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Jose Molina? Really? The Tito Jackson of Molina brothers was on base 3 times last night, as the Reds were blanked by the flannel-wearing, log-rolling, moose-loving, maple-syrupy, "eh"-saying Northerners who invaded Great AMERICAN Ball Park and had the audacity to beat the Reds twice in a row. Our resident Canadian badass, Joey Votto, is still oh-(fer)-Canada (so good I had to use it again, 'nukkah), and despite a 2-4 night from the slumping Jay Bruce, 2 scoreless innings from Jose Arredondo, and an 8:2 K/BB ratio from Edinson Volquez, the Reds scored no runs, committed 2 errors, and lost 4-0.

 

After sweeping the Dodgers in LA, I was (foolishly) hoping the Reds had turned a corner and were about to run off a string of victories similar to last year's. 2 losses in a row isn't a terrible thing in itself, but the Reds need to win serieseses against inferior teams (league disparity notwithstanding) considering the strength of opponents they're in the midst of facing. Even if the Yankees aren't playing their best baseball, you don't want to face them coming off a sweep of a team that'll probably struggle to stay at .500 all year.

The pitchers couldn't be more different today, as former Brewer Carlos Villanueva takes on our very own Bronson Arroyo. If you hadn't noticed, I've been casually avoiding discussing a certain outing that Mr. Arroyo had last season against these very same Bluebirds, and I'm going to keep it that way in the hopes that it won't happen again.