Reds go for the sweep

Didn't I just write this post? Anyway, my wife is out of town, so I've had nothing better to do than sit at home and watch the Reds, even though I went to bed after the 8th last night. Granted, the D'Backs are in a free-fall, but the Reds haven't had a great history of beating teams they're supposed to beat, and certainly not while traveling to the west coast. But they beat up on Garland Monday night and eked out a win against Haren last night, this time on Owings' pitching, not his bat.

The sweep chances look good, with the Reds' de facto ace thus far, Johnny Cueto (but I'd still take Harang in a must-win single game -- let's hope we have some of those in the not to distant future), going against Bryan Augenstein, making his major league debut. I don't have the energy to research him, so we'll just see what happens tonight. The problem? Guys are all the time pitching a gem in their debut. Let's hope the Reds pounce on him early (like he's Luke Hochevar) and don't mess around.

Injury update: Votto left the game last night in what I was sure was some kind of pulled leg muscle injury, but it was reported as dizziness. Let's hope he's okay and that he's just still recovering from the flu. By the way, how stupid was it to move Hernandez to first and bring in Hanigan to catch when Votto went down? Owings' pitching was the story of the night. Why change catchers mid-stream? I would have moved Rosie to first, Hairston to third, and brought in Janice to play short. (By the way, the move did not leave the Reds without a back-up catcher as the announcers stated. Hernandez didn't leave the game, he just changed positions. If he or Hanigan got hurt, the other would catch. A collision between the two of them and injuring both, while a possibility, is too remote to plan for. Having said that, I still thought it was the wrong move.)

The Reds have acutally been fairly lucky on the injury front, especially in the pitching staff. Eddy went down and A-Gon has been hurt (BP and Votto missed a couple of games with illness) but the pitching has stayed out of the training room and on the field. Let's hope that continues.