Boxscore

Edison Volquez struck out eight in his Cincinnati debut and Jeff Keppinger went 3-for-5 with a homer, double, 3 RBIs and three runs scored as the Reds drubbed the Phillies, 8-2, on Sunday.

Volques (1-0) walked two and scattered five hits, all of which stayed in the ballpark. He threw 95 pitches, 58 for strikes. This was not quite as sensational as teammate Johnny Cueto’s major league debut, but plenty good enough to keep the Reds in the game while the offense built a 4-1 lead against Phillies starter Brett Myers (0-1) on Ken Griffey’s two-run homer in the first inning, a solo shot by Keppinger leading off the bottom of the third, and an RBI double by Corey Patterson in the fourth.

Griffey’s blast was his first of the season and the 594th of his career, leaving him six dingers shy of becoming just the sixth player in history to reach the 600-homer plateau. Barry Bonds, Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth, Willie Mays and Sammy Sosa are the five who have already done it. Myers became the 378th different pitcher to serve up a gopher ball to Griffey.

The Reds broke it open in the sixth, laying a four-spot on Phillies reliever Clay Condrey. Keppinger did most of the damage with a two-run double, and Adam Dunn added an RBI single. By then the Reds’ revamped bullpen had taken over and contributed 3-2/3 innings of one-run relief, with Todd Coffey pitching a 1-2-3 ninth to slam the door on any comeback hopes for Philadelphia.

The win left the Reds (4-2) in second place in the NLC, a game behind the Cardinals and Brewers and a game up on the Cubs and Pirates, with the Astros alone in the basement.

The Phillies’ lone run off Volquez came in the fifth inning when Carlos Ruiz led off the inning with a double, took third on a sacrifice by Myers, and scored as Jimmy Rollins grounded out. You’d like to see a little more mileage out of 95 pitches, I guess – but a win and only one run allowed is quite a bit more than we’ve been able to reasonably expect from a Reds #5 starter in recent memory. Thus, as the Phillies probably said in the fourth inning when Keppinger grounded a ball off his foot down the third base line, and the umps missed it, ruling what should have been a foul ball fair and resulting in a free out for the Phillies, “We’ll take it.”

I’ve been enjoying these Bronson Arroyo-Chris Welsh commercials since the Reds’ regular season started. Simply put, they are awesome on so many levels. Plus: they’re real! Unlike Arroyo’s hilarious car commercial.

Tomorrow’s the big day, when the family boards a plane for Houston and a week of the most fun you can have over spring break when the only person in your party who’s actually on “spring break” is 6 years old.

We’ll be attending games on Wednesday and Thursday, so you can be on the lookout for some first-hand photos after those events. Until then, if you’re really luck, we might subject you to some of our non-baseball-related vacation photos, again, of the variety you take when you travel with a 6 year old.

Boxscore

The mismatch I mentioned earlier wasn’t as much of one as I expected.

Despite giving Roy Oswalt (0-1) an early lead, the Cubs (2-3) battled back to defeat the Astros (2-4). However, the game wasn’t the exact opposite of what I expected. Jason Marquis continued to embrace the Marquis de Suck appellation by allowing 4 earned runs in 5 and 1/3 innings. Despite the win and the almost flirtation with .500 for the first time this season, the Cubs still have a huge rotation problem. (Seriously. Was the GM too close to the situation to realize that Dempster and Marquis were not viable options? Or could the team not afford Kyle Lohse without renaming Wrigley Field to Viagra Ball Park?)

Roy O. took the blame for sucking, which was manly and, ultimately, unhelpful. Just pitch better. And maybe strike someone out sometime, like Derrek Lee.

Kevin Hart (1-0) got the win with Kerry Wood (S 2) getting the save. And his arm didn’t even fall off! Way to go, Kerry!

The two play again Sunday at 1:20pm CDT when Brandon Backe (0-1) pitches against Carlos Zambrano (0-0).

Boxscore

Aaron Harang pitched as stellar as we have come to expect of him, but the Reds really had to claw against Adam Eaton until he was lifted in the 8th inning, only managing to rough him up for 3 runs.

The pivotal inning was the 8th when the Phillies took a 1 run lead. Ryan Howard crushed a Kent Mercker pitch way out to centerfield, measuring the 6th longest home run in GABP history. It was only a solo home run and Mercker would escape further damage assisted by a 3-6-3 double play initated by Votto who was substitued in to the game in place of Hatteberg.

The Reds would answer back. With two outs in the 8th Corey (stop dissin’ me yo) Patterson decided that OBP was pointless at this juncture of the contest and opted to simply jolt one over the left center fence for a solo game tying shot instead of looking for a walk.

Cordero, throwing 95-96mph got thru the 9th easily setting up the Reds for the win via back to back walks against set up man Durbin. Curiously Brad Lidge, their closer, was left out of this game despite coming off the DL and being listed as available. Perhaps he gets the call from here on out in the 9th innings.

Baker, trying to keep his entire roster active, decided to use the underappreciated Ryan Freel and Norris Hopper who will play secondary roles to his favored “homeboys” Patterson and Bako in today’s events. Freel pinch ran for Dunn who drew the lead off walk in the inning. Hopper would pinch hit for the pitcher’s spot delivering a magnificent perfectly executed sacrifice bunt down the 3B line. That pretty much guaranteed the win except for the fact that the historically weakest hitter on the team PAUL BAKO was the guy who had to get it done.

Baker couldn’t elect to pinch hit for Bako because no other catchers were available; Valentin having pulled up lame yesterday. He took a couple of pitches and worked the count in his favor. Bako who already had 2 base hits on the day delivered a third, although really it was just a groundball to shortstop. With the infield drawn, however, and Freel’s great speed heading for home, Jimmy Rollins had no play and confused us by throwing it to first base sealing the Phillies fate. Holy Cow! Cubs… er, I mean Reds win! Reds win!