Dunn piss-rope starts Reds' vision quest on right foot

By TheNaturalMevs on May 2, 2007

Adam Dunn had a 3-run homerun in his hometown Houston, scored three runs, doubled, and stole his 6th base of the season in 6 attempts to highlight a Reds offensive attack that scored 11 runs last evening. The reds have now scored 28 runs in 3 ballgames dating back to saturday. Dunn has homered in 3 out of the last 4 ballgames. Bronson Arroyo got his first win of the season despite having a 2.59 ERA, going 7 innings and allowing only 3 hits (it seemed like more!) and 1 earned run.

Arroyo is rock solid. The guy seemingly is a quality-start machine. This team typically never plays well in Houston, so that is a big win to open the series. What we’re seeing out of this team is a string of inconsistency that has them looking very Jekyl and Hyde night by night. They really never do what you expect them to do. They’ll get shut down by a rookie or journeyman one night, the next they beat a hot starter. One night they struggle with a lefty and the media labels them as not being able to hit southpaws, then they come out the next day and slug a guy like Pittsburgh’s Tom Gorzelanny, who was unhittable before.

I have to say, I don’t like this style of play, but it makes for some interesting evenings. The Reds last night began a string of 17 games in 17 days, which is followed up by their only off day of May, which is preceded by another long string of games to end the month without a day off, and another brutal west coast trip which always finds the Reds scuffling. If you were wondering what brought my reference to a classic film like Vision Quest, well now you should know.

Ahh, what a movie. My glory days of high school brought back to life in the midst of this blog. If you were a high school wrestler, or even experienced a time when you trained your ass off for any sport, I suggest you spend a rainy day watching this movie, still. It’s a classic.

Ok, now that I’m done with my little plug of the day–we’re about to find out a lot about this Cincinnati ballclub. Good or bad, at the end of this month this team will either reveal itself as a surprise team (like I predicted), very much alive in the National league, or a complete catastrophe disguised as a big league ballclub, hovering around .500 or below. It’s going to be interesting.