The Rain Drowns Your Hopes; Reds Lose

The Reds lost a rain-delayed decision Sunday as the Yankees salvaged game three of the set, beating the Nasti 4-1.

Johnny Greato was superb, only allowing one run on four hits in five innings of work, but was removed down 1-0 after a rain stoppage in the middle of the sixth. Leave it to Majewski and Affeldt to completely mess that up. Canadian Intensity and Jay Hoops both struck out with the bases loaded in the fourth in the Reds biggest sustained rally of the afternoon, and alas, they came up empty. Griffey's 601st homer of his career in the eighth provided the Reds lone run.

So it was disappointing to see the Reds drop the last game, but beggars can't be choosers and there's nothing wrong with taking two of three. It might be interesting to note that Canadian Intensity had another at-bat in the sixth, this time with two on, and struck out in a pouring rainstorm. Of course, they pulled tarp right after that. Had the rain not come, Greato likely wasn't going to be removed after seventy-five pitches and who knows what happens.

In better news, Jeff Keppinger is back, as mentioned earlier, and has a beard now. Reminded me of my senior year of college, when I started an English class with a Mr. Clean-like instructor, promptly ditched it for quite a while, so long that when I returned he suddenly had hair and a bald spot and everyone I sat around had thought I'd dropped the class entirely. Anyway, per Hal or somebody he was trying to get rid of it but why mess with something so awesome? This game has enough cool goatees and linebeards. Time for someone who looks like a real man.

Per the trainers he's fully recovered. APhil 2.0 was DFA'd as a result, and if he clears waivers will go to Louisville. 2.0 was out of options so he couldn't be outrighted without clearing waivers, hence the DFA.

So now it's another interesting test for the Reds. After giving the Yankees all they can handle, they go to Toronto starting Tuesday night to play Cito Gaston's Blue Jays. Former Jays manager John Gibbons was just fired last week and things haven't been going all that well since the firing. The Cincinnastians seem to perenially be a team that can play well against good teams but lets down horribly against bad ones. Let's hope they come out of this series with confidence and a strong feeling and do their best to win some at Skydome.

PEACE