Pitching, yes. Hitting, no.

Apathetic.

After two games of brilliant starting pitching - 8IP, 1 ER, 9K, 0BB from Milton last night, 7 IP, 2 ER, 8K, 1BB from Harang tonight - and sad, sorry (lack of) offense - I refuse to post any stats in this category - I am feeling... nothing. I got home from work tonight and caught the last two innings of the game, and wasn't doing my normal talk-to-the-tv thing ("Come on, guys" / "Score some runs" / "Strike him out" etc.), instead I quitely sat there and sort-of chuckled when the Reds refused to do anything offensively, and posted their second straight 0 run performance. Don't get me wrong, I'm not giving up on the season or anything, I'm just sick and tired of the anemic offense. 21 innings without scoring a run --> Wow.

15 runs... 7 runs... 0 runs... 2 runs... 0 runs... 0 runs = WHAT THE ****? Did we face Roy Oswalt, Cy Young, and Nolan Ryan in those three shutouts? I'll give you Brandon Webb, but the others, come on!

Lost in these last two losses, as I previously mentioned, are some great starts. The New Eric Milton took the mound last night and could easily gotten out of trouble in the second, but - you guessed it - the shoddy defense struck again. ****, he wasn't really in trouble... at all. All night. 9 Ks! 0 walks! If he keeps pitching like that, and Arroyo and Harang keep doing what they've been doing, we've got a great top of the rotation here, people. And hey, every third Claussen start should be something to look forward to. ;)
It's amazing that both Milton and Harang were the losing pitchers in these games. What happened to the 6+ runs of support Aaron usually gets?

I say Freel leads off and Hatteberg/Encarnacion/Aurilia/Kearns each get a day off on consecutive days to get Ryan in there for a few games. As soon as I post about Kearns having a monster run at the plate, he goes on a skid where his BA drops .040+ points.

Does anyone else think that this upcoming series with the Cubs is going to be big? I don't want to be the Cubs' springboard out of ****, but I just have this absolutely sickening feeling that it might happen. Or we might sweep them. I'm hoping for the latter.

I have no idea who the guy is pitching for the Diamondbacks tomorrow, but I sure hope we can beat the **** out of his shiny, new 0.00 ERA. Watch the Reds score 8 runs in the first inning... Isn't that just how these things go? All or nothing around here lately.

Oh, look. The Cardinals won again. And "World Killer" Pujols was 0 for 4, which means they're winning without his bat. In related news, the Reds remain in second place in the division because no other teams in the NL Central seem to be winning either.

Is May over yet?

Go Go Arroyo tomorrow. I need a winner, please.