Reds 10, Cardinals 3

Almost as good as the Reds winning and the Cubs losing is the Reds winning and the Cardinals losing. Did anybody see the same team that played at home? What are they, the ultimate road team?

NOTABLE THINGS

Pitching: The ace back on the mound. Harang pitched very well and got way too much run support, therefore he leads the club with 3 wins. He almost got out of the 8th inning, but had 119 pitches and a man on second base. Stanton allowed that run to score, so Harang was charged with 2 earned runs when it could have been just the solitary 1. As it stood, with those 2 ER's, Harang allowed 5 hits, 1 walk, and 5 K's. Well done. Stanton allowed that run and got a groundout on Edmonds' ball. Todd Coffey came in to do the 9th and was pretty sloppy, allowing 3 singles to lead things off. Bases loaded, nobody out. Only ends up with 1 run out of the deal due to a double play ball and another grounder, so thankfully that was all the damage.

Hitting: Nice to see some bats woken up out there. Interesting how the bats come alive when the pitching is pretty dominant as well. I wish they could figure out when to save the runs for the times they actually need them. Anyway. Did anybody catch Gonzo last night? The man was on fire, starting the scoring off in the 2nd inning with a 2-run homer. Then he did the same in the 5th inning, this time a 3-run blast. He also had a double and a single, going 4/5 with 4 runs scored and 5 RBI's. An awesome display out there. Hamilton & Phillips both got 6 at-bats at the top of the order, and both had 2 singles. None of those scored a run, nor did they score themselves. Adam Dunn seems to have fallen on hard times as of late, going 0/3, but did take 2 more walks. Welcome Back Ken Griffey Jr. He had a 2-run home run for his first of the year, passing Reggie Jackson and taking sole possession of #10 in the all-time homer list. Pretty impressive stuff. EdE was 1/4, but got hit with a ball and scored both times he was on base. Hatteberg was 3/5. Even David Ross got in on the action, going 2/5 with a late RBI. More from this guy would be good. Jeff Conine had a pinch-hit RBI, the guy is a beast, I must admit. Even Harang got in on the action, hacking a flyout just far enough that it counted as a sacrifice fly.

Fielding & such: Phillips got picked off first base, which is worse than getting caught stealing in my opinion, but was also a part of a double play with Gonzo. Rolen got caught stealing on Harang & Ross.