Starting Five: Reds' Eyes on First Place

Starting Five is our wrapup of the previous day's baseball action, with a quick nod to what is ahead.

You Oughta Know ...
That the Reds can see the top of the NL Central. And they can smell it.

Cincinnati trails St. Louis by 1 1/2 games and Milwaukee by a 1/2 game, and on Friday the Reds begin a trip to .... Milwaukee (three games) and St. Louis (four).

"We go on the road with some momentum," [Jay Bruce] said. "We plan on coming back in first place."

More Coverage: Scoreboard | Standings | Statistics

Bold proclamation from a 22-year-old who just recently was in a 0-for-15 slide. But on Wednesday, Bruce homered twice (Nos. 13 and 14), tripled and drove in four runs as the Reds finished off a three-game sweep of the Astros.

There's more good news. Edinson Volquez, on the DL because of back spasms, is expected to return Monday. And second baseman Brandon Phillips, who had 27 RBI in 19 games before suffering a hairline fracture on the tip of his right thumb last Saturday, could play Friday.

Cincinnati is 13-8 on the road this season, and if the Reds can keep up that success, they can indeed move into first place this late in the season for the first time since 2006.

From the Trainer's Room ...
Pirates closer Matt Capps, who took a liner off his right (pitching) elbow on Monday, could be available Friday.

"Amazing, isn't it?" the Pirates' closer said yesterday, in full uniform at Wrigley Field before the 5-2 loss to the Chicago Cubs. "If you'd told me Monday I could pitch by the coming weekend, I'd have said you were nuts."

Numbers Game ...
The only person happier than the New York tabloid editors to see Alex Rodriguez back with the Yankees is Mark Teixeira. In 19 games with A-Rod hitting cleanup behind him, Teixeira is 28-for-75 (.373) with 10 homers and 24 RBI, and the Yankees are 14-5 (vaulting into a tie for first in the AL East). Take that, stat mavens who say there's no such thing as "protection."

In Their Own Words ...
"They seem to be going our way." – Gary Sheffield of the Mets, who have been involved in five replay reviews this season (four in the past five games) and have come out on top each time, including a Daniel Murphy drive Wednesday that the Nationals still don't think grazed the overhanging façade in right field

Advance Scouting ...
What else can happen to Tampa Bay in Cleveland, where it has lost its past 16 games at Progressive Field and wraps up a four-game series there today (12:05 PM, ET)? In Monday's game, the Rays blew a 10-0 lead and lost 11-10 on seven runs in the bottom of the ninth. Then Wednesday, Cleveland came back from allowing five runs in the top of the first, scoring five in the second and three in the third and cruising to a 12-7 victory. Jeff Niemann starts for the Rays, and he'll try not to follow in the footsteps of David Price, Matt Garza and Andy Sonnanstine, who in the first three games of the series combined for a 10.22 ERA in just 12 1/3 innings.