I had a blast today at the Vote Votto lunch down at GABP. You know, for all of the criticism that we've heaped on this team over the last several years - the majority of it deserved - I'll say that they are doing a great job of trying to rebuild themselves into a quality organization. Can you imagine the Reds under Lindner doing a free lunch just to get people to use their computers to vote for a player for the All-Star team? Absolutely not. So let's give the Reds a pat on the back for doing some good will gestures like the one today.

But it's all moot if they don't win tonight as I will hate them with the fury of a 1000 angry trolls if they lose. Okay, not really, but damn it sure would be nice to go into Philly having won 7 of the first 10 games in what I thought was going to be a deadly stretch of baseball. Then they can go to Philly looking to split and go into the playoff break as a charming bunch of first-place dirtbags.

The good news is that Bronson Arroyo has been nails in New York versus the Mets since coming to Cincinnati. In his last 4 starts against the Mets in the Big Apple, Arroyo has thrown 33 innings, allowing just 6 runs (1.64 ERA), 23 hits, and 4 walks while striking out 22. Last July, he shut out the Mets in Citi Field on 4 hits and no walks. I'd love to see another start like that one tonight!

Go Reds! Vote Votto! (less than 24 hours left!)