Game Recap

The Cincinnatti Reds' bats were quiet today at Great American Ballpark, and the Pirates' pitcher Paul Maholm had an easy day at the office.

The Reds, as a unit, only mustered six hits with the only extra base hit being a double by pinch hitter Micah Owings.

Shortstop Brandon Phillips went 2-3 with a pair a singles.

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For the first time in almost four years, the Sox are two games under .500.

They have scored only 13 runs in the four games they have played and given up 20 for a nice round ERA of 5.00.

The hitters (other than Youkilis and his .625 batting average) are swinging through off-speed pitches where they were looking for fastballs.

Pittsburgh Pirates (2-2) vs. Cincinnati Reds (1-2)

Great American Ballpark

Attendance: 22,276 

The rain from last night certainly didn't slow down the Pirates today.

Paul Maholm was machine-like, retiring the first 11 Reds he faced before finishing with seven innings pitched and just one earned run allowed.

Last night, Cole Hamels got hammered by the Colorado Rockies. And it wasn’t just a bad outing, it was terrible.

How terrible? Look at his line of 3.2 innings pitched, 11 hits, seven earned runs, one walk, and one strikeout and answer that for yourself.

And all of a sudden, Phillies Nation seems to be on the verge of jumping off the cliff. 

The Scranton Yankees-AAA affiliate of the New York Yankees beat the Lehigh Valley Ironpigs yesterday by a score of 2-1 in 11 innings. Ian Kennedy made his first start of the year and went a strong six innings giving up one run on four hits with 0 walks and 11 strikeouts.

Dave Robertson had a strong two innings of relief giving up one hit, 0 runs, and three strikeouts. Brett Tomko pitched two innings giving up two hits, 0 runs, 0 walks, and had three strikeouts and JB Cox closed it out with a walk and hit but no runs allowed.

The New York Mets lost to the Florida Marlins today by a score of 5-4. John Maine pitched well going five innings giving up two hits, two runs with one walk and five strikeouts.

Sean Green pitched one inning giving up three hits, one run with one walk and three strikeouts. Bobby Parnell pitched one inning giving up three hits and one run. JJ Putz pitched a scoreless inning giving up a hit, Pedro Feliciano pitched 2/3 of an inning giving up one run on one hit with one strikeout.

The first hit by a Milwaukee Brewers batter since the fourth inning turned out to be a disastrous one, as a Rickie Weeks double over the head of Alfonso Soriano scored the tying run and led to an eventual Brewers victory over the Cubs on Friday afternoon.

Kevin Gregg, who had the most blown saves last year, showed why, as he blew his very first opportunity in a Cubs uniform, resulting in a 4-3 Milwaukee win.

Gregg was the sixth Cubs pitcher to enter the game with two outs in the eighth. He survived that inning, but wasn't so fortunate in the ninth.

The Chicago Cubs opened a three-game homestand in Wrigley North with a 4-3 loss to last year’s Wild Card squad, the Milwaukee Brewers.

With one swing of the lumber, Koyie Hill provided Rich Harden with his first lead of the game via a two-run, sixth-inning bomb.

Milton Bradley got his first hit of the season, a solo jack to lead off the fourth inning. While Bradley has gotten off to a slow start hitting wise, it hasn’t been for lack of good at-bats.

With the 8-5 win over the Indians last night, the Texas Rangers are off to their first 2-0 start since to 2000 season.

Just like Opening Day, the Rangers' offense put four runs on the board in the second inning.  Nelson Cruz led off the inning with his first home run of the season, a shot to left-center field. 

After a David Murphy fly out, Chris Davis picked up his first hit of the season, singling to the opposite field.  Jarrod Saltalamacchia followed with a double to right field, moving Davis to third. 

THE RESULT: The tying and go-ahead runs were on base with one out in the top of the ninth, but Florida Marlins closer Matt Lindstrom buckled down and retired Josh Willingham and Austin Kearns to preserve a 6-4 win and three game sweep of the Washington Nationals (0-3).

The Nationals finally had a starting pitcher get past the third inning, as Daniel Cabrera tried to play stopper for the young Nats. But his promising start fell apart in the fifth inning, as the Marlins pushed four across against the former Baltimore Oriole making his National League debut.