The Reds are the big story of the last three weeks in the NL Central.
Ken Griffey (0.235 / 0.358 / 0.574) and Sean Casey (0.422 / 0.471 / 0.656) are pacing the offense. Adam Dunn (0.197 / 0.329 / 0.348) has struggled but continues to draw walks. It's just a matter of time before he guts a stretch of bad pitching.
Ryan Freel (0.254 / 0.390 / 0.333) has been an unexpected asset. D'Angelo Jimenez (0.292 / 0.378 / 0.369) has been getting on base. Austin Kearns hasn't done much but walk and hit singles (0.286 / 0.390 / 0.371) as he struggles with various injuries.
Catchers Larue (0.167 / 0.362 / 0.222) and Valentin (0.161 / 0.212 / 0.290) can't take much credit for the thirteen wins. Barry Larkin, Tim Hummel, Juan Castro, and Jacob Cruz better keep quiet when the big boys are talking. Wily Mo Pena has been padding his stats with select at-bats.
The starters of these past three weeks (Acevedo, Lidle, Harang, Wilson and Van Poppel) walked an amazingly low 22 batters in about 115 innings. (The Pirates walked 43 in their 96 innings.) Only Acevedo mowed them down, but the low walk rates have surely helped all five of these guys to be effective. Paul Wilson (0.190 / 0.220 / 0.278) and Todd Van Poppel (0.239 / 0.247 / 0.423) were unhittable (though Van Poppel was hit pretty hard when he was hit at all). Acevedo and Lidle were above average, and Harang was average to below average but still managed a 2-1 record.
Graves, Jones, and Riedling were dominant in the bullpen. Ryan Wagner was average but the Reds used the winning streak to sneak him down to AAA without catching a lot of flak for wasting their draft pick on a college closer and then thinking he'd step right into a set-up or closing role this season. He'll be back, and he'll be contribute, but perhaps not until August. Mop-up guys Mike Matthews, Brian Reith, and spot-starter Joe Valentine were the only clowns in the bullpen.
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