I was still at the office when yesterday’s double-header started, so I didn’t tune in until about the fourth inning. By that time, I would have missed the conversation about the apparently shockingly low number of attendees for the start of the game. An unofficial count had only 347 fans in the stands at the first pitch.

Or maybe not so shocking. The very reason they were having a double-header was to avoid playing during the hurricane that’s on its way. Wise fans would also be arranging not to be caught in the weather. As important as baseball is, it’s not more important than that. But while you know that intellectually, it still seems funny that a team that can’t break into four-digits for the start of a double-header is on its ways to a new stadium. Maybe they could arrange for it to double as a hurricane shelter.

Thing One: The Astros are officially eliminated from winning the division. Dude, it’s not even September yet.

Thing Two: Joey Votto is all manner of awesome. I mean, seriously. He ought to be MVP again, but he probably won’t, since the Reds are going to be struggling to even finish the season at .500.

Thing Three: Dontrelle Willis goes tomorrow, but that doesn’t necessarily mean a loss. The team could take the lead after he leaves the game.

On the one hand, I can’t believe it’s so late in the season. It felt like it just took forever for baseball to start this year, and now we’re down to single-digit weeks of the regular season. On the other hand, I can’t believe the minor leagues haven’t even wrapped up for the year and we’re already thinking elimination numbers.

For Cincinnati, the magic number is 23, which is hardly something to start panicking about now. I mean, if starting today, the Brewers continued winning at their current pace and the Reds won out, the Reds would take the division by two whole games.

The poor Astros, I’m afraid, are a different story. Their magic number is 4. They’ll be eliminated before the end of August, which definitely brings a certain futility to the last several weeks of the season. Hopefully they’ve stockpiled some bobblehead giveaways and other special events for this eventuality.

Which reminds me, next Friday is the Brandon Phillips Fireworks Jam, a “post-game fireworks show featuring a soundtrack of the second baseman’s favorite summer hits, starting approximately 15 minutes after the end of the game.” So you won’t want to miss that (even if you do end up wanting to miss contest against the Nationals that precedes it).

While the Reds were visiting the Washington Nationals this week, the Nationals were planning a tribute to the armed forces by wearing armed forces hats through batting practice and the game on Tuesday. They got to wear them for the BP, but MLB prohibited them for the actual game. From a story on The Post Game:

This was the Nats’ first home game since 30 soldiers riding in a helicopter were killed in Afghanistan on August 6th. But Commissioner Bud Selig’s top executives stopped it from happening.

MLB says that they reserve special hat days for nation-wide tributes when all of the teams wear the same (ugly) tribute caps. Myself, I’m not exactly outraged but kind of mystified as to why MLB would go out of their way to put a stop to this recognition of the armed forces. Is there some slippery slope here that I’m not seeing? If they allowed this, would it be just a matter of time till the players were all wearing beer helmets on the field or something?

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Bats	0	0	2	0	0	0	0	1	0	3	9	0
Indians	0	0	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	2	10	0

Boxscore

As RHM mentioned, we headed to Victory Field to catch as much of the game between the Louisville Bats and Indianapolis Indians as a school-night would allow. Thankfully, we saw a little bit of offense in the hour and 30 we were there.

Chad Reineke started for the Bats and had decent results. In 5 innings, he allowed 2 runs and struck out 5. Of course, he also allowed 7 hits, which indicates either goof luck in not allowing more runs or bad luck in the defense behind him. And since most of the Reds’ best infield prospects are with the major league club or injured, I’m leaning towards the latter.

The offense was provided by lots of Bats batters, but none was more impressive than power-hitter Juan Francisco.

Francisco had what appeared to be either an accidental swing, or at least a half-hearted one, and sent a ball over the right field berm area. It was a power shot, and it looked like he barely swung. It’s the best display of his power I’ve seen. He’s almost always looked over-matched in the majors.

The rosters are set to expand for the Cincinnati Reds at the beginning of next month, but it’s hard to see who might be called up. Francisco, sure. But the only other position player who seems likely is catcher Devin Mesoraco. He went 1 for 4 on the night, but that one hit did lead to the eventual run scoring. Considering, he’s got a .291 average, a 37% on-base percentage, and is slugging .484, he might not have much left to prove in AAA, anyway.