Reds rolling...

Cueto pitching well, the Olympia beer is cold, Jay Bruce hit another dinger... we're halfway through the Sunday game and it's good times in SoCal.

What a homestand this has been. Bruce's first taste of the majors has continued to be too good to be true. The game-winner was a blast, a true no-doubter, and masked the frustration of another awful appearance from Josh Fogg. The Reds kept battling and the win was great despite the 'pen having to pitch six innings. One thing that concerns me is the Reds just keep winning these walkoffs (their seven walkoffs leads the majors), and that type of thing just isn't likely to sustain itself over an entire season. Bruce's performance isn't going to sustain itself either, of course, but this year is shaping into something really fun. Easy to say that when you've won four of five.

Bruce is at the plate right now, and Tim Hudson, one of the better starters in the NL, is scared to throw him a strike. Seriously, is this for real?

Anyway, back to Saturday. I didn't even start watching the game until close to nine PM eastern because the MLB.tv feed wasn't available til about half an hour after the end of the game. So I kind of knew when the game was going to end, the only question was, would the game-winner come from Bruce, or on Griffey's 600th HR? It came from Bruce and it was sweet. Now the Reds are going for the sweep.

CREDIT FOR DUSTY
Dusty takes a lot of abuse for moves he makes, particularly moves like the one he made in the ninth yesterday, pinch-running Freel for Adam Dunn. Normally I hate removing the big bats from the game, but there is no way Adam Dunn scores the tying run the way Freel did, waiting til the instant Soriano released the ball to first to run home, then barely beating the throw.

PLAYER MOVE!!!
Josh Fogg to the DL with back spasms or something, Gary Majewski to the big club for a little bit of bullpen help. He's been awful in every stint with the Reds since the big trade, but has been good in AAA (of course, he always has been good in AAA). Much like Norris Hopper's "sore elbow" lingering for two months, this move reeks of a phantom injury to avoid having to send someone to Louisville, but really, whatever. If by some miracle the Rockies are still interested in Fogg I would deal him for a bag of baseballs at this point.

JERRY HAIRSTON JR.
He's just hitting and hitting right now. Coming into this year the talk was that Hairston was fully healthy for the first time in a few years, and he's really raking right now. He's been just what this team needed so far, and thankfully now that Corey Patterson is gone, replaced by Bruce, there isn't an open outfield spot for Dusty to use on him, and as everyone knows if Patterson was in the lineup he just had to hit leadoff. These recent player moves almost seem to have "Dusty-proofed" this team, which could only be considered a good thing.

TODAY
It's the sixth right now, Reds up 3-0. May be back for more later.