Posted: 24 July 2012 at 13:34 | IP Logged

The week started in the worst possible way, as news broke that Joey Votto has a torn cheap soccer jerseys   meniscus in his left knee that will sideline him at least three weeks. All the Reds did from there was go 5-2 for the week, reaching a season-high 15 games over .500 and retaining their NL Central lead despite a big challenge from the surging Pirates. With the league'scheap soccer jerseys   second-most productive hitter on the shelf, it's been the pitching that's carried the load. Johnny Cueto's been the star of the rotation, striking out nine and allowing just one run over seven innings Sunday to lower his ERA to 2.23 and give him 10 starts in a row with three runs or fewer allowed. cheap jerseys for sale    Since going through a brief rough patch in June, Aroldis Chapman has reclaimed his status as the world's most unhittable closer, striking out 25 batters and allowing just five base runners over his past 11 appearances, covering 10¨÷ innings. The he used tocheap jerseys free shipping   strike out Jason Kubel for the second-to-last out of Thursday's game was evil incarnate: first-pitch 98-mph fastball over everyone's head, 97-mph fastball up in the zone that had Kubel extremely late, knee-buckling 87-mph slider for called strike two, and a 98-mph fastball near Kubel's eyes that cheap jerseys online    triggered a helpless swing-and-a-miss for strike three. But we've come to expect greatness at this point from Chapman, and, with a fourth straight season of falling ERAs, from Cueto too. Homer Bailey has been the biggest and most pleasant surprise. In his four June starts spanning 30¨ّ innings, Bailey has struck out 27 batters, cheap jerseys wholesalewalked just three, tossed eight innings three out of four times, and posted a 1.76 ERA.