Morning Rundown: Nastiest Masty of the Season Leads to Cincy Sweep

And aside from an error and a groundout, the Reds could not touch Masterson. Giving up three hits, striking out nine, asserting his dominance all night. He even struck out the side in the ninth for an extra exclamation mark. He also had the groundball out working as Tomlin did, getting 13. And only three fly ball outs, he definitely was in control. Acta said that they feel as if he's back to the guy he was last year, which is great news for the Indians moving forward that they have their ace back on track.

Perhaps the biggest development is that the Indians FINALLY scored him some runs. As mentioned earlier they finally broke through in the fourth and honestly, it was long overdue.

"We definitely want to score runs for everybody," Chisenhall said. "We want to play well, and we want them to pitch well. I don't know exactly how many runs he gets per game, but we can always do better." 

Try 4.90 runs per game, which is AFTER last night's eight runs... 

The final big hit came in the seventh off the bat of Lonnie Chisenhall, who produced a bases loaded double that cleared the bags. Three big hits, eight big runs. You can't get more precise than that. How about The Chiz Kid? With regular playing time, he's starting to produce. Since the Reds series in Cincy he's had a hit in all but two games he's played in and in this particular series he knocked in six runs.

Can't beat that last note.

Random Details...

You have to mention that in addition to hitting the first home run that just broke the offense through their inability to knock in a run, Johnny Damon was on base four time. He scored two runs, had two hits, had two RBI and two walks. And two's the number as he is now over .200 on the season. Perhaps finally giving up on him was the key. He's hitting nearly .300 over the course of his past 16 games.

Credit where credit is due man. Manny Acta was asked about Damon in the post game presser and he named all the big hits he had over the past week or so. It's true, he has contributed lately with some big hits. You'd just like to see a little more consistency and he has a lot of the early time to make up for.

Not only due to the roll he is on, but his history against Arroyo in the past, no surprises seeing Choo start off strong with those two doubles. He hits over .500 against the slender right hander.

Everyone in the lineup though did have a hit, save for Lou Marson, but he did walk and call one splendid contest for Masterson on the mound. In addition to the runs they knocked in and hits they had, Choo, Damon, and Chisenhall were on base at least three times in the night.

And most importantly, the bullpen got a complete night off and they get another complete day off with today's off day. Nothing better than that.

[RANDOM RUNDOWN]

Man do I feel like a dope. I went through and pointed out each specific awesome defensive play, linking to a video and using the word fantastic to describe just about each one.

And I forgot the best play of the entire night.

People are STILL talking about Jack Hannahan's stellar (and fantastic) play in which he fielded and threw a ball with a bat propelling towards him and eventually clipping him in the shin. Top play all around and now Jack is talking about it, describing it, solving the mysteries. Did he see the bat? Did it hurt? How come he didn't move like 99% of infielders would probably do?

"Usually when there's a broken bat coming at you," Hannahan said, "one or the other will get there before, so you have time to get out of the way and get the ball, or get the ball and get out of the way. That was the first time I've really seen the bat and ball get to me at the same time.I saw them both coming, and I was just anchored in and really focused on the ball."

I told Twitter that Hannahan would have likely let the bat hit him in the face as long as he was able to make the play. Usually a fielder would flinch, the guy didn't bat an eyelash, made the play, and even got hit.

That's why he's a Mannahan.

Great news on the Travis Hafner recovery front. Right now, he's ahead of schedule, at least according to Manny Acta.

"We're anticipating that he's probably going to be ahead of schedule," Acta said. "We don't have any timetable yet for any rehab or games."

"The RBIs end up being a by-product of the guys in front of you getting on base," Kotchman said. "Brantley's been on so much the last month. Fortunately, if you come up with guys on base, you want to make the most out of it."