After last night’s win, the magic number dropped to 8 – the total number of Reds wins and Cardinals losses that the Reds need to clinch the division. Technically, it’s probably the combined number needed to finish ahead of the Cardinals, but at this point, it’s looking like that is the question.  Here’s how Magic Number 8 stacks up, historically.

• The 2010 team got down to magic number 8 on September 19, a week after this year’s team. Does that mean a potentially less exciting clinch-day, as it probably won’t come in the last week of play? Maybe, but does anyone care? No!
• The 1995 team hit 8 on September 11, 1995 – though they had had fewer games to get there, since it was a shorter season.
• In 1990, the Reds fell through magic number 8 pretty late – on September 22, as the team won both games of a doubleheader against the Padres, though the second place Dodgers also won.
• The otherworldly 1975 World Series champs passed the number 8 on September 2 – almost two weeks ago.

Let’s hoping that the bats start to heat up in the second half of September, here are the season/last seven day splits for the hitters.

Hanigan and Phillips look good, Valdez has been comparatively not as bad, and Chris Heisey has been holding up his “not as bad at hitting at Stubbs” end of the bargain, though he’s still not blowing me away. Votto isn’t being Joey Votto, but I’m not worried, he’s just somewhere on the road between injured Joey Votto and full-strength Joey Votto.

On the other side of the team, a couple rough outings have dimmed the Cy Young stars of both our ace and our star closer. While Chapman’s been bad enough to get shut down for awhile with arm fatigue, Cueto’s been just bad(  enough to lose that Cy-shine, and to distract the national media in favor of other candidates. Now that Cueto’s has slipped behind Dickey in wins and ERA, I suspect he’ll have a hard time beating the knuckle-baller (and maybe Gonzalez, as well), park effects be damned.