Bleed Cubbie Blue

Get a load of the face on tonight's Reds starter. How old is he, 12?

Today's Starting Pitchers

J. Williams Cubs vs.  R. Keisler Reds 5-8 W-L 2-0 4.52 ERA 6.69 57 SO 28 38 BB 15 12 HR 6

Here's how bad the Reds pitching staff is: Keisler was just named to the starting rotation, replacing Luke Hudson. By doing so, the Reds gained about a half run in ERA. And I'm talking about a guy whose ERA is nearly seven in Keisler. Even worse, Keisler's 6.69 ERA this year has made his career ERA go down from 7.62 coming into 2005, to 7.28.

I decided to look up the two wins, because you might wonder how a guy gets to 2-0 with an ERA that high. One was against the Nationals, throwing two scoreless relief innings in a fourteen-inning game. The other was a six-plus inning relief appearance at Tampa after Reds starter Ramon Ortiz got pounded. Keisler also hit a home run in that game. Take that game off his season stats and his ERA jumps to 7.75.

In his last appearance against the Cubs, he came in to pitch the ninth inning of a game the Reds were winning 9-0. They wound up winning 9-4, and Keisler had to be taken out.

Williams is the pitching version of an alternate-side-of-the-street parking regulation. You never know which Williams you're going to get. Let's hope it's the "good Wednesday version". Williams was the starting pitcher in the aforementioned 9-4 game last month. He allowed seven earned runs in five-plus innings, but that's a little misleading, as two of those runs scored after he was out of the game when Ken Griffey Jr. homered with two men on off Glendon Rusch.

Neither Rusch nor Griffey will participate tonight. It's much cooler in Chicago today than it was yesterday and the wind ought to be blowing in.

Discuss amongst yourselves.