Let’s recap tonight’s titanic struggle….
FINAL
St. Louis 2
Cincinnati 4
W: H. Bailey (8-6)
L: J. Westbrook (7-8)
S: A. Chapman (13)
BOX SCORE
POSITIVES
–Six straight wins!
–Homer Bailey with an excellent outing tonight, allowing one earned run in eight innings pitched. In the eighth, Bailey allowed the first two runners to reach before escaping from the jam in exciting fashion. Good stuff, especially since Bailey was essentially making an emergency start, after Johnny Cueto’s blister kept him from pitching.
–Aroldis Chapman finished up the win by striking out the side in the ninth inning. The ballpark was nothing short of electric at that point. Fun.
–Scott Rolen had the big hit, a two-run single in the eighth inning that gave the Reds their winning margin. Nice to see Rolen come through in a clutch situation, after all his recent struggles.
–Chris Heisey went 3-4 and scored a run. Joey Votto had a double, a single, a walk, two runs scored and an RBI. He’s good.
NEGATIVES
–None.
NOT-SO-RANDOM THOUGHTS
–Good grief, that was fun. A sellout crowd, ESPN national broadcast, and the Reds get an exciting win to secure a sweep of the hated St. Louis Cardinals. Doesn’t get much better than that.
–The Reds are now 12 games over .500, a season-high. Even better, Pittsburgh lost, so the Reds are alone in first place again. Good times.
–Homer Bailey’s ERA is now 3.93. He keeps getting better, friends and neighbors.
–I should probably have put this under “positives,” but the Cardinals are now 4.5 games out of first.
–This:
NOW I’m excited about this #Reds team. Best moment since the division clincher in 2010.
— Chris Garber (@cgarber8) July 16, 2012
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Reds are alone in first place. All is right with the world.
— Chad Dotson (@dotsonc) July 16, 2012
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–The next 17 games (and 24 of the next 27) are against sub-.500 teams. If the Reds are going to pull away from the pack, the time is now.
Source: FanGraphs