Sweep has Reds 'wired'
Stiffer test awaits with road games in Houston, St. Louis

By Hal McCoy

Dayton Daily News

CINCINNATI | Either the Cincinnati Reds are the reincarnation of the combined Big Red Machine and the 1927 New York Yankees or the New York Mets took $105 million and dumped it down a Queens Boulevard sewer.

It is probably a combination of both.

The Reds completed a three-game sweep Thursday afternoon in Great American Ball Park, 6-1, and it was not so much a sweep as it was euthanasia.

The Reds outscored the overpaid Mets, 22-12, in the season-opening series and have their fans at dizzying heights. But it is reality check-time before the Reds take orders for World Series caps, sweatshirts and key-dangles.

Their next five games are on the road against National League Central foes who last year so brutally beat up on the Reds they should have been arrested for cruelty to grown men wearing black and red hats.

Cincinnati starts a three-game series in Houston tonight against Roger Clemens, and the Astros are a team that won 11 of 17 from the Reds last year and 23 of 34 over the past two years.

And if fans can rewind their memory banks, they will recall that last year's Reds were in first place on June 10. At the time, they hadn't played St. Louis.

That scheduling quirk isn't with the Reds this year. After Houston, they visit St. Louis for games Tuesday and Wednesday.

St. Louis? That's the team that mangled the Reds 14 times in 19 games last year and eventually finished 29 games ahead of them in the standings, first to Cincinnati's fourth.

Ah, enough reality.

How about that Aaron Harang?

Spotted a 2-0 lead in the first inning after the first two Reds hitters scored when Mets starter Kaz Ishii walked them, Harang pitched a one-hitter over 61/3 innings, walking three and striking out five.

And he needed to be good. The Reds scraped together only three hits all day and made the most of them.

Manager Dave Miley rested Ken Griffey Jr. and D'Angelo Jimenez, replacing them with Wily Mo Pena and Ryan Freel.

Not only did Pena and Freel contribute, Jimenez came off the bench to provide aid and comfort.

Freel walked to lead off the first and shortstop Felipe Lopez, playing in place of Rich Aurilia, walked. Both scored without a hit, Freel on an error and Lopez on an Austin Kearns sacrifice fly.

Pena, making his first appearance of the season, took Ishii's second pitch into the left-field seats in the second and the Reds led, 3-0, with one hit.

It stayed 3-0 until the seventh when, with two on, Miley sent Jimenez to pinch-hit, even though one of the reasons he sat was that he was 0-for-5 for his career against Ishii.

Now it is 1-for-6. Jimenez doubled for two runs, ending Ishii's day, even though he gave up only Pena's homer and Jimenez's double in 6 2/3 innings. Freel followed with a run-scoring single, the Reds' only other hit.

"This shows what kind of team we have when we can go to the bench and use three guys and they all are productive," Freel said. "We can all be productive at the same time."

Harang, asked to make the team this year despite winning 10 games last season, won his rotation spot easily during spring training, then slapped an exclamation point on it Thursday.

He retired the first five Mets, then issued a walk and his only hit, a two-out single to Ramon Castro in the second. He retired Victor Diaz on a fly ball.

He walked David Wright to open the fifth, but Lopez started a double play and left fielder Adam Dunn made a diving catch on Diaz.

Harang walked Carlos Beltran to open the seventh and when he left a pitch up and Cliff Floyd flied to left on Harang's 96th pitch. His day was done.

"We were shooting for about 100 pitches from him," Miley said. "He gave up that leadoff walk and then elevated a pitch on the fly ball."

Said Harang, "I felt great, but I was rushing in the seventh, trying to get the inning over too quickly."

Ryan Wagner arrived to get a double play, and after David Weathers wobbled in the ninth, loading the bases with two outs, Danny Graves came on and ended the game on his second pitch.

"I was able to throw any of my pitches in any count for strikes and was able to keep the ball down on all my pitches," Harang said. "My adrenaline was really flowing and it was nice to get the first game out of the way."

And it was good to make it 3-0, the first time the Reds have started a season 3-0 since 1990. That team, managed by Lou Piniella, started 9-0 and led the division from start to finish.