Blaze of Glory

Fresh off a walk-off 11-inning victory last night, the Reds came to play in their business day special contest against the San Diego Padres. They won for the second day in a row and are now 11-8 in July and could easily be 13-6 if not for Coco Cordero’s meltdowns in the past week.

But now in dealing with the title of the post. We’ve often mentioned to friends that one of two things are going to happen in dealing with the Godfather of Diamond Hoggers:

1) He’s going to get dealt at the training deadline to a contender like the Angels or Diamond Backs.

2) He’s going to have a career year even with the downs that he’s had this season, going out guns blazin’. Dunn finally reaches the 50 home run mark in a season that he wasn’t even an All-Star and drives in over 110 runs.

Dunn is on fire right now. He hit his 9th home run of the month of July, a grand slam that sealed the game for the Reds. He drove in 5 runs. He’s now got 29 long balls and 68 ribeye steaks on the season. Right on pace for another Dunn-like season.

Dunn was not the only story. Javier Valentin added a home run and 3 hits on the day, Bronson Arroyo won his 5th straight decision and struck out seven, and Jay Bruce extended his hitting streak to 12 games.

The next time the Reds play (friday) we’ll be in the Diamond Seats for the first time since this blog was born.

[Box Score]