Boxscore

A day after royally blowing a save to the Reds, the Brewers (11-8) gave Eric Gagne the night off and instead turned to Derick Turnbow (0-1) to face the Cardinals (13-7) with a tied game in the top of the ninth.

Turnbow did slightly better than Gagne the day before, only Turnbow doesn’t have the four-days-in-a-row of pitching excuse. Brian Barton lead off the inning with a double and score an out later on Skip Schumaker’s hit.

Ryan Franklin (1-1) picks up the vulture win after having blown the save, and Jason Isringhausen (S 7) got the actual save.

The two face again Tuesday at 1:05pm EDT. Kyle Lohse faces Manny Parra.CA

Boxscore

As the Cincinnati Reds came to bat in the bottom of the tenth inning of Sunday’s game against the Milwaukee Brewers, the situation looked suspiciously similar to Saturday’s game between the same two teams. In that one, the Brewers had scored a pair of runs in the top of the tenth to take the lead, and closer Eric Gagne had slammed the door with a 1-2-3 inning to nail down a 5-3 Milwaukee win.

Now, one day later, here were the Brewers, fresh off scoring a pair of tenth-inning runs and leading by 3-1, and here was Gagne taking the mound again for the Brew Crew. As Yogi Berra might have said, “It was Deja Vu all over again.”

Aaron Harang had pitched eight innings of one-run ball for the Reds, striking out eight and lowering his ERA to 2.83, but left with a no-decision, the score tied at 1-1 as the Reds’ Edwin Encarnacion and the Brewers’ J.J. Hardy exchanged solo homers. Then the Brewers scored twice in the tenth off Jared Burton, aided by an Encarnacion fielding error. Rushing to start what would have been an inning-ending double play, Edwin booted a grounder to load the bases for the Brewers. Burton then uncorked a wild pitch, allowing the go-ahead run to score for Milwaukee. The Brewers scored another run moments later on an RBI single by Hardy. Although Burton escaped further damage, it looked like the Reds were headed to their second extra-innings loss in two nights when Gagne took to the hill in the bottom of the tenth.

The rain-soaked fans who were still inside GABP (most of them were already in the parking lot by the time the fun started) booed Encarnacion when he came to the plate to lead off the inning. This time, though, the Reds came up with a different ending for the story.

Encarnacion and Paul Bako went back-to-back on Gagne to tie the score, and Scott Hatteberg drew a walk, chasing Gagne. Ryan Freel was inserted as a pinch-runner, and after Salomon Torres fanned Corey Patterson, Brandon Phillips beat out an infield single to set the stage for Ken Griffey Jr. Griffey wisely laid off two consecutive low pitches as Torres tried to induce a double-play grounder. Finally, behind in the count and with the dangerous Adam Dunn in the on-deck circle, Torres was forced to challenge Griffey, who smoked the 3-1 pitch over Corey Hart’s head and into deep right field for a walkoff single to plate Freel and hand the Brewers their first extra-innings loss of the season.

If you’ve been paying close attention for the last couple season, you’ve noticed that I’ve answered five questions about the Reds for blogs that follow the opposing teams. This sounds like something I would initiate, but actually, in both cases I was approached by the other blogger. It’s like we’re becoming a big NLC collective consciousness or something.

The first set of questions came from the Cubs blog Goat Rider’s of the Apocolypse, which I think I’ve already linked to. I haven’t mentioned the award that they’ve also bestowed upon Red Hot Mama, the Corey Patterson award – an award given to a blog covering a team with a player who’s failed to meet his potential. Damn that’s a lot of modifiers. And as long as you’re visiting Goat Riders’ discussion of the Reds, you can read this inexplicably passionate decrying of Marty Brennaman’s inexplicably passionate response to the idiot Cub fans inexplicable throwing of balls on the field after an Adam Dunn home run a few games ago.

More recently, the blog Brew Crew Ball posted my answers to some questions on the Reds before the current series. It’s really nice to have an interaction with a Brewer’s blog; we really haven’t had many conversations with Brewers fans around here, so here’s another link. This is where they talk about Ben Sheets getting hurt.

Continuing the theme of other bloggers who have not come to terms with the fact that RHM is no longer a Reds-only blog, I got a message about this proposal for improving the display of retired numbers at Great American Ball Park from BrianBaute.com. I kinda like the idea, and I’d put adding the names of the players high on the priority list for changes as well.

As we work our way down the emails in my inbox, here’s another episode of the MLB Roundup from DoublePlayTV.

And heck, while we’re at it, check out the new sports portal FanBunker.com, where they advertise hand-pick the blogs they pull from to give you the highest quality sports news.

If that trip ’round the blogsphere wasn’t enough for you, finish up with this bizarre song and video from Ryan Parker.

Boxscore

No doubt pumped up from playing loud music in the clubhouse, Bronson Arroyo (0-2) allowed all of the Brewers (10-6) runs in the less than six innings he pitched for the Reds (7-10). Can’t blame that one on the bullpen.

Ben Sheets (3-0) got the win, but pulled up lame before the 6th. Who had April 18 in the Sheets injury pool? Actually, that’s a bit earlier than I expected.

A very hairy Eric Gagne (S 5) got the save for the Brewers, coming in to stop the Reds only scoring inning of the day. It’s a good thing the Reds did score those 2 in the 9th, otherwise it might not have looked close.

The same two teams play again today at 1:10pm EDT with Jeff Suppan battling against rookie phenom Johnny Cueto.

Boxscore

The last game of the series between the Cardinals (11-5) and the Brewers (9-6) was what I’d hoped the whole series to be like. Ah well, one game out of three isn’t bad, right?

The star of the game for the Brewers was Prince Fielder, whose lack of power so far this year was beginning to cause concern over his vegetarian diet. Apparently, Fielder wanted to make his first homerun meaningful, which he did when he blasted off on Brad Thompson (1-1) in the top of the 10th to give the Brewers the lead.

The Cardinals star of the game was either Kyle Lohse, who continues to be amazingly awesome, or Kyle McClellan, the young reliever who got out of the mess in the 8th that Randy Flores had created.

Brian Shouse (1-0) picked up the win and Eric Gagne (S 4) came in to hold the Cardinals scoreless and prevent the sweep in the bottom of the 10th.

I look forward to more games like this over the year, but it won’t happen this weekend as both teams move on to new opponents. The Brewers travel to Cincinnati where Ben Sheets will take on Bronson Arroyo at 7:10pm EDT. The Cardinals stay home and host the Giants at 7:15pm CDT. Matt Cain starts against Todd Wellemeyer.