Boxscore

Mike Leake turned in his best outing of 2012 for the Cincinnati Reds last night, and it’s a good thing, too. With a record of 0-5 and an ERA of 6.21 heading into the game, Leake was decidedly the Reds’ worst starter. Leake responded by going 8 innings, allowing 1 run on 2 hits, a walk, and 6 strikeouts. And he lowered his ERA to a much more respectable 5.32.

In addition to picking up his first win, Leake also picked up his first career home run. With 2 outs in the bottom of the 4th inning, Leake came to the plate against his rival, Mike Minor, and launched a solo shot to left-center field to break a 1-1 tie. The next batter, Zack Cozart, hit a solo shot to the exact same spot in left-center. It was so much the same spot that it was caught by the same fan as Leake’s. The fan was even brought up into the broadcast booth to be tortured by Thom Brennaman’s voice. After that, Drew Stubbs hit his second shot of the game to make it a back-to-back-to-back inning and give the Reds a 4-1 lead they would not relinquish.

After Leake pitched the 8th, Jose Arredondo was brought out to close out the game. He started off well, getting the first two outs on a fly out and a strikeout. But then he lost the strike zone, and walked the next two batters. Manager Dusty Baker has shown he has a short string with his relievers lately, and last night was no exception.

Baker brought in Sean Marshall, who closed out the game and picked up his 8th save. Not bad for a guy who just lost the closer’s job.

Today, Mat Latos will try again to make it past the 5th inning when he starts against Brandon Beachy. The first pitch is 7:10pm EDT.

Lance Berkman : the Cardinals :: Scott Rolen : the Reds

Both made a bigger name for themselves with a different NLC team, both are on the wrong side of 35, and both are now on the DL with mystery injuries to joints that have been giving them problems for a long time.

Berkman went on the DL yesterday after doing nothing in particular that looked like it would even smart, let alone take him out of the game. While playing first, he received a routine throw from the short stop and suddenly found himself hopping around on his left leg. Check out the video on the Cardinals’ site.

The prognosis is not yet clear; he’s supposed to have an MRI today. He’s already had two surgeries on each knee, though, so he should be able to redeem his punch card for a free one this time around.

Atlanta Brave and generally awesome third baseman Chipper Jones has announced that this will be his final season before retirement. The Cincinnati Reds are recognizing this graceful departure, as well as the general awesomeness mentioned above, with a set of commemorative bases that will be used during the series with the Braves, starting tonight.

From the story on Cincinnati.com:

There is also a special ceremony scheduled for May 24th, before Thursday’s game. Reds GM Walt Jocketty and Scott Rolen will participate in the ceremony as well.

You might point out that Chipper Jones doesn’t have a whole heckuva lot to do with the Cincinnati Reds besides hitting 21 home runs off their pitching in his career, but I don’t see why you wouldn’t tip your hat to greatness when you have a chance. It’s easy, it gives me something to write about, and it’s just good karma.

Boxscore

The Reds strolled to a game- and series-victory yesterday, beating the Yankees 5-2.

Johnny Cueto took the mound, and if you can’t win behind him, you can’t win behind anyone. Cueto put in 7 innings of work, allowing 2 runs (earned) on 8 hits and 2 walks. He gave up 1 home run, but struck out 5.

Sean Marshall came in to be the lefty specialist, which is way insulting for his level of skill. I know he hasn’t been awesome his last couple times out in the closer role, but .1 innings? That’s a non-Dusty-like level of humiliation. To Marshall’s credit, he struck that one guy out.

Logan Ondrusek took over for the other .2 in the eighth and put up a line of all zeroes in preparation to hand the ball over to Aroldis Chapman, the apparent new closer.

Now we all love Aroldis Chapman, but his qualifications don’t exactly match up with his new role. Yeah, he strikes guys out, but he needs rest between outings. Now he’s going to get inconsistent work and only come in when the team has a lead? That’s our manager: always doing the wrong thing. It worked out OK this time, though, as Chapman put in a hitless ninth to close out the game.

On the offensive side, Ryan Ludwick took to his role as DH nicely and knocked in 3 of the Reds’ 5 runs with two solo shots and a double. Ryan Hanigan and Brandon Phillips brought in the other 2 runs.

Bullets of randomness:

• Hanigan is awesome.
• Joey Votto’s average is all the way down to .301.
• For some reason, Wilson Valdez played yesterday.

Tonight the Reds return home to host the Atlanta Braves. Mike Leake (6.21) takes on what must be one of the few starters to have a higher ERA than him at this point in the season, Mike Minor (7.09). With two highly capable offenses behind them, this ought to be a slugfest. First pitch at 7:10 p.m. ET. First home run at 7:25 p.m. ET.