The Reds close out their second-to-last home stand this year while sitting in second-to-last place in the Central division.  Aaron Harang has been the least supported Reds starter this season.  The offense has scored more than 4 runs only 4 times when Harang was on the mound.  By comparison, Bronson Arroyo has gotten that much support in 16 of his starts and Edinson Volquez has gotten more than 4 runs of support in 18 starts. 

But Harang is not completely innocent.  He's definitely having his worst season as a Red, but what's dissappointing is that there is a clear delineation on his performance.  Before his relief appearance in San Diego, Harang was just 2-6, but his ERA was 3.50 and his WHIP was 1.22.  In the 10 games following his 4 innings of relief, he went 1-7 with a 9.06 ERA with a 1.90 WHIP.  He's improved a bit over his last 3 starts, but he's still given up 5 HRs in just 19 innings. 

It'd be nice if the Reds could score some runs off of Marshall and make Harang's appearance a footnote, but it sure would be great to see Harang dominate for a few starts to end the season (if he's going to continue to pitch).

Johnny's quest for 10 wins continues.  After missing a start because of pitching for the Reds, he's back and hopefully pitching for a super-cautious manager.  I'd like him to get to 10 wins as much as the next guy, but I'd like him to get to 20 wins next season even more.

I don't know if you've noticed, but the offense has actually been performing very well over the last week.  Granted it was mainly against the Giants and the Pirates, but a .317/.413/.552 batting line over a week of games isn't anything to be ashamed of.  At least it makes the team much more interesting to watch.

This is the second to last time the Reds play the Cubs this season.  Hopefully it's also the second to last time the Reds beat the Cubs this season.

Charles Dharapak/AP

Nice night at the ballpark this evening.  Four Reds players had 2 hits each, including Jay Bruce and Joey Votto who both also homered.  Bronson Arroyo had his 10th quality start in his last 13 games pitched and picked up his 14th win of the season.  The Cubs lost their 6th straight game, though they may still take a game off of their magic number since Eric Gagne blows.  Corey Patterson...uh, forget it.

Tonight's question of the night is, who will hit more home runs the rest of the season Joey Votto or Jay Bruce.  Votto has 2 more on the season as a whole, albeit in 120 more PAs.  I'd probably go with Votto since he has been white hot lately, but Bruce is starting to hit over the last week or so as well, so it could be interesting.

I've been misreporting this for a couple of days, so I wanted to clarify that if either player can reach 20 HRs, it will be the most by a Reds rookie since Bernie Carbo hit 21 in 1970.  If either player tops that 21, it will be second to only Frank Robinson's 38 in 1956.  I think it'd be pretty cool if both guys could top 21 this season, just for shits and giggles.

Don't look now, but Arroyo's ERA is under 5.00 for the first time since his first start of the season.  And now that Corey Patterson's batting over .200 for the season, you'll see that look of regret on the face of Cubs fans when they realize what got away.  Things are really starting to look up for the Reds.  Heck, I bet they even have a big crowd down at the ol' ballpark tonight.

The Cubs are currently mired in a 5-game losing streak, their longest of the season.  For some perspective, the Reds have had 5 losing streaks this season of 5 games or more.  But that doesn't matter now.  The Reds are in the spoiler part of their season.  So, hold on to your hats because these games, you know, mean something to like one of the teams involved.

Al Behrman/AP

The Reds took the lead today on a run scoring single by Joey Votto in the 8th inning.  This was after Votto had tied the game 5-5 in the sixth with his 17th home run of the year.  Votto is batting .387/.441/.591 since July 30th.  He's now batting .294/.360/.472 on the season.  If it weren't for Geovany Soto (.294/.371/.514), I'd say that Votto has a good shot at the NL Rookie of the Year Award, but he's still having an outstanding season.  That's a long way from when it looked like he might be splitting time with Scott Hatteberg back during the spring.

Joey, I'm not angry anymore.

This is your open thread for the night to discuss Mr. Votto or your favorite Canadian bear.  Whichever you choose.

You can also discuss tonight's Louisville-Durham game which starts at 6:05 pm ET.  Homer Bailey takes on Mitch Talbot.  Dayton takes on Lansing at 7:05 pm in the Single-A playoffs.  I can't figure out who is pitching that game.

Or you can talk about whatever else is on your mind.  It's Thursday night, which is Ladies' Night.  Ladies drink for free.

Skyrockets in flight today.  And a helluva pitching matchup to boot.  Plenty of good seats still available, I'm sure.

BTW, the Cubs backed into eliminating the Reds from the division title last night.  They've lost 5 in a row now.  Oh, and the Astros have won 8 games in a row for the second time since the start of August.  They very well could end up finishing in 3rd place in the division.  Trading for Randy Wolf and LaTroy Hawkins are looking like brilliant moves now, huh?

This will be Ohlendorf's first outing for the Pirates.  He previously pitched for the Yankees.  This will also be his first start as a Major Leaguer after pitching almost exclusively as a starter in the minors.  This typically does not bode well for the Reds high powered offense.

Wanna watch me jinx Edinson Volquez?  He hasn't allowed a home run in his last 5 starts.  Those 5 starts have all come since Ken Griffey Jr. was traded, so it appears that he more than anyone benefited from that trade.  Then again in those 5 starts he's struck out just 22 while walking 14 in 30 IP. 

A matchup of two very disappointing pitchers.  The Pirates had hoped that Snell would perform like an ace this season, much like the Reds expected from Harang.  Despite Harang's consecutive good starts, I'd still like to see him shut down for a month, but I'm overly cautious when the season doesn't matter any more.

Then again, the Reds STILL haven't been eliminated from the division.  If they keep winning and the Cubs keep losing for the rest of the season, who knows, right?  Stranger things have never happened.

Rosters expanded yesterday and the Reds have added Jared Burton and Ramon Ramirez so far.  Burton is coming off of the DL for a strained latissimus muscle.  Ramirez was sent down to make room for a 4th catcher over the weekend, but it was clear that was just a temporary move since he was sent to Sarasota where he would not have had a chance to pitch again.  I believe he is due to pitch next on Friday versus the Cubs.

The minor league playoffs start on Wednesday.  Two of the Reds affiliates made their respective post seasons.  The Louisville Bats will send Matt Maloney to mound against the Durham Bulls.  The Bats tied Scranton for the best record in the International League.  Because of the Bats playoff situation, don't expect to see many more callups right away.  After the playoffs end, we'll likely see Rosales, Herrera, and Richar again.  We could also see Bobby Livingston for a start and maybe Matt Belisle in the bullpen, but I'd consider those two to be less likely.

The Dayton Dragons will also be starting their playoff run tomorrow as they take on the Lansing Lugnuts up in Dayton.  Jeremy Horst will go for the Dragons taking on Lansing’s Mark Rzepczynski (for some reason, my spellcheck doesn't like that name).  The Dragons are led on offense by full season all stars Brandon Waring and Zack Cozart. 

Anything else going on in Redsland of interest?  Hey, the Pirates are coming to town tonight.  In other news, I'm planning on repeatedly stapling my fingers tonight.

Over his last 11 starts Arroyo has had a very clear pattern of 2 good starts followed by a mediocre/crappy one.  He is coming off of consecutive starts where he's only given up one run, including the Reds first complete game on the season on Tuesday.  Hopefully his recent trend won't continue as it'd be nice to see the team win 3 in a row, even if it is against the Giants rather than one of the front runners.

As for Arroyo, outside of three terrible starts where he didn't even give his team a chance, he's had a respectable season.  I'm not suggesting that we eliminate those three starts from his evaluation.  Just saying that I'd rather have a pitcher like Arroyo that sucks ginormously in just a few starts and pitches well the rest of the way than someone with the same numbers who is consistently giving up 4 to 6 runs every start.  A pitcher like Arroyo can make for a very good 4th starter in next year's rotation.

Speaking of next year, a loss today or a win by the Cubs means that winning the division will officially have to wait until next year.  I know some of you are still holding out hope.