Now is the time...

Let me make something perfectly clear: The Reds are making mistakes that good teams do not make. They aren't doing the little things that good teams do. Right now, the Reds look like they belong in fourth or fifth place in the NL Central.

Fortunately for the Reds, a great April is keeping them in second place, now 3 1/2 games - soon to be 4 - games behind the Cardinals. May, well, not so hot - the Reds are now 8-11 in May. I can't yet begin to believe that the club is starting to fade because the starting pitching is absolutely there, for the most part! Harang today: 8 IP, 1 ER, 9 K, 1 BB. That's a great start. Too bad we couldn't hit worth a ****.

Defense is absolutely killing this club, as is a lack of timely hitting. I think it's safe to say that the loss today was an unfortunate combination of both of these things. The Reds were the beneficiaries of five walks and a HBP today, and scored zero runs. The Tigers were awarded one BB, and of course, that runner came round to score, with the help of Aaron Harang's throwing error.

The Tigers look like a very good team, and no offense to them when I say this, but they did not take two of three from the Reds. The Reds give them two of three on a silver platter. It was like Christmas, birthdays, and whatever other gift-giving holidays are out there all rolled into one.

Ha! "No offense." That's the operative term here today.

Looking ahead, I have been informed by some random human that the Brewers are coming to town and that they are going to beat the Reds senseless. Hey, best of luck with that, although I am hoping for quite the opposite. After that the Diamondbacks come to GABP, and I'm looking forward to some revenge. Then it's a road trip through some NL Central cities, including Houston, Chicago, and St. Louis. Needless to say, an important stretch of games is on the horizon.

FSN Ohio has so far aired four Reds telecasts that were not part of the original schedule. Each of these extra telecasts has resulted in a Reds loss. ...just throwing that out there for you all to ponder.

Ok, so, we've lost a few that we probably should, and easily could have won. Do we return to Cincinnati and let that affect our play against Milwaukee, or do we go forward and begin fresh? We're almost two months into the season, and still hanging around, even with this bad string, playing much better overall than most people expected. Now is the time to move past all of the shoddy defensive miscues, the horrific starts, and the blown saves, and show everyone that this team isn't going to sink quietly away.

Yeah, it's been a lousy month so far, but...

"Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? **** no!"
(Thank you, John Belushi.)

So there you go. Go Reds!