A Memorable Sweep!

It's easy to look back on a season and find the key moments or the turning point, but my hunch is this weekend sweep of St. Louis by the Reds is it.  Cincinnati hadn't swept the Cardinals at Great American Ball Park since September of 2007 and they had to beat their nemesis Chris Carpenter to do it.  Carpenter hadn't lost to the Reds in 10 of his last 11 appearances, suffering his last defeat at the hands of Cincinnati back on June 6, 2006.

The ending only fueled the rivalry between the two clubs and certainly the Reds have to at least be mildly concerned with Aroldis Chapman's inability to throw strikes all of a sudden.  Still the five-run debacle in the ninth would have stung much worse had Francisco Cordero not shut the door.  After a season in which he saved a lot of games but churned a lot of stomachs in the process, Cordero has been very good this year.  His verbal sparring match with the Cardinal dugout showed he still has the fire to compete and that the Reds aren't going to back down from anyone.

Shots and Shout Outs:

Cudos to the four-letter network for focusing solely on the ninth inning of Sunday's Reds/Cardinals game during its nightly baseball show.  Yes, let's only show the mid-market Reds struggling to hold a 9-2 lead and Aroldis Chapman's continued wildness.  Why bother showing any of how Cincinnati gained that seven-run advantage against the Cardinals?  It just came off of their best pitcher en route to a sweep and a stronger foothold on first place!  Simply by its content, that organization continually sends the message:  "If you're not the Yankees, Red Sox or Phillies, you don't matter."  Thank heaven for the MLB Network.

BIG shout out to Skip who lifted our softball team with some game-ending dramatics.  Trailing by a run and down to our last out (thanks to yours truly), he launched a three-run homer to win in thrilling fashion.  With the playoffs looming Skip looks ready to do some post season damage.