Two straight wins and I start to forget why this team and I were ever mad at each other. And that's probably the right inclination, because two (2) games above .500 in early June is miles away from the Panic Button. So are two bad early starts for Bronson Arroyo - who, as we know, does his best work in the second half of the season.
With just 9 more innings of being his battery mate, Ryan Hanigan will tie David Ross for the most innings catching Bronson Arroyo in history. If this tells us anything, besides the fact that David Ross will be glued to his TV for Arroyo's next two starts, it's that catcher ERA regresses to the mean. Arroyo has ERA with Hanigan that exactly matches his ERA during his time with Cincinnati (4.06), while just points away with Ross (4.08). It's worthless statistic. But we're having fun here.
If you want to have even more fun than you're already having, bend your mind around the fact that Ryan Dempster has been in Chicago for 8 seasons and outperformed Arroyo on an ERA basis (though he's allowed runners at a higher rate and four of those seasons were spent as a reliever). He was re-converted to a starter at age 31, a full 5 years after posting a 6.39 ERA and 1.684 WHIP in 37 appearances with the Reds. Even if you still have a bitter taste left over from the mid-2000s, that kind of an impressive comeback story.