Baseball Humbles Reds and Aroldis Chapman in Cleveland

Just when a team thinks they have the game mastered, baseball has a way of making them humble.

The Reds came to Cleveland on a roll with a six-game winning streak.  They left on a slide with a three-game losing streak.

The Indians outslugged the Reds in the first game, 10-9.  The Reds statistically better; bullpen was out pitched by Cleveland's lesser pen in a 3-2, 10-inning loss on Tuesday.  Justin Masterson  mastered the Reds in an 8-1 Reds' loss on Wednesday.

After the Reds crossed the plate nine times in the series opener, the Tribe's Josh Tomlin and Masterson allowed the Reds to find home plate just three times in 19 innings.  The Reds needed a GPS and a guide dog to find the plate at Progressive Field.

The Reds will retain the NL Central lead when they face the Minnesota Twins on Friday by two games over Pittsburgh.  The Pirates defeated the Reds' next opponent, the Minnesota Twins.

The Reds ace reliever Aroldis Chapman has come back to reality.  Chapman kept the opposition away from home plate until June 7.  Since, he is 0-3 with a 10.13 ERA, allowed six runs in 5 1/3 innings.  He has allowed a .304 batting average to opposing hitters.  Chapman still struck out seven but as Jack McKeon once said, "He struck out the wrong guys.  He should have struck out the ones that scored."

Let this be a lesson to all my friends who were all over Francisco Cordero when he had a few rough outings in a row.  This is the major leagues.  Everyone has their ups and downs with the possible exception of Joey Votto it seems.

Votto, who has been dubbed "Vottomatic" by teammates, has hit a whopping 30 doubles.  The major league record is 67 set by Earl Webb in 1934.  The Reds' record is 51 by Frank Robinson in 1962 and Pete Rose in 1978.

Votto is flirting with a .370 batting average.  He sits at .367 now.  The Reds' record is .377 set by Cy Seymour in 1905. The next highest batting average for a season is .351 by Mike Donlin, "Turkey Mike", in 1903 and Ed Roush in 1923. There have been just 12 Reds' batters that hit .340 or higher in a season. The last player to hit for an average above .340 was Pete Rose in 1969 (.348).

Professionally edited by ML Schirmer
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