Mike Leake for All-Star! Reds 2, Pirates 0.

The Joe Nuxhall Memorial Honorary Star of the Game

Mike Leake was dominant tonight, and he gets the clear nod as the JNMHSotG winner. Leake tossed 6 shutout innings, scattering 7 hits and a walk while striking out 5 Pirates in a so-so efficient 94 pitch outing. As Yosstissarian070022 has told us repeatedly, if Mike Leake is your 5th starter, you're in phenomenal shape; to expound, though, I'll say that if your 5th starter is pitching like most teams' 3rd starter, you're in playoff shape. Such is life for the Cincinnati Reds pitching staff these days. Props to Walt for seeing this ahead of time and keeping Leake in the majors.

Honorable Mentions are due to Brandon Phillips, who was 2 for 3 with an RBPI before leaving with an arm contustion after being HBPBP; and, well, the rest of the Reds for scrambling a few hits together and tossing up zeroes. Yay Sam LeCure! Yay Cornelius!

Key Plays

• The scoring tonight was at a premium, and in the Top of the 4th the Reds were able to benefit from both savvy baserunning and questionable umpiring. Zack Cozart reached on an infield single and moved to 2B on a Joey Votto swinging bunt. Brandon Phillips then hit a soft grounder/liner to the right side of the infield with 2 outs, and hauled heiney enough to make the play at 1B close enough for 1B umpire Bob Davidson to, well, blow it. As Francisco Liriano reacted to his unfavorable decision, Cozart hauled mumbo jumbo around 3B and scored to give the Reds the lead. Was Phillips out at 1B? Yeah, Phillips was probably out at 1B. Baseball Gods dictate, however, that you win some, and you lose some, so look forward to getting screwed on a big call in the upcoming Cardinals series. Reds led, 1-0.
• The Reds small-balled their way to an insurance run in the Top of the 8th. Shin-Soo Choo led off with a single, Cozart sacrificed him to 2nd, and the Pirates derp-faced and decided to pitch to Joey Votto. Oops. Votto singled up the middle, and Choo came around to score. Jonathan "Wipe the Sweat from Our" Broxton meandered through the Bottom of the 8th, and Aroldis Chapman shut things down in the 9th for the save. Reds win, 2-0!

Don't Look Now...It's a FanGraph!

<iframe src="http://www.fangraphs.com/graphframe.aspx?config=0&static=0&type=livewins&num=0&h=450&w=450&date=2013-06-01&team=Pirates&dh=0" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" height="450" width = "450" style="border:1px solid black;"></iframe><br /><span style="font-size:9pt;">Source: <a href="http://www.fangraphs.com/livewins.aspx?date=2013-06-01&team=Pirates&dh=0&season=2013">FanGraphs</a></span>

Other Notes

• Saturday jams? Saturday jams!
• In honor of the Pirates offense so far this series.
• Tonight's win puts the Reds back on the smiling side of the road standings, as they now sit at 15-14 overall away from GABP. Golly gee, they're getting so old and grown up these days.
  
• Saturday! Woo!
• More? Of course, because there's no such thing as too much good tunage on a Saturday Night.
• It's Saturday. We jam on Saturdays.
• Apparently the Reds wore some pretty rad throwback jerseys tonight. I'd tell you all about them, but unfortunately, MLB.TV would rather cash my check and ask me to kiss their ass than actually let me watch the baseball I've paid to see. Smooches, Bud Selig, and no, I sure as hell didn't watch Boston vs. New York just because that's the game you wanted to shove down all of our throats. Stop being thieves and show us the baseball we've paid for, you vermin.