THE BROO VIEW with Ken Broo

If Edinson Volquez can pitch half as good the rest of this season as he pitched Wednesday night, he'll win 20 games and the Reds may turn out to be contenders. Volquez was more than terrific against the Astros, holding them to just one hit through eight innings. In fact, the first inning double by Houston's Miguel Tejada was almost a spectacular catch by Jay Bruce in right field. Had Bruce come up with that fly ball, Volquez may have pitching the ninth inning, looking for a no hitter. He told me, and a number of other reporters in the club house after the game that he was ready to let Francisco Cordero throw the ninth. But if he had a no hitter through eight, I would bet the ranch Volquez would have felt differently.

The Reds have finished April with an 11-10 record. That was a goal, finish the month with a winning record. And if they do that every month this season, they'll wind up with 88 wins. That, of course, is easier said than done. But if it happens, 88 wins would have Cincinnati in playoff contention.

We saw again this home stand how inconsistent a young team can be. Wednesday night, the youth of Adam Rosales was infectous. He not only drove in two of the Reds runs, he also helped the grounds crew cover the field with the tarp, when a pre game shower passed over Great American Ball Park. We saw the sheer desire and hustle of Lance Nix in this series. When he came up to the majors, Nix was labeled 'can't miss'. But that was beroe injuries derailed his career. Now, Nix has a second chance with the Reds and is back on track. But we also saw in this homestand that ended 2-4 for the Reds, just how far it needs to go to become a championship team. It again left too many runners on base. The team does not play well coming from behind, as evidenced by Bronson Arroyo's bad outing on Sunday. And it still does not have a pure clean up hitter. Maybe those things even out as the season progresses. But my thinking remains that the Reds will regret not signing a legitimate big league hitter for their left field postion. Should July roll around and this team remain in contention, it will be imperative that GM Walt Jocketty pursue that kind of player.

The great fear with this team shouldn't be that it will fall out of contention by mid summer and play to a house full of empty seats (although less than 10,000 showed up to watch them on Tuesday night). The great fear is missing the playoffs by a few games, and looking back on situations where a veteran left fielder might have help win some of those games.

But so far, OK.