Reds 5, BoSox 0

So what happens when I leave? The Reds get hits and score runs. Oh well.

The bottom of the 7th was cool, with some kid named Craig Hansen pitching for Boston. David Ross getting the first hit of the day. Freel & Conine get beaned. Walks to Phillips and Godwin and then Javy Valentin hits a 2-RBI double. That was about it for that.

Majew took the mound for the first time, took the 7th inning, and took the win due to Hansen sucking at the other end. Majew looked alright, walking 1. Burton gave up a walk and a hit in the 8th, but then K'ed 2. Coutlangus closed it out with a hit and a K.

Reds send 4 to the minors

1. Mark Bellhorn, First Base/Second Base (sorry to see a good veteran go, but wouldn't want to watch him play for this team).
2. Ryan Jorgenson, Catcher (duh)
3. Anderson Machado, Shortstop (maybe someday)
4. Dewayne Wise, Outfielder (I'm sure we will see him again)

Next cut -- Jeff Conine?

Reds 0, BoSox 0 (after 6)

The first time in '07 where I get to see my beloved Reds! And my first (and maybe only) attempt at live-blogging!

FIRST INNING

BoSox: First pitch strike. Julio Lugo advances on an error by GASP! Gonzalez. Well, that was a sucky start. I mean, c'mon, Gonzo?? He doesn't make errors. Pop-up by Cocoa Puffs to Brandon Phillips in foul territory. Livingston throws 3 straight strikes at Varitek, and he looked at 'em all. J.D. Drew grounds right to Phillips. Very impressive beginning for Livingston. Can we just get rid of Milton, and have Livingston AND Belisle? Please?

Reds: Watch out, Freel. Apparently Matsuzaka is a god among men. The ESPN guys don't know much about the Reds, thinking how odd it was that Adam Dunn was batting in the #2 slot. Pay attention, fellas. Freel on base with a walk. Not many strikes from the boy wonder thus far. Adam Dunn flies out. No doubt he was thinking homer, but maybe he should have waited on a pitch? Ah well. Phillips falls behind and eventually flies out to shallow center. Freel did advance on a passed ball. Griffey flies out to shallow right.

END 1: 0-0

SECOND INNING

BoSox: EdE gets his name on TV by catching Hinske's pop fly in foul territory. Nice catch. EdE back in action again with a very difficult catch on Pedroia's grounder. Phillips scoops up Cora's grounder and Livingston gets out of there very cleanly. Good luck to you, kid.

Reds: I knew coming into this game that the focus would be on the Japanese pitcher, and more so on the BoSox than the Reds, but it's still annoying. When they finally did a feature on the Reds, I though to myself, "Oh yeah, the Reds are playing too." Anyway. First strikeout of the day for Zaka as EdE was chasing all over the place. Hatteberg was very patient at the plate and took a walk. He's no threat to steal a base like Freel is, though. Gonzo goes down looking, bent over in agony. It looked bad the first time, but it was definitely a strike. The kid can throw. P.S. Why is Gonzo hitting ahead of Ross? I thought Gonzo was our worst hitter. Hmm.....harmless dribbler to the pitcher and Ross is out. Wait! Varitek for interference?? He dropped his glove so Ross is safe. Livingston is up. He's hanging in there well enough, but it seems inevitable. Livingston actually gets a good poke at it, but Ross is thrown out at second, 3 minutes before his arrival.

END 2: 0-0

THIRD INNING

BoSox: ESPN is talking to Harang right now. Very weird voice for such a big guy, but maybe that's just me. Soft-spoken kinda hick guy. But he looks cool with the shades. Scales hits a grounder through the middle and then Livingston walks Zaka of all people. Two on, no out. We'll see what the youngster can do now. Just in time, Livingston gets a double play from Gonzo & Phillips. So nice to see live. Ahh..........so pretty. And Livingston strikes out Crisp for the final out! Very nice battle to get out of that inning. I like this guy.

Reds: Still waiting for the first hit of the game. Freel grounds out. Full count to Adam Dunn and he takes first base. Brandon Phillips has one of the longest and hardest check swings I've ever seen. Must be those huge biceps. He also knows how to fly out, as he skies it to right. Griffey with another wimpy pop fly. Still waiting for the first hit of the game.

END 3: 0-0

FOURTH INNING

BoSox: There's a ton of 0-0 scores in the league right now. What's up with today? Monday, March 26, 2007: no runs in baseball day. Livingston K's Varitek again, always nice to see. Phillips barehands a Drew grounder. Phillips is a sweet defender. I think he gets overshadowed by Castro and now for sure gets overshadowed by Gonzo, but he is dang good himself. Livingston, who by the way looks like a juvenile delinquent who just violated probation, hits Hinske in the arm. No harm, no foul. Ken Griffey gets in the defensive action as Pedroia flies out, the furthest any Red Sock has hit one today. Livingston is a king.

Reds: EdE goes down again. Tough battle. Zaka looks pretty decent to me. He missed three straight identical pitches to Hatteberg, but got him to fly out to left-center at the end of it all. Gonzo takes a walk. So the Reds can't get any hits, but they are walking with good strength. Good eyes, the bunch. Must have some carrots sitting around the clubhouse. Zaka gets Ross swinging and that's that. A hit? My kingdom for a hit?

END 4: 0-0

FIFTH INNING

BoSox: Phillips with yet another great defensive play, throwing against his body to get Cora out at first base. Now it's Gonzo's turn as he throws out Scales on a nice catch, but not a great throw. Hatteberg might have gotten away with one there. Zaka looks at 5 pitches and gets K'ed by the great force that is Bobby Livingston. Great pitching battle going on today.

Reds: Hamilton is now in the game as Livingston is done for the day and I get my first look at the super talent. He harmlessly grounds out to first base. Freel takes three pitches inside to his face and strikes out anyway. Sheesh. Dunn walks again. Maybe somebody can make contact. Phillips is a victim of the strikeout as the Reds keep staring at 0's. Alright, maybe Zaka is good after all.

END 5: 0-0

SIXTH INNING

BoSox: Who knows what will happen now that the big dogs are out? Mike Stanton is in now, somebody I'm not too high on. But let's hope he can be decent. It just bothers me that quality young arms are excluded because of proven vets. But that's why they are proven. Stanton plays the Lugo bunt perfectly. ESPN made a good point, Zaka faced the Reds opening day lineup and destroyed it. Livingston sat down a mixed BoSox team. But don't hate on Bobby, he did a good job. EdE throws out Cocoa Puffs on a rolling grounder. Gonzo throws out Varitek to end the inning. Nice to see Stanton relying on ground ball outs.

Reds: Time to get the bats going with Zaka out of the picture. Ken Griffey Jr.'s song is one by Lenny Kravitz and he is singing, "I want to get away." Funny irony? Maybe. Papelbon is in so we may not see any runs. Maybe a hit, though. Maybe. Griffey's swing is better than I thought it would be. And it was really nice on that last pitch, he just happened to strike out is all. A lot of that today. EdE gets a nice hit, the furthest for the Reds today, but it wasn't enough as Scales puts it in the basket. If I have to see Zaka hobble around like a chicken on the warning track for much longer, I might vomit. Hatteberg hits a chopper/grounder/dribbler over to first base and Papelbon gets there just in time.

END 6: 0-0

I have to go to class now, so I'll miss the end of the game. Too bad I couldn't see any offense today, would have been nice to see the Reds get some runs, or at least some hits. At least Livingston was fun to watch. Will be back later with a recap.

Blue Jays 3, Reds 2

NOTABLE THINGS

Pitching: Matt Belisle, in competition for the fifth spot, started and went 4 innings, giving up 4 hits, 1 walk, and 3 K's for 2 earned runs. Weathers pitched a shaky, but clean 5th. Saarloos pitched the remaining innings and took the hard-luck loss on an unearned run. He gave up 3 hits and K'ed 4. Belisle and Saarloos both looked really good, and I'm not so sure Saarloos is in the competition for the fifth spot anymore, though he probably is. Some people are saying he is making the club no matter what, so really it's Belisle vs. Livingston. Which is a good battle, but you gotta figure Belisle has the upper hand. Though V.Santos is in the mix as well. Livingston throws against the BoSox this afternoon.

Hitting: Dewayne Wise led off and was 1/4. Hamilton was 1/5, but it was a nice triple. He had 2 strikeouts, though. A lot of guys had 2 strikeouts: Dunn (0/3), Votto (0/2), and Cody Straight (0/2). Many others had 1 strikeout. The problem was Toma Ohko, known as a Reds killer, at least to me. He and Zambrano (and probably Maddux) are who I think of as Reds killers, so it's nice to see him playing with Toronto now. But man, he can still shred this team up.

Fielding & such: Error was on Bellhorn. How many more for this guy? Sheesh. The little things, people.

Mavericks 104, Hawks 97

That should have been a little easier.

The Mavs exploded early in the game, leading 39-19 after one quarter of play. But a steamroll it did not turn out to be. They got outscored by 6 in the second and third quarters, and by 1 in the fourth quarter to end up winning by 7. Not bad, but they didn't play very well the rest of the game. Except with about 4 minutes left when Nowitzki and Terry hit some big 3's as the Hawks kept edging closer and closer. But even then the game was still in doubt because the Mavs were fouling Atlanta like crazy at the end of the game, it seemed almost every possession was a trip to the foul line. Which is cheap and easy points, and also a clock killer. Pachulia was the benefactor more often than not, hitting 10/13 from the line, most of them late in the game. This is not a team that you want hanging around and the game should never be in doubt. But at the end of the game, there was a victory.

The Big 3 played like it, with Dirk & Josh leading the way with 28 points, and Terry not far behind with 27. But like I said earlier, it was Dirk & Terry's big 3's at the end of the game that helped ice it. Very big shots. I picked this game to be the one where Nowitzki goes off and gets his first triple-double of his career, but it was not to be. Oh well. Terry turned the ball over many times, but he once again took smart shots and looked very efficient out there. He and Devin Harris had 6 assists, but Harris disappeared with 6 points. He did steal the ball 4 times, though. Dampier had 7 rebounds. Devean George was back in the lineup, but didn't contribute anything meaningful. Stackhouse made use of his time, getting 8 points, 8 assists, and 6 rebounds. Diop had 9 rebounds and 2 blocks.

Mavs hit 7/13 on their 3's and Atlanta only took 3 shots from that far. Very low total indeed. Free throws were nowhere close, however. The Mavs took 30 and the Hawks took 49. This time was more accurate, though. Avery Johnson even applauded the officials. Rebounds were about even and the Mavs had many more assists.

They just beat a better team and have started another mini-streak. Good thing, too.