Boxscore

The Reds avoided a series sweep at the hands of the Cardinals this afternoon by eking out a last minute win, 3-4.

Johnny Cueto took the mound for the Reds and added to his reputation of awesomeness. He allowed three runs (earned) on seven hits in seven innings. He also struck out three. Jose Arredondo, Bill Bray, and Logan Ondrusek took their scoreless turns, but it was Aroldis Chapman who really brought it all home, with his five strike-outs in two innings. Firey!

Joey Votto, Jay Bruce, Chris Heisey, and Wilson Valdez had an RBI apiece. Votto, in fact, went 4-for-5 with two runs scored.

Tomorrow the Reds play a rare second day game in a row as they visit the Washington Nationals. Mat Latos takes on Gio Gonzalez at 1:05 p.m. You can catch it on Fox Sports Ohio and MLB Network.

I’m a little late starting the live blog today–I got out of work late, then traffic was bad, and that just threw off everything for the rest of the night. Plus, Zeldink was busy writing up that bit about Brandon Phillips new contract. But I’m here now, and wearing entirely different clothes than yesterday. And so far, it’s working: only one home run allowed in the first inning this time!

Damn those Cardinals

1. Jay, CF
2. Beltran, RF
3. Holiday, LF
4. Berkman, 1B
5. Freese, 3B
6. Molina, C
7. Descalso, 2B
8. Greene, SS
9. Lohse, P

And Your Cin…Cinnati Reds

1. Harris, 2B
2. Cozart, SS
3. Votto, 1B
4. Rolen, 3B
5. Bruce,RF
6. Heisey, LF
7. Stubbs, CF
8. Mesoraco, C
9. Leake, P

The Cincinnati Reds today officially announced what they’d been working on for most of the off-season: a contract extension for Brandon Phillips.

Phillips, who was in the final year of his contract, renegotiated that into a new, 6-year contract worth $72.5 million.

“We originally had a certain number of years in mind that we were going to do the deal,” Jocketty said. “Then we realized that we’d probably have to extend another year, and that’s what we did. We went another year on the contract. We were able to get the deal done rather quick after that.”

The new deal adds salaries of $10 million for next year, $11 million in 2014, $12 million in 2015, $13 million in 2016 and $14 million in 2017.

Phillips is now signed with the team through 2017. Joey Votto is signed through 2023. Jay Bruce is signed through 2016. And Johnny Cueto, Aroldis Chapman, and Sean Marshall all have multi-year deals. The team has decided on a core group of players to build some winning teams around, but that’s not the most important thing. How does this compare to Yadier Molina’s off-season contract?

The good news is that Phillips and Molina are both signed with their respective teams through 2017. Moline added 5 years to his current contract and will be getting $75 million during that time. His annual average is $15 million. During those same 5 years, Phillips annual average is $12 million. Clearly, Yadi has a more lucrative contract, but there’s no doubt that Phillips’ will take up a higher percentage of his team’s payroll than Yadi.

I’m hoping we get more fireworks between the two.

For the last couple years, the Cincinnati Reds have turned Opening Night into quite an event, one that I think is more enjoyable than Opening Day.

The first event after the gates open a couple hours before the first pitch has all Reds on the 25-man roster walk down a red carpet and pose for pictures and sign a few autographs for many of the fans gathered at the fences beside the carpet.

In previous years, the red carpet walk was not optimized, with the players wandering around a wide open space, and fans dangerously pushing against each other to try to get close to an autograph opportunity. We criticized this in a podcast last year, and we were very happy to see the criticisms were addressed this year. The red carpet was extended, and there was plenty of space for fans to gather along the walk route. I never once felt like me or my son might be trampled to death. Plus, it gave me the opportunity for some nice up-close pictures of all the players.

As usual, the Reds put on a great event, and the players were all friendly and accommodating. I definitely got a thrill when Joey Votto was standing next to me signing my son’s Reds Heads’ jersey. The game didn’t turn out so well, but overall, the night was awesome.

Just the second series of the season and we’re already hosting the St. Louis Cardinals. It’s always a fun series to comment on, even if it’s not always a fun one to watch.

The way live blogging goes around here is that I’ll add comments to this post throughout the game. Occasionally others pipe in, and you’re welcome to as well, but I won’t let the lack of someone responding stop me from talking. I don’t let it stop me when walking down the street, and I don’t see why I should let it stop me now.

What will it be like to see the Cardinals sans LaRussa, Pujols, and Carpenter? Or is Carpenter still around, complaining about everything that crosses his path from the far end of the bench? I am confident that he’s complaining about something, somewhere. I can just feel it.

Here’s your line-ups:
Those Darn Cards

1. Furcal, SS
2. Beltran, RF
3. Holliday, LF
4. Berkman, 1B
5. Freese, 3B
6. Molina, C
7. Jay, CF
8. Descalso, 2B
9. Westbrook, P

Pitcher hitting ninth? What would LaRussa say??

and now, your Cincinnati Reds

1. Phillips, 2B
2. Cozart, SS
3. Votto, 1B
4. Rolen, 3B
5. Bruce, RF
6. Heisey, LF
7. Stubbs, CF
8. Hanigan, C
9. Bailey, P