Game 42: Reds 4, Indians 3

The Reds won their fourth straight Friday night, edging Cleveland 4-3 in the series opener.

Cincinnati built a 3-0 lead off Indians starter Jeremy Sowers, getting a two-run dinger from The Great Brandonie in the first and a solo shot from Adam Dunn in the second. The Reds offense then went quiet, but the lead looked very safe through the first five, as Johnny Cueto held the Indians hitless. The sixth was a different story; solo shots from Casey Blake, Travis Hafner and Jhonny Peralta tied the game. Cueto wound up going six innings, striking out seven. The three homers were the only hits he allowed. One bad inning ruined an otherwise-pristine performance.
The lead lasted til the eighth, when the Reds loaded the bases on a walk, double and walk, all off Cleveland reliever Jensen Lewis. Adam Dunn worked the count full before getting the game-winning RBI on another walk. Francisco Cordero nailed it down to earn his eighth save, and David Weathers picked up the win by pitching a scoreless eighth.

A LITTLE WINNING STREAK!
Don't look now, but the Reds have won seven of ten! Their four-game winning streak is a season high, and it's nice to see them finally playing well. Perhaps Griffey's penny prank on Josh Fogg is really paying off... okay, that's bad. Really bad.

Anyway, the Reds are still a game behind Pittsburgh in fifth, have a record of 19-23 and are seven out of first. They're putting together a decent May, though; they've got a west coast swing which usually means death, but the Padres really aren't good and Los Angeles doesn't scare me right now, either. Nobody scares me. That's why I'm an outlaw hunting outlaws. A bounty hunter. A renegade.

ANYWAY...
The Cubs signed Jim Edmonds? Are you serious? Do they just want to have a jersey to put in the "athletes who briefly wore weird teams' jerseys at the end of their careers" list? I know the Padres always fly under the national radar, especially now that they're bad... but did the Cubs actually watch him play when he was here? He was beyond awful. He was like all the stories of Willie Mays with the Mets, times ten. Inexplicable. Completely inexplicable.

JARED BURTON
He just makes me nervous. He pitched an inning tonight and it was one of those days where the fastball was just sailing up, up, up in the zone and it seemed like Bako was really having trouble getting it under control. The way this bullpen is currently put together, unless the starter goes seven solid innings, either Burton or Lincoln Logs will have a high-leverage situation to pitch nearly every night. Both of these things make me nervous. Lincoln Logs looked great in the eighth on Wednesday then completely exploded worse than the eighteen wheeler in the Jack In The Box Sloppy Eating ad.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDJYvsg2DuY

I don't want to start doing this very often, because you never know who is reading a blog on the internet, but it is a Damn Shame we don't have those macaroni bites here. There is a Jack in the Crack on every corner and they don't have those? WTF?

ADAM DUNN
Two straight games with homers! I don't want to jinx it so that is all I have to say.

I'M JUST GONNA SAY IT...
Amy and Erin are getting better with age. There it is.

COMING UP
Saturday the Reds and Indians crank it up at 3:55 Eastern, 12:55 here in Chargerland. The game marks a rare Fox Saturday Baseball appearance for the Reds, although it's only slated to go to 7% of the country (basically Ohio, Kentucky and West Virginia). However the other two regional games, Red Sox-Brewers and Yankees-Mets, had their series openers rained out Friday, so if the weather holds up maybe it'll get more exposure. It's a great pitching matchup that deserves more attention, as the Criminally Underappreciated Aaron Harang takes on Cleveland's Fausto Carmona. Due to some stuff going on here I think I won't have a chance to watch it til late Saturday or possibly early Sunday. qq.

EDIT: I'm an idiot, Yankees-Mets isn't the Fox game, Angels-Dodgers is the other Fox game. So much for the game slipping onto Fox 6 here. Oh well.

HERO OF THE DAY
HYDRAHERO: Johnny Cueto, Adam Dunn and Brandon Phillips
Cueto showed why he's in the bigs to stay for now with his five hitless innings, then in the same game showed why he's a rookie in allowing three solo shots. Cleveland has struggled offensively but they still have offensive talent, and he pitched very well. Dunn and Phillips had all four of the Reds RBIs, so they get credit too.