Man, the new and improved bullpen is dropping like flies.  Gary “I must be so good a team will give up position players for me” Majewski and Kent Mercker are already on the DL.  Now Eddie Guardado, the Reds closer, is on the shelf.  Sounds like his left elbow is acting up.  The bullpen has been our weakness most of this season and this doesn’t help things.

There’s good news though.  The Reds are winning.  They lost the series opener to the Pirates on Friday but bounced back yesterday with a beat down.  David Ross homered and drove in five runs and Brandon Phillips homered and drove in three runs.  Edwin Encarnacion continued his awesome second half with two doubles, three RBIs and two runs.  Eric Milton was shelled, but when your offense gives you 14 runs, it doesn’t much matter.  Ryan Franklin picked up the win in this one.

Aaron Harang bounced back from losing to the Cardinals earlier this week with a very strong outing today.  He struck out nine and gave up only one run in seven innings.  He’s now 13-8.  Adam Dunn hit homerun number and Encarnacio singled and boosted his batting average to a nice even .300 for the season.  Heading into the game, he’s hitting .369/.436/.738 since the All Star break.  Talk about huge.  He now has 27 RBIs in 27 games since the break.

The Cardinals also won two of three this weekend so we’re back to two and a half games back.  In the Wild Card race, the Reds have a little more breathing room.  They picked up a game and now lead the Diamondbacks and Padres by two games.  Next up is three against Houston, who are clinging to their Wild Card chances.  Be nice to bury them.

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