...and these six belong to the Reds!

Keep it rolling, Bronson! We have left the cellar...woo!

Bronson has been kickass in his last two starts (even though the pen blew it for him last time around). If we can get more of Goodroyo tonight, we still have the problem of tomorrow.

Some people are starting to ask whether Affeldt should be thrown into the rotation. NO. We have a good thing going in the pen and don't want to change that. Yesterday's poor showing by Affeldt is an exception - everyone's allowed to have a bad outing once in awhile. But what's the answer? Fogg? NO. Bailey's not exactly tearing it up down in Louisville - something about an attitude problem? Well, we know he's going to be up here at some point this year, but we're gonna have to bide our time until then. Why not try Tom Shearn?

No, I'm not saying Shearn is a longterm solution. I'm not even saying he's a lock to solve the problem temporarily. But he's doing quite well in Louisville with a 6-1 record, 4.14 ERA, 27 K, 14 BB, 51 H, 5 HR in 50 innings pitched. You can say, yeah, but he's 30 years old and probably just outsmarting AAA hitters. Ok, but look what he did last year: 3-0, 4.96 ERA, 1.37 WHIP, though he gave up too many homers and too many walks and got lit up in 3 of his 7 starts, but he had four great starts. You might say well, it was September call up time, but no, he got the A lineups of the playoff bound Chub$, the Asstros, the Sausages, and the Mets (granted, the Mets were playing their way out of the playoffs at that time). These were not small time lineups.

But hey, maybe the winning will rub off on Belisle?

And what about Hairston and Janish? Is that picking up the team and Keppinger or what? Hey, that's what good teams do. They don't let an injury to their hottest hitter destroy their season.

Dunn has homered in four straight games and has had an RBI in six straight. We've been seeing some "unconventional" Dunn - sac flies, groundout RBI, singles to left...is he about to go on a tear? And what about his recent unDunn-like defense? Good stuff!

Voltron is now leading the Majors with a 1.33 ERA after the Reds jumped all over former leader Cliff Lee for 6 runs, 5 of them earned. FIVE against a guy who hadn't given up any in 16 innings straight. I went to the game yesterday thinking it was going to be a two-hour, few hits affair. I'm glad I was wrong!

If we go 4-2 on the West Coast trip, which have traditionally been Reds killers, we'll go to .500 on the season going into another homestand in which we face the Pirates and Braves, both of which swept us earlier in the season. Time for revenge!

Jay Bruce update: Bruce went 2-4 with his 10th homer yesterday. He's now hitting .363/.392/.669 with 8 SB and 1 CS. Corey Patterson is hitting .227/.273/.412 with 4 HR and 7 SB with 3 CS.

Hey, these haven't been cheap wins. These wins have come against two of the hotter teams in baseball. How sweep it is!
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