, but I cling to the hope that people are defined not by a single incident in their life but by a collection of all of their works, and that the good ought to have a chance to outweigh the bad over time.

On the other hand, there might just be no way to stop people from casting the first stone. Maybe you just have to recognize that self-righteously hating minor celebrities from afar is a part of fandom for some people.

And maybe you just stop reading the comments on news stories. Honestly, where do they dig those people up?

Today on Red Reporter the roundtable question is about Jay Bruce: will he always been an up-and-down kind of player, or is he figuring out a way to stay on the upswing for the long term?

I didn’t know the answer off the top of my head, so in a fit of desperation, I resorted to trying to actually learn something. This involved accessing two entirely different websites and leveraging an Excel spreadsheet. Oh Excel! You make counting so much easier!

Anyway, I was so proud of my science-ness that I wanted to share with you an inside peek at the method. Learn it well and maybe you’ll be able to use it someday. Maybe you’ll even improve on it, like finding a way to work in TWO beers.

Tony Cingrani did a most admirable job filling in for Johnny Cueto while our ace was on the DL. In 6 starts he went 2-0 with a 3.27 ERA. Among the starting pitchers, that ERA was bested only by Mat Latos (who had an unholy April) and the man whose spot he was taking. His 1.2 Ks per inning pitched led the squad.

Unfortunately for Cingrani, he’s 23, needs to work on his secondary pitches, and had a pretty rough outing against the Phillies just yesterday. So, with Cueto poised to take back his spot in the rotation, Cingrani was optioned to Louisville today.

In his place is not Cueto but rather Neftali Soto. Soto, who will wear #50 until Cueto’s spot in the rotation comes up again, is a corner infielder. He will be making his major-league debut with the team tonight. Mark says:

Soto is batting .269/.310/.388 with three homers and 16 RBIs in 33 games. He has played 18 games at first base but has been developing his skills as a third baseman, where he’s played 16 games.

It’s hardly a fair comparison, but those numbers are better than what Todd Frazier has put up so far this season.

This post is here as part of my answer to the weekly Red Reporter round-table question. Go to Red Reporter to read my and a bunch of different bloggers’ thoughts on how the Reds should fill the #2 hole.