Johnny Cueto and Jason Marquis do pretty much what you’d expect them to do.

The Good
–I don’t care if he did technically give up four runs. Johnny Cueto was excellent again. That’s just sort of what he does. He’s good at the whole baseball thing.

–Marlon Byrd continues to be on fire like the sun. He hit another homer in the first game, walked three times in the second game, and his OPS currently sits at .743 which is above league average and a whole lot better than it was a few weeks ago. Keep it coming, Marlon.

–Skip Schumaker started at DH in the first game – a move which makes no justifiable sense since he is a terrible hitter. So, of course, he went 3 for 5 with a double and 2 gritty ribeye steaks.

–Joey Votto had a very nice second game of the double header after serving his suspension during the first game. he went 3 for 4 with the only 2 RBIs the Reds had in the second game. He did have a pretty dunderheaded play trying to stretch a single into a double. Base running is the one area where Votto has always been kind of bad.

–Zack Cozart played all of both games and had a hit in each, so he’s seemingly back now. That’s nice.

–Billy Hamilton walked once and had a hit in each game of the double header. Getting on base is good. he also stole two bases.

The Bad
–Jason Marquis, aka: Jason Maquis Should not be in the Rotation, was bad again. He gave up 5 runs in 5.2 innings. He continues to be unconvincing as a major league baseball player.

–Pedro Villareal was positively wretched.

Not-So-Random Thoughts
–I was so excited to see Bryan Price take over as manager, but I honestly do not understand anything he does. His decisions regarding relief pitching are indefensible. A monkey throwing darts would do as well. His continued reliance on Skip Schumaker also makes no sense whatsoever (even if it worked). I know the Reds aren’t deep, but the way he uses the roster, it boggles the mind.

–Even though the Reds scored 10 in the first game, it felt like they should have scored 20. They left a man on third in 12 out of 9 innings. It was almost enough to make me agree with Marty about RISP. Almost.

–Speaking of Marty, my wife was listening to the Radio with me some tonight while Marty and Kelch were talking about Mott the Hoople for all the minutes you have left alive in the world and she asked me when they were going to start talking about baseball again.

–This team continues to be very efficient at base stealing. It’s pretty amazing. They stole 4 bases without being caught today. That’s just kind of what they do, even if the rest of them are nowhere close to runners. It’s fun to see.

–After a very exciting start to the season, this Reds team just feels like a .500 team. Maybe something will turn at some point, but it doesn’t feel like it. 7 or 8 years ago, .500 would have been great. Now? I want more. The part that bothers me the most is that the Reds never try anything. They’ve still got Marquis and Gregg on the roster. Mesoraco is neither on the DL nor is he learning how to be a 4th OF. If you’re a team that seems destined for mediocrity, why not take a flyer? What can it hurt?  I’d just like to see them try.