"FORGET THIS GAME."

The only Cincinnati Red who will want to remember Tuesday's 12-0 loss to the Dodgers is rookie Jordan Smith. During the ninth inning of the Reds' debacle, Smith made his major league debut. He pitched one scoreless inning. Enerio Del Rosario was sent down to Louisville to make room for Jordan Smith on the Reds' roster. Del Rosario allowed seven of his last nine inherited runners to score.

Before joining the Reds on Tuesday, Jordan Smith was pitching at Double-A Carolina. In 27 appearances there, Smith went 1-3 posting a 5.08 ERA. The Reds' sixth round pick in 2006 was a starter in the Reds' organization with 74 straight minor league starts (30-22) prior to this season. During spring training this year, Smith was assigned to the reliever role, and began closing games for Carolina. The young right-hander seemed to be accommodating his new gig of late. During his last six appearances for the Mudcats, Smith allowed only one run and posted a 1.13 ERA in eight innings.

“I had to adjust my pitches, certain pitches at certain times,” Smith said. “I was a bit bullheaded, trying to be too aggressive with my fastball at certain points. But a couple of weeks ago it started to click and I got into a nice rhythm.”

Hopefully, Smith's rhythm will transcend into the big leagues. His nasty sinker could be deadly with a Gold Glove defense behind him.

“I’m just going to keep doing what I was doing down there," Smith said. "Attacking the zone and using my sinker to let ‘em beat it into the ground.”

According to John Fay, the promotion of Jordan Smith may be the first of several moves involving the Reds' pitching staff. Travis Wood and Matt Maloney's have been speculated to become bullpen help and have statistics superior to Smith's, but both Louisville left-handers have only four combined relief appearances in the minors. A healthy Homer Bailey, or Sam LeCure, could also be converted to assist the Reds' feeble bullpen.

“You hate to have anyone do anything for the first time in the big leagues,” Dusty Baker said. “A couple of guys have done it in the minor leagues. That’s help to get some basis for fact if this guy can do it. We still in the fact-finding mode. You wish you have everything perfectly in order but it’s not.”

Middle relief has been the downfall of the Cincinnati Reds this season. Besides Arthur Rhodes (0.32) and *Enerio Del Rosario (2.08), no reliever for the Reds has an ERA under 3.00 this year. Take closer Francisco Cordero (3.77) who has four blown saves out of the equation, and the remaining relievers are all above 4.00 this season. The Reds' relief corps currently ranks 13th in the National League with a 4.96 ERA.

*Carlos Fisher: 9.82 ERA
Logan Ondrusek: 8.10 ERA
*Mike Lincoln: 7.32 ERA
Nick Masset: 7.07 ERA
Micah Owings: 5.27 ERA
Danny Herrera: 4.26 ERA
*Not on the Reds' active roster

The Reds have lost four of their last seven games and have let the St. Louis Cardinals slide back into a tie for first place in the NL Central. At this point, any bullpen assistance is welcomed. Jordan Smith, we wish you the best and are sorry that your major league debut occurred during the game we don't speak of. Dusty Baker does:

"We just have to forget this game. We need a good pitched game tomorrow, definitely. We used Micah for a lot of pitches from the bullpen tonight and used Daniel for a lot of pitches. Hopefully we can jump on Kershaw tomorrow."

Mike "Godzilla" Leake (5-0, 2.68) will face Clayton Kershaw (6-3, 3.13) and the Dodgers at 7:10pm on Wednesday.

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