After last night’s 7-0 rout of the Marlins one thing has become obvious– the Reds love the letter V. Fortunately, the same can’t be said about the Fish Sticks as Florida’s starter Chris Volstad was knocked around in his six innings of work and tagged with the loss. He actually pitched well, only allowing three earned runs while on the mound, but his V was no match for the Reds’ V’s.

Volquez and Votto continue to dominate opponents both on the mound and at the plate.

Volquez extended his scoreless inning streak to 16 1/3 after tossing back-to-back eight inning shutouts. Since his loss to the Braves back on April 24th, Volquez has given up just four hits while striking out 13 and has dropped his ERA from 6.20 to a much sexier 3.47. His five walks in this two-game span are a refreshing change considering he was averaging five walks in his first four starts. But the V doesn’t stop there.

Joey Votto continues to prove that Canadians can do more than just play hockey. After a remarkable April, which saw Votto post a .346 batting average, he is only getting better. In May, Votto is batting .529 and has raised his team-leading average to .378 (players with at least 20 ABs). Let’s face it folks, this kid’s bat is hotter than Kristen Dalton, aka Miss USA 2009 (personally I think Miss Kentucky should have taken the crown, but that’s a whole different article).

The bottom line is that the combination of Volquez and Votto are going to be very exciting to watch this season. Dusty’s next challenge will be to find a way to squeeze the letter V into Cueto, Bruce, Phillips and Harang– but I’m pretty confident he will think of something.