Reds slay the Dragon that is Roy Oswalt

By TheNaturalMevs on April 30, 2010

[Box Score]

[Hal McCoy] [Richard Justice] [The Reds Report] [John Fay]

Roy Oswalt is now 23-2 lifetime against the Reds

The Reds hadn’t beaten Roy Oswalt since 2006 when Brandon Claussen was the opposing pitcher. Last night in the first few innings they looked like they were trying to slay a dragon. Guys weren’t getting good hacks and we stranded six runners through three innings. But the Reds did what confident, veteran, successful ball clubs do. They waited Oswalt out and battled until he had to come out of the game. They built a 3-0 lead on the strength of a Joey Votto home run; which by the way, was the display of perfect hitting on an outside fastball after getting pounded inside all night. Votto hit one into the top of the Crawford boxes for home run #4 on the season.

Owners of a winning streak

At the beginning of the week we tweeted that you were going to see the Reds play some good baseball. Not only is the new lineup better, but the Reds were due to face a string of right handed starters that favored them in matchups. Guys with good fastballs and not a lot of breaking stuff. There was a method to our madness in predicting some Reds success. Since Dusty Baker held the closed door meeting and that horrible 5-0 loss last Saturday, the Reds have won four straight. It’s just enough to get everyone excited and bring us back to .500 and 2nd place in the division. Last time we had a mini-run and headed to St. Louis for a clash for the division, things didn’t go well (last year). We’ll see how the Reds fare this weekend, we’ll learn a lot about them.

Jay Bruce

Bruce hit his 4th home run of the season against Tim Byrdak in the 7th inning. He also added a double to the gap off Oswalt. He needs to keep it going, but as Dusty Baker said about him, if he can make a move before he has 150 and 200 at-bats on the year, you set yourself up for a nice season. It might appear that Jay is making his move. He’s now had multi-hit games in 3 of his last 4. Just keep it going, Jay. He’s really a huge factor in this lineup when he’s swinging like he has been.

Bunny Arroyo

Bunny got his first win of the season last night, and he pitched well. He worked quickly and despite getting into a little trouble in the bottom of the 7th, he gave the Reds exactly what they needed; a guy who could take the ball and match Roy Oswalt pitch for pitch long enough to give us a chance. A huge start by Arroyo. Makes you realize when this guy is on, we have a formidable rotation.

Heading to St. Louis

The Reds have three games in St. Louis with the division leaders starting today with Brad Penny opposing Johnny Cueto. I was thinking on my drive into work; how nice is it in theory to send a guy out to the mound every night that gives us a chance to win? In past years we’d have 2 or maybe 3 guys you felt like that at most. Right now, we’ve got guys who should keep us in the ballgame each and every night and we could win if the offense does their job. The Reds face three right-handers this weekend in Penny, Kyle Lohse and Chris Carpenter on Sunday. You have to hope for 2 out of 3. And until it’s over, you have to hope to keep this win streak going as long as possible. It seems like it’s been so long since the Reds have had a week in which they didn’t lose a game. Win tonight, and you have a winning month of April.