Summer isn’t over yet

[Box Score]

What can you say about Jay Bruce’s line shot into the right field seats at GABP last night other than he found a way to pull the sun back up in the sky and give us a few more days of summer before we officially pack it in and declare it football season.

When Bruce hit the home run they showed some shots of the San Diego dugout. When I saw many of the faces of the players as well as the manager Bud Black, I knew the game was over. The Reds weren’t going to blow this one. The Padres had absorbed a blow that the Reds have absorbed so many times this year. A game had been stolen from them right out of the win column and had it put into the loss column. They were emotionally drained from that Jay Bruce home run.

The Reds won the game 5-3, and Bruce drove in four runs for the second time in a week. Obviously, still 10 games out makes it highly unlikely that this season is going to be anything beyond sitting at home in October. But like we told our fiance last evening, until they’re mathematically eliminated–and until they lose again (they’ve won three games in a row)–we’re going to choose to believe that they’re going to run the table and get back in this thing. Even if that means we’re going to be severely let down.

Go hard these last 40 some odd games and tear the meat off the bone. You will have all off-season to rest up. And granted that it’s going to take a miracle to become relevant again; we think that simply becoming relevant would have made this a successful season at this point. I think the Reds understand that. They’re playing like it of late. It’s almost as if they got punched hard, got knocked down in the fight but they’re up again and staggering their way through the late rounds and landing a few of their own. They’re getting their legs back underneath them.

Diamond Hoggers 80’s song of the game: