Let’s review tonight’s titanic struggle…
Final
St. Louis – 8
Cincinnati – 4
WP: Garcia (10-5)
LP: Cueto (11-3)
BOX SCORE
POSITIVES
-I am not feeling as positive tonight as I was last night.  My mood is rather glum.  Drew Stubbs had a key base-hit that drove in 2 runs that gave the Reds life in the 6th.  That life was short lived however.  I can’t think of too many more positives unless you want to count Chris Carpenter getting shoved into the backstop a positive.ÂÂ
NEGATIVES
-The Reds committed 3 errors tonight and they were costly.  In all honesty, it should have been 4 errors but Gomes’ missed fly-ball in the first inning was changed to a double. ÂÂ
-Johnny Cueto wasn’t sharp and appeared to fatigue often throughout the game.  Perhaps his role in the scuffle hurt his performance on the mound as he eventually allowed 5 runs on 7 hits in 5.1 innings pitched.
-Logan Ondrusek’s scoreless innings streak came to an end tonight when he allowed 3-runs in the 7th inning.  All 3 of those runs came on one play.  With the bases loaded and 1-out, Matt Holliday hit a chopper through the SS-3b hole that plated 3 runs after Gomes air-mailed the catcher, Ondrusek then tossed it down to Phillips, then Hernandez dropped the ball on a potential out at home of Pujols.  That one sequence of events really took all the air out of the ballpark.
NOT-SO-RANDOM THOUGHTSÂÂ
-In case you didn’t see it or haven’t heard by now, the bottom of the 1st inning was rather heated.  Here is what I saw:  Brandon Phillips went up to bat and was going to tap the catcher and umpire on the shin guards like a lot of lead-off batters do to start the game.  Molina was having none of that (obviously in response to Phillips’ remarks) and proceeded to kick Brandon’s bat.  This led to a face to face altercation between BP and Molina which eventually led to both dugouts emptying.  The pile eventually shoved its way into the backstop netting where Cueto and Carpenter almost ended up in the lap of the diamond seat fans.  I love the fired up mentality of the Reds and I believe sometimes that a good scuffle can help a team.  But at the end of the day, your play on the field does the talking and in two games, the Cardinals are doing all the talking.
-As down as I am, and I’m sure a lot of Reds fans out there are more down than I am, the bottom line is we are still in a 1st place tie with the Cardinals.  A win tomorrow by the Reds puts us right back on top of the standings.ÂÂ
-I would much rather be watching meaningful August games right now than what we have had to experience over the last 9 years!