Looks like a tough loss…but I’m betting the boys will bounce right back tomorrow…That’s is what the better teams do and this team has the makings of a ‘better than usual’ Reds team.

(No, it didn’t end this late. I got lost in the spaghetti 81/84 interchange in Scranton. It’s under construction, making it even more confusing than usual.)

I saw a 2-0 score for the Reds game flash up on the message board at PNC Field, so I had an inkling things weren’t going well.

It was a pitcher’s duel in Scranton, too. The old guys sitting next to me were getting antsy. They wanted to go home and watch basketball, and were afraid it would be 0-0 after nine, and go into extras. They were amazed at that stud, Justin Lehr, on the mound. (And also pretty amazed at the game Kei Igawa had. He may be the IL MVP, but fans have come to expect him to have one bad inning per game.)

Luckily for the basketball fans in the stands, Rick Sweet settled the game by putting Ben Jukich in. He looked surprisingly normal. I didn’t recognize him until they announced his name. No soulless gaze to freeze my blood and suck out my life force. It was the mere mortal Jukich on the mound tonight, and he was terrible. Gave up four runs, and didn’t even make it out of the inning.

The old guys next to me had heard of Homer Bailey, and were wondering if they would get to see him. (Not on the mound, since he pitched yesterday. But he was standing right in front of them while they talking, leaning on the dugout rail and blowing green bubblegum bubbles. They didn’t recognize him.)

Bailey seemed to be in good spirits. Actually, I’ve never seen him that way before. In previous Bats games I’ve attended, he made himself scarce. If he wasn’t pitching, you didn’t see him. And when he was pitching, he wasn’t very sociable.

Tonight, he spent most of the night at the dugout rail, talking and joking with his teammates.

I’m buying the “Homer has turned over a new leaf” story.

Just steady him, point him in the direction of the pitcher, and let him go.

They like Laynce Nix’s ayrm.

Prince Fielder is apparently still a vegetarian.

Meanwhile, the Fay has this report:

On Votto and why no bunt in the eighth

He thinks Votto may be headed to the DL. :-(

I just noticed the girl in the middle of the photo up top. HOLY CRAP. Now, that, is an o face.

Scrappy, hard-working type players without natural gifts are fine, but by lacking the solid grasp on fundamentals that players of his type must live by, he does nothing well. He’s failed to get a bunt down in the turning point of the game before, and today he mindlessly hustled his way up the line right to Counsell.

If only Keppiner was still here. I hope Phillips is ready to take the field tomorrow, so Hairston can move over to the hot corner and Rosales can begin his journey out of the lineup and back to AAA.

is aggravated by flying, since he always seems worst the first day in a new city.

I’m sure the Rosie Reds, or whatever that traveling female fan club is, would absolutely love to have his company in their caravan. Hell, I’ll pick him up in Milwaukee and take him to St Louis myself if it means another win or four. Also, does anyone know if payment by ‘road head’ exists in Canada?

I’m a big boy! Or an idiot who finally figured out something really simple. I’ll let you be the judge.