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Hey look, it's Roy Oswalt again. Yay.
These two pitchers faced off 10 days ago in Houston, though neither pitcher got the decision. Johnny Cueto pitched well for the first 3 innings, but then lost control of his pitches and ended up walking 5 batters and throwing a wild pitch in his final inning and two-thirds. He didn't make it out of the 5th inning after walking Lance Berkman with the bases loaded to score the first run of the game. Ramon Hernandez got Cueto off of the hook in the top of the 9th inning with a 2-run home run that ultimately proved to be the game winner.
Cueto followed up that start with an outstanding start against the Cubs where he pitched 7 innings and didn't walk a batter in the Reds 3-0 win at Wrigley. The 23-year old has shown signs of brilliance so far this year, and if he can keep his pitches under control, he can be down right unbeatable.
Perhaps the biggest news from the game on April 17th was that Oswalt did not get the win against the Reds. As you would expect, the Reds did not hit Oswalt all that hard in that game, but they did manage 8 base runners in 6 innings against the right-hander. As has been the story of the season, they just need to start taking advantage of those base runners. One of these days the Reds are going to break through and have a big game against Oswalt. Why can't tonight be the night?
The offense had a big day yesterday. Jay Bruce and Joey Votto are hitting the ball very well right now and some of the other players are starting to show signs of busting loose. Of course, we're still waiting on Brandon Phillips and Edwin Encarnacion to get moving though. Any day now, right? It has to happen eventually.