UPDATE: Looks like it’s confirmed now: Harris has been outrighted to AAA Louisville. We’ll see if he accepts the assignment, but I doubt there’s a lot of other options for him right now. A little time with the minors might be a good chance for him to find his swing.

John Fay is reporting an officially unconfirmed but seemingly likely scenario: that Miguel Cairo has come off the DL and that Willie Harris got the short end of the making-room-on-the-roster stick:

Willie Harris was walking out of Miller Park as I walked in a little bit ago. I asked him if something had happened. He shook his head yes. He was talking on the phone. The Reds haven’t announced anything, but it likely means Miguel Cairo has been activated from the disabled list and will take Harris’ roster spot.

If this is the case, it’s surprising to me, in that it is likely the same move I would have made. I expected Todd Frazier to be the odd man out, as he has been before.

Dusty Baker did give Harris a chance to prove himself. Harris had 35 ABs in 19 games, making appearances as a surprising choice for pinch hitter, given his .086 average and .135 OBP.

Got this announcement in the ol’ inbox today. I changed all the “girls” to “women.” I’m sure it violates the brand image they’re trying to create, but it’s my blog and I’ll fail to refer to adult females like children if I want to.

CINCINNATI, OHIO – Have you ever wanted to have lunch with a Cincinnati Reds player, a FOX Sports Ohio broadcaster, and the FOX Sports Ohio Women? Now is your chance with FOX Sports Ohio’s Lunch Bunch Sweepstakes, presented by Cincinnati Bell Fioptics.

FOX Sports Ohio and Cincinnati Bell Fioptics will be giving away lunch for two with Reds outfielder Drew Stubbs, Reds Live host Jim Day, and the FOX Sports Ohio Women Hallie, Kristine, and Sara. The winner will also win a 46″ HDTV.

Beginning Monday, May 7, Reds fans can “like” the FOX Sports Ohio Women on Facebook at www.facebook.com/foxsportsohiogirls and enter the sweepstakes at the “Lunch Bunch” tab for the chance to win.

The Lunch Bunch Sweepstakes runs through Wednesday, May 23. The official rules are located on FOXSportsOhio.com.

Lunch for two with Stubbs, Jim Day, Hallie, Kristine, and Sara? I’m sure the FSO Women don’t eat much, but lunch for two doesn’t seem like it’s going to go very far in that crowd.

In last night’s titanic struggle between the Cincinnati Reds and the San Francisco Giants, a hapless Dan Otero in relief for the Giants missed his release point and hit Joey Votto smack in the thigh. No big deal; he wasn’t trying to do it. He was probably just so desperate to miss the Votto wheelhouse that he went a little overboard.

But the interactions that followed that event were, to me, much more interesting than the game itself. You see, this kind of interaction is part of “guy speak.”

When I say “guy speak,” I’m not just talking about words, but all those interactions between guys that are a natural part of the sociology of being in the pack. I’m not talking about interactions among responsible adult men, with stock portfolio and prostate concerns. I’m talking about those things that make innate sense to guys but are utterly mystifying to women–wrestling past the age of 10, “pre-gaming” before a night at the clubs, and being willing to go into a bar’s single-person restroom to pee in the sink if total strangers are already using the stall and the urinal.

I am amazed by this stuff (except for the peeing in the sink one, which just grosses me out), probably because I can’t be a part of it. As soon as a woman is involved in any of these scenarios, they change: sort of a Heisenberg’s guy speak uncertainly principle. (Except that Heisenberg, being a guy, wouldn’t have invoked the uncertainty principle himself, unless there’s some sort of exception for physicists.)

So, while it’s probably mundane and instinctively understood by dudes, to me the hitting of Joey Votto was a social event worthy of further consideration. This is what I saw.

After an unsuccessful attempt to get out of the way, Votto stood stock still for a moment, expression blank, even though that had to smart like hell. He started to turn around to take the base, but first picked up the ball and threw it back to the pitcher while maintaining slightly-longer-than-social, unsmiling eye contact. The whole thing lasted about five seconds.

“What does that mean?” I actually said out loud to no one in particular. The failure to react is probably just tough-guy stuff: there’s no actual injury there, so don’t let ’em see you sweat. Not so mysterious, I guess.

But the picking up the ball and throwing it back confounded me for a while. It wasn’t an aggressive throw; he wasn’t trying to hit the pitcher back. It was more like a wry, “Hey, you dropped this.” Surely he wasn’t just being helpful, at least, that’s not what the eye contact said. The eye contact said, “Since you’re new in town, I’m going to cut you a break today. So why don’t you make like a tree and get out of here.”

Then it was over. Votto takes first to load the bases. A shaken Otero walks Brandon Phillips to walk in a run, and the Big Inning proceeds.

But then it gets interesting again. In the top of the ninth inning, Sam LeCure exacted a retribution pitch, throwing behind Buster Posey. Not Sandoval, not the pitcher, but the corresponding character on the Giants’ team. If a guy punches you in the gut, you don’t punch him in the hand, you get him in the gut back. This action is a team acting as a whole.

I know that MLB tries to quash this sort of thing, and promptly warned both benches. Wouldn’t want the little kids and old ladies in the crowd to think it’s OK to stand up for your friends. But I think that to remove this stuff from the game is to rob baseball of the genuine, if somewhat primitive, team/pack dynamic.

Obviously, baseball doesn’t want to cultivate the Ron Artests of the world, but there is a happy medium between brute and physicist, and it is called “guy.” And watching that balance unfold is what makes the game so fascinating.

I’m sure the Cincinnati Reds can use the day off after playing about 100 games in a row away from home and losing 80 of them*. But I always miss baseball, even after stretches like that. Of course, a bunch of those games were during the day while I was at work, so it was kind of like they were off days to me, anyway.

But today is an actual off-day before the Reds start a series at home with the San Francisco Giants tomorrow. Finding content when the team doesn’t play can be challenging.

• Redleg Nation listed reasons the season isn’t over.
• Red Reporter whipped out the calculator and the maths and stuff to see what kind of holes are in the Reds’ bats.
• And C-ing Red makes fun of a billboard that the Chicago Cubs have in the outfield.

But all that sounds like work. So instead, here’s a picture of Alfonso Soriano missing a routine fly ball.

He misses fly balls and could be yours for just $57 million over 3 years!