Boxscore

Perhaps “finally” isn’t the most accurate description, but it sure did feel like a long, arduous journey had been completed when Jonny Gomes hit the walk-off home run of Jason Motte to give the Cincinnati Reds their first victory of the young season.

That “finally” sure wasn’t helped by the fact that the Reds hadn’t lead in any game until the 5th inning of this, the 3rd one. And even that was short-lived when Matt Holliday homered to tie it in the 7th.

But Gomes and Bronson Arroyo were the heroes. In addition to pitching 8 innings of 1-run baseball, Arroyo drove in the Reds first run. And he recorded his 1,000th strikeout of his career, getting Albert Pujols, no less.

Brad Penny was the St. Louis Cardinals starter, and it was a pitcher’s duel between him and Arroyo. Penny lasted 7 innings and allowed 1 run.

After the starters left, it looked like it was going to be a battle of the bullpens. This time, unlike the first two games, the Reds prevailed.

Boxscore

Despite the avalanche of bloggers on Opening Night last night–Red Reporter and RHM were well represented–the Cincinnati Reds still lost.

Johnny Cueto started and lost for the Reds. He was quite good, going 6 innings while allowing just 2 runs from the offense that destroyed the Reds the game before. Heck, he even struck out Albert Pujols. He was also allowed to throw 109 pitches on his first start. So when he gets injured later this year, we can feel free to blame Dusty Baker for it. The pitcher’s spot was set to lead off the bottom of the inning, but hasn’t Baker ever heard of a double-switch? Sheesh.

The story of the game for the Reds was again the bullpen. In the top of the 7th, it seemed the Reds relievers were attempting their own variation of the classic joke, “How many people does it take?” In this case, it was, “How many Reds pitchers does it take to get one out?” The answer, as Mr. Owl so famously informed us, was 3.

Daniel Herrera allowed 1 run in his 0 innings, while Logan Ondrusek improved on that performance by allowed 3 in 0 innings. It took Arthur Rhodes to clean the mess up, but it was too late by then, which was a shame because Orlando Cabrera showed he may have something left in his bat by tieing the game with a 2-run homer just the inning before.

The bullpen will get better, but man is it tough seeing them inflate the opponent’s lead so much to make the game impossible to win. Hopefully, we’ll get to see how they handle a lead soon.

Adam Wainwright started for the Cardinals and was very good, stupefying the Reds until the 6th. Ryan Ludwick, Albert Pujols (of course), and Matt Holliday provided the RBIs.