Aaron Harang, welcome back

[missionhockey21]

Aaron Harang is quickly proving that his last 10 starts or so from 2008 were no joke, he has returned true to form in 2009.

Through four starts, he has had only one poor outing, a 5 ER outing versus Houston where reliever Jared Burton allowed both of his runners to score to give him 5 ER on the day. Today's start versus the Cubs was HUGE. Not only was the win necessary to continue Cincy's winning series streak but it was also an outing where run support seemed to be coming in slow as it often does for Aaron, until the later innings that is. He put in 7 innings, giving up seven hits and not allowing one earned run; and against this Cubs lineup and squaring off against their ace, that is quite a feat.

One very positive stat through the first 27 IP for Harang is that he has only given up 1 HR. Last year his HR/IP shot up to a pretty scary place (he gave up 35 in only 184 IP.) He already has a complete game shutout under his belt and seems to be pitching with the kind of poise we need from our number one if we hope to stay in this race.

BTW, did it kill anyone else that the game wasn't on TV today? To leave Chicago with two wins from the three games was something I really had hoped to see.

[Doppelgänger]

He seems to be coming back on a mission, which is what we are going to need if this team will compete this year. This was the best road trip I can remember at 7-3, and I believe is the first time the reds have been 3 games over 500 in a few years I believe. As for the game not being on tv, I was sure it would be on WGN but they let me down. I'm going to the game tonight though against the Braves and it should be pretty intense. The weather will be perfect too, so that is a plus.

[missionhockey21]

First game of the year for you man? Share some impressions of the new scoreboard and other new features the ballpark has if you can. I heard that scoreboard is amazing in person.

The one area that does concern me is how much our top bullpen guys have been used as Weathers and Rhodes are no spring chickens. I heard Masset was really throwing heat and I think we all know that Jared Burton can do better so hopefully they and others can relieve some pressure from the backend guys. I have to think though that beating the Cubs like that has to be a really good push for morale that the Reds usually do not get early on.