I am Pumped!

It's tough not to be excited these days...

My Cincinnati Reds won against the Houston Astros last night, engaging in more late-inning heroics. After falling behind 3-0, the Reds rallied late, tying the game on a three-run homer by Rich Aurilia, before going ahead on Royce Clayton's RBI single.

Reds TV play-by-play announcer George Grand pointed out after the game that it was the twelfth game this year in which the Reds line-up went down on strikes ten times or more and still won the game, tied for tops in the NL in that category. The point is that the Reds have an explosive offense that can put a lot of runs on the board in a hurry, as they did against Pittsburgh on Saturday night...twice.

Now that general manager Wayne Krivsky and owner Bob Castellini have acquired pitching that, most days, can keep the Reds in ballgames, the team is starting to give its offense the support it has so long needed.

The win is the third in a row for the Reds, a team that's staying in the hunt for a post-season playoff berth by winning each individual series they play.

Meanwhile, the Boston Red Sox, aren't doing so well. While my baseball universe has always been pretty much the Reds and everybody else, among American League teams, I've long had a soft spot for the Red Sox.

But the team from Boston has taken a nosedive lately. The New York Yankees completed a five-game sweep of the Red Sox in Boston yesterday afternoon. As the ESPN networks pointed out last night, the loss climaxes a month-long skid that has seen Boston fall from first place in the AL East Division, three-and-a-half games ahead of the Yankees, to second place, six-and-a-half games behind New York. A ten game descent in one month's time!

If Boston can't win their division, it's unlikely that they could go to the playoffs as a Wild Card team. The Wild Card slot goes to the team with the team unable to win its division, but has the best win-loss record. Right now, several AL teams have a better shot at that berth than Boston.

While it's way too early to count the Red Sox out of post-season play, things look considerably grimmer today than they did five days ago, when they begam their series with New York.