9 Lives

I'm not sure how many games the Reds won last year when trailing after eight innings, but if it's more than one or two I'd be shocked. Big hit by Ramon Hernandez -- a fairly lucky hit, to be sure -- but the Reds seem to be catching all the breaks early in this 2009 campaign.

Obviously not the best start from Johnny Cueto, but I'm more interested in the two hits he allowed than the six walks he issued over 4-plus innings. That means he had good stuff even if he had zero command. In fact, in Cueto's 31 starts last year he walked three batters or less in 29 of them. So tonight's bit of wildness would seem to be the exception, not the rule.

Another great effort by the bullpen tonight, especially by the two guys who I think are the most significant liabilities among the relievers (Lincoln and Masset). They each retired all four batters they faced, so clearly, they read this blog and were inspired by the bulletin board material with which I just provided them.

By the way, Roy Oswalt has still only lost once to the Reds in his career (23-1). I still think that's one of the most staggering individual statistics in all of sports.

The Reds have now won 5 of their last 7 with Aaron Harang taking the mound Saturday night, fresh off his complete game shutout over the Pirates on Sunday. With Harang, Volquez, and Arroyo lined up to close out the series in Houston (and with Oswalt thankfully out of the picture), the Reds are poised to make some serious noise in the middle part of this road trip before heading to Chicago on Tuesday.