Road trip - Saturday's game

There I was at The Jake seeing the Reds in their familiar gray uniforms. Over the last several years, I've seen them play on the road more than I have at home, so it looked pretty natural to me. It was upsetting to see Corey Patterson instead of Norris Hopper in the lineup, but at least Toothpick isn't batting him lead off anymore. Now that we have Hairston back, is there any reason Patterson should still be on this team? We don't need six people who can play outfield. It'll be hard enough to get Hairston in there with Edwin back, though in my opinion, it should be Dunn-Hairston-Bruce in the outfield since Griffey isn't hitting. But protocol dictates you don't bench a future Hall of Famer who is going to be starting the All-Star game, even if he is hitting .230 something.

I'm looking for a nice ten game win streak. Cueto started it all with a well-pitched game. He got into trouble a couple of times but wiggled out of it - seems to me that he's getting used to the big leagues. He had that one period of time where he struggled, but most of his last seven or eight starts were pretty good for a young pitcher. Better than Harang, right? I see Harang having a good second half. He has to, right? Right?

The Jake reminds me a lot of Camden Yards. Maybe it's the green seats and the trees in centerfield. Maybe it's just the American League park. Maybe it was the Oriole mascot tromping around the park on Sunday. (It was Slider's birthday, and some of his friends helped to celebrate.)

It's always nice to see a full stadium. These games weren't quite sellouts, but they were close. There were a lot of Reds fans there, too, so it didn't feel exactly like an away game.

It's nice to have a lot of offense, especially since the pen wasn't exactly stellar. Dunner's homer was a line drive - the only question was would it be high enough to clear the fence. When the Reds took a 4-0 lead, there was a noticeable difference in crowd noise.

Us Reds fans were happy though.


What a beautiful night it was.
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I tell you what - Cordero is having a heck of a year. I hope it isn't wasted. Remember, he signed a four year contract - we were supposed to compete this year. We can expect him to decline a little by the end of the contract, but we can hope he doesn't. Even though it wasn't a save situation, I was glad to see him in there. I caught this picture from my seat below the restaurant.

Victory!