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Complete game, roster additions bolster Cincinnati
By Hal McCoy
Dayton Daily News
CINCINNATI | On a night when the Cincinnati Reds were presented with their first complete game this season by a starting pitcher, manager Jerry Narron's feeble roster was completed with the addition of Austin Kearns and Ryan Freel.
Narron received a complete game from Aaron Harang and a couple of genuine major-league ballplayers on a night his Reds thwacked the Chicago Cubs, 9-3.
This time it was the Reds wielding the thumping sticks, with four home runs hit early enough to build Harang a lead to protect.
Harang shut the Cubs out for six innings, gave up a couple of home runs in the seventh, then righted himself to finish what he started — seven hits, no walks, one strikeout and 100 pitches.
"I was throwing strikes and they were swinging," said Harang, as he ended the Reds' run of no complete games at 94. "I kept my pitch count down, the defense played great behind me and the offense put some runs on the board early."
Felipe Lopez homered in the first, Adam Dunn homered in the second, Ken Griffey Jr. ripped his 522nd career homer in the third, the Reds scored two in the fifth, Javier Valentin homered in the sixth and the Reds scored three more in the eighth on two hits.
"Aaron has been our most consistent guy all year and with some run support in some games his record (6-8) would be reversed," Narron said. "It was nice to score runs early, something we haven't been doing, especially recently."
Kearns arrived in the dugout from his forced exile in Louisville in the seventh inning to a high-fiving dugout celebration.
"Great to be back in the big leagues and those guys are like family so it was good to see them, pretty cool," Kearns said.
"I went down and relaxed and tried to get things together," he said. "Oh, yeah, they monitored my weight a couple of times a week. I did a lot of running, a lot of cardio-vascular stuff. I'd say I lost 10 pounds, but I saw so many numbers thrown around about my weight. . ..
"I understood what was going on when they kept calling up different players and not me," he said. "Jerry (Narron) would call and explain what was going on."
Before Kearns left the clubhouse Wednesday, he stopped in Narron's office, on request, to find what the near-future will bring.
"I wasn't in on the discussion when Kearns was sent out, but I'm sure it had to do with getting into better shape," Narron said. "He needed to get his weight closer to what he was when he came to the big leagues. He was around 235 then and he was above 250 when he was here.
Asked if he thought the added weight impeded Kearns' performance (.224), Narron said, "I don't know if it did, but if you are at a higher weight than what you were when you were successful, people will say, 'You're not doing the same things you did two years ago because you're heavier.'"
Narron saluted Kearns for what he did at Louisville in addition to his Richard Simmons program — .342, seven homers, 21 RBIs in 111 at-bats. Narron said he has no set plan for his two right fielders, Kearns and Wily Mo Pena, "But I'm going to try to play both of them and hope one really takes off for us.
"Having Freel and Kearns back gives us a pretty good bench every night and gives us a chance to rest some guys every day," he said. "We have a lot of depth today that we didn't have yesterday. And, no question, position-wise, we are a better team."
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